Hitched & Hitched Again: A Comedy of Marital Mayhem ( Elysia and Tarquin)

Tarquin nodded. “Yeah, but I'll need a little chemical help."

"Chemical help? You mean something that erases memories? As far as I know, there's no drug on earth that can make someone forget a chunk of time just like that," Tracey said, frowning.

Tracey sighed. “Even I haven't managed to invent anything like that, and I've tried."

Tarquin grinned. "No, Grandma, you misunderstood. I'm talking about a hallucinogen."

"...Oh, a hallucinogen. Well, we have some of that around here. We used to use it to scare off hunters and trespassers," Tracey replied, a hint of pride in her voice.

"But it's got its downsides. It doesn't work the same on everyone."

Elysia piped in, her tone gentle but firm. “Tarquin, you know Grandma and Grandpa just want to live quietly up here in the mountains. Off the grid. They don't want anyone finding us."

The message was clear: whatever Tarquin did, it had to keep every single trespasser quiet. No loose ends.

Tarquin nodded again, serious this time. "I get it. The hallucinogen is just a backup, not the main plan. I've got other tricks up my sleeve. You just stay with Grandma and help her out. I'll take care of the rest."

Elysia looked at him with pure gratitude and no small amount of admiration. "Okay!"

She turned to Tracey. "Grandma, you can trust Tarquin. If he says he'll handle it, he will."

Tracey's eyes softened as she looked at Tarquin. "You're a good kid. Thank you." "You're too kind, Grandma."

Whenever Tarquin was around Tracey, he was the perfect grandson-well- mannered and sweet.

He figured: love me, love my family. Elysia's grandma was his grandma too, as far as he was concerned.

"If you need anything else besides the hallucinogen, just say the word. Make yourself at home," Tracey said, then led Tarquin to her cozy little cabin and handed him the jar of the homemade stuff.

Afterwards, she and Elysia headed off with the kids to tidy up the rooms and get dinner started probably a hearty beef stew, some cornbread, and a big apple pie cooling on the windowsill.

With the hallucinogen in hand, Tarquin followed Elliot to Howard's room.

Now, to Elysia, Howard was the classic quirky old guy glued to his computer spending hours every day gaming and tinkering. But what most people didn't know was that Howard's name, whispered in hacker circles, was enough to send shivers through the spines of CEOs and politicians all over the world.

Like Tracey, he'd faked his own death, retired, and vanished from the public eye.

If he ever decided to come out of hiding, you could bet half the tech industry and more than a few governments would lose sleep.

Even the Patel brothers, big shots as they were, would bow deeply if they met him in person.

Back in his heyday, Howard was the reason top-secret military networks in half a dozen countries were in a permanent state of panic-firewalls up, security teams cursing and sweating bullets, and still, he'd waltz right through.

Plenty of nations had labeled him Public Enemy Number One.

Elliot could have been just as legendary, if he hadn't been more interested in making money than in notoriety.noveldrama

Elliot made himself at home at Howard's computer, typing in the password with practiced ease. A few quick clicks later, the screen lit up with glowing red outlines.

"Howard's got surveillance set up all around the woods," Elliot explained. "Anybody sets foot within a mile, the alarm goes off here first."

"Howard can track their movements using these heat signatures, then figure out how to chase them off," he continued, scrolling through the feed.

"Here, Dad-look. That's Evan and Bernard."

On the screen, the faces weren't clear-just red human

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silhouettes-one adult, one kid, leaping from branch to branch like a couple of monkeys. Their coordinates shifted wildly as they darted through the trees.

Elliot zoomed in on another area with more heat signatures.

"These must be the big guy with the scarred face and Brock's crew."

A cluster of figures huddled together, weapons drawn, clearly on high alert.

Up in the branches of a huge oak, someone perched, nearly invisible in the thick summer leaves, watching the group below.

One of the men caught sight of him and shouted, "He's up there! I see him! In the tree!"

A hail of bullets followed, the tension in the room palpable as they watched the scene unfold on the monitor.