Page 49 of Strings Attached
Please don’t let it be too late.
31
The Plan
The nightclub was eerily quiet. I knew at this hour it would be, but there was something more that hung in the air. I recognized it like an old friend: death.
The employee-only door was ajar, and I stepped into the hallway, the smell of copper and smoke assaulting my nostrils. Bodies lay on the floor with bullet holes in their heads. One closer to the front had his throat sliced open, and I guessed he’d killed the first one as stealthily as possible before pulling out a gun.
It wasn’t like him to use that kind of weapon. Stabbing, drowning, and hanging, yes. Shooting? No. There were muffled voices coming from the boss’ room, and I slowly pushed the door open to peek inside; it was a massacre. At least five people were shot dead lying on the floor where I’d been beaten the night before. There was a strange kind of ironic poetry to it.
Noah kneeled in front of Jack as he pointed his pistol straight at his head, his black mask and leather gloves all too familiar to me then. For a split second, I was back inside the washer-dryer closet in my foster family’s RV, watching as he dragged Melanie to the bathroom. I couldn’t see him drowning her, but the struggle and splashing around was clear. When he was done, he returned to where my foster father, Don, was tied up. Jack put a rope around Don’s neck and dragged him into the living room area. He’d tightened the rope as my stepfather turned blue, and all I could see was how my nightmare was finally coming to an end.
In that moment, I’d wanted to reveal myself and ask him to kill me, too, but something inside me clicked. I wanted to live. Long enough to write a news article about how some serial killers did the world a favor. That wasn’t what I’d presented to my professor since I’d known it would’ve been rejected, but it was what I planned to publish. All I’d wanted was to write of my experience and then die by Jack’s hand like I should have years ago.
“I can cut you in a deal,” Noah said, trying to sound tough, but it just sounded like pleading.
“Oh?” Jack said, curiosity lacing his tone. But I knew better; he was toying with his victim. Nothing more.
Noah slowly got back to his feet, hands raised in the air. “I’ve got a lot of money. I give you a good cut, and you leave. I forget this happened.”
“And what about all your men I killed?” he asked in amusement.
“They can be replaced.” Noah turned around, heading toward his desk, but Jack grabbed him from behind.
He pressed his knife against his throat. “What you’re going to do is call Jill and tell her she’s off the hook for the five thousand dollars.”
“You’re kidding, right?” When the weapon pressed harder, Noah stuttered as he pulled out his phone. “Whoa. Okay, okay.”
My phone rang, and just as I stepped inside the room, the blade sliced through Noah’s flesh. Blood gushed out as Noah pressed his hand against the wound, desperate to stay alive as he gurgled words from his bleeding mouth.
Jack turned toward me, and I froze as he strode forward, bloodied weapon still in his hand. “What are you doing here?” he asked through gritted teeth. “What did you touch?”
“What...” I glanced back at the doors I came through as my heart hammered against my chest. “I touched the doors. Three of them I think...” Fingerprints. “I was here last night. My fingerprints would’ve been here, anyway.”
“Which is why I wiped down the doors when I came inside.”
“Shit...” I glanced to his side where Noah laid dead in a pool of his own blood and swallowed hard. “Maybe I can just say I came back to pay the money but walked in on”—I motioned to the room—“this.”
“Where’s the money, then?” He took a step closer, and this time, I backed away a bit.
“I... Do I have time to go to the bank?”
He scoffed. “The cameras will have you going to the bank after their time of death. No, I have another idea.” He walked over to Noah and redialed my number. “Answer it and stay on the line for around a minute.”
I did as he said, my hand trembling as I held the phone out in front of me. Silence hung between us as we waited, and finally, after I counted to sixty, I ended the call. He walked over to me as he put away his knife, and I relaxed.
“This is the plan. Listen very carefully and do exactly as I say.” He grabbed me by the throat and rammed me against the wall. My body was already sore, and I cried out at the sudden attack.
“That fucking hurts,” I spat as my eyes watered from the pain. Asshole knew I was badly beaten. What the hell?
“Language,” he hissed before taking one more step toward me, closing the gap between us. “Noah called you, and you didn’t answer because you were scared. Second time, you picked up because you were terrified of what he’d do. He offered a deal about your payment, and you agreed to come to the club to talk.”
I nodded, wondering where he was going with this. “Okay...”
“Everything was fine when you walked in, but there was no one here, so you went to the back. A fight broke out between Collins’ men and another gang. They shot people, and you got stabbed, left for dead by a rookie.”
“What?”
