“I’m not in the mood.” Her voice comes out soft, like it took a lot of effort to get the words out.
“Come on, baby. It’ll feel so good with the high.” He grabs her by the waist and pushes the back of her legs to the edge of the bed.
“No.” She places her hands on his chest.
“What about that foreplay you were talking about?” He reaches down and undoes her shorts.
“Jimmy…”
He tosses her onto the bed, and she fights him. But she’s taken too many pills, had too much to drink. He’s much more coherent than she is. She doesn’t stand a chance against him.
“It’ll be quick,” he tells her, shoving her shorts down her legs.
“Not right now,” she slurs, closing her eyes.
You can hear him slap her, and then there’s very little struggle as he unfastens his jeans, grips his hard dick, and fucks her. Her hands reach up and she tries to push him off, but he grabs a pillow and places it over her face, suffocating her to death. Jimmy makes sure to finish, though.
When he gets off her, he takes what’s left of the pills and flushes them. Then he sets the pill bottle next to her so it looks like a suicide, probably hoping they wouldn’t request an autopsy. A girl like Lucy—a drug addict with a suicidal background who was just released from a seventy-two-hour hold? They wouldn’t think twice about it.
“What are you going to do?” he growls when Turner ends the video.
I reach into my bag and pull out a roll of duct tape. I rip two pieces off.
“What the fuck?”
I place one over his lips diagonally while he tries to shake his head to prevent me from doing so. Then the other the opposite way. I go back to my bag and grab the tube.
“Hold his head,” I tell Turner.
He moves behind the chair and wraps his arm around Jimmy’s neck in a headlock, tilting it back. Jimmy tries to fight for his freedom, but he doesn’t get it.
I cross back over to him. “You’re going to feel some pressure…” I trail off and feed the tube down his nose. His body jerks, and he coughs behind the tape. His cheeks fill with air, and his eyes water as his hands clench and unclench.
Once the tube is down his nose, I tip the bottle to the end and squeeze, filling the tube with charcoal. “I’m pumping your stomach, Jimmy. Just like they did hers. The only difference is that you’re going to choke on your own vomit and die.”
“Like the piece of shit you are,” Turner adds with a sinister smile.
His body convulses, and we both let go of him, stepping back. We watch his body turn on itself while he chokes on his own vomit. It shoots out his nostrils, and his eyes grow cold before his head falls forward, going limp.
Turner looks over at me. “Thanks for the help.” He slaps my back.
I just nod. If it were up to me, I would have buried him alive, but this was Turner’s revenge. I’m just happy he let me be a part of it.
He pulls a joint out of his pocket and lights it up. After taking a hit, he hands it over to me. I stare at it for a long time, thinkingabout Lucy and how I let her down. How, once again, I wasn’t there for her. I should have saved her. I didn’t love her, but I cared for her.
APRIL
I sit upin Grave’s bed the moment I hear the front door open and close. He’s been gone for hours. The sun came up three hours ago, but I’ve stayed here, waiting for him. I wasn’t able to sleep, and I’ve been sick to my stomach. Worried to death about where he went and what he was doing. Why he shut his cell off.
The bedroom door opens, and he walks in.
“Where have you been?” I demand, feeling both pissed and relieved that he’s okay.
He comes to a stop and his eyes meet mine. My heart picks up at the look in them. They’re red and I notice he stumbles. He’s either drunk or high. Maybe both.
“Not sure how that is any of your business,” he says.
“You left me here alone so you could go get fucked up?” I ask, trying to understand but not start a fight. I don’t know how fragile he is right now. Lucy is dead, and I know he’s hurting.
