“Arrrrgh! What do you want to know?”
“Why is he after the girl?”
The sounds of his breaths hissing through his teeth fill the room as he stares at the ceiling. I place the tip of my blade on his ribs and ever so slightly push into the skin, a drop of blood starts to roll down his side.
“Alright! Stop!” He takes another deep breath. “Goddamn it! He said she knows where something is or he needs her to get something, but I don’t know what.”
“Try again.” I start to slide my knife over his ribs.
“I fucking swear, I don’t know what!”
I can tell he’s telling the truth. Damn, now I have to question Hallie to see if she’s been holding something back. I’ll never hurt her, but I don’t want to traumatize her any more than she already has been.
“Marley Harlow.” My voice is calm and even, but inside, the anger is making my skin itch.
He freezes, and I can see exactly when he realizes he’s in trouble. The anger melts away and fear takes the place of the anger lines. Damn, that was fast. Too fast. I hoped the anger would last longer.
“That was fifteen years ago.” He whispers.
I cock my head to the side and watch him squirm. “Do you think she feels better about it now?”
He falls back on his pillow and stares at the ceiling, the gears in his head are visibly turning, trying to figure out how to get out of this. I quietly enjoy the show.
“Why are you here? I didn’t do anything to her.”
“You spawned the shit stain that did it to her, that makes you indirectly at fault. But then you went even further, younot only made sure the piece of shit who did it to her got off scot free, you punished her brother for protecting her while in a courtroom you ‘inferred’” I lift my fingers in air quotes, “that maybe she asked for it somehow.”
“That little asshole almost killed my son. Kieth didn’t almost kill her.”
I stand up and move next to his bed. Before he can say anything else, I punch him hard enough to break his nose. The sound of the crunch is cathartic.
“Fuck!” He yells and turns his head to the side to spit out the blood.
“Try to imagine a window behind your head that breaks because you hit it so hard when the mother fucker punched you.” Then I hit his temple hard enough that I can tell it knocks him a little left of center.
I sit back down and watch him for a minute. “Now imagine in the state you are in right this minute that someone is trying to overpower you.”
Blood is pouring from his nose, and he finally looks at me, anger back on his face. “I get it, I went too far.”
“Do you, though? Get it? Because I read the police and medical report and I think most of her pain came from being raped. Did you read the report? He tore her on the inside. He was so rough with her that he tore her.”
His breaths come faster and the beast inside is basking in the fear that is so thick in the room I could cut it with one of my knives.
Standing up, I pick up the chair and set it aside. “You know, I’ve read that a lot of rapists and women beaters learn their behavior from their closest male influence. Tell me, do you tell women to relax and take it, or do you beat them until they can’t fight back like your son did?”
Moving to the end of the bed, I lean the bat he swung at me in the hall against the mattress and grab his feet.
“What are you doing?” Panic is in his voice as he looks at the bat.
Grabbing his ankles, I flip him onto his stomach and tie them to the corners of the bed.
“Wait! Stop! I’ll do whatever you want.” He is trying to see me over his shoulder as I lean on the bed, but he can’t twist his head enough to see what I’m doing.
I grab the bat and say, “I’ve heard that if you relax, it’s not as bad.”
He starts screaming and bucking his hips, and I climb up his back and put my knee on his spine. “Just know that after I finish with you, I’m going after your son.”
When I get back to my condo, I’m covered in blood and the bottom of the shower runs red as I let the hot water wash away the events of the last few hours. I just wish I could be a fly on the wall when his son sees what I did to him.
