The first stop was a disaster.Half-hidden in the shrubbery, he watched her and the scary man unload liquor that should have been delivered to Swallowtail for her party.Those two were stealing it, an action, which surprised him, but not as much as the arrow that landed in his shoulder.
“The fuck!”he screeched, feeling the pain of the arrow.He took off at top speed, running to his truck.Inside the cab, he snapped the wood and pulled out the two pieces that pierced his flesh.Tears from the pain rolled down his cheeks.He needed to clean the wound and get it bandaged.
It would take a solid two days to get to Pueblo to return his father’s truck.Another four hours to get home to Amarillo.Three days.
Three long days it took him to get home.His shoulder was stiff and aching but not festering.He was grateful the Technician hadn’t coated the tip of the arrow with any toxins or slathered the wood with a flesh-eating bacterium.He’d made it home, tired, worn out, and angry.It had taken nearly four days to come back to his life that wasn’t as interesting as it once was.
On the far side in his living room was his trophy wall.He added the cell phone The Cranberry had thrown in the trash bin in Eau Claire, no label, just the phone.It sat solo on its own shelf in a cabinet filled with other souvenirs he’d taken off prey he’d been hired to hunt.All had been tracked and successfully turned over to the Game Warden.All but one.
“Fucking Cranberry,” he groused.He stood for a moment staring at the phone.He had dusted it for fingerprints, and she’d left none.For a reason, he couldn’t seem to answer himself, he sniffed the device for a trace of scent.She’d also left none.“What kind of Technician are you, lady?”
Wearily, he made his way to his bedroom, grateful he had no pets or plants.A pair of loungers would suffice for the night with a loose tee over the aching shoulder.He also smelled ripe since he’d rolled into Pueblo, swapped the vehicles, and rolled home much to his parent’s dismay.Slowly, he made his way to the bathroom to start the shower.
The hot water beaded on his head as he shook off the road grime, preparing himself for a good night’s sleep.In the cabinet, there were a few leftover pain pills that he could surely use tonight to get him over the hump.Lather, rinse, lathered again, and rinsed once more before he exited the shower.He wrapped one towel around his waist, and the other he used to blot dry his air.As the towel came down, his eyes went to the bed.
The covers were turned down.The covers weren’t turned down before.On his pillow was a novel with a knife wedged deep into the pages, through the hard cover, splitting two cranberries.The white sheets were mottled with red circles from cranberries like bleeding bullet holes in the bed.
“Fuck!”he yelled, running to the living room to check the security cameras.He pulled up the footage on the screen and watched the living room.The hair on his arms stood up as he watched the person in his home, coming from the closet as he went down the hall to start the shower.The phone he’d collected from The Cranberry was gone.
The slim figure, in a hood and balaclava, turned to face the camera and pointed a finger.Fine hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end.He couldn’t wrap his mind around what he was seeing.
“Was she here in my home?”he said, darting down the hall.His eyes went to the book.It was the same book he’d seen her reading in St.Paul.“Fuck!”he yelled again and took a seat on the side of the bed.
He’d reached the end.The message had been received.He would hunt her no more.
Chapter 19 - Conclusion
“This registry thingis kind of cool,” she told Mustang.“I am signing up to get all kinds of shit.I’m even adding some new grilling tools for you and a two-bottle wine carrier for when we have sexy times on the back nine of our property.”
He rose to walk over to the table where she was working.“We can have some sexy times right here in this house too.Wait.What are you doing?”
“Setting up the registry,” she said, pushing him the stack of wedding invites.“These need to be stuffed and sealed.I have to get them in the mail in the morning.”
He looked at the invites.“These are nice, but where are those gifts going to be shipped to – I know not here.”
HELEN SMILED AT HIMand replied, “No, they are going to be shipped to your folk’s house, or they can bring the gift in person, which most of them are going to do.I don’t see any of them being cheap based on what I’ve seen, but they are frugal.”
