CHAPTER: Ten
Elenora and Tim had fallen into an easy routine. In the bit they had been seeing each other, things seemed relatively easy and quiet until Elenora decided to pick today as the day to bring coffee to the office. Now she was standing, looking down the barrel of Tim's gun as the man behind her held a shiv to her throat.
"PUT YOUR WEAPONS DOWN!"
It had all happened so fast. She was walking by two security guards and the next thing she knew the inmate they were transporting had her flush up against him.
"Let her go." Tim spoke calmly as he kept his eyes and gun trained on the man holding Elenora.
"Do as I say or I'll gut her!" The man yelled again, and Elenora could feel the press of the weapon on her skin. Elenora watched as Raylan and Art emerged from the office, guns drawn and pointing towards her, and her eyes got wide as she watched her father grit his teeth before opening his mouth.
"Don't..." Elenora whispered as she looked to her father.
The man who grabbed her began to back up and Elenora saw the body of an unconscious guard on the ground. She had not seen him go down, everything had happened so fast. "Who are you? You someone important to one of them?" When Elenora did not answer she felt his hold on her tighten uncomfortably and his warm breath hit the side of her face. "What's your name."
"Elenora...Elenora Crowder." She stuttered out as the man continued to back them up and into the locker room. The man kicked the door partially closed so that he and Elenora were just peaking out.
"So who is it? The old man there, is he your daddy?" The man asked as he pointed her towards Art. "Or what about pretty boy there? Got up pretty fast, had his gun on me faster than I would have thought. You belong to him?" The man questioned, and Elenora was sure he was referring to Tim.
Elenora could see her father take a small step forward so quickly she averted her eyes to Tim. "He's my fiance. He just became a Deputy. We just moved..."
That seemed to tell the man enough, as he pulled them both into the room and slammed the door shut. Once they were inside the room, she watched through a window as everyone in the office moved to keep both her and the man in their sights, and then he pulled the blind shut.
"I'm gonna need to you to move that locker with me. You think you can do that without trying anything?"
"I just want to go home in one piece. I won't try anything." Elenora whispered and then she helped to shimmy the locker in front of the door they had come through, blocking that entrance entirely. They then moved towards another window and closed the blinds there as well. Then they reached the door that led into the conference room and the man leaned himself and Elenora into the doorway ever so slightly. It was then she saw her father standing there with his gun in his hands but pointed to the ground.
"There is still a chance to walk back from the cliff here, Wallace. If you just let the woman go, I'll make sure to it personally that you don't see any retribution." Said Art calmly.
"Don't blow smoke up my ass. Else I might have to bite into this pretty neck and spit blood back in your face!"
Elenora felt a shudder go through her. She had gotten herself out of a scrape not too long ago, but this, this was different, and her purse with her gun was sitting on the floor next to Rachel's desk. There was nothing to get her out of this situation except for the lawmen in this office.
"Now, Mr Wallace, I'm just trying to resolve this situation before the tactical team gets here and takes all the credit for bringing you out of there." Art spoke again in a calm voice.
Wallace's head pushed forward and got closer to hers, his cheek touching her own. "You the shit? They send you in here to ghost me in case this goes further south?"
"The Chief's a pretty good shot himself." Raylan said as he cocked his head to the side where Art was standing with his gun drawn, but also pointed to the ground.
"But you're better." Wallace spoke and Elenora watched as Raylan nodded his head.
"Yep." Raylan said simply.
"I'll talk to you, cause you don't bullshit me!"
Elenora tried to focus on her breathing as she listened to the two of them talk. She could see her father talking, and another man, shorter and in a suit. She was not sure who he was, but then she saw Tim out of the corner of her eye. He was hugging the wall and watching her with hard eyes.
"You have to resolve this situation without drawing your weapon. Prove something to this suit?" Wallace asked.
Raylan shrugged his shoulders and holstered his weapon. "You were moving around, dragging this poor woman around. I figure it was a fifty fifty I put you down before you cut her. Besides, the point of this exercise is everybody lives."
Then Elenora was backed up, and the door slammed shut in front of her. Now it was just her and Wallace. "Mr. Wallace?" Elenora whispered, and she felt him pull back slightly from her, but he did not loosen his grip.
"Mr. Wallace. I like that." He said with a throaty laugh.
"You know this isn't gonna end well for one of us, right?"
"I am well aware." Wallace said simply.
