He shrugs. “You think Sully would forgive you? We are like bros, you know?”
I can easily be duplicitous and calculating, but Lori is something else entirely. Under that perfectly moisturized skin and soft curls, there’s a nasty, sly demon ready to pounce.
“You think that will work on me?” I stop for a moment before resuming my advance toward the car.
“No, I know for a fact that it will.”
Why does Sully enjoy this fucker’s company? “What do you want?”
“I’m bored. And when I feel like this, it’s like something is going to…burst inside me unless I do something.”
I know the feeling too well.
“And there’s an oddly shaped cloud following me around town…so I’d better stick with you.”
What the fuck is he talking about? How is it possible that nobody among the family killed him yet? I enter the car, and he hurriedly follows, taking the passenger seat. Maybe he can make Jacob talk by just yapping on.
“Now you’re going to tell me chicken nuggets are made from human meat?” I tease.
“Only twenty percent.” Lori makes a dismissive gesture with his tiny hand. The red nail polish matches the lipstick and high-heeled boots.
“Do you ever stop talking?”
“I can’t. If I shut up, subtitles come out of my face, and you know most people abhor subtitles. Hence, better talking. Where are we going?”
“To see Jacob.” I glance at him again, before looking ahead as I keep driving. I speed up, he isn’t using a seat belt…accidents happen.
He bounces on the seat and then whips around to look at me, eyes sparkling with dark excitement. “The asshole who hit Sully-doo?”
I nod.
He lets out a whoo-hoo and then drums his hand over the car ceiling. “I knew sticking with you was the right choice. Take this, creepy cloud!” He flips the bird…at the sky.
“Let’s put on some music. This is a playlist in your honor.” Radiohead’s “Creep” starts playing on his phone.
My hands tighten around the steering wheel.
“Is that your mask?” He suddenly notices it on the back seat. His hand moves toward it, and I growl a threateningno touching. Nobody touches my mask. Nobody. For once, Lori listens.
“No need to be so grumpy, jeez!” He starts tapping on his phone screen while the music keeps playing. After a minute, he shoves it on my face. “Just stop here on the way.”
“A costume shop?”
“I need a mask, too! Perfect. The shop is inside a mall, and we need supplies.”
What supplies?
Two hours later, I’m sitting in the warehouse feeling ambivalent about Lori’s presence here. He made me wait twenty minutes in the mall parking lot while he gotsupplies, andhe came back to the car carrying five bags. I didn’t run him over only because he bought me a burrito and a ginger ale, and eating in front of a half-starved, drooling Jacob felt fucking good.
Lori is a fucking loon, but his unpredictability makes him interesting, and annoying. His torturing techniques are odd, too. He bought a hairy tarantula, which keeps crawling up and down Jacob’s body. He’s lying down, tied up to a wooden board, stiff as…the board, jerking slightly every time the spider moves.
“If you keep doing it, Portia is going to bite you and then use the cut to deposit her eggs inside you. When they hatch they will feed on your flesh and eat your organs. You’ll be a mama.” Lori is spewing nonsense again, from his position, perched up on a crate fifteen feet away.
He is clearly scared shitless of the spider. Asked me to put it on Jacob’s bare chest, so why did he buy it? And thinking about things he bought, the mask he’s wearing is ridiculous.
“Did the costume shop have nothing else to cover your face?” I ask with a sharp edge to my voice.
“This was the scariest,” he retorts.
