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Bad Dad by Sloane Howell (16)

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 19

 

Landon Lane

 

 

 

 

 

I GAGGED ON THE SALTWATER spray that kicked up from a strong wind gust. The heat from the magma churning behind me threatened to char the backs of my legs while my ears felt like I might have suffered from frostbite.

Sid walked around the corner. I heard the cadence of his footsteps before I’d even seen him. He always walked at the same speed, same amount of force with each step, like his feet shoved him up from the ground.

He rounded the corner of the barracks and locked onto me with his stare. His eyes and body were pale, like a corpse. We were the same size even though he was six and I was eight. The spotlight cast a redwood-sized shadow behind him that stretched to the igneous rocks in the distance. His skin looked almost ceramic and rock-hard. It lit up with a sheen when one of the spotlights hit it. He never smiled and never frowned. I wondered if he could bleed.

My chair shot from under me and rattled down the hallway. I landed with a thud in the hallway outside Logan’s door and my head flew back into the wall.

“Let’s go for a jog, asshole.” Joe stood over me with sunglasses on.

I looked around. It couldn’t be later than four in the morning. It was still dark outside.

I nodded and got to my feet. He was already out the door. Nothing got the blood pumping like a jog in the dark of morning.

When I caught up he kept a steady pace out to the fenced-in area of the yard and then stopped and stared off at the sky. “You need to put on nine pounds of muscle to be at optimum weight.” He turned to face me. “You’re too slow. Too human. And too stupid.”

“Thanks.” I breathed in the cool Montana air. The moon sat huge right above the mountain peaks and a few stray clouds scudded across. I could still smell the salty ocean mist from my dream.

“You’re welcome.” Joe paused for a second, and regarded me with a confused look. He was still slow at catching on to sarcasm. “Why do you love this place?”

“I love my son. We’ve been safe for a long time here.”

“You’ve never been safe.”

“Well, I had an illusion that we were.”

“Illusions are for idiots.” He stared at me and scratched his head. “I don’t understand actual people.”

“It takes a while. You get used to them. The way most people live.”

“They’re idiots.” He sighed. “You’re an idiot.”

“Well tell me how you really feel.”

He stared, dumbfounded. “I just did.”

I shook my head. “Why’d they send you? To train with me? Why didn’t they just have you fight him?”

“To train you.” He corrected me.

“I don’t understand what they’re doing.”

“I’m not privy. Compartmentalization.”

I sighed. “Yeah, they do that.”

“People don’t make any sense. They’re not natural.”

I laughed at the irony. “We’re not natural.”

“We’re efficient and logical. I’ve observed. If two men walk by an apple tree with one apple hanging down, the stronger man gets the apple. That’s the way of nature. But people, like you’ve become, make up rules on how to divide it up so that everyone gets a piece.”

“Yeah?”

“You’ve handed your power to the rules, instead of keeping it for yourself. The stronger man should get the apple.”

I laughed.

“What’s funny?”

“Are you here because you want to be?”

“No.”

He realized what I was getting at. “I see.” Joe didn’t argue my point, only seemed to log it away somewhere in his brain to process later.

We both stared out at Montana and the moon.

“Can I beat him?”

Joe shook his head. “Theoretically impossible.” He turned to me. “No.”

“Still leaves us with the question of why me?”

Joe sighed, and a vein bulged on his thick, corded neck. “I heard things. They think you’ll be more likable in front of the camera because you’ve been interacting with people. Ingrained in society is what they said. There is a degree of perception versus the most logical choice. You were the best fighter out of team one, Project Leonidas. Edmon thinks you’ll put up the best fight. I’m to see to it that you’re back at peak performance levels within the three months.”

“Why are they fighting MMA at all? It makes no sense.”

“Agreed, asshole. Not even Edmon knows, and I sensed that it frustrated him.”

I glanced over at Joe. He was warming up to me. That was good. I needed him on my side. I could tell from his reaction that he was hesitant to give me that information. “Why did they send you specifically?”

