TABOO: THE COMPLETE SERIES(48)

Weldon laughed. “Like what? Suck my dick? Your threats are worse than your blow job skills, Trey!"

"Well, that's because I spent half my life sticking my dick inside your whore sister!!!"

Weldon had stopped laughing.

The look in his eyes spelled murder.





JAKE


I opened u medicine cabinet and lo and behold, it was a pharmacy in there. A few regular items like Tylenol but I saw everything from Valium to antipsychotics and obviously I wondered what the story was with the lithium.

Tempting as it was, I stayed away from the other medication, remembering a time with Zac and his insane parties, and it all seemed like the best memories were all there, left far behind and I was standing in a sparse desert just waiting for my turn to disappear into oblivion.

It's crazy but even though our brains can't grasp the concept of oblivion, how sometimes it becomes necessary. Oblivion was the only place where I could picture myself being free and I had grown to get attached to the concept, and I realized it was the only hope I still held.

"Everything okay in there?" I heard Jackies soft voice through the heavy door.

This house, her life, her possessions, I wanted to steal it all. I wanted to know if there was a way I could start living her life instead of mine.

All the nice things she owned when I owned nothing, it broke my heart even more for some reason. The dire living conditions her brother had forced on me and my brother, I wanted someone to pay for it.

I slipped the bottle of Valium in my pocket and opened the door.

She stood there, a glass of whiskey in her hand and there was something in her eyes... in the way her gaze lingered on me, on the open space left by the unbuttoned shirt.

She seemed to have caught herself doing it and promptly went to fix me a drink. "Would you like to eat?" she asked. “I could make you something or we can order in."

I couldn't actually remember the last time I ate a hot meal. I did manage to stuff down some food Trey brought me but I couldn't even taste it.

Food was far from my mind.

"No thanks. Maybe later."

She stopped what she was doing. "You're welcome to stay the night."

Her hands were trembling.

"Okay," I replied and the relief on her face was almost innocent. "Thanks, Jackie."

She brought me the Jack and Coke. We raised our glasses and toasted to her dead father.

I sipped, slowly. But she downed first one and then another glass like it was a shot.

She was tipsy so I offered to pour the drinks the next time.

We talked.

Endlessly, for hours, mostly her.

I checked my watch.

It was time.





TREY


I kept trying to call Jake and continued to pace about.

My mind was thinking of worst case scenarios. Maybe something happened to Jake? I was about to go look for him when the door opened and he walked in.

He looked strange.

A little confused.

"Jake?"

"Where's Weldon?"

"He's still in the room, why?"

Jake barged into the cell. He turned on the light and Weldon stared at him. "Where's my father?"

"Here's the thing," Jake said, and I felt the adrenaline bursting through in every word he spoke. "Your father's dead. Dead as a door nail!”

There was uncontrollable rage in Weldon’s eyes. "Your brother’s dead too then!"

"I don't think so," Jake said, and went out while Weldon and I waited.

Within moments, the door was open again and Jake pushed someone inside.

Weldon tried to make out the person's face, as did I. The female was on the floor on her knees, crying, her makeup running all over her face and the rag that worked as a gag for her mouth.

"Jackie!" Weldon looked speechless. In shock.

Jake placed a gun to her head and cocked it. It wasn't mine, he'd probably gotten it from Jackie’s bedroom vault.

"Where's my brother?" Jake asked, simply.

Weldon kept looking at his sister. "I'll tell you," he blurted. "Please, don't hurt her!"

Jake lowered the weapon. "Start talking."





COLTON


Empty deserted blocks of razed buildings formed a jarring cacophony of silence that surrounded the fifteen story rooftop. I couldn't see through the heavy cloud of darkness and dust that seemed to surround us. One wrong step and we would fall to our deaths. Which was probably the reason why I was there in the first place.

But hours of standing on the rooftop with a weapon in hand had made Stoll exhausted. The tiredness and boredom showed on his face.

Every few minutes, a whisper would startle us both and Stoll would go on alert but none of the whispers of sound ever became more than silence.

But eventually we both heard footfalls, shoes crunching gravel underneath their weight and the sounds kept getting more prominent until there was silence again.

Someone had entered the building and was probably climbing the stairs by now.

I saw it in Stoll's eyes.

The lethargy had been replaced by a circumspect alertness as he shot a watchful glance toward the roof access door, gun cocked.

We waited.