Page 7 of Tuesday

“Fine. Tell me what you have in mind.”

The next thing I know all the Ol Ladies and Lovely are organizing a car pool, babysitters and a list of some shit or other.

Fuck.

Chapter 3

Chewy

My head beats a gentle pulse and I’m sure my eye is twitching.

“Chewy, I commend what you’re doing, but you either need to finish up or kill her because I can’t listen to her whining any longer,” Moss’s voice crackles through the ear piece.

I grunt in reply, not wanting her to know that I have people with me. Lying in wait caught her by surprise and I’ve been using that to my advantage. However we are now two hours in, she’s pissed herself god knows how many times, and between the ugly crying and moments of bravery where she threatens me, she’s been whining. Almost nonstop.

“Where are the kids?”

Candice sobs from the chair she’s tied to, not even trying to fight her way out. Useless bitch. “I told you, I can’t tell you that! Just let me go, please, I won’t tell anyone you’re here. You’re hurting me! My wrists hurt, let me go, you bitch!”

A long, loud sigh leaves my body, “Candice, I really didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice,” I shake my head sadly at her, dragging my backpack closer to where I’m sitting, opposite Candice. In an arm chair that is fucking hard as a rock.

“What more could you do to me?” she whines. “You’ve already tied me up, I can’t even feel my fingers! You cut my hair and ripped off my eyelash extensions, you’re a monster!”

“Well, brace yourself, it’s gonna get worse for you.” I grin as I pull the jar out of my backpack, grinning at Candice’s scream and pleas.

“No, no, no, no, no! Get it away from me!” She’s squirming in her chair, the cords of her neck showing her effort.

“A little birdy told me you don’t like spiders.” I hold the jar closer and Candice freezes on the spot, her breathing shallow.

“Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll put Hermann away.” Yes, I named him Hermann. He’s a cute little hairy guy, for a Texas Tan Tarantula.

“I-I-I’ll tell you. Just, p-please, p-p-put him away. Please!” There’s tears mixing in with her snot and I think I feel sorry for her. No actually, I’m lying. I don’t feel sorry for her at all. She made her bed, now she has to lie in it. Which is a weird saying, but I’ll think about that later.

I make a show of placing Hermann on the coffee table off to the side of where we’re sitting.

“Spill.”

* * *

“Good to go?” Moss asks, from his position behind the driver’s wheel of Truck Norris.

“Yup. Candice is bagged and tagged and I gave her a little sleepy time juice so she’ll be out for a while yet.”

He side-eyes me for a moment, “Were you always planning on using the spider?”

“Well, yeah, she has arachnophobia.” I shrug, entering the location of the children into GPS. “Fear is one of the best motivators.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you use it from the get go? I wanted to throw myself in the nearest lake and drown myself listening to her bitch.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

Moss lets out a long sigh, “You know what? Let’s just find your kid and get out of here. The longer I spend with you, the more sense you make.”

I grin in his direction and I see his lips tilt up a little. He’s a good-looking guy, but there must be something very wrong with him if his wife left and he’s still single. Although he does have kids and I bet that shrivels up people’s vagina’s. Not all ladies like kids. Or kids that don’t belong to them at least. My brows pull in when I realize that Rhodie’s child won’t be related to me. Or him.

My thumb taps my pinky, then the ring finger, middle, pointer and pinky again, repeating the pattern as I sort through my thoughts. On one hand it’s a statistical fact that most child abuse is at the hands of a step-parent. But on the other hand, there are people willing to adopt, or foster, and love children that don’t belong to them and they seem to get on fine. Mama Debs isn’t related to Ana, or any of us really and I know that she loves us from her actions. Wire and Remy aren’t genetically related to Jovie but they love her with all their hearts. Tav isn’t related to any of Blanche’s kids but they call him dad and he would die for them all. Same as Violet with Juno. The evidence would suggest that many people can successfully love and raise children who don’t belong to them.

My finger tapping slows and I feel better about what I’m about to do.

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