Hummingbird (3 page)

‘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 n
o 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 mentioned 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, thi
s’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.

The gasoline fumes caught; blue and yellow flames shooting across the floor, spreading out like a flaming wave.

Jack walked to his car, got in and drove away, in his rear-view mirror he saw the first flames spewing from the blown out windows and he knew, out here in the middle of nowhere, that it would take a fire crew at least twenty minutes to get out here and by then he would be miles away.

                                                                      *****

Selena was going through her
wardrobe picking out clothing that she thought would be to Jack’s liking and as she put a pair of thigh boots (never worn) in to one of the two open suitcases on the bed the full realisation of what Jack had said hit her and she slumped down on to the corner of the bed.

‘I’m no prostitute.’

Selena found her cigarettes and lit one; she was a little relieved to see that her hands had finally quit their shaking. She sucked on the cigarette drawing deeply before exhaling the used nicotine up towards the ceiling.