Paradise Falls (31 page)

“Say it, “ said Jacob, brandishing the scalpel.

“There was this one girl there. She was skinny and had this real long red hair, but she dyed it. She kinda looked like…” he trailed off, took a deep breath, and sighed. He looked at Jennifer, then at the floor. “Like her.”

Jennifer turned away. She wanted to throw up.

“How many girls work there?”

“I don’t know. There’s at least five on most nights. Couple on the stage, one working bar, couple in the back. Leviathans and trusted guys get to take them home. Maybe there’s ten.”

Jacob nodded. “Good to know.”

“Why? What are you gonna do?”

Jacob didn’t answer. “Tell us about the kids.”

“What kids?”

Jacob started towards him with the scalpel. Ellison pushed back against the wall.

“Okay, okay! Look, I just wanted a piece of the pie, okay? Elliot was cool with it. I laid the whole thing out. I had these two losers I busted trying to run a pot grow behind the other high school. I let them go, told them they owed me a favor. I do it all the time, right? Lots of people owe me favors.”

“Go on.”

“So I call them up. They become my distributors. It’s stupid we don’t sell the shit here and let some assholes with a lab out in the state forest sling meth in our town, so I ran them out and had my guys selling for me.”

“At the schools,” said Jennifer. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Ellison looked down. “It went fine for about year. Then one of them fucked up. The kid from your school, Jenny. He was always trying to get more money. He wanted a bigger cut and I wouldn’t give it to him so he tried to sell more. He slipped up, got caught. I pulled some strings, got him out.”

“He needed money because his girlfriend is having twins,” said Jennifer, coldly.

“Where are they now?”

“Where you’ll never find them,” said Jacob.

“I didn’t know that,” said Ellison. “I swear, he never said a word. I’d have cut him in. I’m not a…”

“Whatever it is you’re going to say,” said Jennifer, “Yes, you are.”

Ellison sighed. “I had to clean it up. The people selling these drugs are some serious motherfuckers, okay? They’re scary. They scare me. They scare Elliot and he’s not scared of
anything
. I knew bad shit would come my way if I got caught screwing them over. We grow the pot and cook meth here, but the other shit I was skimming from their shipments. Just a little, you know? When Blondie helped me load it into the car, we’d open a box or two and steal some blotters and some pills. That’s it.”

“Some blotters and some pills,” said Jennifer.

“Say it,” said Jacob. All of it.”

Ellison’s voice went very soft. “I told the kid to get his shit together. Then I drove him up to the woods to find the two kids.”

“How’d you find them?”

“I looked. They weren’t hard to spot. School records had the kid’s plate number and a description of his car for his parking tag, so I knew what to look for. I told the kid we were just going to scare them. The boy and the girl.”

“You know their names,” said Jennifer. “Say them.”

“Krystal and Cole,” said Ellison. “I told Hunter we were just going to scare Krystal and Cole. Okay, is that good enough? I called Mike up there, and…”

“And you killed them all,” said Jacob.

“No! Mike started shooting, he was the one. He shot Hunter in the back and emptied that fucking pimp gun of his into the car. Son of a bitch reloaded. The boy tried to cover the girl, she was screaming. Calling for…”
 

Jennifer sucked in a breath.

“Calling for her mother,” Ellison said softly.

“What did you do?”

“I keep a shotgun I my cruiser. I put them out of their misery.”

Jennifer’s head snapped up.

She walked outside. The smell in the car was unbearable. The shotgun was in the back seat. It was a shorty model, with a cut down, illegal-for-civilians barrel and a short magazine. Holding it in her hands, she walked back inside. Ellison’s eyes widened as he saw her, and so did Jacob’s, but he said nothing. Jennifer walked over and put the muzzle right against Ellison’s chest. He went stone still and stared at her with wide eyes, mouthing a prayer without parting his lips.

“Did she beg for her life?”

“Yes,” he rasped.

“Did you help her?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“She was dead anyway. It was a mercy.”

Jennifer popped off the safety. Ellison quivered in front of her.

“You’re lying.”

Ellison shook his head. “I swear I’m not. I was just going to scare them, I mean it. It was Mike, he lost his mind, he-“

“He told us you did all the shooting,” Jacob said, softly.

