Page 59 of Ballistic

The sight of the cuffs brought to mind the screams again. The video reel wound up inside my head, transporting me back into that disgusting scene, and not even clamping my eyes could erase the visual.

“No, no, please! Don’t do this!” Eden begged between sobs, as Jasper clasped the cuffs around the steel rack inside the shower. The clanging of the metal had kept a steady beat as she tried to break free. His breaths grew excitable.

The sound of his breathing had rippled down my spine in waves of disgust, reminding me of how a starved animal might sound at the prospect of fresh meat. Desperate. Hungry. Shaky with anticipation and lust.

Jasper flipped on the shower, and the scalding sprays, evident in the steam gathering inside the stall, incited a squeal of pain as Eden hopped to move away. He turned it down just enough to lose some of the hot steam, showing the girl standing naked, cuffed to the rack, facing the wall of the shower. She couldn’t see the soaked cloth in his hand, until he smacked it over her mouth. Yanking the showerhead off its hook, he held the spray to her face.

Her sobs turned to choking and gasping, as he commanded her to stick her ass out, or drown.

She did as she was told, and he removed the spray.

A sharp cry bounced off the walls, as his cock penetrated her. Once again, he held the spray to her face, all while thrusting into her from behind, the wet slap of his skin hardly carrying over the gagging and choking.

“Ohh, that’s right. Cough. Cough it up, girl.” He gripped her chin, angling her head back into the spray, as she shook against him, fighting it. “I’m going to cum inside you as I watch you drown.”

A spasm of pain shot to my skull as I stared down at the man’s fingers, recalling them cuffed tight around her throat. My eyes misted with tears that I blinked away. Grinding my teeth, I willed those images out of my head.

“P-p-please! I don’t know … who you are. But I can get you whatever you want. Just speak to me! Please! Just speak to me!”

Turning away from him brought me facing the broken window, through which I’d already fed the hose from outside. Without a word, I tugged it farther through the vented window, dragging it behind me, and depressed the rusted trigger of the gun at the end of it. A sharp stream of water splashed against the concrete in a spattering that hit my legs. From my back pocket, I tugged the hand towel and tossed it onto the floor, soaking it with the water.

After swiping it off the floor, I strode back across the room and crouched beside Jasper, the dripping towel slung over my palm.

His head kicked to the side, shifting back and forth in a blind search. “I’m begging you … please.”

“Please! Please!” Eden’s screams droned on inside my head.

Lip curled, I gripped his throat and tilted his head back, setting the sopping towel over his face. Holding his throat with one hand, I snapped the setting of the sprayer to soak and let it pour over his face, saturating the towel. A depression formed at the mouth, where he attempted to draw in breath, and he sputtered with a cough. His head frantically whipped back and forth, trying to avoid the water.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins as I watched him struggle in my grip. The power rushing through me in intoxicating waves.

With a sudden burst of willpower, I stopped and let go of the sprayer. A wheeze deepened the concave dip of the towel at his mouth, and I pulled it from his face, letting him cough and gag it up.

“What do you want from me? What did I do?” His bellow bounced off the walls, mimicking the same question Eden had asked him years before.

I wanted to answer him. I wanted to gift him the understanding of why such cruelty was necessary, but that’d be giving him far more than he’d given her. Up until the moment he’d tossed her body, tied to a steel anchor, into the river, he’d never once offered her reason.

Instead, I smoothed the cloth back over his mouth and soaked it with water. Each time, his voice grew hoarser, every suck of air turned more and more desperate, drawing the towel deeper into the concavity.

I withdrew the towel again.

On a table set off from us, I spotted twine, tape, and corrugated boxes stacked flat on the floor beneath it. A number of shipping supplies that’d been left, including a rusted pair of scissors. The cardboard had molded a bit, but it didn’t matter. They could be burned.

A drawer creaked as I opened it, and I smiled down at the box cutter inside.

Supplies in hand, I padded across the room, along with a pair of gloves I’d hunted down from a shelf beside them. Blood could be traced, as Dmitry had always told me, so I often avoided spilling it. Unless I could keep it confined on a medium that could easily be disposed.

I smacked Jasper’s leg, jamming the thick trodden cardboard beneath his bottom, and he hoisted up his hips just enough to slide it under him.

“I … I don’t know who you are … but I’ll give you anything. Whatever you want,” he sobbed as I positioned the flat surface beneath his leg.

Nothing I wanted more than to see him suffer the same way he’d made Eden suffer, but I tilted my head at the question.

“Why drown her?” The cold robotic tone of my voice didn’t allow for emotion, in spite of the tears welling in my eyes.

The question happened to be one I’d pondered for years after. Of all the ways to kill her, why water? Had he known she’d naturally feared the thought? That she’d often woken to nightmares of being unable to breathe?

Did he know she’d never learned how to swim in her life?