The Guy Next Door

Chapter 30

30

ZANE

“H ow’s my short king doing?” Leif asks as he enters my bedroom, where I’m getting all my things together.

“Almost packed for tomorrow morning.” I shove a plastic bag of toiletries into my backpack. The plan is to head to the ER in another hour.

“They’ll figure out what’s wrong,” Leif says. “And we’ll figure this out. Like I said, together.”

Leif was a better actor than I was when we were working through the script we’d prepped for Isaac’s benefit. But all that matters is he buys this shit.

Since I found the mic in the wall outlet, I’ve despised every moment in my room. It’s like Isaac is violating us. And it’s not only that he’s listening, but that we’ve had to perform like everything’s fine, even messing around because we agreed if we don’t, he might realize we’re up to something.

Fortunately, I don’t have to make up bullshit to talk about so we can sound “normal” since Leif’s catching me up about his last chat with his parents, who just docked in Antigua. I finish packing my things, including my gun. We’ve already been moving clothes and my computer monitors to his parents’ basement over the past few days, getting everything set up gradually so that if Isaac was watching from nearby, he wouldn’t notice.

The plan is: we head out like we’re going to the ER. Figure he could have surveillance nearby, so we’ll leave for a couple of hours, then circle back to the house. Leif will drop me off at the old church outside the neighborhood. I’ll walk through the woods and meet him in his backyard, where he’ll let me in the basement.

My whole system is set up in his basement so I can watch outside over the next few days. It’s gonna be a long-ass week of waiting for our plan to work, tucked away in a basement with an air mattress, but it’s worth it knowing Leif will be safe.

“Well, get your ass over to mine tonight so we can enjoy the time we have left. I’m making lasagna.”

I growl. “I fucking love your lasagna.”

That’s probably the most believable thing I can say as I play nice, to give Isaac false confidence that everything is as he would expect.

“Now let me finish up, and I’ll be over in like ten,” I say.

“Sounds good. Love you.”

“I love you too.”

Okay, this is also one of the more believable things.

Leif heads over to his place, and after I hear the front door close, I reach into my backpack and grab the case with my handgun, inspecting it. The reality is starting to hit me, like it did that night when I first met Leif.

I might have to use this thing soon.

“Great shot, kid,” Dad says, resting his hand on my shoulder. “You got an eye for this, my little soldier.”

I set the case back in my backpack and zip it shut, taking a last glance around my room. I’m gonna miss this comfy mattress.

I head into the hall, and as I start down it, I stop. The hairs on my neck stand on end. Something’s wrong.

I turn toward the guest bedroom across the hall from mine when I see someone bolt out.

I recognize the face immediately.

Isaac fucking Tolle.

I jump back, spin my backpack around, knocking him in the head with it so he goes flying against the wall, but he grabs it and pulls. I go with it and I’m all fists, slamming them against him, when he hits me in my gut.

Fuck.

My body trembles violently, and I realize he’s fucking got a stun gun to my shirt.

He throws me back against the opposite wall, and I try to get up, but my trembling legs send me back to the ground.

Fuck my goddamn fucking body.

When I regain my senses, I feel another jolt against my neck. Then another.

I’m a fit of spasms.

*

I’m still trembling from the shock of Isaac’s repeated assaults.

I think I lost consciousness for a minute there. As my vision unblurs, I notice I’m lying facedown on my bedroom floor. My arms are behind my back, and I attempt to move them, noticing the strain against my wrists.

I feel movement at my legs and glance over my shoulder. Isaac wraps a zip tie around my ankles, and by the time I’m able to struggle, it’s too late.

Fuck me.

Isaac feels around my ankles and yanks the hem of my jeans up. “Ah, what do we have here?” He slides my knife out of its holster.

Dammit.

“Guess that’s one down. Now you just have to tell me where your gun’s at.”

“Fuck off.”

He snickers as he crawls over to face me. He runs the blade across my cheek.

“Zane, you’re gonna learn real fast that I love when they pick the hard way.”

“What did you do to my brother, asshole?”

“You tell me where your gun is, and I’ll tell you that. And don’t try to pretend you don’t have one. I’ve been listening in on you and your boyfriend’s little conversations.”

The way he says that, it sounds like he fell for our ruse, but then why did he come here now? Did he realize he needed to take me out first to get to Leif?

“Where is your gun, Zane?” He presses the blade harder against my flesh, and when I don’t reply for a few moments, his nostrils flare. His eyes widen. And then he smiles.

The expressions are disturbingly erratic, impossible to read.

As he continues applying pressure with the blade, I’m waiting for him to draw blood, but he restrains himself, pulling back.

“It’s too early to damage this beautiful body,” he whispers as though it’s not even intended for me. “Fuck it, I’ll find it myself.”

He’s placed my backpack on the bed; that’s where he goes first.

Of fucking course.

He rifles through and pulls out the case. “Well, they weren’t gonna let you take this where you were going anyway.”

Is he gonna realize it’s strange that I would have taken that over to Leif’s, even after I’d assured him there wasn’t any real danger?

“Where the fuck is my brother?” I ask, trying to get his attention off what might cast doubt in his mind about our real plan.

I struggle with my restraints, but it’s for show since I know better than to waste my energy on what would be a futile attempt at escaping. At least while he’s got his eyes on me.

“You should be more concerned about your fate than Michael’s. It’s already been two months since he passed, so you’re wasting your tears.”

Passed?

He might as well have decked me in the gut.

My body curls toward the floor, a rush of adrenaline from all the excitement colliding with the blow of grief.

No, fucking no.

“You’re lying!” I call out as tears spring from my eyes.

