Chapter Thirty-Seven
Levi straightened the house the best he could.
“Are you sure about this?” Dad asked.
Since he couldn’t fix the door in enough time, he dumped the remains out back. “If you don’t want any part of it, I’ll understand.”
“That’s not what I’m saying, son. It’s just that you tampered with a crime scene, and—” For the first time ever, his dad seemed scared.
Levi wondered if it had anything to do with his manic behavior, but quickly discarded the thought. Stress under lesser circumstances would have made a Buddhist monk lose his shit.
As headlights swept the house from the gravel path, he realized that sometimes the good guy had to become a monster. He nodded at his dad before he heard the car door shut.
“Hey, man, what happened here?” Bud asked when he stepped into the cabin.
“Freakin’ Belle, she couldn’t wait to get out,” Levi said about the busted door frame. “You ready?” He gave his old friend a half-smile.
“Sure, whatever I can do to help.”
“Did you bring Petal?”
“Of course! I wouldn’t leave home without her. She’s in the truck. Want me to go get her?”
“Sure, sure. But wait, first I want to apologize about the other day.” Levi grabbed his plaid jacket and slipped it on.
“No prob, bro, what are friends for?”
“But I’m not sorry about this.” He pulled back and slammed his fist into Bud’s face.
“Levi!”
He barely heard his dad call his name while he continued to pound the evil shit’s mug. After a few well-placed punches, the idiot passed out. Bud was never the handsome twin, and Levi didn’t feel too bad about screwing up his face.
“Holy shit, son!”
“Go get his dog.” He went through Bud’s pockets. Once he found his keys, he pulled them out and tossed them to his father, who didn’t move.
“Dad!” Startling the old man out of his haze, his tone forced him into gear. Levi waited for him to leave before he took out the rope and tied Bud’s hands behind his back and then his neck. He worked quickly to twist it around the ceiling fan.
In the military, he learned how to make knots pretty fast. Considering he needed time on his side, it helped.
“Strap her to the table,” he told his dad. “Then let Belle out of Cayden’s bedroom.”
“Levi?”
“Just do it!” he demanded.
It didn’t take long for Bud to gain consciousness. The love taps Levi gave him with his fist shouldn’t have knocked him out, but Bud had always been a lightweight growing up.
His old friend blinked a few times to get the blood out of his eyes then chuckled. “I guess this means you’ve figured it out. Doesn’t matter, your bitch of a partner is still going to die.”
“Why you little shit—” Dad hissed.
Levi held up his hand to stop him as he came back into the room with Belle.
“What”—Bud stared at him with a self-satisfied grin—“you’re not going to ask how we did it? Damn, Levi.” He tried to shake his head but the noose wouldn’t let him. “You continue to be a huge disappointment.”
“The writing was always on the wall when were kids,” he muttered, already tired of the back and forth.
“I’m the fire chief, who’s going to believe you?” the idiot bragged.
Levi chuckled. “Who says you’re going to make it that far?”
Bud’s murky brown eyes grew bigger. Apparently, the thought of his own mortality never crossed the degenerate’s mind. “Remember when you guys accused me of having PTSD? Well, guess what?” He got down on his hunches, close but not too close to the crazed psycho. “What’s it been … about five years now, Pops?”
“Give or take a few months.” Dad grunted.
“Who cares?” Bud sneered, obviously upset the focus veered away from him.
“Off-the-reservation bad is what we’re talking,” Levi continued. “I built a bunker in the woods. Some real mountain-men type shit. Also, I did this … Bereit machen.” He commanded Belle in German to get ready. Her tail went down and her ears came up. “I trained my baby to kill.”
“Hold on there!” Bud pulled against the rope around his neck.
“Come on, man, you gotta stop that … I don’t want you choking yourself out before we’re done talking.”
“Then you won’t see that bitch ever again!” he hissed.
Levi waited for him to settle down. It took a while, but Bud finally gave up and went stock still. “The thing is PTSD makes you uber paranoid and robs you of all trust. So with that said, I love all dogs, except yours … Attacke eins!”
Belle leaped across the room in a blue blur and pounced on top of Bud’s dog.
“No,” Bud choked. Belle’s teeth were buried deep into the Labrador retriever’s neck.
“Petal, that’s the dumb dog’s name, right?”
She whined under the weight of Belle’s mouth.
“You use that shitty retriever to hunt girls in the woods.”
A blush of crimson attacked the part of Bud’s face that didn’t already have his blood on it. He waited a beat, but figured the fire chief would never confess. “After you give Petal a sniff of their clothes, the stupid mutt would hunt them down.”
“Holy shit!” Dad said behind him.
“Shana’s anchor charm is around Petal’s collar, along with other souvenirs you’ve acquired over the years.” As the dog continued to whine, Bud’s bravado dissolved into a mess of sobs.
Disgusted that the sick son of a bitch had more feelings for his furry hunting partner than the teenage girls he murdered, Levi fought against the urge to bash his brains in.
“If you tell me where Cayden is, I won’t let Belle rip her throat out…”
The pit’s guttural growl turned downright frightening.
“Now talk.”