Chapter 38
thirty-eight
. . .
Felix
And this is why I’ll never get rid of this vehicle and why I stockpile parts. No GPS, no tracking, no bullshit surveillance built into the computer system. Fucking GPS. Don’t car companies realize that some people just need to move around without being noticed?
No one else is here when I park the car at the far end of the lot. Not that I expect anyone to be here in the middle of winter…and in the dead of night. Leaving the car running, as any sane person does, I grab my baseball bat out of the back seat and scout the best place to wait.
That tree over there seems like a prime location. Large enough to keep me from being seen and a clear view.
My cell is at the loft, just to be safe, so I have my old watch. It glows brightly in the dark when I tap the side button. Kyle is due any second.
Sure enough, the sound of tires crunching on snow greets me before the flash of headlights as he pulls into a space.
He parks right beside me and gets out.
“Eden?”
I wait.
“Eden?”
He closes his door, and I peek around the tree to watch him. Cupping his eyes, he tries to look in the passenger window of my car. The heat is off, so there is a thin film of frost making it hard to see.
“Eden, where are you?”
He moves around the front of my car, heading for the driver’s side door. I step out from behind the tree, and it only takes me six strides to catch up to him like a silent shadow. Kyle’s predatory skills are lacking. He doesn’t notice me or hear my boots until it is far too late.
He starts to turn, and I swing the bat like I’m in the major leagues, catching him across the jaw. His head snaps to the side, and his body follows, bouncing off the hood of my car before landing on his back in the snow.
Blood pours out of his mouth while he groans and holds his face. His jaw must be as thick as his head because it didn’t dislocate.
“Hello, Kyle.” I make my tone as threatening as possible when I stare down at the weaselly prick.
His eyes flick up to mine, dazed.
“Fu…ck.”
My hood has blood splatter on it, motherfucker.
“Fucker, so inconsiderate. You got blood on my car.” I sigh. “That’s disappointing. I just washed it. Have some fucking respect already.”
I bring the bat down on his stomach. He yells and rolls onto his side, then tries to crawl under my car.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I snarl.
Grabbing Kyle by his leg—ignoring the struggling and the fact that he leaves fingermarks in the snow—I drag his sorry ass out to the middle of the empty parking lot.
There is nowhere to go and nowhere to hide.
I drop his leg, and he rolls over. He wipes the blood away from the corner of his mouth.
“You know, Kyle, I was willing to give you a chance,” I say, hitting him a third time and catching him in the shoulder. The tip of the bat grazes the side of his neck.
Kyle cries out, lies back on the snow, and grabs his throat.
Eyes wide, he stares up in terror, then tries to scurry away.
I swirl the bat in a circle as I follow him.
“But you just won’t stop trying to come between me and my soulmate. It’s making me really fucking angry,” I growl.
This time, I bring the bat down on his kneecap before treating his ankle like a golf ball.
“Ahhh!”
The bone cracks, but his wild screams only bring me mild satisfaction. I’m not one of those sick fucks that gets hard for this shit. I’m not a fucking psycho. I’m just protecting what’s mine.
This is payback for him violating Eden’s room and forcing me to burn her house to the ground.
“Ahh, fuck! Ah, fucking prick,” he yells dramatically, reaching for his knee.
Using the end of the bat, I smash his face in, and he falls back, arms splayed. Then I break all the fingers on his right hand.
He wails and stares at the twisted, bleeding mess. While he writhes in pain, I search his pockets and find his phone. It’s locked, so I hold it up to his face.
“Wow, you must normally look this ugly. Your phone didn’t even hesitate,” I say, standing and stepping back out of his reach.
“Give…that…back,” he snarls, words strained.
He tries to follow me like a pathetic worm inching across the ground. But he’s dragging his now useless ankle behind him.
I check his apps, pictures, and texts with his nosy sister to make sure that he doesn’t have any of our conversations saved before going through the albums and files.
I stop when I find ones of him jerking off.
Interesting. I hit play and shake my head when I realize these must be in his room, but he’s using Eden’s underwear for the little home video.
Squatting down, I smirk with victory as I turn the phone around.
“You were right to worry, Kyle. I see you. I see the kind of slime you are.” I point the bat at him.
“I wonder what Eden will think when she sees what you’ve been doing with her cute panties, and then wonders how you got them.
What will she feel when it dawns on her that her so-called best friend snuck into her room and went through her things? ”
“What…what do you want?”
