Page 46 of Coyote
We followed Rufus out of Patterdale and to a mall on the outskirts of town, where he dropped off his friend and headed back in the direction of his house. Dark glee sparked in my mind, thinking of all the things I was gonna do to him for hurting my Bethany. I guessed when push came to shove, I was really no better than Breaker when it came to enacting violence on others, I thought wryly—though in this case the fucker deserved every ounce of my rage.
We pulled in right behind him, blocking him into his own driveway. The car that had been parked in the driveway earlier was gone, so I reckoned his mother was out for the afternoon. His house was in the middle of nowhere, so we could be more brazen than if there were potential witnesses around.
The moment he caught sight of us, he said, “Aw shit, what did I do this time? Did I accidentally cross into biker territory?”
I started with a solid punch square in his face. “That’s for playing dumb, asshole.”
Holding his nose, he responded, “I’m not fucking dumb. How the fuck can I keep out of your way if I can’t even drive down the road in my own fucking town?”
“Someone burned down the house next to Bethany last night, putting her life and the life of her child in danger. I think it was you.” My direct statement took the wind out of his sails.
“Say what now? Someone did fucking what?”
If I didn’t know he was a lying scumbag, I’d almost think he was shocked by my news.
“Just what I said. Someone was either trying to kill her and got the wrong house, or they wanted him out the way, or they simply wanted to intimidate her. Which of those numbers is on your bingo card, Rufus?”
“None of the above and I resent you jumping to conclusions. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a lover, not a fighter. I wouldn’t even know how to go about burning someone’s fucking house down. That’s some seriously fucked up shit, man.”
“Unlock your fucking phone and give it to me,” Breaker growled.
Rufus jerked his phone out, unlocked it and tossed it to Breaker. He’d apparently learned that the Slayers don’t play, which means he was trainable at least. While Breaker searched his phone, I kept interrogating him.
“Her boss doesn’t have enemies. Since everyone loves him, that only leaves Bethany. Her only problem at the moment is you. Ergo, you are right at the tippy top of our list of suspects.”
“Yeah, I get that it’s convenient to pin all this on me, but if you do, that means the actual guilty party is still running around. Is that what you want?”
I glared at him, fighting the urge to smack his smug fucking face once more. I wanted the fucking truth. Breaker looked up from scrolling on the man’s phone. “I think I’ve gotten some answers. It seems as though Rufus here wasn’t exactly obsessed with Bethany. He was obsessed with winning the betting pool.”
Rufus said, “Oh fuck,” with a note of actual fear in his voice.
“What fucking betting pool?” I asked, clearly expecting whatever Breaker found to provoke my rage.
“Rufus and three of his buddies targeted a dozen local women and started a betting pool to see who could sleep with all twelve of them first. The money is significant.”
“We all put in three grand each. Look, don’t get your panties in a bunch. I can explain.”
“That’s some seriously fucked up shit. You know that, right?”
“In my own defense, the rule was no rape. Any kind of involuntary sexual conduct automatically disqualifies you from the pool.”
“Well, aren’t you a fucking gentleman,” I spat out.
Breaker snapped a few pics of the list, then he dropped Rufus’ cell down on the pavement and ground it under his boot shattering it into a million pieces.
I took a step closer. “I guess if you’re hell bent on being a complete, degenerate asshole a rule like would go a long way in making you feel less scummy.”
The man took a step back with his hands up. “Alright, I know the betting pool was a shitty idea. It’s just there isn’t much entertainment to be had and none of us play sports, so we have to resort to other sorts of competition.”
I moved closer, keeping pace with him as he backed up. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you quite this articulate, Rufus.”
“I don’t know why you care so much.”
Breaker came up behind him, trapping him between the two of us. “It’s because you never removed her name from the list, you stupid fucker.”
“I meant to. I really did,” he says in a panicked voice.
Breaker and I proceeded to work him over with the kind of care such a transgression deserves. Just the thought of these filthy fuckers manipulating twelve women into having sex with them for money pissed me off. But what really infuriated me was that they never took her name off the goddamned list, even after I made it clear that she was off limits. Now we have three other suspects to investigate as well. I was looking forward to kicking every single one of their asses.