Chapter 22
SABLE
I pulled my hair out of the ponytail and patted it down.
"You look beautiful," Forrest assured me, kissing the back of my neck. This time he didn't end up with a mouthful of drywall dust. "You can do this."
I took a deep, steadying breath and stepped over to the door to apartment six-nine. Before I could psych myself out, I tapped on the door. It wasn't too late to run. I could make it to the elevator before—
The door swung open.
Robert Carmichael looked me up and down, as if he wanted to eat me alive. If I had a creep radar, it went off the moment I saw him.
"Can I help you?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe like he was smooth. The only thing smooth about him was his greasy hair, brushed back off his face. It looked like an attempt at a mullet, a bad attempt at that. His lips were thin, humorless, almost disappearing in his wide face.
"I have a special delivery for you," I said, speaking the words we'd rehearsed a few minutes earlier.
"Oh yeah?" He looked me up and down again.
I forced myself to keep smiling until the other guys stepped into view.
Before Robert could close the door again, Woody barreled into him, forcing him back. Forrest and Leif followed.
Chewing my lip, I stayed back and watched.
"Bob," Forrest said smoothly. "They do call you Bob, don't they?" Woody had Bob pressed against the wall, his arm across the other man's throat.
"What the fuck?" Bob said, trying to catch a breath. "Yeah, they call me Bob. What do you want?"
"That's simple," Forrest said. "We know what kind of man you are, the things you've done to innocent people. We want you to stop."
"What are you talking about?" Bob spluttered. "I ain't done nothing wrong."
"We have photos and videos that say otherwise," Forrest said, his tone cold enough to give me chills.
"We know exactly the things you did. You're a monster. A predator."
"I made some mistakes." Bob's eyes shifted from side to side. He struggled against Woody, but Woody didn't budge.
"Mistakes," Leif barked. "Forgetting to pay your phone bill on time is a mistake. Preying on innocent people? Not a mistake."
Forrest stalked towards Bob. "When was the last time?"
Bob shrank back.
"I don't know, it was a long time ago. I've changed." He perked up a little, clearly hoping to convince us. "I know what I did was wrong. That's why I stopped. I've been looking to get help. Professional help."
"You're a shit liar," Woody told him.
"The last photo on your hard drive was from two weeks ago," Forrest said. "Taking photos of vulnerable people while they're on the toilet?" He shook his head.
"I fucked up. Like I said, I'm getting help." Bob was becoming frantic. Any chance he had of walking away was rapidly diminishing. Not that he had a real chance, but he'd thought he had.
"Can we kill him now?" Woody asked, pressing his arm harder against Bob's throat.
"Kill me?" Bob whined. "Please don't kill me. I won't do it again. I swear."
"You're right," Forrest said. "You won't do it again. We'll make sure of that." He slid a knife out of the pocket of his trousers, flipped it open and offered it to me.
I looked down at the slim blade before shaking my head. "I don't think I can. Not the first time."
He offered me a smile and a nod, not questioning my decision, respecting it.
"It's my turn," Leif said, holding his hand out for the knife.
Without hesitation, Forrest placed it across his palm and stepped back. He wrapped an arm around me and we watched as Leif approached Bob.
"Keep still unless you want me to cut you," he said to Woody.
"Don't fucking cut me," Woody growled.
He grunted as Bob started to struggle harder, forcing Woody to hold him for Leif to press the knife to his throat.
I wanted to look away, but I watched while Leif carefully drew the blade across Bob's throat, sending a spray of blood over Woody's sleeve.
Fascinated, I watched Bob's eyes as the light gradually faded from them, his expression changing from horrified to shocked to dead.
Just like that. We ended his life. Removed a monster from the world.
"Feels good, doesn't it?" Forrest asked.
"It shouldn't," I started.
His arm tightened around me. "Yes, it should. We’re doing the right thing."
Leif and Woody lowered Bob's body to the floor, Woody making a face at the blood on his shirt.
"Assholes always have to be so fucking messy," he grumbled.
"That's all there is to it," Leif said, wiping the knife on Bob's shirt before closing it and handing it back to Forrest. "One less asshole in the world."
I stared at Bob, his eyes staring back at me, conflicting thoughts whirling through my head. I'd watched them kill a man. I'd helped them do it. I should feel bad.
I should.
Instead I felt…powerful. Turned on. What was wrong with me? Only now I realized I felt the same way I had when I saw Wolfgang lying dead. I hadn't let myself think about it before. I'd liked every minute of it.
"It's okay to feel how you feel," Forrest said. "We all have different reactions to killing."
"Makes me horny as hell," Leif said.
Woody eyed him before grunting something that sounded like agreement before he started looking around the apartment.
"If the asshole had any cameras, we need to disable them," he said, surprising me by offering an explanation.
"Right," I said.
