16. Ashton
This motherfucker had picked the wrong one to target. He never should’ve looked twice in Halo’s direction.
He never should’ve uttered her name. I’d gotten a tip from one of the cops on my payroll that Jacob Wrigley had been bailed out. It’d been the same night of the carnival. Just like that out of nowhere, someone had sprung him from jail. Of course, the million-dollar question was who and why?
Sitting outside of Halo’s old apartment building, I stared up at the apartment I knew was his. He wasn’t home, instead, he was back working at his old job as a dishwater about five blocks from here.
He was so poor he didn’t even have a car, instead, he rode fucking blue bicycle to work. And yet, he’d found Halo, convinced she belonged to him.
I began to compose a message to Halo, noting the time and that she still had a couple of hours to go to work. The girls were spending time at the pool with friends under the supervision of another mom.
What are you doing, Sakura?
My wife replied just as swiftly to the message I’d sent. Ashton, I’m working. Are you about to start acting crazy again about me having this job?
Halo made me smile widely as scanned the text. What? Of course not.
Another rapid reply appeared. Somehow, I’m not sure I believe you.
Tapping the screen, I sent another text teasing her. Sweet Sakura, I promise I’m not worried.
And why is that? Halo was like a dog with a bone now at my sudden change of heart. She already seemed to know me better than I wanted to admit.
In my mind, I could picture my wife looking around and typing on her phone furiously. Annoyed that I wouldn’t leave her alone. If you must know, Mark relayed to me that Sheamus O’Connor had a one-night stand with him.
A few seconds passed as I waited for her to comprehend. Wait….what?
Looking around the parking lot, I replied. Which part is shocking?
Halo was faster this time. I knew about Sheamus but I had no clue about Mark.
Chuckling at this conversation with Halo, I sent her one last reply telling her I’d be home late. I slipped out of the car. The name of the game was to be careful. I needed to be like the wind, moving as if I were never really here at all.
I sent Mark a brief message. Keep eyes on him, I’m going in.
Mark replied immediately. The piece of shit is still in there. Don’t worry, sir.
I waited outside the front door of the apartment building until someone came out, and then I entered the building. It smelled horrible inside like the building had been closed up and was rotting internally.
There was the smell of urine too.
The smell was so strong, so thick and pungent, it stung my nose and I had to cover my nose, finally making my way to the third-floor corner apartment. Naturally, I twisted the lock and found it locked. It didn’t matter anyway; Jacob was never going to make it back home.
Mark had been instructed earlier to do a snatch-and-grab before bringing him to the storage unit. The truth was, no one was going to miss the piece of shit.
Taking a breath and nearly gagging, I through my wait against the apartment door. The door remained where it was, but it shook and groaned a little.
“Fuck,” I mumbled before stepping back and slamming my foot into the barrier.
This it gave way and parted, before slightly bouncing back. Looking around to make sure no one had seen me, I darted in and closed the door behind me. Slipping a pair of black leather gloves over my hands and turning on the light, I began to look around.
Jacob didn’t have much in the way of furniture. The apartment if you could call it that, was small and cramped with a bathroom down a small hallway and then a room that seemed to function as a living room, a kitchen, and a bedroom.
That was it.
He literally had nothing else.
Walking over to the window, I imagined that he’d stalked Halo for years without her ever knowing. He had a direct view into her old apartment.
The places my mind went…
I imagined the sick fuck had watched Halo’s every single move from this window. Any time she might have been alone and pleasured herself. Hell, if she’d ever gone to check her mail or watch her favorite cooking show. He truly had it in his sick fucking head that my wife was supposed to be his.
Moving away from the window, getting angrier and angrier I started to rummage around the apartment, checking my phone every few moments for a text from Mark.
I looked under the dirty mattress and found nothing but old Playboy magazines and a few old photographs of landmarks. There was money too but nothing that screamed how he’d been planning the attacks on Halo.
Nearly about to give up and leave, I decided to check the bathroom. It was even more disgusting than the rest of the house. The toilet was emitting a foul odor because he probably hadn’t flushed since the early nineties.
Holding my breath I delved into the cabinets beneath the sink finding it bare. Standing up, a reflection from the mirror caught my eye. There was a ceiling tile that looked as if it had been moved, just slightly off-center.
Hoisting myself up onto the countertop of the rickety sink basin, I calmed my nerves. The sink was a house of cards threatening to tumble down. Moving the tile aside, my hand moved around inside the dark space before it came into contact with what felt like a book.
“Bingo,” I whispered.
Hopping down, I looked at what I’d grabbed. It was a leather-bound journal filled with pages that had yellowed over time. Opening it up, I found it appeared to be a diary of a young boy. I flipped through the pages even more and found an obituary for Halo’s mother.
