If she hated you, she wouldn’t have had us over for dinner the other day. Calm the fuck down.
I’m pulled out of my panic by Pongo scratching at the door, ready to be let out. He bolts the second the door lifts enough for him to squeeze through.
“Guess you really had to go, huh Bud?—”
Someone screams from inside Ren’s house.
I’m out of the car and jumping the fence, sprinting to the open front door. I find Pongo standing over someone, growling and ready to rip his face off. Someone else takes a run at Pongo, but I drop my shoulder and throw my entire body into him, crashing into a bookshelf.
“Ow, fuck,” I groan.
“Chase!” My head snaps toward my name because that’s my girl’s voice. My pain disappears, replaced with a blazing rage. She has a large cut on her lip, her eye has swollen shut, and she’s clutching her arm. There’s someone holding a knife to her, but I can’t tell who because they’re wearing a ski mask.
“Chase, don’t?—”
Too late.
I pull the guy out from under Pongo, shove him against a wall, and punch him square in the face before I can let out my next breath. I’m inches from his face and the growl isn’t coming from Pongo anymore.
“Tell that motherfucker to letmyfucking girl go, or I’m going to beat the fuck out of you and no one will going to recognize your corpse when I’m done.” The prick snarls back at me, but I don’t give him an inch. “DO IT! NOW YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”
“Fuck you!”
“Chase! Let him go! Let Luis go and get the hell out of here!”
“He’s not going anywhere,” the guy holding her says, but it’s not a guy’s voice. It’s…familiar. “Not unless it’s with me. I told you he’d come for me. He loves me, and you’re just a stupid whore that got in our way.”
“Who the fuckareyou?” I bark, still pinning Ren’s ex against the wall as he sputters and swears through gasps of air.
“Oh, duh, of course you can’t recognize me,” she giggles, as if she’s not holding a knife to someone. She pulls the mask off and steps into the light. It’s the girl from the set, just like we thought.
“Sh—Shawna?” I pray I’m right. She smiles, her eyes sparkling like I’ve just asked her to prom. This girl gets creepier by the minute.
“Yes! I knew you’d remember me if I didn’t use my stupid real name. Shawna sounds so much cooler than Julie. Nobody remembers Julie, but they will now. Julie Catherine Cooper. Isn’t it so cute? I may just go with Catherine Cooper, though, since it would sound so fun with your name. Chase and Catherine Cooper…forever.”
This chick has a permanent address in delulu land, but I have to play it cool.
“Shaw—uh—Julie, will you please let Ren go?”
“Oh, no. I can’t. Sorry. I mean, she tried to ruin our lives, baby. Tricking you into leaving me like you did. It’s okay, I forgive you, Chase.” She smiles again and I shiver at the sight. “But look, it’s fine. She can go be with her scummy dipshit husband again. He made it difficult since he’s a fucking dumbass who can’t follow simple instructions. I bailed him out so he could take her off your hands. I’m not totally cruel. She’s just, you know, not your type, Chase. I’m your type. I’m your girl.”
“Stupid bitch!” Luis spits, and splatters of blood appear on my sleeve.
“Please, she won’t bother us anymore?” I ask again, ignoring Luis. Ren’s body shakes and she keeps glancing to her left at something. Her mother’s feet sticking out from beyond the couch. “No! Fuck! Ren?”
“S-she’s knocked out. Bleeding. I don’t, I don’t?—”
Julie slaps Ren across the face before pulling her head back by the hair and holding the knife to her throat. Luis struggles to get out of my grip, but I push him harder against the wall. When I turn back to Julie again, she’s giggling, enjoying all of this.
“You can kill him—I don’t need him anymore. It’s probably easier this way, so they don’t try to follow us or anything. I mean, I guess I should kill them both anyhow, but if we each kill one of them, it would be so cute!”
“No!” Luis yells, and turns to me, looking for sympathy. Heisan idiot. “She’s fucking crazy, man! Loco! She did all this! She used me, right?”
“I’m not fucking crazy, you asshole! I’m the smartest one in this house!” Julie screams, pulling Ren’s hair harder. “I used you to lure this dumb bitch out of hiding, and it worked, didn’t it?Youcouldn’t fucking do it! You pathetic, limp dick loser.”
She stops yelling and takes a deep breath, centering herself until she’s smiling again.
“It would be a kind of poetic if him kicking this fucking whore in the gut earlier fixes that problem. Although, I still don’t think I’ll leave her alive. I mean, who the fuck does she think she is?” She yanks Ren’s hair back again, and I can see a trickle of blood on her neck.
