“I don’t know. If my dad was here, he’d kick back and crack open a beer as he watched you fuck me up… he’d probably give pointers the whole time. ‘He doesn’t like having his feet touched. Go for the feet.’”
Arthur seems oddly confused now. “What?”
“My feet. They’re super ticklish.”
“Uh… okay?”
“So this daughter of yours. I’m assuming she’s living here. But why go to such extremes? Why not just kill Zachary and she’d have been fine to live on with her life?”
“Because I wasn’t aware it was Zachary until a month or so ago,” he says. “I don’t need to tell you any of this shit.”
“Yeah, but you’re going to anyway because bad guyslovemonologuing.”
“I’m not a fucking bad guy!”
“You were going to torture Ellis and kill me! I mean, maybe I’m a bad judge, but that doesn’t sound like agoodguy.”
“Sometimes we have to go far to protect the ones we love.”
“And what about the people who care about me? How far do you think they’ll go to protect me?”
“If you want to protect them, then you’re going to tell them to turn the fuck around and go home.”
“Okay. I will. Let me have my phone.”
He hands it over and I pull up the group text.
Me: This is Tavish. Arthur allowed me to have my phone so I can tell you to stop forcing Ellis to look at Jackson’s ass. His precious eyes should never be subjected to such a thing.
Leland: GASP. I’m turning this motherfucking boat around, you hear me? Jackson’s ass is beautiful. You tell me it’s motherfucking beautiful.
Henry: How the fuck hasn’t anyone murdered you guys yet?
Leland: Beautiful, I declare!
“What the fuck is this?” Arthur growls as he yanks the phone from me.
“What? I did what you asked,” I say. “You said to get them to leave and Leland’s declaring right there he’s turning the boat around.”
Arthur clearly doesn’t understand that if I’d begged Leland to turn around, he’d have grabbed an oar and started helping the boat go faster. Really, this is the best bet for getting him to leave.
“Help me understand this, Arthur. So your daughter decides to get into selling drugs. Is this behind your back? I have to assume so. You don’t seem very into the whole drug thing.”
Arthur just watches me.
“So she starts talking with your pal Zachary. Who knows whose idea it was, but they decide they’re going to take drugs that Zachary comes in contact with through work and she’s going to sell them. So where does it all go wrong? Talk to me, Arthur. Your other employees are doing what you ask for money. But they don’t have a stake in the game like I do.”
“What kind of stake do you have?” Arthur asks. “You implied on the phone you’d kill Zachary. Why would you do that for a man you barely know?”
“Let’s say we’ve gotten to know each other a bit. I guess running for your lives while some asshole tries to kill you does that to you. Here’s the thing, Arthur. You’re a fucking billionaire. You are the face of a very important company. I really don’t want you to stay pissed off at me. I mean, sure, I could possibly kill you. But I’m more than positive that you have my face on camera and have plenty of people for hire who could toss me right into police custody. I’d be stuck having to change my name, change my life to hide from you.
“Or… better yet, I could simply kill Zachary and solveallof our problems. But before that, I’d like to know the truth of everything,” I say.
Arthur laughs. “So let me get this straight. You now like this Ellis kid enough to do all of this but are willing to kill his father?”
“One of your… buddies held a gun to Ellis’s head as Zachary basically said fuck you and ran off. What do you think? If killing Zachary keeps Ellis safe, then I’m going to kill him. But I’m not going to kill him until I know more information.”
“Why do you need to know anything at all?”