Letting a shaky breath leave her lips, Elenora did her best to keep herself calm. "I'm not gonna try anything. Just so you know." She turned her head just slightly so she could connect her eyes with his. "At the end of all of this, I want us to both be able to walk from this room."
"You trying to psychology me? Let me guess, you some kind of doctor?"
"Actually, I'm a teacher. Just graduated. Daddy wouldn't let me go into law enforcement, so I figured teaching was the next best thing."
"You about to tell me you're pregnant? That you want nothing more than to have kids with that fiance of yours out there? Try to win my pity?"
Elenora actually let out a laugh. "Fuck no, we both decided we are too selfish and too irresponsible to have children." She thought back to a prior conversation with Tim. That day, they were in the parking garage.
Wallace then pushed her forward and opened the door to look out into the office. He wrapped his arm around tight once again and soon she was looking at her daddy once again. "You think you can pull this off, get everyone safely out of here? Let this pretty one go home to her fiance?"
The hand next to Raylan's pistol twitched, and Elenora watched as her father's eyes connected with her own. Normally, she had a good idea of what was going on in his brain, but right now, she had no clue what he was thinking. "I'm sure my colleague would appreciate that."
"Yeah? Where is he, anyway?" Wallace asked.
It was then the Elenora saw Tim walk out from Art's office. His gun was holstered and his hands were at his sides. "I'm right here."
"You gotta tell me how you land this one? She looks way out of your league."
Tim smiled. "Your tellin' me. Don't know why she said yes."
"I didn't see no ring on her finger." Said Wallace.
Shyly, Tim tipped his chin down. "We're a little untraditional."
"Really, how'd you two meet darlin'?"
Thinking back to the night she saw Tim in the bar, the first night they slept together, she smiled. "He arrested me."
Wallace let out a throaty laugh. "Really?"
"Really." Said Tim. "Indecent exposure. Got naked and stood in a city fountain as part of some scavenger hunt."
A smirk rose on his lips and for a second Elenora felt like things were going to be okay, that maybe this would all end well. "I broke out of the handcuffs. Think I impressed him."
"Well shit, woman, I'm impressed."
"Think you might let the lady go, then?" Raylan asked. "Perhaps we can make a trade of some kind. Is there something you want?"
"You want a list of my demands? You gonna offer me a chopper, a plane, a suitcase full of money?"
The world came crashing back to Elenora as Wallace's grip tightened painfully around her and she let out a small squeak. "You want a chopper or a plane?" Raylan asked, his eyes going wide as Elenora saw the edge of the blade come into her vision.
"That's funny, he's funny. Had any numb nuts ever fallen for that? I mean, really thought he was gonna walk out of a hostage situation, take off in a seven forty-seven and get a hand job of the stewardess, huh?"
"I suppose you're right? So you gonna offer to exchange yourself for her? Or you romeo, gonna offer yourself up?"
"Nah, don't think that would be a very smart idea." Raylan replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "I was just thinking that I'm so happy that's not me with that shiv against my neck. How'd you get that in there, anyway?"
"Keister'd it." Wallace said simply.
It took everything in Elenora not to dry heave at the thought of the man shit on the knife against her skin.
"Keister'd it?" Raylan said and the vague sound of impressed layering his voice.
"Uh-huh."
"Now I'm really happy not to be the one with it up against my face."
With that, Elenora felt herself being pulled back into the locker room and the door being shut once again. Walace moved Elenora to the wall and turned her around, pushing her face into the drywall. He held the back of her head to keep her head in place. "I want you to take that shirt of yours off. Nothing funny and I won't have to hurt you alright."
Elenora took a shaky breath in to calm her now wildly beating heart. "I won't try anything." She then felt the hand on the back of her head pull away. Keeping herself facing the wall, Elenora unbuttoned the blouse she had been wearing and shrugged it from her shoulders. Thank goodness she had an undershirt on. Once it was in her hand, she held it out to the side of her and waited for Wallace to give her more instructions. She did not like the situation she was in, but he was not coming off as someone who was going to rape her.
"Good, now turn around." Elenora did as she was told and slowly and with no excess movements, turned herself to face Wallace. "Can you tare a strip off, or do you need me too?"
"No, I think I can do it."
Wallace waved the shiv at her and Elenora took that as her cue to begin. Pulling at one of the seams, Elenora gave a hard tug, followed by another before the fabric gave way. Once she had torn a strip off, she held it out to Wallace, figuring as to what he was going to do next.
