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  Selena let loose a loud sob and said, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do, I don’t know how I got in to all this.’

  ‘Of course you do, you borrowed money off of the boss.’

  ‘I know,’ Selena cried, ‘I needed...’

  Jack interrupted her. ‘I’m not interested Selena but I am here to offer you an easier way out.’

  Selena looked up at Jack.

  ‘How?’

  Jack picked up a pen from the counter and found a scrap of paper and scrawled a telephone number on it. He slid the piece of paper across the counter and Selena looked down at it, she then looked back at Jack.

  ‘That’s my mobile number, call me on it by midnight tonight and we’ll discuss a proposition.’

  Selena snorted. ‘Let me guess, I can pay my debt off by doing you?’

  ‘You wish.’ Jack chuckled, ‘I will have my phone on until midnight, if you don’t call me by midnight the number will be turned off and you’ll never hear from me again and you’ll be back to square one. Not one minute late Selena, call me, don’t call me, it’s your choice, but if you call me then you will listen to what I have to say.’

  ‘But what do you want?’

  Jack started for the door.

  ‘Whatever it is it’s got to be better than what the Fat Man has planned.’

  Selena was about to fire back a retort but Jack was already closing the door on her. Selena looked down at the scrap of paper and then scanned the mess on the counter and floor and the state of her appearance. On shaking legs she crossed to the door and locked it up and began to cry even harder.

  She realised the scrap of paper was in her clenched fist and she opened her fingers and looked at the scrawled phone number.

  ‘It can’t be any worse than what the Fat Man has in mind.’

  *****

  Selena didn’t even bother clearing up the mess; she walked through the partitioned area at the back of the store and climbed the stairs to the one bedroom apartment that she lived in above the shop.

  Once safely locked inside her rooms she stripped out of her clothes and scraped the pile together and carried them through to the kitchen, she dumped them all, along with her shoes in to the waste bin and went back through to the small living area. She located an unopened bottle of bourbon; a gift that some family member had bought her for Christmas the year before, she poured a heavy measure in to a clean glass and swallowed the contents in one, the alcohol burned her throat bringing tears to her eyes, and then the warmth spread through her belly.

  She poured another large glassful and naked walked through to the bathroom where she started to run a tubful of water; a long soak would help wash away the filth of the encounter with the Fat Man.

  Selena caught sight of herself in the floor to ceiling wall mirror and she turned to face her doppelganger and offered up a bitter smile, she saw her hand was still shaking as she raised the glass to her lips; she took a sip and cast her glance over her reflection.

  Selena had just turned twenty seven, was five foot four inches tall, slender with large breasts and a shapely ass, her blonde hair came down over her breasts covering them and she looked at her face reflected back in the mirror; she had often been told that she was the spitting image of the “Sports Illustrated” model Kate Upton, right down to the pale blue colour of her eyes, and she was intelligent enough to know that they were right, she did look a lot like Kate. Selena sipped the bourbon and kept the amber liquid in her mouth as she continued to look at her reflection.

  How the hell did it come to this? She thought. You know how, you borrowed money to help your brother, the same brother that then up and disappeared, another inner-voice piped up and she thought about the Fat Man and how he had made her feel.

  Selena spat the mouthful of bourbon against her reflection and watched as the alcohol ran down the mirror’s smooth surface.

  When the tub was full she switched off the faucets and stepped in to the hot water, she pushed her hands through the heaving soap bubbles and pulled them over her breasts and she reclined back in to the water and closed her eyes; I’ll stay here and think until the water grows cold. Selena took another sip of the bourbon, already the alcohol was having an effect and she let her thoughts turn to Jack.

  She hadn’t seen him for two years; their break-up had been messy. And that was my fault too. She recalled how he used to make her feel; protected and loved, and not for the first time since the split she questioned her own sanity, I just fuck everything up that I touch.

  Selena put a wet face-cloth across her closed eyes and sighed, she couldn’t think of a way out that didn’t involve her either being at the bottom of the river with fishes feasting on her eyes or working for the Fat Man getting fucked several dozen times every day by different men and she could see that that was the least attractive of the two options.

