Page 43 of Wrong Cabin, Right Time
“Not now. It’s planning time.”
I jump to my feet, and he stops in the doorway, turning around and staring at me with an exasperated sigh. I smile as I walk toward him. “We’ll plan together, then.”
I follow him to his office even though he has forbidden me from going in here before. I confidently move a chair to sit beside him, behind the computer.
“You in my office is a one-time thing,” Travis says before he begins to ignore me as he logs on to all the different databases he needs, plus my Instagram account. I haven’t looked at my phone yet today, but I see I have several messages from Eli.
“I traced some of the messages he sent you yesterday, and it appears he’s moving closer to Lake Lure,” Travis explains. He copies some information into his databases and searches for one of Eli’s recent locations. “Looks like my hunch was right. He’s here already.”
My stomach twists, and I feel a surge of nervous energy that could even be confused with excitement. Travis is focused, with a stoic look on his face. I wish I could crack his skull open and see what’s inside. I want to know what he’s thinking, and he’s almost impossible to read.
“So he’s here. What do we do now?” I ask. Travis points to the computer screen, where he is using some kind of information that Eli has inadvertently given us to pinpoint exactly where he is.
“It looks like he’s staying at the Lodge. He arrived yesterday evening, I think.”
“Is he alone?” I remember his fiancée, and I feel guilty. I know that Eli is a bad guy, but I wonder how she would feel knowing everything he’s getting himself into.
“We have no way to know right now, but if he came here just for the chance of finding you, I would imagine he is,” Travis replies. He grips the mouse tight as he grimaces at the idea of my stalker coming to find me.
I pull out my phone to see what new messages Eli has sent. Surprisingly, he doesn’t say anything about being in Lake Lure.
I’m confused.
I thought the whole point of me sending him the seductive messages was to convince him to come here under the guise of us hooking up.
“If he made all the effort to come here and not even tell me, what was the point?”
Travis looks at me, and a dark expression falls on his face. I feel like there’s something I’m missing, and I stare at him expectantly.
“Trust me, I’ve noticed that too. I don’t think he has any intention of letting you know when he plans on visiting you,” he says.
I feel like I’m going to be sick.
I already knew there was a possibility my stalker was a very bad person. But somehow, seeing pictures of him with his fiancée made him seem disarming. If what Travis is insinuating is right, then Eli wants to assault me. It’s not enough that he knows where I’m staying and that I’ve been seemingly into it. There’s something much more sinister lying beneath the surface.
Just the idea of that gets rid of any doubt I might have had before. This man is dangerous, and I want him gone. I don’t care about his life back home, his fiancée, or his family. If he’s willing to fly across the country to come here with the intent of raping me—or worse—he can die.
“Where do we start?” I ask.
Travis must see the fury in my eyes, because the corners of his lips turn up as he looks back at the computer.
He delves into everything he knows about Eli. For the first time, I can see how his rigorous schedules and eye for detail are a benefit. He’s able to predict almost exactly where he can find Eli, and he has a plan for what to do.
“Have you ever felt like somebody has been on your trail while you do all of this?” Everything he discusses involves meticulous stalking. To me, it almost seems impossible that somebody wouldn’t catch him.
“Never,” he replies, as confident as ever.
I raise my eyebrows, but he doesn’t budge. I happen to remember him telling me about somebody possibly being on his tail right now. He doesn’t seem concerned about that, though.
“So tell me about what you have planned for Eli,” I say with a smirk. Excitement swells in my chest as he scans my face and probably sees the eagerness in my eyes.
Travis and I recognize something in each other. I’ve never felt this with anyone else before.
“Well, we’re going to start with you luring him somewhere quiet.” Travis’s voice is low as he talks, and he leans back in his chair as if this is relaxing to him. “Then I’ll come out of hiding with a needle and incapacitate him entirely. He’ll wake up in a damp basement, not understanding why he’s restrained to a table.”
“Basement? You’re not using one of the factories like the others?”
“That’s not my only mode of operating.” He leans forward with a smile, grabbing his pocketknife. He opens it and twirls it around his fingers like it’s a fidget spinner. “Not only do I have factories, but I own a crematorium. It’s closed down and situated on a plot of land you can’t even see from the street. It used to be a pet cemetery. We’ll bring him there, and while he’s in the basement, we’ll make him realize the error of his ways. I’ll take my time killing him before loading him into the oven and turning him to ash.”