"Good girl, now turn around. Drop the rest of the shirt and hands behind your back."
Doing as she was told, Elenora let go of the remaining shirt and put her face to the wall once again. Slowly, she brought her hands to rest behind her on the small of her back. A few seconds later, she felt Wallace's hands on hers as he tied her wrists together. "That tactical team is gonna be here soon, so I'm gonna need you to keep doing as you're told, alright. I'd hate to have to cut that pretty throat of yours."
Once her hands were secure, she saw Wallace bend over and retrieve her discarded shirt. Quickly, he cut a chunk of the fabric off and then he grabbed her shoulder. Wallace spun her around and pushed her back into the wall. "Sorry miss, but that tact team is going to be here soon and they aren't going to give me a whole lot of options."
"I understand." Whispered Elenora.
Wallace stuffed the wad of fabric into her mouth tightly, and once it was secure, he grabbed her once again and held her in front of himself before opening the door once again. "Hey shooter?" He greeted to those in the room, and Elenora watched as the worry filled the eyes of everyone there at the state she was now in. "You got much experience with this sort of thing?"
Raylan took a deep breath in as he obviously tried to calm himself. "Negotiating with a barricaded suspect? Not really."
"Well, you're doing a good job so far. You have established a rapport with the subject. But now you got to make a determination. Is the subject emotionally disturbed?" When Raylan did not answer, Elenora felt the grip on her tighten and the shiv at her neck come into view at her peripheral. "Well, you got an opinion on that?"
"You seem pretty stable. Although you did spend all morning with a shiv up your ass."
"Well, that leads us to the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Is this situation negotiable? Has the subject expressed a desire to live? Has the subject given a list of needs and demands, and are those needs and demands realistic and achievable? See, I've done this before, shooter."
Raylan spread his arms out to his sides. "Tell me what you want, and we'll find out."
"Well, we got a big problem. I'm serving four consecutive life sentences, and there is no parole board in their right mind ever gonna let me back on the street." Wallace said matter-of-factly.
"So, as part of establishing a rapport with the subject, am I supposed to weep with him over all the unsympathetic parole boards who refuse to release him back into society when he clearly poses it not further danger?"
Wallace let out a laugh, and the shiv backed off slightly from Elenora. "To tell you the truth. I wouldn't put me back on the street, either. I am dangerous. I just want you to know to stop wasting your time. I mean, you ain't got nothing you can offer me."
"I understand my problem." Spoke Raylan slowly. "What do I get for the man who has everything?"
"Well, when you figure that out, shooter. Why don't you let me know? Until then, I'm gonna stay in here with my new friend." Wallace made to pull Elenora back in, but Raylan shot his hands out in surrender.
"No, no, listen. Now wait." It was now that Elenora could see the wheels turning in her father's head. Maybe now it was the moment that he realized there was perhaps a way out of this, that Wallace really was not just going to kill her on a whim. "Now, again, I haven't done this as much as you, but I don't think that's the way this works, me guessing at the key to your heart. The way this works is you tell me what you want, and I'll see if I can get it."
"You done?" Asked Wallace.
Elenora noticed Rachel enter the room and hand a picture to her father. "Who is she?" Raylan held the photo out so that Wallace and Elenora could see it. "Who's Simone?" When Wallace did not answer, Raylan pulled the photo back. "Mr. Wallace? You want to tell me who she is?"
"What do you know about Simone?"
"Well, nothing. I just looked at some photos of your tattoos."
"She's my daughter."
It was probably for the best that Elenora had been gagged. Right away, she knew this had to be a lie. When she had told Wallace about Tim and her not wanting kids, had he had one he cared about, she was sure he would have said something.
"Well, where is she?"
"I don't know. With her mother, I guess."
Raylan was falling for it, hook, line and sinker. "When was the last time you saw her?"
"When she was three. Most beautiful little girl in the world."
"How old is she now?"
"Fifteen, I guess."
Now it was just turning into entertainment for Wallace. Elenore was not sure why he would waste his time in this way, but he must have been enjoying it.
"Would you like to see her?"
"Could you do that?" Wallace asked with just a little to much happiness in his voice.
"Well, I...we could try."
"You could bring her here to me? Well, Marshal, that'd be a miracle." Elenora noticed the change in her father's demeanor immediately. The gig was up. "It'd be a real miracle, considering she doesn't exist. The Simone on my chest, that's David Simone. He was an enforcer for the wizards MC. I killed him. He was my first. That's why I hold him dear to my heart. I don't got no kids. At least none that I know of. Hell, I wouldn't give a shit even if I did. We got a big problem, shooter. It don't matter what you offer me."