  An hour later she climbed from the bath and on slightly tipsy legs she staggered through to the kitchen dripping water as she went, Selena found the scrap of paper and carried it over to the phone mounted on the kitchen wall, she picked the handset up and dialled the number, it rang a dozen times and she feared that Jack would not answer and then where would that leave her, but on the fourteenth ring it was picked up.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘I’m in....what do you want me to do?’

  *****

  Luis Hamer had shit himself twenty minutes ago and the smell was getting to be unbearable and Jack wished that the boss would just order him to end the dumb fuck’s life but Jack knew that wasn’t going to happen; the Fat Man enjoyed the fear he saw in others’ eyes far too much to end the pleasure prematurely.

  Jack dipped his fist back in to the bowl of ice and used a clean cloth to wipe the blood from his knuckles; the blood belonged to Luis and Jack looked across the empty warehouse at the Fat Man.

  The boss nodded his head and Jack watched the ripples roll down the Fat Man’s body.

  ‘Again.’

  Jack walked over to the wooden chair where Luis was cable-tied and naked.

  ‘Pu-pu-lease Jack,’ Luis pleaded through very bloody lips, Jack noticed that several of Luis’ teeth were now in the skinny man’s naked lap and Jack shook his head.

  ‘Sorry Luis, but I work for the boss not you.’

  Jack slammed his fist in to Luis’ cheek and he heard the bone fracture, he cast a glance over at the Fat Man, Jack could see the boss’ right hand was inside his pyjama bottoms and Jack knew what the boss was up to; the Fat Man got off on the pain of others.

  ‘Again.’

  Jack’s next punch sent the chair and Luis in it crashing to the dusty concrete floor and the sound of Luis’ head connecting with the hard surface sounded like a gunshot.

  The Fat Man waddled across the vacant floor; Jack watched as the boss removed his hand and flicked a handful of semen in to a corner of the room.

  ‘Sit him up Jackie-Boy; I do so hope you haven’t killed him just yet.’

  Jack bent over and pulled the chair back on to its legs, Jack was a strong and more than capable man, but it took next to no effort, Luis was wasted away on heroin and was almost all bones. Jack gripped Luis’ head and turned his face to him, he saw Luis blink through the blood and the Fat Man clapped his hands with glee.

  ‘Good, good, bring him around a little.’

  Jack poured the contents of the bowl of iced water over Luis’ head and the drug dealer-cum-addict coughed and spluttered but it did the job and Jack could see Luis’ eyes coming in to focus.

  ‘Now listen to me Luis, I know you have a hundred thousand dollars worth of my product hidden somewhere, nothing happens in this city without my seeing it, now you will tell me where you’ve hidden it or I’m gonna have Jackie here start removing your fingers, then it’ll be your toes before he finally cuts your useless nut-sack open, I’ll turn your pathetic balls in to a pair of cufflinks.’

  Luis finally caved and gave it up, Jack had seen it all before, even the strongest of men caved when the boss mention
ed the cufflinks; it wasn’t an idle threat, the boss had three pairs of cufflinks made from other men’s balls and Luis didn’t want to be the fourth.

  ‘At my mom’s house, ‘neath her porch, but man, she don’t know nothing about it,’ Luis started to cry then. ‘Please, don’tcha hurt my mama.’

  The Fat Man smiled and nodded his bulbous head; he patted Luis’ cheek with a semen-covered hand and then wiped his palm through Luis’s sweaty head of hair.

  ‘Please Luis, I’m not a monster.’

  Luis slumped back in the chair and continued to sob softly, and Jack had to wonder whether the fuck-stick was sobbing because of the pain he was in or with relief at his mama being safe.

  The Fat Man turned to Jack, ‘I have an appointment with the mayor in an hour, I need to go home and clean up, wash this puss-mule’s smell off of me, cut his fingers and toes off, and when you’re done have Nicky go to Luis’ mama’s and retrieve my product.’

  ‘Okay boss.’