“To keep you from running. Keep you at ease and relaxed. I was closest to you on the island.”

“Where do your loyalties lie?”

He took a step forward and laced his fingers together behind his head. “I like your son.”

“Me too.”

“I like movies.”

 

WE NEVER DID ACTUALLY RUN after meditating. Knowing Joe, it was all planned in advance. He had questions for me. I’d gotten some answers from him. It was productive. I drove over to Cora’s house. I wanted to see her before she went to work, and I wanted to get back in time to take Logan to school. Janet had done it the past few days and I missed the ritual. I missed Logan and Cora.

I knew training would be grueling, so I wanted all the time I could get with both of them. I strolled up to her porch with my hood on and knocked on the door.

“What the hell?” Her voice came from behind the door.

She answered the door and nearly shrieked. “We have to get you a cell phone.”

“Not gonna happen.” I shook my head, walked in, and pulled my hood back.

She wore nothing but a long tee shirt and panties. Her hair was disheveled. Fuck, she was gorgeous.

The sun peeked through her rear windows and the light haloed around her brown waves of hair. It took all I had not to kiss her fully awake. A cup of coffee sat on the table and steam swirled up from it.

I took her in my arms and planted a kiss on her forehead. “Wanted to see you before you go to work.”

“I guess it’s a pleasant surprise.”

She managed a tired smile, despite her hatred of mornings.

“I have to leave in a few days.”

“I figured.” She chewed on a fingernail and sat down in a recliner.

I dropped my face into my palms.

“What’s wrong, babe?”

“The next few months will be tough.”

“I’ll be here. I’m not going anywhere, remember?”

“I know.” I shook my head. “And I don’t know.”

She got up and sat next to me. Her arms went around my neck and she nuzzled into my shoulder.

“You’re going to see things. If it gets to be too much, you have to let me know.”

She turned my head to face her. “I’m not going anywhere.”

She didn’t know what she was saying. I didn’t like what was coming. Our future. Storming down the tracks like a freight train.

She adjusted herself next to me and blood rushed into my cock. Being next to her while she wore nothing but panties and a tee shirt—fuck. I kept glancing down to her smooth, bare legs tucked underneath her. I wanted between them. Wanted to spread them. Wanted to feel her thighs quiver against my face and her knees buckle while I ate her for breakfast. Then I’d fuck her senseless, until she came on my cock and I marked her again.

It was all I could think about as she pleaded with me about how she was in this. In it for good. Nothing could keep her away from me. I pulled her up onto me and her legs straddled my lap. Her eyes lowered when she felt my hard cock stroke across her heat.

A tiny gasp escaped her lips and she pressed her forehead to mine. “We don’t have time.”

She was right. I had to get back home and take Logan to school. I couldn’t miss it. I needed the time with him, but fuck, I needed her too. My hand snaked into her hair and I kissed her the way I wanted to fuck her—slow and soft, then hard and fast. I thrust my cock up against her and her hips ground back into me in response. I hissed at the fact I couldn’t take her right then. “I know.”

She pulled my head away from her and took my face in her hands. “I want you so damn bad.”

“I want you too. I fucking need you.”

“I don’t just mean that.” She glanced down at the throbbing tent in my pants. “I mean I want you. Want to be with you. I’m not going anywhere.”

I stared into her blue eyes and wanted to believe her. Had to believe her. She already knew too much. We both stood, and I kissed her again. It was a new kind of hell each time she disappeared behind her door.

 

I DROPPED LOGAN OFF AT school. We hugged and said goodbyes and I love yous. The usual. I missed him as soon as he disappeared through the door. I missed Cora already too. They would be my motivation. Anytime things got tough I’d think of them, safe with me. No threats. No looking over our shoulders. It was all I had, and it would have to be enough. Had to be.

I drove back to the house and got out of the car.

“Get back in, asshole. Time to train.” Joe had a shit-eating grin plastered to his face and still wore his ridiculous sunglasses.

