“That is correct, but I have Beatrice, Bubblegum, and Rodriguez with me.” I show him each of the guns, but being the tricky man he is, he takes that opportunity to escape the vehicle. He glowers at me, snatches up Rodriguez, and starts for the runway.
“Rodriguez says that you’re squeezing him a bit too hard,” I say as I trot after him. “Rodriguez says you have too many clothes on. Rodriguez says that he feels intimidated by your ‘guns,’ if you get what I mean.”
“I feel bad for the things Rodriguez has seen,” Cassel mutters as he heads over to some vehicles waiting just outside the runway. He slides out a knife and begins slashing the tires.
“I would love the full story here to have a better idea of what we’re doing. I kind of feel like you both don’t give a single shit why we’re doing this. You just saw an opportunity to get wrapped up in chaos and rushed forward with arms wide open,” Jackson says.
I gasp. “We would never not care for the details and choose violence and fun.”
“It’s like he barely knows us,” Cassel comments.
Jackson weirdly ignores all of that before shifting to a new topic. “If they had their names changed and were moved by protective services… there’s something pretty interesting going on.”
“Right? If Ellis won’t tell us, we could torture it out of him,” I say.
“Why do you always sound like the bad guy?” Cassel asks.
“It’s just a character trait of mine. It’s like ‘sweet, loveable, enjoys torturing others.’ It’s a burden I’m eager to bear.”
“Hey, Leland, when you’re done listing off your weird traits, come finish fucking up these tires. I see a security system here that I’m going to deal with. We don’t need anyone unnecessarily raining on our torture time parade,” Cassel says.
Jackson raises an eyebrow as he stares after Cassel. “The issue I see, Cassel, is that you like to pretend you’re not like Leland, and then you say things like that, and I realize that you two are shockingly alike.” Jackson is saying this but he’s also joining me in my tire slashing, like he wants to get in on the action while pretending he’s not.
“I would like everyone to know that I like to pretend these tires are Lucas’s face when I stab them,” I announce, stabbing one with so much vigor the knife snaps. I stare at it in surprise. “See why I keep sending you all those knife pictures, Jackson? This knife has just betrayed me!”
“I thought you said you liked to pretend it wasAva,” Cassel says from where he’s fiddling with the security system.
“Excuse me?” Jackson asks.
I laugh nervously as I shoot a glare at Cassel the Traitor. “Jackson, one time I was choking someone just a little. Like a soft choke. Like, I didn’t even make them pass out. It was more of a ‘Buddy, looky here, you really don’t want to mess with me’ thing and I might have… accidentally told Cassel I was pretending it was Ava, but this was back when Ava hated my guts. We’re bros now.”
Jackson’s still staring at me like I could possibly have said something wrong during any part of this conversation.
“Husband?”
“Husband,” he returns.
“You da best, husband.”
He smiles at me, forgiving me for any of my past blunders. “You’re also the best. I’m glad you’re now getting along quite well with my mom.”
“Quite well is a stretch, but I’ll take it,” I say as I look over at Cassel who is taking some kind of metal pipe to the security camera. “What the hell, Cassel? You know I love destroying things. I thought you were going to finger-fuck your keyboard to shut down the security system.”
“I was, but it became apparent that the system is old, so they’re not watching it from elsewhere. It’s likely only recorded in-house somewhere. Basically, no one will notice that we’re about to have a party.”
“Parrrrrty! Poison. Arson. Ransom. Torture. And… uh… Yo mama. P-A-R-T-Y. Get it? Because Ava is as bad as the other things I listed.” I’m quite proud of this but, for some reason, Jackson and Cassel just stare at me. “Waylon would have found it funny.”
“Would he?” Jackson asks as we come up to a fence.
I stare at the fence before a wicked idea hits me. “We’re never going to be able to unlock this. Oh no… Jackson… you’re going to have to climb over.”
Jackson just grabs the pipe from Cassel and starts whaling on the lock with a vengeance. It’s like that lock just threatened his mother, father, lover, and his new son. Obviously, this man is determined not to climb shit. And oddly enough, it’s just as sexy.
“I could watch this all day,” I say with a blissful sigh.
“He’s getting old; I’d be careful he doesn’t pull something,” Cassel observes.
“Cassel, why does that jab sound like it’s directed at me?” Jackson asks as he breaks the lock then tugs his mask that got slightly askew, which is probably one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen.