Wallace kicked the door shut once again and pinned Elenora's front to it. "You improve my circumstances. You say you're gonna get me extra time in the yard, a job in the kitchen." Wallace shouted through the wood, and the volume made Elenora flinch. "It don't matter, cause I won't believe it. I know, just like you know, that I'm headed to Supermax. And I got no reason to believe that the asshole guards at Supermax are any different than the asshole guard's right here. They enjoy turning men into animals."
"Don't you? Don't you enjoy it?" Asked Raylan from the other side of the door.
"They take away your toilet paper. They don't let you shower for a week. They feed you juke cakes. You know what juke cake is shooter?"
"Well, I'm guessing it's unpleasant."
The blade retracted from view and Elenora closed her eyes for a second as she tried to keep herself calm as Wallace seemed to get more adjusted. "It's when one of those son of a bitches takes your meal and they dump it in a blender, blend it together, then they bake it in the oven like a casserole, except they burn it black on both sides. Then they feed it to you. I pretend like it's fried chicken from prince's hot in Nashville, and I enjoy every finger-lickin' mouthful."
"Well, I love fried chicken. Never had any in Nashville. They call it hot 'cause it's spicy?"
"Hell, yeah!" Wallace called out. "You take one bite of prince's and you start sweating like a whore in church."
"Well, the best fried chicken I ever had was the takeaway at Joe's stone crab in Miami. Can you believe that?' A Kentucky boy, I got to go all the way down to Florida just to get my favorite."
Wallace moved Elenora to the side of the door frame and he cracked the door ever so slightly. "Well, I ain't never been to Florida, so I, I couldn't pass judgment, but I will say this. I find it hard to believe you can get any good chicken at a joint with 'crab' in its name."
"That why you're doing this? Screw with the guys who screw with you?"
"Maybe I just plan on taking one more soul out with me."
"I think if you wanted to do that, you would have done it already."
"I got plenty of time. Honestly, I was looking forward to the trip down here. I know how it's gonna turn out. I mean, I'm under no illusion about that. At least three or four days of nice scenery on the van ride back and forth. Oh, but those two seen that it all turned to shit. Rolled me out of my bunk at three in the morning to feed me cold eggs. Drive me in a van with no goddamn windows. I get here, they put me in a cage, and then they go about tapping on the window like they're screwing with a monkey at the zoo. Maybe when I gut this one." Wallace pulled Elenora back in front of himself. "They will get to spend the rest of their lives knowing that her death is on their hands." Then he shut the door once again.
They stood in the locker room with Wallace's body holding Elenora against the wall in silence. She couldn't hear much besides the beat of her own heart as she now started to panic. After what felt like hours, she heard her father's voice on the other side of the door.
"Did you hear I ordered some chicken?"
"Fried chicken?"
"Well, all that talk about it, you know, got my mouth watering. If you want some, I mean, you can come out of there. I'll share some with you."
Once again Wallace opened the door and stuck Elenora in front of himself. "You know a box of chickens not gonna resolve this. But I would have loved to have seen the look on your boss's face when you told him you were ordering out lunch."
Elenora was having a hard time focusing on the conversation as she could feel her body starting to panic, and she worked to calm herself. She wasn't sure how much time had passed when suddenly Wallace had opened the door once again and Elenora could see her daddy standing there, with a takeout bag of chicken and a glass of bourbon.
"No one's trying to play you for a fool here, Wallace. Way this works, you hand me your weapon and these guys are gonna come in. They're gonna haul you out. They won't be gentle. Aun't nothing I can do about that. But you got, what, three days left in your hearings? Every day you come here, I'll get you a chicken dinner, or whatever, you want something else? You can sit, eat it." Raylan said before bitting into a piece of chicken.
"We could sit together, shooter talk shit like regular, old human beings."
"I don't know if it's prince's, but it's hot. Oh, and looky here." Said Raylan, as he raised a glass of bourbon to his lips and took a sip. "Ahh, if that, don't cool it down and heat it up at the same time." Reaching into the bag, Raylan took out a chicken leg and wrapped a napkin around the bone. "You're gonna want a napkin. Don't touch meat with that hand, where it's been."