  The Fat Man started across the vacant room, he paused at the metal door and turned back to look at Luis and Jack. ‘Oh and Jackie, tell Nicky to burn the old lady’s house down once he’s located the drugs,’ the Fat Man opened the door. ‘With the old woman in it.’

  Jack nodded his head; there was no emotion on Jack’s face as he picked up a pair of Butcher’s cutters.

  The Fat Man closed the door and Luis began to scream and struggle.

  ‘Not my mama, please Jack, not my mama.’

  ‘Luis, this is all your doing, her burning is your fault, and you’ll have to live with the consequences of your actions.’ Jack gripped Luis’ right hand and snipped the baby finger cleanly off with the powerful steel cutters.

  Luis’ screaming went up a notch and on the third finger his wails of agony was so intense that Jack almost didn’t hear his phone ringing. Jack stepped back from Luis and pulled his mobile from his pocket, he didn’t recognise the number but he knew who it was calling him and he waited for Luis’ cries to die down to a mewling before flipping the handset open.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘I’m in...What do you want me to do?’

  Selena’s voice sounded slurred and Jack figured that once he’d left she’d cracked open a bottle of something to calm her nerves and he couldn’t say he blamed her.

  ‘Hi Selena, I’m happy you called.’

  ‘Uh-huh, just tell me what the fuck it is you want,’ Selena snapped down the line and Jack folded the handset disconnecting the call.

  *****

  ‘Hello? Hello?’ Selena cried out in renewed fear once she understood that Jack had hung up on her. Selena pressed down on the phone’s cradle and redialled the number hoping that Jack answered. Why couldn’t I just keep my mouth shut? If he hangs me out to dry I’m fucked.

  ‘Literally,’ Selena said aloud to the empty kitchen, the handset was clamped tightly in her hand and she realised that she was shaking head to toe and she also realised that she needed the toilet badly and she clamped her thighs together.

  ‘Please Jack, answer the phone, I’m sorry.’

  Selena had never felt fear of this magnitude before, she had a way out and her big mouth might well have fucked her chances.

  Selena pressed her thighs together tighter as the urge to urinate intensified.

  If I wet myself here in the kitchen then my shame shall be complete.

  The call connected and in the background she could hear what sounded like someone’s pleas for mercy.

  ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Someone without your options Selena.’

  ‘Thank you for answering Jack,’ Selena said, her concerns for the stranger a distant second to her own plight and she had the merest moment to ponder her own humanity before Jack asked if she was going to be polite.

  ‘Yes, I’m sorry Jack; I’m just stressed to hell and back.’

  ‘And whose fault is that Selena?’

  She wanted to scream at him down the phone, to tell him to go fuck himself, he sounded so calm it was infuriating but she knew he was right.

  ‘Mine, this whole damn debacle is my doing, but I’m listening Jack, what is your proposal?’

  ‘We’ll get to that later Selena, right now just listen okay?’

  ‘Okay.’

  Selena had to clamp her inner muscles; she knew it was going to be a close run thing as to whether she’d make it to the toilet in time once this call was over.

  ‘I want you to be ready at your place to be picked up at one am tomorrow morning...’

  ‘What? I...’

  ‘Selena, shut up and listen, what did I just tell you?’

  ‘To listen.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘To shut the fuck up.’

  ‘I will be outside your store at one am tomorrow morning, if you’re not there already waiting for me on the sidewalk I drive on, I disconnect this number and you’re back to being the Fat Man’s play thing.’

  ‘Okay, okay I can do that, one o’clock.’

  ‘I’m not finished.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘You will be wearing something sexy, something that you know I’ll like, you will have packed and have with you however many cases you need to last you a month, you will pack enough sexy clothes and what-not to keep me interested for a month, if there’s stuff you think you’ll need that you haven’t already got then I suggest you do a little shopping before I pick you up, max out one of your already over-extended credit cards for all I care, but you will have enough sexy shit to keep me interested for the duration. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ Selena coughed. ‘But a month, the shop, I-I-I...’

