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“I don’t think she will, either,” Thorn added meekly. “I think she actually kind of cares about us. It feels nice to have her around.”
“I want to believe that as well, Thorn, my friend.” Nox sighed. “But we’ve existed our whole lives as the Untouchable, Unloveable, Undesirable creatures of darkness and shadow. I don’t want to make any assumptions and then fall apart from the inside out to learn she actually doesn’t care about us, at least not enough to end another human life.”
“Right,” Ruse chimed in. “I always forget that the act of killing one another is a much larger deal to them than it is to us.”
“All we can do is hope, and help her anyway we can,” Thorn said as I heard his massive body make itself more comfortable on his nest of pelts and blankets.
I waited a moment to finish my climb up the ladder so it wouldn’t look so obvious that I was listening in.
“Quite a mess you’ve made down there, Ruse,” I said in a chipper tone, thinking that if I faked it like I knew exactly what I was going to do, the rest would fall into place. “I hope you’re not expecting me to clean it up. Unfortunately, you’ve kind of murdered the man who was responsible for making this place like new after each of your endeavors.”
“I’m afraid we’ve got a much bigger problem on our hands than Ruse’s mess,” Nox said with a straight face before turning to me and allowing the smallest glimmer of affection to appear in his expression. At the very least, that look gave me the confidence to understand he wasn’t upset with me about what had happened with Ruse.
“Of course,” I said as I found a seat on the edge of Thorn’s nest. “So, here’s what I have so far. I’m a damned good shot if I can get the drop on him, but we have to set it up so that I have the advantage. I’ve never met Mr. Silver in person, but I don’t think it’s an unfair assumption to think that he could probably take me if it came down to a pure physical fight.”
“The good news is that I am the only ‘Ted the Groundskeeper’ around anymore,” Ruse said with a hint of pride. “So I can do my best to lead him where we need him because he likely won’t be immediately suspicious of the old guy.”
I slapped my leg enthusiastically as I suddenly realized how we could use our current situation to our advantage. “Great! I suppose it also works out that there’s all that blood downstairs, so he won’t be suspicious right away. We’ll just pretend it’s me.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Thorn said quietly. “Logan, if you’re okay with it, you could even pose on the ground and lay very still right near all the mess so you actually look dead? That way he’ll have his guard down enough for you to surprise him and, you know… shoot him dead.”
“That’s actually fucking brilliant, Thorny,” Nox cut in as he leapt across the room and rubbed Thorn’s deer-skull muzzle affectionately. Nox then turned to me with wide eyes. “I think that’s our best bet, to truly lean into faking your death.”
I thought back to the gore downstairs and how it stank. Thorn’s idea was undoubtedly the best—and only—one we had so far, and it made a lot of sense. Jonas Silver would have no reason to think it wasn’t my blood, my innards thrown about, and my body would, to him, be another lifeless corpse to deal with. We were just going to have to work some movie magic.
“I’m in,” I said with a relieved exhale. At the very least, we had a plan. “I know you all can’t physically kill the man, but if I remember correctly, you are able to touch him. ‘Knock him around,’ I think is what you said?”
“Absolutely,” Nox assured me. “If things get hairy, we’ll back you up, but for authenticity’s sake, Thorn and I will hide and watch where he can’t see us so we don’t give anything away.”
As soon as Nox finished speaking, the sound of a phone ringing could be heard echoing in the distance.
“Oh, shit, I’ve left the bumbling idiot’s phone downstairs in the mess of it all,” Ruse said as he scrunched his neck down in embarrassment.
Nox vanished with a puff of smoke and reappeared within seconds, carrying the groundskeeper’s phone, which was still chirping away with the stock ringer on extra-loud.
“It’s the Man,” Nox said in a panic.
Ruse snatched the phone out of the shadow-man’s hands and quickly shifted his head and neck to resemble Ted’s perfectly.
“Afternoon, sir,” Ruse said in a perfect rendition of Ted, both obedient and fearful. The shifter clicked the phone on ‘speaker’ and we all listened intently, doing our best to remain entirely silent. Thorn practically had to hold his breath due to the sheer size of each of his inhales.
“Ted! How’s the day so far?” Jonas said in a tone that sounded like he didn’t necessarily care how well the groundskeeper’s day was going, but he had to ask for the sake of politeness.
“Oh, my day is just fine. Been out back organizing the shed,” Ruse-Ted assured while giving each of us a look that said, “I hope I am doing this right.”
I gave Ruse a reassuring thumbs-up to say he was doing fine, and Jonas quickly cut him off to get to the meat of why he was calling.
“Great, wonderful, thank you for taking care of that. But Ted? I was just curious if you’d do me a favor.”
“Whassat?” Ruse asked in a perfect bumbling Ted voice.
“I’ve been trying to get a hold of Logan all morning to check on her and see how um, things are going, and um, I haven’t heard back from her. Do you think you could run inside and see if you’ve got eyes on her?” Jonas asked in such a calm, cool voice that you’d think it was just any old question for an employee versus one that was laced in evil and malicious intent.
Ruse cleared his throat and answered, “Sure thing Mr. Silver, I’d be happy to check things out for you. I’ll give you a call back as soon as I know what’s what. Do you want me to tell her to call you back if she’s alright?”
An audible sigh could be heard through Ted’s crusty phone speaker. “No, Ted. The last thing I need is her becoming too aware of my questions. She’s a bit brighter than most of the bimbos I drop off over there, and the last thing I need is her asking more questions or getting any more suspicious than she already is. Just play it cool. Play dumb if you need to. I imagine you’re good at that,” he added drily.
“Hear you loud and clear, sir,” Ruse said as he visibly steadied the lump in his throat. “Call you back in a few.”
