Travis pulled onto the street carefully, trying to act as normal as he could. Until he was clear of town, he didn’t want to attract any undue attention. “That went exceptionally well, don’t you think?”
Even though Annie was unconscious, he kept up a steady stream of conversation as he drove, telling her of his recent activities, some of his favorite past kills. “It’s nice being able to talk to someone about this. I’ve not been able to do that in a long time. The last person I chatted with, old J.R. Handley? I trussed him up and stuck him on a pole in the middle of a cornfield. They didn’t find his body for a long time, and there wasn’t much left by the time the buzzards got through with him, so he wasn’t about to tell my secrets.”
The drive to his own property near Madison would take about forty-five minutes. Somehow, it was fitting that it would all end there. He was taking from Chase Hudson, for the second time, something that had been denied him many years ago.
“It isn’t fair, you see, that Chase should get two chances at love in one lifetime,” he told Annie, who moaned. “That’s right. You’ll be awake before you know it, and then we can have some real fun.
“I loved Margie with all my heart, and she ripped it out and tore it to pieces. Just like my mother, just like every other whore. She changed her name, but she can’t ever change who she is. Charity Vaughn, my ass. She’s plain old Margie Vernon, and she always will be. Once trash, always trash.”
Just thinking about the girl who’d gotten pregnant with his child, then cheated on him with every man who’d screw her, made him clench his teeth. The pain from that betrayal had driven him to act carelessly, and he’d gotten a girl he didn’t even like pregnant. Forced to marry her, he’d been in Lexington for the ceremony when he met Kiely, and fate had intervened.
“You’re probably wondering why I don’t have Margie on my list,” he said softly as Annie whimpered. “I’d never get away with that. People watch her too closely. They’d know it was me before her body cooled. That’s okay—I’ve killed a dozen women in her place, and that’s a good start on ridding the world of troublesome whores.”
He pulled the truck into the garage and turned off the engine. “I had to get a new truck, you know. Wrecked the old one down in Tennessee, in the hills. It’s so far down in a ravine they’ll never find it. I made sure it burned too, when it went over.” After going around to the passenger side, he slid Annie out and tossed her over his shoulder. “So you’ll understand if we don’t do this in my new truck. I really don’t want to have to destroy this one. It’s too nice.”
He carried her into the house and down the hall to his bedroom, where he tossed her on the bed. He then went to his closet and grabbed a couple of neckties. “I could do this with zip ties, but let’s be a little classier. What do you say? After all, you’re special.”
Holding her hands together over her head, he tied them to the headboard with one of the ties, then he sat down at her hip. He used the other as a gag, fastening it loosely around her mouth. Her eyes were open but still unfocused.
He smiled at her. “When you wake up a little more, I’ll take that off so we can talk. Right now though, I need some peace and quiet. I need to prepare, you see. You’re so extraordinary, Annie. I’ll bet Chase tells you that all the time.” When tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, he laughed and stood.
“I’m going to go take care of some things. Plastic bags, towels—you understand. Otherwise, this could get messy.” He stopped at the door and turned around with a grin. “Don’t go anywhere now, you hear me?”