Ellison looked at him. “He was lying, he-“

“He’s dead,” said Jacob. “No way to check.”

Ellison closed his eyes and shook.

“It was both of us. I started. Both of us. I shot the kid in the back and shot into the car. Mike shot them from the front over the hood. I fired the shotgun through the windshield. I had to kill her. She would talk. I had to make it all go away, or they’d come for us. The guys with the drugs. I don’t know who they are,” he moaned.

“Beg me,” said Jennifer. “Beg me for your life, like she did.”

“Please,” Ellison moaned, “Please, don’t kill me, I’ll… I’ll testify or something. I’ll do whatever you want, please don’t shoot me. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to…” he broke off into sobs, whimpering, his head sinking.

“I’m not convinced.”

She pulled the trigger.

Click.

Ellison’s head snapped up.

He screamed. An acid smell filled the room, and a dark stain spread out from between his quivering legs. They snapped closed as Jennifer swung the empty shotgun away and rested it on the bed. She walked over to the other side of the room, put her forehead against the wall, and broke into full body, withering sobs, sinking on bending knees.

“She’s better than you are,” said Jacob.

Ellison looked at him, his mouth working silently.

“I’m not.”

Ellison flinched back as Jacob raised the scalpel.

“Don’t,” Jennifer said. Not a shout, not a scream, just the word.

Jacob stopped. He tossed the blade on the metal tray in disgust.

“What are you doing to do to me?”

“Me?” said Jacob. “The doctors are probably going to take your foot. The Leviathans will probably take your life. I’m not going to do a thing to you. You’re not worth it.”

“You’re going to let me go?”

“No,” said Jacob. He leaned down in front of Ellison, very close. “I’m never going to let you go. You kept calling me rich boy. You know how much I’ve got?”

“A lot.”

“I have a lot. I have a lot of resources. I have a lot of people working for me. This is what’s going to happen, Ellison. You’re going to go back in the trunk and somebody is going to call for help. In a few hours, you’ll be in the hospital and your father will be cleaning up your mess. You are alive because Jennifer won’t let me kill you. Keep that in mind if you ever think about hurting her again.”

Ellison glanced at Jennifer, and swallowed.

“She saved your life. From this day forward, your life belongs to us. You’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it, because if you don’t, I’ll be there. Around the next corner, behind the next door, waiting and watching. You’ll see me now and then. In your rear view mirror, from the corner of your eye, but it’s not me you need to worry about. It’s someone you’ve never seen before. He has a list, and now you’re on it. Understand?”

Ellison nodded.

“Let’s go.”

Jacob got him up, and led him outside. Ellison meekly sank back into the trunk, whimpering.

“I’m your new boss,” said Jacob. “I’ll be in touch.”

“Okay,” Ellison said, before the trunk lid dropped.

Jacob limped back inside. There was a phone on the wall.

“I’ll call Faisal. They’ll take the car somewhere, radio for help, and let his people find him.”

“Do you think we can trust him?”

“Hell, no,” said Jacob, “but we can use him.”

Jennifer closed her eyes and breathed deep. She touched her cheek, afraid the itch she felt was the gash bleeding, but it was only tears. Jacob moved to her slowly, and wrapped her up in his arms. When Faisal and Katie finally arrived, they found them like that, Jennifer sobbing softly into Jacob’s shoulder.

4.

Jennifer flinched when she heard two cars pulling behind the abandoned gas station.

The first, a nondescript gray van, pulled up next to Ellison’s cruiser. Two of Jacob’s men stepped out. Behind them in another generic, boxy mid-eighties sedan was Faisal, and Katie. As soon as the car stopped, Katie leapt from the passenger’s side and ran through the open back door, skidding to a stop on her heels. Her mouth fell open and her eyes went wide as she looked from Jennifer to Jacob and back again, and she let out a gurgling little whimper and rushed over, taking Jennifer’s face in her hands. She looked at the bandages and winced.

“What happened?”

“It’s a long story,” said Jennifer. “I’ll tell you in the car. We need to go.”

“The house,” said Jacob. “Safe?”

“A bunch of these, um, guys are there,” said Katie. “I don’t know what’s going on. Your boss gave me a ride back to the house, Jenn. I told Faisal what was going on and Brock Edwards was going down to the police station to find out what they were doing with you. Everybody’s freaking out. I saw… that guy in the car out there,” her voice went thin and reedy, “Is he dead?”