He kneels beside me, placing his hand on the back of my head. I struggle against his hold, but he pins my head down, stroking his thumb across my flesh, stirring goose bumps. “Oh, Zane, I really wish I were lying. He was so ripe and beautiful. It was a waste, but he was getting tired. All that beauty was rotting away. Beauty is such a fragile thing. You’ll see that for yourself.”

It’s not true. It can’t be true. “Fuck you!” I call out, trying not to show emotion, but that only makes me cringe as more tears burst from my eyes. “You piece of shit!”

I tell myself it’s a vicious lie to terrorize me, but in my heart, I already know the truth. I’ve known the truth for a while now.

He studies my gun. “Oh, these things have safeties, don’t they? There it is. Can’t make a rookie mistake like that, right?”

Said like a man who’s never managed a gun before.

“I was right about you all this fucking time,” I spit out.

“You proud of yourself for that one? Enjoy the victory while you can.”

“You were pretty fucking obvious when I went to talk to you at that Habitat build.”

“I was surprised and, I must admit, impressed with you, Zane. Although, that’s when I really figured out your weakness.”

He’s poking, and I don’t mind taking the bait if it’ll buy me time.

“What?” I ask.

“How easy it would be to play this game with you.”

Game?

He lies down beside me so that we’re face-to-face.

“Oh, my sweet Zane,” he says, reaching out to me, but stops short of my face before licking his lips. “You were so easy to play. And it was so much fun too.”

“What are you on about?”

“You’re smart, Zane. That’s something I’ve noticed about you. But you weren’t smart enough for me. Because you guessed wrong. I wasn’t after Leif. I was after you.”

“The hell?”

“You didn’t think it was convenient that you ran into that post on a Reddit forum, displaying Leif’s note?”

“You did that?”

“I found Leif at the library I frequent, which I’m assuming you already pieced together. A beautiful specimen to catch your attention. I sent him that note, knowing there was already a post about the one I sent Mike.

“I thought I might have to spread a rumor on that forum to lead you to Leif. Say that a friend of his mentioned it, but he made it even easier when he posted to social media. Then I just posted that to the Reddit forum. As I expected, you gravitated right to it because you weren’t going to let it go. My hope was to keep you obsessed, have you going through your own little investigation again—the cops would just assume you were having another mental-health crisis. I must admit, I underestimated you. I didn’t realize you’d go as far as renting a place next to Leif to watch him. I had to get creative with my plan, but I love a challenge.”

A plan? Fuck.

“That’s why I didn’t find you at Leif’s place,” I say. “You weren’t there for him. You were there to distract me.”

“Very good. You left your door open, so I came in and set up a mic in here.”

Which I already know, you fucking moron.

“Then I looked on your computer and saw where you had the security cameras set up, and I noticed you were so focused on protecting him that your weakness was you hadn’t thought nearly enough about how to defend yourself. There’s a blind spot right from your neighbors to your basement door. Maybe if you’d given more thought to that, we wouldn’t be in this mess now. Clearly, you didn’t consider that because that’s how I skirted around your little security to break in today.”

“What did you do to Mike?” I ask, my tears warm against my cheeks.

“You’ll find out. I like that you’re a crier. He cried too.”

He reaches for my face again, and I pull away.

“You two are such a beautiful couple. What a beautiful way for two people to meet. Something poetic about it, really. It was an honor to listen to you enjoying each other’s bodies. I would have come much sooner if I didn’t get so much pleasure out of every fuck, every time I heard you call out his name. Speaking of your boyfriend, I don’t think it’s right to do this without him.” He pushes to his feet and grabs my cellphone from the bed.

“You motherfucker!” I call out.

“We’ll text him to come on over. How does that sound?”

“This is between you and me. You said it yourself. Leave him out of it!”

“Oh, no, no. You’re wrong. It was between you and me. But since I’ve started this, oh, I’ve fallen in love with both of you. So young. So beautiful. So special. But I only have room to play with one of you. So we’ll have a short time with him today.”

Room? So he keeps his victims somewhere.

My wrists strain in the zip tie. Feels like I’m gonna slice my skin off from the pressure.

“You fucking hurt Leif, and I’ll kill you.”

“That’s the spirit I want to see, Zane. Keep that up as long as you can. That’s what keeps you alive. It’s what makes you beautiful. When that fight dies, so do you.”

There’s no misunderstanding his twisted insinuation.

“Roth is already onto you. You think if you kill the one guy I warned her about already, she’s not gonna be looking at you again?”

He chuckles. “Oh, my precious. I told you: I’ve been listening in all this time, so I know she didn’t believe you. And that she was worried about the obsessed kid who started stalking, then dating Leif. And knowing about Leif’s mental-health challenges, I mean, it made it hard for me to decide how he should go. It’d be easy to kill a depressed man and make it look like a suicide. But the real challenge, wouldn’t that be to make it look like you killed him before disappearing?”

Just hearing him talk about killing Leif is enough to make rage flare in me.

“So I guess you can tell I made up my mind already. And don’t worry, it will be beautiful.” He sits on the edge of my bed, keying away on my phone.

“Leif! Leif!” I shout desperately, hoping my cry can reach him, if not physically, then in some wild-ass psychic way.

“I think you know nobody’s gonna hear you in here.” I continue calling out as he scrolls through my phone. “I should review some of your old messages before I send something. Want it to sound convincing.”

I finally stop screaming, knowing this is energy I need to conserve because when this fucker gives me a few moments alone, he’s a goner.

He heads to my dresser and opens the top drawer, retrieving a pair of boxers before pulling a roll of black tape from his pocket.

My mind’s racing through my options.

I have to fucking figure a way out of this.

I have to save Leif.

And tear this motherfucker apart.