The massive pain in the side of her temple was the first sense to come back and it throbbed through every extremity she could feel, though as her eyes blinked open in a fog, something was immediately different. Every nerve felt like it was overloaded from the bottom, moving like a pendulum. Starting to feel her own breath, in and out, the world slowly came into focus filtered through the intense pulsing that shot through her head over and over, preventing her from fully realizing her own surroundings until it subsided. A world of lush green was around, shifting to reveal a reflection of water. She was in her backyard. A small uneven slope that descended into a pond.
Cool air entered through her lungs, but it hurt to breath it in and the unnatural heavy feeling persisted, like she had been in a car crash and was still dazed from the impact. A gentle breeze touched her midsection and she knew her skin was exposed. Her nerves began to come alive faster, moving
upward to a familiar sound: the flexing and cracking of a rope. She was hanging upside down. The pain of the knot around her ankle was dull, but persistent with whatever blood was left going uphill. Her arms felt heavy and she could see her hair hanging beneath her as the world slowly rotated: The back of the house, her car, the woods, the pond and sitting in front of her on a stump was Yolo holding one of her golf clubs.
“Well, how you doin there, Paige?” He said propping himself up on a driver like a walking stick.
Looking back at him, she could now feel that she was at least still wearing all her clothes, though her jacket was on the ground. She couldn’t feel her gun either.
“You lookin for this?” He said holding up her pistol. “Or was it this one?” He said tossing her gun aside and holding up
Agent Barrett’s Luna Sports Facility keycard. He shook his head. “Careless, careless, especially for a Federal.”
Paige glanced back at him coldly while she rotated at the end of the rope. Yolo poked her exposed stomach with the top of the driver to steady her from moving. “Bet you could use a few aspirin for sure.” He said sitting back down and looking at her.
“Where’s
Nikki?” She groaned.
Yolo shook his head and sighed. “Always business, never any fun.” Standing back up he rolled the club slowly through his fingers like a baton. “See, that’s probably why you’re still not married,” He squared his shoulders in a stance with the club to mimic a swing. “Me, I’m just care free, you know what my nickname means right?” His arms drew back swiftly and he swung the broad end of the driver directly into her hip.
“Fuck!” She yelped immediately as her body swung around on the end of the rope. It hurt,
badly. She winced and cursed more.
“Woooo!” Yolo howled. He cupped one hand over his eyes as if inspecting the distance of a drive. “Don’t tell me that didn’t go straight down the fairway!” He walked back over to her bag of clubs, lifting and inspecting a few. “I think we’re gonna need a good iron to get on the green from here.” He dropped the driver back in the bag and pulled out a smaller wedge shaped club. Paige groaned watching him. The rope tightened and she began to rotate back the opposite direction.
“When they told me what you did to the last guy, I wasn’t surprised.” Yolo said, squaring up again, he did a few practice swings. “I knew when I saw you at the bar, those pukes would’ve never been up for it.” He shrugged. “Nikki wanted me to just come down here and kill you and y’know I usually just go along, but for you I made an exception.” He steadied her again with the club and tilted his head slightly, looking at her for a moment.
“I’m flattered,” Paige grumbled.
“We could’ve been a lot of fun together,” He said, taking the club and pulling the bottom of her shirt down further.
In a flash Paige’s hand snapped for the club, but he yanked it away just out of her grasp with a cackling howl as she spun around. He quickly drew back and slammed the wedge into her stomach completely knocking the wind out of her laughing as she gasped for air. “See you rushed me that time, sliced right into the gravel trap,” He stepped back over to the bag rummaging through her clubs again, “Gonna need something to get off the beach now…” He said, pulling out a sand wedge. Flipping the club behind his neck he twisted his upper body back and forth. “Better stretch out for this, gotta stay limber, still might get par for this hole.” He rolled the club through his fingers again walking around her. “This is a very nice set of clubs.” He said studying the shape of the wedge. “Y’know, I was reading something the other day about the LPGA trying to set stricter dress codes on the players, no low cut tops and no leggings,” He said going back to twirling the club through his fingers. “All just a bunch of shit so the fat bitches get more attention, that’s what's wrong with this whole country, people got too many
feelings, don’tcha thnk?”
“Go back to the part about you reading,” Paige coughed.
Yolo smiled and squared his shoulders again to take another shot. “You’re not like that though,” He said with a sigh. “You’re different, like us.” He drew the club back again.
“I’m not sure if I should just shoot him now or wait and hear what other wisdom he can impart.” A familiar voice called out.
Struggling to get herself turned in the direction of the voice, Paige glanced as hard as she could from the corner of her eye, finding Shannon standing a few yards behind Yolo. A gun was leveled with a silencer on the end. “I vote for the first one.” She said, turning slowly.
Yolo looked back at her twisting the grip of the club in his hands. “Not quite the same when the gun is pointed at your head, huh?... Cut her down.” Shannon growled. The younger man glanced back firmly, unmoving aside from the sound of the twisting rubber grip of Paige’s club. “
Now! Goddamnit!” She barked.
Without taking his eyes off Shannon, Yolo dropped the club and stepped back slowly reaching into his back pocket.
“Slowly,” Shannon ordered. “Use your other hand.”
Obediently, the younger man held his free hand in the air and retrieved a switchblade. He knelt down and set to cutting the base of the rope that he’d looped around a root. As the threads snapped and frayed, Paige came crashing down to the ground in a heap. “
Shit!” She cursed and laid still for a moment, breathing heavily as blood flowed freely through her body again without the hindrance of gravity. The pain was still exceedingly fresh and seemed even further renewed by her short trip back to terra firma, but she was glad for it. Seeing Yolo standing with his arms raised, she rolled over and dragged herself over to where her gun had been tossed aside in the grass. Checking to see that it was still loaded, she doggedly brought herself up on a knee and slowly pushed herself up in an attempt to stand.
“You’re a sight,” Shannon said.
“Thanks…” Paige steadied herself on her knees and brushed off dirt and grass though her pants and shirt were thoroughly ruined.
“Well isn’t this something, you two look like a before and after picture.” Yolo said with a smile.
“I’m gonna ask you to leave now, Paige.” Shannon said darkly.
Yolo laughed at the comment. “She’s not going anywhere, you think a Federal is just gonna let you gun me down in her backyard.”
“Get over to the university,” Shannon continued. “He’s trying to hold you up, they’re after Siobhan.”
Paige tilted her head and looked back at the older blonde registering the words against the intense pain she was still feeling. She looked at Yolo then back towards her car, then back again. Her hand felt for the gun on her side. His smile faded to stone.
“You’re not gonna shoot me,” Yolo taunted. It was a dare.
Paige exhaled and relaxed her shoulders, looking back at him with almost a smirk visible through the loose frazzled strands of her destroyed braid from earlier. She let her hand drop away from the grip of her pistol and picked up her jacket instead. “No, I’m not,” She said, turning to walk past Shannon. “But I’m gonna sleep like a baby knowing she will.”