“Yes,” said Jacob.

Katie sucked in a breath. “Jenn, I… what are we…”

“We’re leaving,” said Jacob.

He stood up, and nearly fell back down again. Jennifer pulled his arm over her shoulders and tucked up under him. He was heavier than he looked. His weight made her knees buckle as she walked him to the car and lowered him into the front seat. Jennifer climbed in the back with Katie. Faisal nodded, turned the car around and pulled away.

Ellison’s cruiser headed in the opposite direction, the van following behind. Jennifer’s head was pounding, and she started to shake. When her hands came away from her face, her fingers trembled like leaves in the wind. Closing her hands into fists, she hugged herself and sank into the seat. Katie was curled up, too, staring at nothing. Jennifer took a deep breath and laid out what happened, starting from the arrest and the barn. She told Katie about the gas station and what Ellison said, too.

“Jesus,” Katie whispered.

They were almost back to town by the time Jennifer finished. Jacob’s head lolled to the side, but his eyes were still open. He said nothing the whole way, and Faisal may as well have been a ghost. Finally, they pulled to a stop in front of the carriage house. Jennifer got out and rushed around to Jacob’s side, tugging his arm until he slowly stood up, leaning on the car for support. Two of his men stood sentinel on the porch. Jennifer paid them no more mind than she did Katie and Faisal following behind. Jacob leaned on her and she struggled to keep him upright.

“Basement,” he groaned.

“No, I’m taking you upstairs. Come on.”

He leaned his hand on the wall, taking some of the pressure off her shoulders as he climbed the stairs to the master bedroom. There he dropped onto the bed and started to fall back until she stopped him.

“Your shirt.”

He grunted, but kept upright as she carefully pulled the garment away, tucking his head through and peeling it down his burly arms until it came free. He fell over, and Jennifer wrapped her arms around his legs and lifted them onto the bed. His clothes were filthy, or at least his pants were.

She unlaced his shoes and pulled them off, his socks, and took a deep breath, then undid his belt and started pulling his pants down. Jacob stirred, half asleep, and pushed at her with his hands. She touched his cheek with the back of her hand until he went still. His legs were as massively muscled as the rest of him. She knew about the scars on his chest and back, but they’d cut his legs, too. Big, puckered ridges ran around both sides of his thighs from badly healed cuts.

A flutter in her stomach and a flush of heat on her cheeks made her look away in embarrassment. Scars or not, his body was, for lack of a better word, fascinating. With some effort she managed to peel back the duvet, now stained with mud and dirt from his clothes, and ball it up on the floor. Jennifer chewed her lip for a moment, then rushed into the bathroom to find a basin, fill it with warm water, and grab a towel and some soap.

There was still blood and grime on his face and shoulders. He winced and batted at her arms as she began to clean his skin, stopping only when she hummed softly, an old wordless tune her father would hum whenever he patched up a scraped knee or a cut. When he was as clean as he was going to get she took the basin back in the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She was just as filthy, drawn and haggard with bags under her eyes.

Sighing, she fished through her boxes of things by the window and found some old clothes to change into, locked herself in the bathroom and took a quick, hot shower that stretched out as she realized she had to wash her hair to get the muck out of it. It needed a blow dry, but she wrapped it up in a towel and padded lightly back into the bedroom. Jacob lay on his side, sleeping. Jennifer knelt on the bed and lightly brushed his hair out of his eyes. Then she rose, and headed for the door. It was his bedroom, after all, she was only borrowing it.

“Don’t go.”

She froze.

It was barely more than a whisper, but he said it. She stopped halfway across the expansive bedroom, wriggling her toes on the thick carpet, and looked back over her shoulder. He flopped back onto his back, and turned to look at her with lidded eyes. His chest rose and fell, shuddering with every breath, and the slightest movement made him wince. She couldn’t move. Desire to go back uncoiled in her stomach, but her ring itched. She made a fist and ignored it, and moved back to the bed, climbed on. She sat down next to him and took his big hand in both of hers.

“I’m here.”

His fingers closed around her palm. His left hand was crooked, the bones once broken and healed wrong, and his skin was thick and rough, almost like a glove, and his hand was huge.