  ‘Of no concern to me Selena, I assume you still have Mattie working for you, get her to run the business, tell her you’ve had a family emergency, tell her you’ve been kidnapped by aliens for all I care, but you will be on the sidewalk and you will be looking fucking sexy, and you will have packed your cases.’

  ‘Okay, what choice do I have?’

  Jack laughed and despite the fear she had to smile, she hadn’t heard Jack’s laughter for years and it was still one of the sweetest sounds she’d ever heard.

  ‘You have lots of choices Selena, the question is whether you choose the right one.’

  Selena heard the line go dead and she dropped the handset on its cord and ran for the bathroom, she’d made it to the hallway when the first trickles began to run down her inner thighs.

  *****

  Jack ended the call and walked to the warehouse’s door; he pushed it open and beckoned Nicky over.

  ‘The boss has gone home, Marcus is with him,’ Nicky said and Jack ushered the younger man inside. Nicky had been with the Fat Man for six years and he was one of the few men that the boss employed that Jack had any time or respect for.

  ‘The boss wants you to head over to Luis’ mother’s house, you’ll find a block of heroin beneath her porch, once you have it set the house on fire.’

  Luis started to cry and beg, pleading for his mother’s life.

  Jack lowered his voice so that only Nicky would hear. ‘I don’t want the old lady hurt, I’m not in the business of hurting old people, especially ones whose only crime is having a retard for a son, drag her ass out through the back before you torch it, if the Fat Man asks we can say she must have managed to get out in time, we clear.’

  Nicky nodded his head.

  ‘This is just between us Nicky, if it gets back to the boss we’d both be fucked; I’m trusting you here, alright?’

  ‘Hey Jack, whatever you say, I figure I owe you one, so yeah, this’ll just be between us.’

  Jack patted Nicky’s left arm.

  ‘Okay then.’ Jack turned back to Luis and raised his voice so that the drug dealer would hear. ‘And Nicky make sure the bitch burns to a crisp okay?’

  Jack winked at Nicky and the younger man played along with the charade. ‘She’ll be like over-done bacon by the time I’m through.’

  Nicky left and Jack walked back to Luis.


  ‘You bastard Jack, when I get free of here I’m gonna kill you.’

  Jack chuckled as he snipped Luis’ right thumb off, the sharp blades cut through the digit with ease and Luis roared his pain.

  ‘Luis you sick twisted fuck, you really think I’m letting you out of here alive?’

  Luis was pulling at his bonds, a fruitless task, the plastic ties were unbreakable and Jack could see the veins standing out in Luis’ neck as he continued to struggle.

  ‘The Fat Man didn’t say anything about killing me!’

  Jack started on the man’s toes.

  Snip.

  Snip-snip.

  Snip.

  ‘It’s okay Luis, I’ll just tell the boss you tried to escape, he’ll understand, he trusts me.’

  Luis’ pain was so great, the damage being done to him was that intense that when another toe was snipped cleanly away the fresh pain didn’t even register with Luis.

  ‘Why Jack? Why?’

  ‘Because you deserve to die, the Fat Man may well be the biggest bastard I know but he doesn’t peddle his drugs to kids, you do, I can’t accept that.’

  Luis passed out before Jack had finished pruning the remainder of his toes. Jack stood up and pulled a pistol from his shoulder holster. He took a silencer from his jacket pocket and screwed the device on to the pistol. He chambered a round and flicked the safety off.

  Jack aimed and pulled the trigger and Luis was no more. Blood, brain and bone exploded from the back of Luis’ head and he toppled backwards, the chair crashing down on to the concrete. Jack stepped to the side of the chair and put a round through Luis’ chest.

  Finished with Luis he located a can of gasoline and doused the body and chair and emptied the remainder of the can over the rest of the small storage facility. Jack tossed the empty container in to the middle of the room and opened the front door, he used a clean cloth to wipe down the handle and from his pocket withdrew a pack of matches, he struck one and touched the match to the box, a bright flash as the other matches caught and he flicked the box back in to the warehouse.