Wallace's hand reached around Elenora and took the offered piece of chicken. The next thing Elenora heard was Wallace chewing on the bone. "It ain't prince's, but it'll do in a pinch. Don't suppose I can get a shot of that bourbon?"
"Well, two cups aren't just for me." Raylan then handed a cup to Wallace, and Elenora heard him swallow back the liquid greedily. Then she felt the grip on her loosen and then leave her all together. Elenora chanced a quick look behind her and saw Wallace throwing his weapon to the floor. Before she could process what she was doing, she was out of the room, and men in tactical gear were rushing past her.
Elenora rushed forward and felt a pair of arms latch onto her and pull her from the conference room and into Art's office. The sudden shock of it all caused Elenora to rip herself away from the arms that had held her. She needed to get her bearings; she needed to slow her mind down from the panic that was setting in.
"Hey, it's me." A voice pierced through her thoughts, and Elenora's eyes snapped to find Tim's. Tim approached her much like he had that night in the parking lot. His hands up, palms facing her. "I'm gonna take that thing out of your mouth, okay?"
Nodding her head, Elenora allowed Tim to pull the gag from her and once it was removed she let out a sob.
"Here." Whispered Tim as he motioned for her to turn around. She felt the fabric on her wrists loosen and soon she was able to pull her shoulders back into their proper position. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Asked Tim as he looked her over.
"No. No, I'm good. I just need a minute." Elenora sat herself down on the couch in Art's office and Tim moved to crouch down in front of her.
"He didn't cut you? Nick you? Do you need me to get Rachel?"
She knew what the question was implying, and that Tim had not really touched her yet. She could not see through the windows into the other room as the blinds were closed. But she did not need to as her father was stood in the doorway between the two rooms, staring down at her. "No, he didn't...he didn't touch me."
"Can I have a private word with my daughter, please?" Said Raylan.
Elenora looked back at Tim and she noticed that she was able to finally focus. There was a fire in his eyes as he looked at her. It was that look that told her Tim was doing everything in his power to ensure he did not explode in this moment. Standing up, Tim looked down at her for a moment longer and then left the room out the other door.
"Sunshine?" Raylan moved towards her and sat himself down next to her on the couch. "You okay?"
"Yeah. I just need to settle myself back down. I think, at one point, I knew he wasn't going to kill me, but that still is something I would rather not do again."
"Tell me about it." Raylan said as he leaned back on the couch and threw an arm across the back of it. "Seeing him, holding that shiv up against your neck. That is not something I want to see ever again."
"It was in his butt." Elenora said and then a laugh left her lips.
"It was in his butt." Raylan repeated, and he to let out a laugh. "You're sure you're okay?"
Elenora moved herself on the couch, putting her back to the arm and tucking her legs up underneath her. "Yeah. I just, I just need a few minutes before I can attempt to be a functional person again."
The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Raylan spoke. "I'm proud of you, you know. You kept your cool. You didn't seem to do anything to anger him, seemed to actually seem remorseful for holding you."
"Well, my daddy taught me well."
"And that bit about you being Gutterson's fiance..." Raylan spoke as he looked down his nose at her. She had wondered how long it would take for him to get to that part of the day. "Why you do that?"
"I needed you to get me out of that, and you weren't going to be able to do that if Wallace knew that you were my daddy. He assumed I had some relation to someone and when he mentioned Tim, I rolled with it."
"So that whole thing about him arresting you..." Raylan's hand waved around in front of him.
"Oh no, he arrested me." Elenora began and Raylan dropped his hand as his eyes went wide. "That wonderful apartment I have. I needed to cross off being arrested in order to get it, so Tim helped me. Hauled me out in front of my friends. I did use that pin trick you taught me to get out of the cuffs, though. Think I did actually impress him."
"Why am I just hearing about this now?"
Elenora shrugged her shoulders. "Didn't seem important. He didn't actually arrest me, just helped to make it look like I was. So I could get the apartment. We never said anything, scared Art might get upset at Tim for going along with it and for me for doing it in the first place."
"That why you two seem so friendly?"
"Yeah, I guess. Hit it off after that. He's a good guy. Think you would really like him if you weren't breathing down his neck all the time, and you wonder why I don't wanna introduce you to the guy I'm seeing?"
"Hey, I'm just trying to protect you, sunshine. I find it hard to imagine that someone would ever be good enough for you. Maybe you will finally let me meet him?"
"When I trust that you aren't going to shoot him."
