Lauren

 

Never in a million years would I have imagined that Anderson would be doing this to me, not even after the way he'd looked at me in the shower down the passageway earlier in the night. The look in his eyes was murderous, and I could practically here his teeth grinding themselves to pulverized chalk dust from across the room. The things he was saying, the threats he was making. Rape? This man was my uncle in every way except blood. Clearly, he'd gone off the fucking deep end. But there was still a chance we could use him to get us into the sanctum, to allow us access to him. All I had to do was win him to my side. I just hoped Asa had caught my earlier wink, and that he'd know I wasn't trying to hurt him with my betrayal.

 

Asa nodded at first, but then slowly shook his head. “What are you saying, Lauren?” he asked, a little dejected whine creeping into his voice. “You . . . you used me?”

 

Perfect. We'd been playing so many parts these last few days, trying to convince the other we were on their side I figured he'd be good enough to play his little role in this. Anderson stayed over Asa, glanced back and forth between the two of us as I began my tale.

 

“I didn't know if you'd come back for me, Anderson,” I rasped as I settled back against the wall, my hand still trying to rub away the soreness from my throat. “And I thought, even if you did come back, we'd need some more muscle when we went in there. After you left, he slipped down to the cages and broke me out, tried to drag me away from the Fortress like some caveman because he'd been a dipshit and beat up some guy and had to run. I convinced him to stay, though, so you and I could pin it on him when we took this place from Pops.”

 

Anderson glared at Asa, seemingly gauging the level of hurt he was feeling at my betrayal. Blood coursed down the side of his head where he’d been hit, and his lips were bloody from being smashed in the teeth with the pistol. He frowned and closed his eyes, turned away from Anderson in shame.

 

Anderson turned and came back over, his demeanor more subdued. He bought it, I figured. He stooped down and began collecting my clothes, handed them to me and turned around. “I-I'm sorry,” he said as he turned his back to me and allowed me to get dressed in a little privacy. Asa, for his part, kept his face turned into the quarter.

 

I stood up and began to put my clothes on. “It's okay,” I whispered after my panties and bra were back on. “You didn't know. He came to me, and I had to think on the fly, that's all.”

 

“You're so much like you mother,” my uncle said after a while, “you know that? She was smart as a whip, too. Way smarter than your pops ever gave her credit for.”

 

Not smart enough to keep her from marrying a psycho, or dating a piece of shit like you, I wanted to say. Instead, I just mumbled a thanks as I slid into my jeans and pulled them up snugly around my hips, fastening them tight. I grabbed my top and pulled it on, suddenly very grateful to be fully clothed.

 

“Do you think it'll work?” Anderson asked as I stepped up next to him and glared down at Asa with my best haughty bitch impersonation.

 

“Why're you asking me?” I replied with a grim smile. “You're the real boss around here, aren't you?”

 

He puffed up a little, standing taller at my compliment. “Yeah,” he said. “You're right, baby cakes. I am.” He nodded. “It'll work.”

 

My skin crawled at his nickname for me. I felt like I needed another shower, and it had only been a few hours. “Have the keys?” I asked my uncle. “I say we get this show on the road before it's too late.”

 

Together we unlocked Asa. I undid the cuffs on both sides and Uncle Anderson covered him for me, to make sure he wouldn't make a move on either of us. Now free, Asa dressed himself, his hard body disappearing back beneath his clothing again. I always hated it when that happened, but right now there were important things to be concerned with.

 

My adopted uncle kept his gun trained on Asa the whole time. Of course, my handsome man wasn't going to make a move. Why would he? Anderson here was our ticket through the front door so we could get to his boss. We ushered Asa out of the storage room and back into the tunnels, turned right to continue down the way I'd originally been walking. He stayed a few feet ahead of us, his hands behind his head.

 

“Sorry,” Anderson said quietly after a few silent moments of the three of us just walking, his voice breaking the sound of echoing footfalls as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his bulk. “About earlier, I mean. All the stuff I said, baby girl. I didn't really mean it.”

 

Sure he didn't, I thought. Because that's the kind of shit you say to your niece when you don't mean it. “Don't mention it,” I said, pressing myself into his side with a creeped-out shudder as his big, creepy hands squeezed my shoulder and upper arm. “I wasn't worried,” I lied.

