word.
‘Oh my God… oh my God,’ he started, but the man beneath him was pale, in shock. Not a word came from his mouth as he lay there, with his hands cuffed to the frame of the bed, as naked as the day he was born, his cock inside someone’s ass and feeling like the world was ready to end.
The man on top fell sideways and started to his feet.
‘Sit the fuck down,’ I said.
He did as he was told.
‘You want money?’ he started whimpering, and then there were tears in his eyes. ‘We have money here, a lot of money… you can have all the money-’
‘No money,’ I said, and it was in that second that both of them realized what was going to happen.
The handcuffed man began crying, and pulled his knees up to his chest and tried to turn his body away so I could not see him naked.
‘What d’you want?’ the seated man asked.
‘Which one of you is Ricardo?’ I asked.
The seated man looked at me with horror. ‘I… I am Richard Ricardo,’ he said, and his voice cracked with fear.
‘You’re traveling both ways then?’ I said, and I smiled.
Ricardo frowned.
‘Girls and boys, whichever takes your fancy, right?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what you mean… what do you want?’
‘Retribution,’ I said, and from the inside jacket of my pocket I took one of the photographs that Ten Cent had shown me.
I held it up so it could be clearly seen.
Ricardo stared silently at the picture, and then he closed his eyes.
‘What’s his name?’ I asked, and indicated the other man lying on the bed.
Ricardo glanced sideways at him. ‘His name?’
I nodded. ‘His name.’
‘Leonard… this is Leonard.’
‘Well, tell Leonard he ain’t a fucking ostrich. Just because he ain’t looking at me doesn’t mean he’s invisible.’
Ricardo reached over and put his hand on Leonard’s shoulder. Leonard tried to shrug it off. He buried his face deeper into the pillow, and though the sound was muffled I could still hear him sobbing.
‘Undo the cuffs, Richard,’ I said.
Ricardo reached for the key on a small table beside the bed and unlocked the cuffs. Leonard tugged the bedsheet up and covered himself.
‘Leonard?’
Leonard didn’t move.
‘Leonard… turn this way and look at me or I’m gonna come over there and shove this gun so far up your ass you won’t stop hurting ’til Sunday.’
Leonard turned onto his side, and then eased himself upright. He clung onto the sheet as if he believed it would protect him against a bullet.
I held up the photograph so he could clearly see it. ‘You he might love for eternity,’ I said, ‘but your friend Richard has a certain way with the ladies that they don’t appreciate.’
‘You… you don’t understand-’ Ricardo started.
I raised my gun, pointed it directly between Ricardo’s eyes, and took three steps forward until the barrel touched the bridge of his nose.
‘Shut the fuck up,’ I said. With my other hand I held the photograph and waited until he was looking directly at it. ‘You know this girl?’ I asked.
Ricardo tried to frown, tried to make out like he was remembering whether or not he knew her.
‘We’re not playing games here,’ I said. ‘I know and you know, so don’t waste my time telling me anything else. You know this girl?’
Ricardo nodded. He closed his eyes. Tears were running down his cheeks.
‘You did this to her?’
‘She… she wanted me to… wanted me to hurt her… you gotta understand she’s a crazy fucking bitch. She wanted me to hurt her…’
‘She wanted you to hurt her,’ I said matter-of-factly.
Ricardo was nodding furiously.
‘She wanted you to beat the crap out of her, wanted you to hit her so hard she couldn’t see straight for days, wanted you to whip her with a wire coat hanger until she’d screamed so much she lost her voice? She wanted you to do that?’
Leonard was looking over Ricardo’s shoulder at the photograph, his eyes wide and incredulous.
‘Ricky… Ricky? You did this to that girl?’
Ricardo turned suddenly. ‘Shut the fuck up, Lenny… just shut the fuck up?’
‘Yes,’ I interjected. ‘Shut the fuck up, Lenny.’
Lenny closed his open mouth and turned away. He looked like he was going to puke. I figured he wouldn’t want to fuck Richard Ricardo in the ass again.
‘So seems to me that whatever the hell went down between you and this girl, well she got a little more than she asked for… would that be somewhere close to the truth, Ricky?’
Ricardo didn’t move a muscle, didn’t say a word. I jabbed the barrel of the gun into his forehead. He winced with the pain.
‘You reckon that’s somewhere close to the truth?’
Ricardo nodded.
‘You sorry for what you did to her?’
‘Oh Jesus… oh Jesus God, I’m sorry. I never meant for it to be that way… I promise I never meant for it to turn out like it did… it was a wild night, it was crazy, there were all these people and we drank too much and took too much coke, and things just got out of hand-’
‘Ssshhh,’ I whispered. ‘Ssshhh now, Ricky, it’s okay… it really is okay.’
Richard Ricardo opened his eyes and looked up at me. There was a pleading expression in his eyes – pleading for understanding, for forgiveness, for mercy, for his life.
‘Never again,’ he mumbled. ‘Never again…’
‘Too right,’ I said, and with all the force I could muster I raised the gun and brought it down on the top of his head.
The sound was indescribable, as if his whole body had collapsed from within – ‘Nyuuuggghhhh’. He fell sideways and rolled off the edge of the bed onto the floor. Blood started to ooze from the split in his skull and soak into the carpet.
Lenny started screaming. I reached across the bed and grabbed him by the hair. I forced him face down into the mattress to muffle the sound, and then I warned him that if he didn’t shut the hell up he was going to get a bullet in the back of his neck. He stopped immediately.
I dragged him off the bed, and threw him to the ground next to his friend.
In my hand I held a pillow.
I looked down at Lenny, his tear-streaked face, his wide and horrified eyes.
‘When was your birthday?’ I asked him.
He looked at me in dismay.
‘Your birthday?’ I repeated.
‘Jan-January,’ he stuttered.
I nodded. I held up the pillow. I pressed the gun into it. ‘Last fucking birthday you’re ever gonna have,’ I said, and I pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit him in the throat. His hands grasped his neck. He clawed at his own flesh as if believing that he could pull the bullet out. Blood erupted from the wound and spattered across his chest, his legs, across Ricardo,
