I had to do something. Anything. My uncle watched me warily, clutching his flashlight weapon to his chest. I had to get out of here.
I forced a scream past my dry throat. “H-help. Help!”
“The room is soundproof,” Gary said. “Scream all you want, it won’t help.”
Trusting him was not a mistake I’d make again. I kept screaming.
"Okay, youcanscream all you want, but knock it off. You’re giving me a headache."
Naturally, I screamed evenlouder.
"Stop, Bullseye."
"Don’t call me that," I hissed. How dare he use the nickname given during our camping trips together. Ourfamilyvacations.
"Right, sorry…" He actually coughed and looked away.
"What, are you uncomfortable about all this?" I laughed, unable to believe it. He set all this in motion. He was responsible… But none of this made sense. “Dad didn’t tell you anything until after the accident.”
“I knew you were a bastard before you were born.” Gary snorted. “The fox part Todd added overfive yearsago, he just doesn’t remember, due to being inconsolable and blackout drunk. Not that I blame him, given the timing.”
Five years ago…inconsolable…
"Mom’s funeral," I said.
“Yeah. He had barely any protections back then, too afraid any contact would leadthemback to you. But the supernatural world was much bigger than your parents believed. I finally convinced him to ‘let me’ find some weapons ‘just in case’ a few months ago even though I’ve had a supplier for years. I started with small stuff to stun or keep the freaks away, but I kept buying and they kept delivering. Stuff with real power.” He held up his flashlight proudly. “Even weapons to cripple ordestroythe freaks out there. Turns out, my supplier’s real money comes from collaring and selling mates. Everything changed then because I had one I could sell.”
Whoa.
“They told me to let them extract you,” he grumbled. “I’d get a finder’s fee. But they knew me and eventually let me do it my way. They supplied the clients and didn’t stop me as long as they received a cut from both sales.”
“Right, because if you’re betraying everything that mattered to you, might as well go big, huh?” I filled in the rest. "Double your blood money by playing two people against each other and then selling me twice.”
It was hard to say words like selling and buyers in relation to myself without shuddering. Gary had no such problems.
"I planned to be gone with double the cash before they realized and let them sort out who owns you later.” Only now did he appear ashamed. “But I obviously haven’t done this before. I had to keep them interested to get the best price… I didn’t realize I’d revealed too much until your accident.”
Gary unwittingly gave them enough clues to find me in real life, so they took matters into their own hands and tried to snatch me. First the car accident. Then the gas station. Then Bolton gave up on any subtlety all together and tried to walk right up and take me.
Holy crap. Now I was stuck with my betrayer and uncle.
How did I escape before it was too late?
~
Chase
“This isn’t the same as sneaking into your brother’s bedroom,” Officer Masterson protested as I dragged him into the office.
“Why the hell would I do that?” I wondered. Maybe when I was 12, not 28.
“No idea, but this is theboss’soffice.”
“He’s not using it.”
We shut the door behind us and pulled down the blinds for good measure, though I doubted anybody would protest or even notice. The bullpens were pandemonium, everybody rushing around and seemingly handling one disaster or another. The director’s empty office offered a quiet place to deal with our own emergency.
Rowan brought his laptop and we pulled up the case files. “What are we looking for?”
