I remain focused in on room 117.
I can see the bastard moving behind the nicotine yellow curtains.
Six months behind bars and he ends up in another shit hole because prison doesn’t fix anything. Especially not men like him.
My phone lights up, vibrating in the cupholder for the tenth time in fifteen minutes. Eden, Eden, Anaise, then Eden again, like they think their little tag team can stop me from doing this.
Where are you?
If you don’t answer, I’m calling the cops.
Please Tek, he’s not worth it.
I swear to god, if you don’t text back I’ll wake your mother.
I thumb the screen off and turn the phone around.
I’ve waited long enough.
I’m ready to go in.
Ready to put an end to the pain that’s been eating me alive since I lost Miri and our future in the blink of an eye.
With my grip tight on the truck's door handle, I go over my plan one more time: knock, barge in, and don’t stop punching until there’s nothing left of him to recognize.
Simple.
The curtains of 117 jerk open just enough for him to look out.
The window slides open and he leans out, the glint of a cigarette in his mouth. He cups his hand and lights it, drawing the smoke in deep before letting it bellow out.
I want to wring his neck, but if I move now he’ll see me coming. So I take another swig of whiskey and wait inside the darkness of my truck until he flicks the butt away and opens the door.
Like the invincible bastard he believes himself to be, he strolls, bucket in hand, to the ice machine.
That’s my cue.
As soon as he walks behind the cover of the stairs, I’m out of my car.
Everything around me feels slow, and sticky in the moonlight.
The vibration has stopped.
I taste blood, but it’s only the memory of that night.
Adrenaline is already coursing through me when I round the brick stairs to find Alvarez hunched over, scooping ice and muttering slurred words to himself.
For a second, he looks up. Right at me.
There’s a flicker—he recognizes me, I know he does.
He half-stands, like he’s going to run. Then his lips move. “Wootek?”
He remembers my fucking name.
I say nothing.
I keep walking; three more steps.