I pictured him buying them at the airport after seeing Terminator on the flight next to Edmon. I laughed to myself. It had to be like taking a full-grown killing machine with the social skills of a toddler on a twenty-hour plane ride. That made me smile. Anything that irritated Edmon made me happy.

“Where we going?”

He scoffed. “Just told you. To train.”

It was nine a.m. and we drove through town.

“Pull in here.”

It was The Hammerhouse parking lot.

The last time I was in there I destroyed the place. Hastings’ car was parked in front this time too. What a surprise. Apparently, he got drunk anytime his kid wasn’t around. Father of the year.

“Bad idea.”

“I need a drink.”

He probably didn’t even know what alcohol was outside of the formula for ethanol.

“Why?”

He grinned and shook his head deliberately while he spoke. His eyes nearly popped out of his head in a hammy psychopath sort of way. “I’m thirsty.”

“Fine.” I took a deep breath and opened the car door.

We walked inside. The bartender definitely remembered the last time I was there, and now there were two of me. Hastings sat at the end of the bar on the same stool as last time. The same two bikers were over in the corner, but they had three additional friends with them.

Hastings stood up and grinned.

He strode over to me and smirked. Looked me up and down in disgust. “Someone escaped from the zoo.” He said it loud enough for everyone to hear.

“What’s a zoo?” Joe asked.

I shouldered past Hastings and knocked him to the side like he didn’t exist. We sat down at the bar. I ordered milk. Joe ordered water.

“What the hell are we doing here?” I’d asked it a few times. It was small talk.

Joe looked at me like I was an idiot and deadpanned his delivery. “Training.”

The bikers all glared and snickered among themselves. I gauged their pulses and took in the surrounding information. Forty-two chairs. Eight pub tables. Ten pool cues. Sixteen billiard balls counting the cue ball. My natural instincts were coming back, slowly.

Joe leaned back and stared at Hastings who had just sat back down. He looked thin and tired. The guy couldn’t have weighed more than a hundred and seventy pounds.

“Hey, fat boy. I asked what a zoo was.” Joe turned away from Hastings and grinned at me.

I hadn’t seen whatever movie he was mimicking. But anything that pissed Hastings off made me smile. Hastings’ mouth dropped open. It was an odd question Joe had asked and Hastings certainly wasn’t fat.

“What are you doing?”

“Insulting him.”

“Saw it in a movie?”

Joe nodded. “Get ready to fight again.”

“Again? How do you know about the last time?”

“We know everything.”

It all clicked at once. Last time was a set up. Hell, the whole confrontation at the school might’ve been a set up. I was back to being graded, evaluated. They wanted to see how much I’d diminished or improved. A computer was probably assessing me halfway around the world with an algorithm.

I felt sick to my stomach all at once. Was Hastings even a bad guy? Had they forced him to do everything? Mind games. Edmon was a master of them. “Are they being paid?”

Joe nodded. “Very well.”

“What’s your problem, dickhead?” Hastings stood and glared at Joe’s back.

We ignored him. Hastings must’ve felt safe. Promised he’d receive some kind of protection, most likely. He didn’t know the people he was dealing with—he was pretty much expendable to them. That’s why all the taunting. Why he hadn’t backed down.

“Did they tell him to harass Cora? Touch her inappropriately?”

Joe shook his head, lifted his glasses so I could see his eyes, and smiled. “He took liberties.”

My face heated up. Hastings had put his hands on what was mine. He was about to find out what a grave mistake he’d made. Joe stood and walked back toward the wall by the jukebox. He couldn’t figure out how to make it work.

“You need money.”

Joe beat a fist on the machine and it lit up. The opening to Whole Lotta Love blared through the speakers. Joe attempted to nod his head in time with the guitar. “It’s showtime.” He delivered the line just like Jim Carrey from The Mask. Great. I was hiding the Tarantino movies from him when we got back.

“They’re armed this time.” Joe’s laugh echoed through the bar.

I heard the safety snick on a Glock 21 behind me. Glocks didn’t have normal safeties. It was built into the trigger. One of the bikers held it up. I heard everything.

