“Nooooo,” Waylon cries.
“I will not feed you until you win,” I proclaim.
“I’m going to be so hungry,” Waylon complains as I deliver him to the ground again.
“I’ll feed you,” Jackson promises.
“Do not fail me, husband. We must make our young strong and agile. He must destroy the bums of others without fail.”
“I don’t know… this hold is kind of comfortable. Maybe I’ll just take a nap.”
I hesitate as I realize what he’s saying. “Jackson… Jackson, our young likes my hug,” I say just before that sneaky little shit rips right out of it.
“You’re right, distraction really does work!” Waylon announces.
“You’re not supposed to use my newborn affection against me! My heart is still brittle and easily manipulated,” I say as he takes off running and laughing and I chase after him.
“Jackson, get him!” I demand.
“You guys are too slow to catch me,” Waylon says before he races around to the front yard as Jackson joins in on the chase, and I watch while he jumps right over The Fence, as if Jackson couldn’t go around it. But it’s the very idea that he’s used The Fence to keep Jackson away that sends me nearly to my knees laughing.
“I’m going in the house!” Jackson declares, as if he really is pouting over this.
Waylon pops up so he’s hanging over The Fence to look at us. “I didn’t know this would work so well.”
“Waylon… The Fence is Jackson’s kryptonite,” I say as I cackle. “That was a good one. I really enjoyed that one.”
“I can climb fences!” Jackson protests.
“Will you redeem yourself? TackleThe Fenceand show us your redemption arc!”
“I’m going inside and makingmyselfdinner. You keep training Waylon to be a kung fu master,” he says.
“He’s well on his way. He can at least climb fences,” I tease.
Jackson turns around so he’s walking backwards as he heads into the house. “Funny.”
I beam at him, pleased with myself.
FIVE
LELAND
“I’m sorry… what is this?” Everly asks as he stares at me from across the table that we’re seated at. Waylon visits his brother at the prison once a week, so I told Everly that I needed a moment of his time.
Now that I have it… I’m not quite sure what to do with it. Everly and I go way back… back to when I was a teenager and Lucas sent me out to kill a man who was famous in a few scenes for making snuff films. The task was easy… have the man take an interest in me and then take me home where he’d cast me in his very own snuff film… and I would proceed to kill everyone involved.
Then I realized that there was another teenager involved—one who I promised to save before Lucas told me to kill him. Knowing that if I didn’t kill him, Lucas would, I shot him. I shot him in a spot that I hoped he’d live through, but I knew it was no guarantee and I would have to live with the fact that I’d done that. By some miracle, Everly survived before dedicating his life to finding me and killing me for what I’d done to him.
But when faced with me again, he couldn’t do it and instead walked away. Although he’d offered me forgiveness, the guiltstill eats at me. Even giving him money in the hope that he’d quit being a prison guard and get away from this toxic environment wasn’t enough to get him to leave.
“Oh, Waylon wanted to see Bennett,” I say as I jab a finger that way.
“Yes, I see that. But why am I sitting across from you like one of us is also a prisoner? Would you like me to get Lucas? Or would you like me to make you a prisoner?”
“I would like you to slip rat poison in Lucas’s food and then laugh as he slowly dies over the course of weeks,” I say. “Please stretch it out as long as possible.”
“That’s extremely concerning and is behavior that should probably be looked into by a mental health care provider.”
