Bobby hit Rawls in the face and took a step back. He looked down at Rawls’ feet. 'Those some nice kicks there. What kind are they?' Bobby asked.
'Stacy Adams,' Rawls mumbled.
'Can I see them?' Bobby asked and knelt down to take the shoes off. He walked over to where Black was sitting. 'These some bad-ass kicks, Mike. I gotta get me a pair of these.' He turned back to Rawls. 'What size are these?' But Rawls was too out of it to answer.
'I don’t think he’s paying you any attention, Bob,' Black said and laughed.
'Hey asshole,' Bobby yelled and threw a shoe at him. 'I’m talkin’ to you.' The shoe hit Rawls in the face, but he still didn’t answer.
'Told you.' Black laughed. 'He doesn’t respect you, Bob. He thinks that you’ll get tired of hitting him and you’ll go away, and he won’t have to tell you shit.'
Bobby walked up to Rawls, picked up the shoe and hit him in the face with it.
'What are you-his mother now? Beatin’ him with a shoe,' Black laughed, but Bobby didn’t seem amused. He was getting frustrated with Rawls. Bobby was doing some of his best work, and he hadn’t said a word.
'You think you a tough son of a bitch, don’t you?' But Rawls still didn’t answer. 'Well, dickhead, we’ll see just how tough you are in a minute,' Bobby said and walked away. 'You wait right there.'
'Where you goin’?' Black asked.
'Garage.'
There was silence in the room for a minute or two before Black got up and dragged the chair he was sitting in closer to Rawls.
Rawls raised his head and looked at Black. He knew Black was right about him. Rawls was counting on Bobby getting tired. Rawls figured that after a while Black, who appeared not to think that he was going to talk, would pull Bobby off and go try to find Ebony without his help. But Rawls had no idea who he was dealing with, or what they were capable of doing to get what they wanted.
'You know it’s only gonna get worse from here, right?' Black said. 'I mean, he’s gonna come back from that garage with some bazaar shit to beat your ass with. You know that, right? Now I’ve known Bobby for a long time, and I know he’s not gonna stop until you tell us what we wanna know. Save yourself a lot of pain and tell me where Ebony Washington is, and where are the papers she was carrying. ’Cause once he gets started, I may not be able to stop him.'
Bobby came back in the room carrying a sledgehammer and an ax. 'Too late for that shit now, Mike. He done fucked around and made a nigga mad.'
'I tried to warn you,' Black said and moved out of Bobby’s way.
'I don’t give a fuck if you don’t say another word. You gonna die slow, bloody and painful tonight.' Bobby dropped the ax and swung the sledgehammer over his head and brought it down on Rawls’ kneecap.
Rawls screamed and Bobby hit him in the other knee- cap.
'That sounds like it hurts,' Black said. 'I think you better tell this nigga something.'
'Fuck that, Mike. He ain’t got to say shit to me for the rest of the night,' Bobby said as he hit Rawls in the chin. 'I’m about to go Kunta Kinte on his ass.' Bobby dropped the sledgehammer, knelt down in front of Rawls and pulled off his sock. Then he shoved the sock in Rawls’ mouth. 'The time for talkin’ is over.' Bobby got in Rawls’ face. 'It’s party time.'
'Look at him, Bobby. He’s all confused and bothered. I don’t think he knows what you’re gonna do. I mean, I don’t think he saw
Bobby picked up the ax. 'Well, he’s about to find out.' He knelt down in front of Rawls again and grabbed Rawls’ ankle. 'This is gonna hurt.'
'No shit,' Black said as Bobby brought the ax down and chopped off Rawls’ toes.
As Rawls grimaced in pain and the blood oozed out of what was left of his foot, Bobby went in the kitchen and came back with a knife. Then he ripped the sleeves off of Rawls’ shirt and made long incisions down his arms. 'Now we gonna see if you bleed to death before I cut your throat.'
Mike walked back over to Rawls. 'You sure you don’t want to tell me where Ebony Washington is and where the papers she was carrying are?' he asked, but didn’t bother to take the sock out of his mouth.
'Mike!'
'What?'
'If you not gonna help, get the fuck out my way.'
Black shrugged his shoulders and took two steps back. Bobby stepped in front of Rawls and began punching him in the face with hard lefts and rights. Once his hands started hurting, Bobby picked up the sledgehammer and began ramming it into Rawls’ chest. Rawls could hear his ribs cracking. Slowly he began to realize that he was going to die, just the way Bobby said he would, slow, bloody and painful.
'Damn, Bob. I heard that shit. I think you broke his ribs,' Black said.
'You wanna hear bones breakin’? Watch this,' Bobby said and came down with the hammer on Rawls’ arm with so much force that it broke the arm of the chair. Rawls opened his eyes and looked at the blood and his bone sticking out of his arm. He bit down harder on the sock because the pain had become more than he could stand.
Bobby walked around to the other side of the chair and was about to do the same to the other arm when Rawls pushed the sock out of his mouth with his tongue. 'Okay-okay, shit! I’ll tell you what you wanna know.'
'Fuck that!'
Bobby raised the hammer over his head, but Black grabbed his arm. 'Let’s hear what the man has to say, Bob.'
'Okay,' Bobby said, but as soon as Black let go, Bobby brought the hammer down on Rawls’ other arm. While he screamed in agony, Black looked at Bobby and shook his head. 'No point wasting a good swing.'
Once again, Black pulled his chair closer to Rawls. 'Where is she?'
'Brooklyn-in a house on Sterling Street. They got her in the basement.'
'How many men are with her?' Black asked.
'Three: two upstairs, one in the basement watching her.'
'What’s the plan?'
'I’m supposed to meet them there later with the money, and then we’ll let her go.'
'Good man. Now where are the papers she was carrying?'
'I don’t know,' Rawls said. He really didn’t know. He had no idea what papers Black was asking him about all night. All he knew was that when they brought her in, she wasn’t carrying anything.
'I’m getting tired of this,' Black said and stood up. He kicked Rawls in the chest and the chair fell over. Black went in the kitchen and got the biggest pot he could find. He went to the sink and filled the pot with water.
Black came back to the living room to find Bobby standing over Rawls kicking him in the face. 'Bobby!'
'What?'
'I’m in the middle of something here,' Black said and stood over Rawls with the pot of water in his hands.
'Sorry.'
When Bobby stepped aside, Black started to pour the water slowly in Rawls’ face. Rawls turned his head to one side, trying to keep the water from going in his mouth and up his nose.
'Hold his head, Bobby.'
'But I’ll get wet,' Bobby laughed.
'Bobby!'
'All right, all right, you don’t have to yell,' Bobby said and kicked Rawls again. Then he got down and grabbed his face with both hands. Black tilted the pot slowly and water began to rush down on Rawls’ face. With Bobby holding his head, he couldn’t avoid the rushing water. When the pot was empty, Bobby stood up and kicked Rawls again.
Black dropped the pot and knelt down next to Rawls. 'Where are those papers?'
'In the garage.' Rawls thought if she had the papers when his men took her that, that was the only other place that he could think the papers might be. At this point, Rawls was ready to tell them anything they wanted just to get them to stop. 'Trunk of my car,' he said, still gasping for air and spitting water out of his mouth.
'Thank you,' Black said and stood up. 'Let’s go,' he said to Bobby and they headed for the garage.
