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Chapter 16
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Heathens Chapter 17
EllieJerk. If he hadn’t lied to me, then I could have confided in him all the awful, twisty things in my guts that threatened to tear me apart. I couldn’t very well do that with him lying to me. It probably would have made me stupid. For all I knew, he had that phone for innocent reasons. Or, as innocent as a secret phone could be. He might have gotten the fake one when he got hired on by us, intent on keeping his private life in secret. I could understand that. Either I had no justification for the anger, or I needed to be afraid. I stared at the phone in my hand, sitting in the darkness of the living room. I’d been in my jammies for hours, and Mordechai had been sleeping since ten. The phone had a lock and needed a thumbprint to unlock it. When I peeked into his room, I saw that his hand hung over the edge of the bed. I could trust him, and assume he had the phone to keep us out of his life. A reasonable desire. But my instincts told me something different. I’d noticed things abo
Heathens Chapter 18
MordechaiBefore dawn, I sent a message to Jonathan with the update he wanted. I made it fast, as I had nothing to say. I didn’t give him the location or anything. If he wanted to find out, he could discover it anyway. I lived in a place where everyone ignored what they saw, based on a universal understanding that it was best for everyone if we stayed out of each other’s business. Ellie was still asleep by the time the sun came up, and after I finished cleaning, and cooking, and when the clock clicked over to eight. I walked over to the couch, checking to see if she faked it. Nope.I sat at the table with a project I’d decided to start. A fictional map from a book I had read a few weeks ago. I drew it from memory, and I knew I had the details right. I didn’t know why I made it. I just wanted to do it. I took great care in each line and dot, stroke and swipe. I sketched out the map, my mind twisted up with how I’d woken up this morning. My bed had smelled like Ellie. I started thinki
Heathens Chapter 19
EllieThe lightbulb burned out on my third flip of the switch. I cursed under my breath, knowing I would have to either tell Mordechai, or let it go. If I left it for him, he might have had some questions and it would have led to more talking. We could only talk so much before I finally snapped. I had enough wrong with me that I could have a whole conversation with a man about how he might have to kill me later on, so clearly, I didn’t know how the hell to behave. Also, there was the bit about him holding me against a wall and dry humping the fuck out of me. But I had to deal with a broken light.“Mordechai?” I called before I took a sip of my very Irish coffee. “A bulb in the bathroom is out.” It only took seconds before he showed up from his bedroom. Without saying a word, he grabbed a bulb from the hallway closet, changed the old one, and then walked out again. Ah, okay. He could press his dick against me for five very pleasant minutes, but he drew the line at looking me in the ey
Heathens Chapter 20
MordechaiThe fact that she thought I could somehow remove myself from the situation almost made me laugh. I might have been able to if there was anything about this whole ordeal. Like I could walk in, quit, and everything would be fine. She could run to Locke and tell him everything—supposedly leaving me out—and saving my life while ruining all the ones around me. If Locke found out Jonathan really and honestly wanted Ellie dead, Locke would start a war. Ellie didn’t seem to believe that of her father. I found it odd how she could discuss the very real fact that her father would have people killed, but didn’t seem to be able to reconcile the words with reality. Like it all seemed to be an abstract concept some part of her didn’t fully believe yet. Ellie would be safe at home waiting for me. I dressed like normal, putting on a suit and ignoring the fact that something about it felt strange now. I didn’t like walking out of the apartment and having Ellie see me like that. It didn’t he
Heathens Chapter 21
Ellie“He wants you to play me like a fiddle,” I said, shaking my head. “No, it’s not that.” “You told him I was a mentally ill dumbass—which is true—but now he wants you to work me into a smooth lather.” “We already knew he wasn’t a very kind man,” he said, zooming down the highway. “I should tell you something you might have already guessed. That man, the one with the gun.” My stomach dropped out from under me, but yeah, I already knew it had been more than what my father said. It would have been insane otherwise. “Was he supposed to kill me?” I didn’t know why I bothered asking. I was too soft. Too fragile to hear something so tragic. “No. Traumatize you. He found a very desperate man and promised his family a lot of money if he killed himself in front of you. That’s what Jonathan does. He finds what you want, and he offers it to you, so long as he gets what he wants in return. It’s how he got my dad. It’s how he got me. It’s how he got everyone.” I hoped it killed him one da
Heathens Chapter 22
MordechaiI found her in her room. I’d run in, seeing her passed out on the floor as the dog barked relentlessly. I hadn’t been the only one to hear though, but I had been the only one Ellie saw when she opened her eyes again. “Take her back to where you have her,” Mr. Locke had told me as he stared at his daughter laid out on the couch in his office. “I don’t want people to see her like this.” We turned to look at Ellie, who laid on the couch with her mother. Ellie hadn’t woken up again, but her head rested on Mrs. Locke’s lap as she brushed out some of the knots Ellie had given herself in her panic attack. I’d come when I heard screaming, but I didn’t make it to her room in time. She collapsed floor, with Dandelion barking at her to wake up. I wanted to take her to the hospital, but her father had ordered me to carry her into his office. “She might have hit her head,” I told Locke. “It’s been an hour and she hasn’t woken up.” “That’s just how she is,” the man said. “She has thes
Heathens Chapter 23
Ellie“The very last thing I want to do is go to some party,” I said for the first time in my life. “Tell them I’m sick. Say I’m on the floor puking and I can’t get up.” Mordechai wouldn’t have it, and he went on with picking a suit from his closet. He pointed to the four choices on the bed and told me I had to pick one. I wanted to take that as a good sign, that he wanted my opinion on how he looked.“None of them,” I said. “Be naked.” “I don’t think your parents would like that.” “My mom would love it. Be careful though. My dad might murder you if he thinks she’s interested.” Too soon for jokes like that, because the both of us flinched at it. If I didn’t make jokes, then it would kill me, so I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. He already knew my brain didn’t work right. He’d peeled me up from the floor of my bedroom two times at this point. “Pick a suit,” Mordechai said, more sternly this time. I smiled, wiggling my eyebrows. “Bossy? I like bossy. Give me another order.” “
Heathens Chapter 24
Mordechai“Every choice you make is bad,” Ellie said to me. “Why would I put pants on just to go to a place I don’t want to be?” I did my very best to not stare at her legs in that moment. Ellie had taken to sleeping in nothing but a stolen shirt from my closet. She’d marched in there and taken it with such confidence that I didn’t have the ability to stop her. I had been too stunned to do much of anything. Same as when I’d walked out into the living room to see her sleeping on her stomach, sweater hiked up to her hips and ass just… there to stare at. I ignored it to make breakfast, but what a tense morning. Now, Ellie sat on the couch with a blanket half over one leg, making sure I knew she had nothing on more than that sweater and her underwear. Her casualness might have been the thing to kill me. She sat there, totally fine while I desperately tried to hold myself back with the thinnest thread. I thought she would have liked that. “You have to go back eventually,” I reminded her
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