Page 59 of Wrong Cabin, Right Time
I slap his arm lightly and narrow my eyes. “Come on, Travis. She looks like she’s one bad breakup away from a poetry phase and a ukulele. You’re going to ruin her Etsy-store dreams.”
“I don’t know how many times I need to tell you, but that’s not why I do this.” He looks back at me with anger in his eyes. “Whether she’s innocent or not, it doesn’t matter. You need to stay out of this.”
“Are you serious? Stay out of this?” I let out an incredulous laugh and shake my head. “I’m already too far into this. Staying out of it isn’t an option anymore.”
“I’ve been doing this for a long time. This is a well-oiled machine for me. If you can’t handle this, you can’t be a part of it. My methods have always worked in the past, and I’m not going to alter them because of you.”
My heart drops and my brain runs at breakneck speed, trying to think of a way to change his mind.
“People know her!” I sit up and lean forward with a glimmer of hope swelling in my chest. “People at the grocery store see her. Peoplehaveto have noticed her. If she goes missing, it might raise some suspicions.”
“This isn’t my first kill,” he says with an exhausted huff. “I’m always completely secure. Nobody is going to notice, because I take every possible precaution.”
This is it. I can see how determined he is about this. I don’t know how I’m ever going to convince him not to do this. He won’t listen to me about pursuing bad people, and I can’t change his mind.
My phone buzzes on the nightstand, and Travis reaches for it before I can. Even though he “trusts” me, he still likes to make sure everything is on par and I’m not really ratting him out to the feds.
I watch his face as his lips pull into a tight line and his eyes slowly move from the screen to me. His eyes darken, and I feel a chill run through me. “What the fuck, Sage?”
I pull the phone away from him to see what he’s looking at. I haven’t done anything wrong, and I don’t understand what would set him off like this. I look at the screen and see a notification from the Citizens app of a new sex offender registered in the area.
“Are you capable of thinking, or is that something I have to start doing for you?” He jumps to his feet and paces back and forth in front of the bed, tossing me furious glares.
“I don’t understand.” I can’t help myself from cowering in front of him. I clutch the sheets on the bed closer to me and make myself seem small before him. He’s never looked at me this way, not even when we first met and I was constantly annoying him.
“Why the fuck would you make searches like this from an unsecured connection?” He rushes toward me, slamming his hands down on the mattress right beside me. I jump back and press my spine hard against the headboard. My skin is burning hot, and for the first time, Travis is terrifying me. “You’re going to be the death of me.”
His eyes are pointed furiously in my direction, and I can almost see an alternate reality where I’m one of his victims after all. There was a time when he wanted to kill me, and I think he does right now too. The very thought sends a shiver crawling through my body.
“I didn’t know,” I say in a meek, hushed voice. There’s no remorse in his eyes as he backs away and snatches my phone from my hand.
He walks away from me and lingers in the doorframe, looking back at me with a disappointed frown. “This is going to ruin me.”
As the door slams, I mutter under my breath, “Next time I’ll google murdery stuff on Incognito like a normal girlfriend.” I consider yellingit louder, but I’m not sure if sarcasm would defuse or detonate him right now.
I can hear him stomping around, heading to his office. Travis is acting like an animal with its foot caught in a trap. He’s desperate and lashing out. I never meant to do something to harm him, but he doesn’t see it that way.
Right now Travis is in self-preservation mode. He’s dangerous. I’m realizing the weight of the situation I’m in. If I don’t leave now, I might not have a chance to.
Chapter Thirty-One
Travis
How the fuck could I have been so stupid?
I’ve gone so long without being caught, and I let one stupid girl into my life, and she’s going to lead investigators directly to my door. What the fuck was I thinking?
Just to really drive home my idiocy, I stub my toe so hard on the desk leg I nearly see stars. Naturally, I screamed, not out of pain, but in existential frustration. The universe didn’t respond. Probably too busy laughing.
Since the moment I met Sage, she has been disrupting my life. Why the hell did I think this part of my life would be protected from her? Letting her in was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. I should have killed her when I had the chance.
It takes a while for me to regain my focus after our conversation. I know she’s upset with me for pursuing Nicole, but she doesn’t understand me, no matter what she tries to tell herself. I hardly get to choose my victims. I met Nicole, and she took priority in my mind. Abandoning this now, on the heels of missing out on Kevin, will leave me unsatisfied and frayed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s set off some kind of alert with her searches, though. This is why I don’t cherry-pick my victims the way she wants me to. Now there is vast room for error. I just can’t trust her.
After a few minutes of trying to calm down, I storm back into the bedroom and drag Sage from the bed and back to my office. “I don’t want to hear a word out of you,” I say as I sit her down across from me.
She slinks down in the chair and stares at me with wide, watery eyes. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s going to try to play up every emotion she possibly can to get me to go easy on her. She doesn’t deserve that, not after the danger she’s put me in.