 

His hands stroked my bare arm as we continued to make our way through the tunnel, sending a wave of nausea through my stomach. He'd been bad before with the way he'd looked at me like a piece of meat, but this was even worse. I wanted to slap him in the face, steal his gun, and pump him full of lead for what he'd threatened to do to me back in that room. This man was human filth.

 

We walked the rest of the way in silence, twisting and turning through the tunnels beneath the Fortress. “Don't shoot” Anderson called out as we rounded a corner and saw two security guards flanking a secure door. “It's me. Got a prisoner is all.”

 

One of the men was Bunk, the guard who had grabbed me earlier when I was in the manager's office. “Mr. Saylor says he doesn't want to be disturbed,” he said, stepping forward. He had a big shotgun hanging across his chest by a strap. “That means even you, Mr. Vance.”

 

“Bunk!” screamed my father through the intercom next to the door. “Who in the fucking blue skies is that, boy?”

 

Bunk frowned and sighed, visually displeased at our having awoken the beast. I sure hope he was getting paid well for all he the bullshit he had to deal with. Pops had been a handful even before he went crazy. “It's Mr. Vance.”

 

“What in Christ's name he want, Bunk?”

 

Uncle Anderson walked closer. “Dalton, I got the guy that beat our boy Snake just a little while ago. And Lauren, too.” He looked to me pointedly.

 

I made a face as I stepped closed. “Hey,” I said. “I'm here to, um, apologize for the way I misspoke earlier.”

 

The radio crackled off and on a few times, its pops and static hollow and distant in that passage below the earth. Finally, he spoke. “Well come on in folks!”

 

There was a loud buzz, and then the sound of locks releasing on the security door. I looked pointedly at Anderson, and he returned my gaze as the door came slightly ajar, letting out a crack of soft yellow light.

 

“Now,” Anderson muttered as we began to march Asa into his so-called punishment, “you've seen your father up in the office. Here, though, um, you'd best prepare yourself.”

 

“Is it worse down here, where he's living?”

 

Anderson just swallowed and nodded. “Much.”

 

Asa pushed through the door, swinging it wide. It was like a bunker down here, the kind of place you'd imagine they would have built for the government during the 50s to stop atomic bombs. Candles lit the room like some sick, science fiction version of Phantom of the Opera, the warm yellow light throwing dark and twisting shadows onto the walls all around us, shadows made by the piles of raw cash and giant bales of white powder and bags of methamphetamine crystals. There, in the middle of it all, sat two giant, high-backed chairs, virtual thrones.

 

Asa walked in first at my adopted uncle's prodding, his gun digging into my man's ribs. He walked in and stopped in his tracks just ten feet through the door as Anderson slammed the door shut behind us. “My fucking God,” Asa said in disbelief as the door hummed like before, this time sealing us in with the old man.

 

My father sat on the right wearing soiled boxers and the same dirty wife-beater undershirt as before, his old trucker hat with a Skoal label printed on the front perched atop his balding head. He grinned at the three of us, his yellowing, stained teeth like a row of tombstones in his mouth. “Howdy y'all. Lauren, honey, welcome home. Your mother's missed you something fierce.”

 

I stepped to the left, my eyes adjusting to the gloom of my pops' private residence. As I came out from around Asa, I sucked in a sharp breath, my eyes wide, my heart immediately pounding.

 

“Mother!” I screamed as my chest immediately felt like an elephant took a seat on it.

 

There she was. Seated on the throne next to my father. Her skin desiccated, her hair falling out, the pearls she'd always loved hanging from her corpse neck, her Sunday church dress pulled crudely over her body. My father really was insane. His memory wasn't simply gone, his mind was broken like a dry twig. I dropped to my knees, my breath seizing as I felt my chest close up. I couldn't handle this. Was this my father?

 

“Now, come on, Lauren, baby,” he said as he leaned over and stroked the back of his hand on my mother's cheek. “Give momma a kiss. She's awfully sore about not getting to see you yet.”

 

I slumped forward, bracing myself with my hands as I dry-heaved onto the concrete. I just hoped Asa could fix this. Because I sure as hell couldn't.