“I want what I’ve always wanted. Eden safe and with me, where she belongs.”
“You’re…delusional. You’re no better…than I am,” he slurs, and then spits blood onto the ground.
“Am I? I’m protecting her. I’ve always protected her by keeping assholes like you away. I always made sure she got home safely after her shifts at the café. What have you done other than jerk off in her room?”
He swallows hard, clutching his broken hand to his chest.
“What if I leave her alone?”
“Uh-huh, I believe that about as much as I believe that the tooth fairy, Easter bunny, and Santa are getting together for weekly orgies. The first thing you’ll do if I let you live is run to the police.
Then you’ll go to Eden all too happy to play the victim and show her what I did to you.
” I stand and shake my head. “Not going to happen.”
“So, you’re…you’re going to kill me,” he asks, voice shaking.
“I thought that was obvious. You really are slow.”
Tucking the bat under my arm, I get to work. I don’t want to leave Eden alone any longer than necessary.
I open his door and pop the trunk before turning off his car.
“What are you doing?”
“Just giving the cops a reason to close your murder quickly.”
This part sucks. I hate that I’m even touching this stuff.
From my trunk I pull out the backpack filled with vacuum-sealed bags of fentanyl. I open a couple and walk around, dumping them on the ground and trampling them into the snow to make it look like there was a struggle.
Getting my hands on this much at such short notice was no easy feat.
“What the fuck is all that?” I don’t answer Kyle. “You’re fucked up, man…seriously, what’s wrong with you?”
“You, Kyle. You’re what is wrong with me.
I thought the rat between your legs was warning enough, but then you doubled down by sneaking into Eden’s room.
” I look him dead in the eyes. “I can’t have you doing that.
You’ll escalate, Kyle. Guys like you can’t help but think you’re owed something more.
I won’t let you hurt her. No…I won’t let you have her. Eden is mine.”
“I’d never hurt Eden. We grew up together. I love her.”
I toss the last handful of baggies into his trunk and close it. Then I grab the ten grand in counterfeit money that cost me a mint. It blows around the parking lot after I throw some of it in the air.
Yeah, this looks like a drug deal gone wrong.
“You know what drug suppliers really hate?” Kyle just stares at me. “Being scammed by preppy college guys thinking they are so much better than they are.”
“You’re insane.”
“No. I’m smart. There’s a difference.”
I lock his car doors and throw the key into the forest.
“I wish I could say that I’m happy to see you die…but honestly…I don’t hate you. I believe that you think you’re in love with Eden, but here’s the thing…she’s mine, and you’re keeping me from the bed we share.”
His lips pull back in a snarl.
“You won’t get away with this.”
“Yes, I will, and deep down you know it. Your sister, your parents, and Eden will all be standing around your grave. They’ll say it’s too soon and swear that you never touched drugs. It’s such a shame when the young die. But it’s time, and I have to get going so…”
“Help! Help me! Someone, please! Help!”
Kyle screams at the top of his lungs as he pushes himself backward along the ground.
Over and over, I hit him until he’s flat on his back in the snow, panting and staring up at me through one unswollen eye. I see the defeat. He understands this is really the end.
“Yer…a fuckin…psycho,” he says and then smirks. “Just…like your father.”
“See, this is why you piss me off. You just don’t know when to quit. That was fucking rude.” I snarl down at his bloody face. “I’m nothing like him.”
“Fuck—”
Done with his voice, I bring the bat down as hard as I can on his jaw. Some of his teeth fly out, but I don’t stop until he’s unrecognizable.
Walking over to the large, metal garbage can, I drop the bat in, then take off the track pants and zip-up hoodie I wore to protect my jeans and thermal shirt from blood splatter.
His phone goes in next. Then, I pull the gel accelerant from my back pocket and douse everything.
The black leather gloves are last. I toss them in and strike a match.
The whole barrel goes up in a ball of flames.
Between us there are enough boot prints to make it look like a party. Even so, a fallen tree branch helps to smudge the evidence. I drag it behind me until I’m satisfied there are no clear imprints, then I drop the branch in the ditch.
I pass his bloody corpse on the way to my car.
Bye, Kyle.
Fucking prick, I still can’t believe he got blood on my hood. He can’t even die without being a pain in my ass.
I climb in and drive straight to the car wash.
Once the car is clean, all I need to do is go home, shower, and crawl into bed with Eden.
I’m sorry, Pretty Thing, this will hurt, but it needed to be done.