Page 39 of Hard Wood Daddy

“Taxes?” I hold up the paperwork in front of my eyes and will myself to be able to read it. I can’t.

These two could be fucking lying to me, and I don’t have any way of knowing. I don’t read the tax letters I get. I know I need to go to the building with the lady with the stamp, but I don’t. I don’t want to look stupid showing up with handful of money not knowing what I’m supposed to do with it.

It feels like I either gotta throw up or bash the Turds’ heads together. One or the other. But I think of Tess, and I don’t think if I kill them that makes the problems go away. So instead I say, “Get the fuck off my land.”

“We’ll give you time to look it over,” Turd Two says with a grin.

A knowing grin.

These two fuckers know I can’t read. I don’t know how, but they do. And there’s something on this paper that they don’t want me to know.

I toss the paperwork into my cabin, then chase them down the trail through the Paint Forest Program to make sure they get in their car.

There’s no hiding Tess from them, no matter how much I want to. She’s modeling outside today. She’s got a cute flowery dress this time. I like her in dresses—I like how fast I can get inside her—but the idea that these scumbags can see her legs makes me wanna turn serial killer.

They pause by their car and whisper.

They’re definitely looking at Tess. Nodding toward her. Smirking.

I hate them. I have never felt hate like this before, but right now, it’s rigid inside me like it’s become the very thing that’s holding me up.

I slam my fist down on the hood of their car without thinking. Crunch. Both of them leap and stare at me—away from Tess.

Good.

“Get. Off. My. Land,” I bite out.

“You’re gonna pay for that,” says Turd One, looking at the dent on the hood of the car like he might cry. It’s too shiny for the woods, and it’s got curves almost like a woman.

But not like my woman. No car could compare to her.

I lean in close to his greasy little face. “How are you gonna make me pay when I’ve buried you in six different places in the woods, shallow enough that animals will sniff you out? The coyotes will dig you up. Or maybe the wolves. If you’re still fresh, they’ll start with your bellies, tearing through, tugging out the wasteful parts then eating all the flesh. Then, the vultures and crows will come. They’ll eat even your assholes. They aren’t picky.”

The color vanishes from his cheeks.

The Turds hurry into their car and pull out.

But just when I’ve sent one problem away, another one appears. Lindsay comes out of the cabin where she has an office. She’s holding a phone and looks confused.

“Hey, Francesca?” she calls out toward the painting class where my Tessy-doll is the center of attention.

Nobody replies.

Then she calls again. “Tess?”

Tess’s head snaps around to look. “Yeah?”

“Can I talk to you a minute?”

They go inside the office. I follow them. Something doesn’t feel right.

Lindsay doesn’t look surprised to see me following Tess anymore, but she’s especially serious today. She sits Tess down across from her desk.

“So I just got a weird call,” Lindsay says, rubbing her forehead. “My model, Francesca, apologized to me for being a no-call, no-show. She said she had an accident and wasactually unconscious. When she finally got things sorted, she remembered she was supposed to be here and called. When I told her that I was looking out the window at her right now, she was so confused. So was I.”

Tess is paler than the moon. “That’s…weird.” She glances nervously up at me. “Really weird.”

“You’re not Francesca, are you?” Lindsay questions with a tight frown.

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