Page 89 of Wicked Little Game
“C’mon, we need to have a word,” Rockwell says, walking towards the house with me.
I’m happy to see them again, but it’s not like they are all here to spend a nice afternoon. We still need to take care of the fiasco Ruby and I caused.
“Can’t understand why you were so worked up the past weeks. You could have had a worse companion,” he says, shaking his head with a laugh.
“Don’t let that innocent face fool you, captain. She can be a real pain in the ass if she wants to,” I say with a sigh as we come to a halt in front of one of the bathrooms.
“You sure about that?”
I just dismiss him with a flick of my hand. The screams of Ruby’s father prove to be a good distraction. Less than gentle, I cut through the tape that kept him on his chair until now, yanking him up with a tight grip on his neck.
“Mr. Barron,” Rockwell says. “Horrible first impression.”
“Fuck you,” Mr. Barron spits out while I shove him towards the door.
Rockwell just laughs, more than used to this by now. If we would get a dollar for every hostage who insults us, we would probably earn more than we do now. Kind of concerning when you think about it for too long.
As soon as Mr. Barrons sees Ruby, he yells at her. Worse profanities than back in the office and it seemslike he used his bathroom time out to come up with even more highly targeted insults.
I push him and he lands face-first in the gravelly driveway, unable to stop his fall with his injured hands. Plural, because I’m pretty sure Ruby stepped on the one I didn’t shoot.
“You should watch your steps,” I say, and as if on cue, Logan walks up to us. He’d never miss the chance todisciplinesomeone, especially not an asshole like Mr. Barron.
But Mr. Barron seems to be learning resistant because he continues to scream at Ruby until Logan silences him with a kick to the ribs.
“Do you want me to pull him some teeth?” he yells back to her. Her father gargles panicky on the ground, spitting out a bit of blood and I shake my head no, even though I wasn’t the one Logan directed the question to.
“No, ahm, thank you?” Ruby answers. Max pulls her away, saying, “Don’t mind him, it just means he likes you. And he enjoys pulling teeth.” Ruby nods as if this was a completely reasonable exchange of words.
I was right when I thought that she’d fit in perfectly with us.
Logan helps me put a few rounds of duct tape around Mr. Barron's mouth. He doesn’t need to speak, not unless he wants to tell us about his business partners.
“You should stay with her, Samuel,” Rockwell says after we shoved Mr. Barron into the backseat.
“No,” I reply after thinking about it for a second. “It won’t take long.”
He just shakes his head as I climb into the passenger seat. I’m more than thankful that he’s driving because I have enough of people honking at me in this town and with the half-tank Max had picked out, it will be even worse.
“Ruby,” I yell towards her and Max, “we’ll be back in a few hours. Behave. Logan, keep them under control.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ruby and Max yell back to us.
If someone had told me I’d get to witness a situation where Logan is the normal, responsible adult, I would have laughed in their face.
Staying with her would have been the right thing, but I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s not her fault, but I have to get away from this house. Away from her. Maybe it’ll help me clear my head.
For a while, we drive in silence, and the naïve part of me hopes that the rest of the drive to the small local airport will be equally quiet.
Rockwell arranged something with one of our partners, Red.
Red takes care of the things that are a level above our permissions, like finding a nice secluded home for Ruby’s father and making sure that he’s not leaving it until we decided what we’re going to do with him.
I’m pretty sure that it’s not his real name, but Red certainly fits him.
“What’s going to happen between you and her?” Rockwell asks.
So much for my quiet drive.
