Travis’s eyes found their way to Avery once more, and Nick responded with a knee to Travis’s gut.
“I said don’t fucking look at her.”
Travis doubled over in pain and cried as he held his stomach. Nick took a breath as he prepared to continue his speech.
“That girl right there is fifteen years old. She’s a child. And you come in here thinking you’re some big man and you take what you want like the piece of shit you are.” Nick shoved his palm against Travis’s face, burying it into the wall. He leaned in and whispered, “I know cracking skulls isn’t meant to be therapeutic but… here we are.”
A thick, musty smell reached Nick’s nose. He looked down and grunted in repulsion as he noticed Travis’s pants had darkened at the crotch with wetness.
With Travis’s face grasped in his palm, Nick bashed his head against the wall over and over again. Travis whined and shrieked until the back of his skull cracked. Blood dripped down the yellowed plaster from Travis’s battered flesh. Nick continued pounding until all that was left was a shattered skull and a blank eyes staring back at him.
Nick let the body fall to the ground. He knelt beside Avery, who stumbled backward, afraid of his presence.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” Avery answered.
Nick nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
Nick exited the cell and surveyed the rest of the warehouse. Only one guard was present, sitting in a chair near the front of the building.
“Everything okay back there?” the guard asked with little interest.
“Just an argument with one of the captives. Keeping them in line can be a pain in the ass at times,” Nick replied, rolling his eyes.
“Shit, you’re not lying,” the guard answered, picking at his fingernails. “Need a smoke?”
“No thanks, man. You go ahead. I’ve got things handled here.” Nick watched as the guard stood, stretched his arms, and then walked out the front door. Nick opened a utility closet and stacked three towels in his arms.
He walked down the hall back into Avery’s cell with the towels in hand and knelt beside her again.
“Avery, I need your help. I’m so sorry for everything that he put you through, and I know this is the last thing you want to deal with, but I need to get his body out of here. I need to erase this entire scene.” Nick set the towels on the floor beside Avery. “Can you use these to clean as much of the blood and piss in here as you can while I hide the body? If they find out I did this, they’ll probably kill me, and that means I can’t protect you and Kate anymore.”
Avery nodded, her eyebrows scrunching as if collecting strength. She picked up the towels and moved swiftly toward the puddles of bodily fluids. Nick hoisted Travis’s body over one shoulder and crept down the hall. Arriving at the back door of the warehouse, Nick listened for any movement or voices on the other side. When he was sure there was no one, Nick pushed the door open.
The sunlight was like lasers to Nick’s eyes, and he squinted, adjusting to the bright light. He closed the door behind him, and when he turned, three guards stood gawking at him.
Chapter 39
Nick froze with Travis’s corpse lying over his shoulder and stared the three men in the face. His mind raced as he came up with some explanation. However, the scene Nick presented left very few theories. Smoke from the guards’ cigarettes wafted into the air. Some of the men had their helmets off to enjoy their smokebreak. Others had lifted masks up to reveal only their mouths.
“I knew someone would kill that shitbag one day,” one of the guards said, and the men laughed.
“Ugh, that dude was fucking sick in the head. What happened? Did he fuck with your captive?” another guard asked.
“Yeah,” Nick answered, watching the men’s faces closely. “Yeah, um, he tried to come into the cell while I was in there. He wanted to… join in.”
“Gross.” The men’s faces distorted into different versions of disgust. “Well, he won’t be missed.”
Nick nodded and observed them, unsure of what his next actions should be. The guards stared at him with expectant visages.
“Just go toss him in the burn pile. There’s some fuel in the storage shed. Light that prick’s body on fire. Luke will ask around for him but I ain’t saying shit.” One of the men tossed Nick a lighter that he caught with his free hand.
“Shit, Travis? We don’t know. Haven’t seen him.”
After breathing a deep sigh of relief, Nick walked past them and into a clearing down the hill from the warehouse. The ashes of trash, wood, and what looked like bones darkened the earth in a circle surrounded by logs.
Travis’s body dropped with a thud into the center of the pile. Ashes puffed into the air from the force, and Nick’s arms dropped to his side, throbbing and relieved.
