The Hard Bounce - [50]

I stood over Snake’s body, wishing he would stand so I could pop him a couple more times. My fists shook, breath hissing out from between clenched teeth. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Junior walked in behind me and gently placed a hand on my shoulder. The muscles bunched under his fingers. “Nice punch.”

It was a second before I could answer, snapping out from under the spell of violence as though from hypnosis. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I blew out air in a long stream, the violence still under the surface, wanting to do bad things.

Bad things.

“Yeah,” I finally said.

Junior nudged Snake with the toe of his boot. “Shit. He dead?”

Snake’s chest lifted shallowly.

“Nope.” I still wanted blood. I wasn’t through hurting him yet.

“You’ve never been accused of being subtle, have you?”

“Nope. Gimme the duct tape.”

While Junior ran out to the car to get the rest of our supplies, I sat in a wooden kitchen chair opposite Snake. I lit a smoke to keep my fingers doing something, anything but what the wild violence wanted them to do.

Looking down at his inert body, I thought it bizarre we had come this far, standing over the guy, and still didn’t have any idea what his name was. Who he was.

“The name’s Bevilaqua,” Junior said, reading my mind as he re-entered. “On the mailbox. What is that? Greek?” He tossed the canvas duffel bag on the couch.

“No idea. Let’s get him into the chair.” Junior took the arms, and I took the legs.

Dead weight is never easy to maneuver. It’s even less easy when you’re being careful. We weren’t. I hoisted him into the seat by the collar, not caring if I accidentally choked him on the way.

Junior taped his hands together behind the chair, and I taped his ankles to the wooden legs. Snake gurgled a moan as we finished, but he wasn’t going to wake up on his own just yet. Blood trickled from his smashed nose onto his chest. Another line ran slowly down the back of his neck from the swollen spot where he’d bonked against the wall.

“So, what do we do now, wait until he wakes up?”

I took a look around the apartment. The walls were painted a dark burgundy, the bathroom door open, another white door next to it. The bedroom. A shiver passed through me, seeing the place as a reality instead of an abstract on a screen. I didn’t want to go in. Were the walls still streaked with Cassandra’s blood?

For the second time that hour, someone snapped his fingers in front of my eyes, drawing me back. “Yo, Malone! Wake up! Stay with me here. What are we doing?”

“Wake him up.”

Junior went to the kitchen. I heard some clatter, then the sink running. He returned with a sloshing saucepan. He dumped the water in one motion on top of Snake’s head. Snake slowly held up his head.

“Mnnnnn… ow,” he murmured, blinking hard. He looked up and squinted at us.

I’m not sure what I expected him to do. I knew I wanted him to cry, to beg. What I didn’t expect was him to smirk like he did.

“You’re both dead men,” he said softly, each word dripping hot acid.

I gave him the back of my hand.

His face snapped around, and came back with a fierce expression. He snarled at me, “You have any idea what’s going to happen to you when-”

I cut him off with another backhand. And another. And another. His lips split. His nose began pouring blood again. A thin line of blood creased my middle knuckles.

“Fuck! Stop it! Jesus!” Snake gagged and feebly spit a gob onto his own chest, a white piece of tooth floating in the blood and saliva.

Snake sneered. “Sister or girlfriend?” He huffed a sharp laugh at us.

I looked at Junior, who shrugged. He was as stymied as I was. We both knew there was no intimidating a psychopath.

Snake continued with the abuse. “So, I give one of your girls a good dicking, which she probably wasn’t getting from either one of you, and I’m the bad guy?” He was still laughing. “Shit, not my fault you boys can’t keep your girls happy.”

Junior grabbed my arm, sensing I was a second away from losing it. “My turn?” he asked.

“Go nuts,” I mumbled and turned away. I couldn’t look at him anymore. I stared at the bedroom door again.

I heard Junior behind me. “Okay, dipshit. Believe it or not, my buddy was the one who was being nice to you. I’m the guy who’s actually gonna hurt you.” I heard the crackle of Junior’s stun gun. “See this? This baby hurts like nobody’s business. So, I’m gonna ask you a question, then I’m gonna make with the zap-zap. Thing is? I want to hurt you. Really. I do. I just want to hurt you. You decide whether or not you want to answer. The next one goes on your balls.”

“Fuck your mother,” Snake said.

“Fair enough. One chance. Where’s the body?”

The question stuck in my chest like a barb.

Snake got out one puzzled, “Huh?”

As the stun gun crackled, it suddenly popped into my head just what a bonehead move we-well, Junior-were about to make.

Par for the course, I realized it one second too goddamn late.

“Junior, no! He’s-”

I wasn’t fast enough. Junior applied an electric charge to a man we’d dumped a pot of water on. Junior was still soaked from the rain. I didn’t know the math or physics of it, but I knew that electricity plus water makes bad.