I planted my foot and dove across the ground just as he fired. The blast sent the bartender running to the back. The bullet sliced overhead and buried itself in the far wall.

Joe couldn’t stop laughing as he stared around at the sudden chaos. “They get paid double if they kill you.”

I slid feet-first along the floor like a baseball player stealing second and then sprang to my feet. I ducked down and zig-zagged through the room, lightning-bolt style. The more planes you moved across the harder you were to hit, though I was a large target. Horizontal. Vertical. Varying speeds. All of them are your friend when someone has a gun aimed at you.

The place was small. Not a lot of room out in the open. That’s not good when everyone has a pistol but you. Fifty yards away and I’d have laughed at the guy.

I rolled across the floor and snagged a chair with my right hand on the way up. The guy with the Glock raised it up to point at me right as the chair smashed across his face and splintered into a hundred pieces in the air. Wooden fragments rained down and rattled on the floor all around us.

“You can’t kill them. I should’ve mentioned that.” Joe danced with his shades on while we tore the place apart.

I spun out of the way in case one of the other guys got off a shot before they’d been hit. I used the momentum of my turn to strike one of the other bikers. I bashed him in the shoulder so that I wouldn’t catch any vital organs and kill him. His joint exploded when my fist connected. He’d definitely need a new one, but he wouldn’t die.

The other three drew their guns but it was too late. I struck one in the head hard enough to knock him out, but not enough to be fatal. Ten percent. I grabbed his gun before he’d hit the ground, stripped it and tossed the action and the clip separate directions in one smooth motion.

I ducked behind the pool table when one of them aimed and fired a shot where I’d just been. I grabbed the wooden triangle rack from the table. Leaned out to the side and whipped it around like a frisbee. It caught him right in the face and obliterated his nose. He went down clutching a pool of bloody, busted cartilage.

One left plus Hastings.

I didn’t have time to see what Joe was doing, but I could hear him laughing by the wall.

I glanced around and saw a chair within reach.

I grabbed it and slung it out to the side of the table. The last biker fired two rounds into it. When he realized it was a decoy I was already soaring through the air right at him. I caught him with a flying clothesline and hammered him into the wall. Urine saturated his pant leg as he slid down to the floor, unconscious. His head slumped back against a hole in the drywall that was the shape of his legs.

“Hate when they piss themselves,” Joe said from afar. He shook his head.

Hastings took off running for the door, but Joe’s hand grabbed the handle. He wagged a finger at him while I stalked over.

“What’s a zoo?”

I made my way slowly over to Hastings. Let him think about things. “Still feeling powerful?” I swiped a chair out of my way and it shattered against the wall. I looked over at a few bullet holes. Hollow points for sure.

Hastings shook so hard I wondered if he was having a seizure. His eyes flickered and danced around.

I backed him up against the door. “Touch her again and I’ll kill you. If Edmon comes to you again, tell him no. You see me, my family, or Cora, you disappear. Got it?”

“O-okay.” He nodded.

Joe glared at him. “What’s a zoo?”

“It-it-it’s a p-place to see an-an-animals.”

“Oh.” Joe stared like it suddenly made sense.

He let go of the door.

I pushed it open. “Get the fuck out.”

Hastings bolted for his car. Never looked back.

Joe stared at me for a few moments. “You’re still weak.”

I knew he was right, even though I wasn’t about to say it.

“You’re faster than when I got here.” He stared. “Not fast enough though.”

I heard the slide click or I’d have been done for. The gun went off and I felt the bullet pass less than an inch from my ear as I yanked my head out of the way.

I whipped around to the smoking barrel and the bartender’s eyes that sat right behind it.

Joe smacked me on the arm like we were playing a game of checkers. “Maybe you’re doing better than I thought.” He laughed.

He pulled out a money clip with probably a thousand bucks in hundred-dollar bills. Tossed it at the bartender. “Close enough. We’re done here. Send invoices for the repairs.” We walked out of the place and back into the sunlight. Hastings was probably miles away already.

Joe slapped me on the back. “Always be aware of everything.”

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