We wouldn't want to do all of this, then get caught. None of us would escape the law if we were. There was no question what we did was illegal and premeditated.
"What do we do now?" I whispered. We were standing in an apartment with a dead body and considered what happened next.
"I have a crew who will come and clean this up," Forrest said. "We'll have him taken to…" He hesitated for a moment. "A secure location. We'll deal with him there."
"And by deal with him you mean… Dispose of the evidence?" I said.
"Yes," Forrest said simply. He didn't seem inclined to go into any details, and honestly it was probably better I didn't know, not yet at least.
Being here was one thing, joining them in what happened after was something else.
Forrest pulled out his phone and made a call. "Yes, tonight," he said into the phone."He had a roommate. They're out of town until tomorrow. This needs to be cleaned up before they get back." He nodded and hung up.
"A roommate?" I asked.
"Don't worry. We have a cover story prepared. Bob's mother met with a nasty accident, and he had to go and look after her."
"She didn't really…" I started.
"She's fine," he assured me. "She's been fed a different cover story. By the time anyone thinks to check, he'll be long gone and so will we."
"Sounds like you thought of everything," I said.
"Of course we do," Leif grinned and helped himself to an apple from Bob's kitchen. "We have to. We have asses to cover. Pretty cute ones if you ask me." He looked over his shoulder as if he could check out his own ass.
Woody snorted.
"And some of us are just asses," Leif said cheerfully, biting into the apple.
"It's not too late for the clean-up crew to have two bodies to dispose of," Woody said, searching a shelf for a camera but grimacing as he found a finger full of dust instead.
"Yours?" Leif suggested.
Woody rolled his eyes but went on searching. "Looks like the place is clean," he said finally. "I mean, no cameras. This place is messy as shit." He rinsed his hands off under the faucet and shook the droplets into the sink.
"All right, let's get out of here," Forrest said.
"We're just going to…" I gestured toward the body and winced. It didn't seem right to walk away, leaving him lying here like this.
"Unless you think you can wake him with a kiss." Woody smirked.
"What do you want to do?" Forrest asked gently.
"I don't know," I admitted.
"Do you want to carve a dick and balls into his skin?" Leif suggested.
"No," I said slowly.
Forrest regarded me before pulling out the knife and opening it again. He handed it to me. "Whatever you think you need to do."
"Do it quickly," Woody snapped.
I took the knife and stepped over to Bob. I didn't know what I needed to do. I just needed to do something.
"I suggest you don't carve your initials," Leif said. "That would be a dead giveaway if anyone found him before we dispose of him."
I nodded. "Good advice."
I crouched down beside the body, my hand shaking. I pressed the tip of the knife against his forehead. Blood beaded around the blade. The pulse in my pussy jumped.
Carefully, I carved the outline of a skull in Bob's forehead, added a couple of crosses for eyes. I nodded to myself and rose, taking a moment to wipe the blade clean again.
"Very artistic," Leif said approvingly. "I'll try to save that section for you."
I had no answer for that. I handed the knife back to Forrest.
He and Woody were both looking at me with unreadable expressions, neither judging, but somehow approving at the same time. I would have thought Woody would have curled his lip at me, but he didn't. Of course, he was here too. Taking part in killing and getting enjoyment out of it.
"We should leave," I whispered. I was so turned on I might combust, and I couldn't even bring myself to care.
If I was fucked up, I was at least as fucked up as these three men. None of them could pretend they didn't get off on this too. Each had a tent in the front of his pants, darkness in their eyes. Aroused by the power of ending the life of someone who didn't deserve to keep breathing.
A power that was dangerous because it could go to all of our heads. It could eat us alive.
Somehow I was going to have to cling on to my humanity. Assuming I had any left, that was. After all, I'd just mutilated a corpse. That wasn't normal behavior by any stretch of the imagination. At least, not as far as I knew.
To be fair, I didn't know people like Forrest and Leif existed until now. I might be more normal than I knew. I wasn't sure what to do with that. I put it on the long list of things to think about later. Tonight I'd focus on the last few minutes and the next couple of hours.
I didn't know when I decided I was going to continue doing this with them, but I had. I wanted to do this again. Next time, I wanted to be the one to draw the blade across the monster's throat. I wanted to feel their last breath on my cheek, on my lips, under my fingertips.
I wanted to stand close to them and watch the light fade from their eyes. I wanted them to know exactly who ended their existence.
Me. Sable Kohl. Survivor. Accomplice. Carver of skin.
"Let's go and get something to eat," Forrest said, as if nothing unusual happened tonight. "There's an Mongolian place down the street. I think you'll like it."
"I could eat," Leif said, tossing the apple core into the trash. "This shit makes me hungry too."
I gave Bob a long, last look before I nodded and let Forrest take my hand. Together we stepped out of the apartment, my heels clicking on the floor.
Leif and Woody followed close behind, like it was the most natural thing in the world.