There were even pictures of Halo herself as a child, her graduation picture. One stood out to me and I flipped it over to see if anything was written on the back. The photograph was of Halo with her golden curls blowing in the wind with three boys standing on either side of her.
Trever, Eric, Baby and Halo, Carolina Beach…
A shiver ran down my spine as I flipped through the last pages of the book. Tucked away tightly inside of the book were three more obituaries. Three more familiar faces stared back at me.
Halo’s stepbrothers had died on the same date a few years ago.
My wife was even more mysterious than me, but I wondered if she knew they were dead. After Jacob had been caught sneaking onto my property, she’d told me about running away from her small town.
She’d told me everything.
About how they would all corner her either individually, or together threatening to break her spirit.They had wanted to rape her and cage her up like an animal. She had whispered in a hoarse broken voice how she”d avoided them as much as possible until she’d finally left but in the process, she’d stolen ten thousand dollars from her stepfather’s safe.
A sudden noise made me freeze and I wondered if someone were in the apartment. With my heart pounding, I realized it was the noisy neighbors above.
Taking a deep breath, that I instantly regretted due to the smell of the bathroom, I decided to leave.
By the time I’d gotten to the car, Mark had texted me. The text simply stated: Acquired.
Throwing the journal into the passenger seat of the car when I got in, I nearly started to feel bad for Jacob Whitley. Clearly, he’d been a pawn in a game he didn’t know how to play. My thoughts turned darker than usual as I drove through Atlanta, noting how light the traffic appeared today. Perhaps, God himself knew that I had an important matter to take care of.
Not only did my family own Tanaka Cha but we had other ventures as well like a few car dealerships, and a few hotel chains. We also had several storage businesses that I’d specifically purchased when I found out about having to keep the girls in the United States.
None of the units were rented out to anyone.
They were all empty.
Perfect for making a mess and not having anyone around to hear any noise.
Punching in the code to the gate, I drove through the moment the doors parted. They made a clanging sound when they closed behind me. Slowly, I maneuvered my vehicle behind Mark’s SUV.
“Boss,” Mark said as I approached.
I began to unbutton the collared shirt as I stepped up to the door. “Everything in order?”
He nodded even though I knew this had been prepped for days. He’d put plastic tarp down on every single inch of the storage unit we were occupying. Mark was fucking perfect at his job.
I knew that it’d been done in a meticulous fashion and to my liking.
Peeling off my shirt, I tossed it on the ground. Jacob Whitley was strapped to a table, a gag in his mouth and he was shaking so hard the table was rattling. Mark had stripped him completely naked and he was bare as the day he was born on a metal table.
“Hello, Jacob,” I nodded at the man whose eyes were wide.
He couldn’t reply because shiny silver duck tape was over his mouth. Which was fine, I didn’t want to hear him screaming anyway.
I began to circle him as if he were prey. “You know you fucked up, don’t you? You never should have touched my wife. You never should have caused her any turmoil…”
He nodded his head, and I knew that if his hands were free, he would be clawing at the tape and begging for his life.
“I know Jacob, it wasn’t all your fault,” I stopped circling and leaned down to whisper.
He groaned and jerked his body desperate to talk. I’d grown bored of the entire thing and it’d been a long time since I’d done what I was about to do.
The room became quiet, just the hum of the lights filling the void.
“Jacob, did you know I was Pre-Med? A long time ago I had it in my head that I was going to be a doctor until my father crushed my dreams….I belong to the Yakuza, sadly. ”
I chuckled walking over to pick up the medical-grade scalpel. The shiny new silver gleamed under the fluorescent lights swaying above. Jacob didn’t say much and Mark was standing with his arms behind his back, his expression unreadable.
He was well compensated and could have taken care of Jacob for me.
But the offense had been done to my wife.
My precious Sakura.
“This is going to hurt, Jacob. The initial incision will sting like paper cuts. Then I’ll move past the skin, slicing away until I reach the muscle.”
Jacob once again began to shake the table, this time tears streaming down his face. His head was going from side to side. Leaning down once more, I whispered to him.
“I know that it was Halo’s stepfather…”
Mark moved over to a panel on the wall. He’d had a stereo system put in right after I’d bought this particular location. Bach began to roar out of the speakers and I leaned over Jacob. Slowly, I dragged the scalpel along his skin until a bloody red ‘Y’ had been carved into his skin.
As I began to work, I hoped Halo wouldn’t be waiting up for me. This was going to go painstakingly slow.
I was going to enjoy my kill. Fresh tears poured from the man below me, his eyes squeezed shut. When I was done, his body would go to a nearby pig farm.
But first, I was going to skin him alive.
One down,I thought. Two more to go.