“Okay! Okay! You mean that bitch…that girl of mine you like – Bridgett.”
“Aren’t you clever?” I replied coldly.
“I thought you were done with her!” he exclaimed. “You hadn’t been around…she’s been acting up and not bringing in her worth, ya know?”
“I have no idea,” I said, “but I know little boys who don’t take care of their toys end up losing them.”
“I’m sorry, man,” he said. “I didn’t know…I didn’t know you still wanted her…”
I stopped listening to his blather. My hand reached behind to pull my piece from the back of my jeans, but it wasn’t there.
I’d left so quickly, I hadn’t even taken a gun.
Mario was pretty good at beating people to death when it needed to be done. There were several ways – collapsing the trachea could do it, and you could always punch someone in the head enough to cause brain damage. I could have strangled him as well, but that took a lot longer than it looked like in the movies.
If someone were to ask, I’d probably admit to being a lazy killer.
“You have a piece on you?” I asked.
He blathered nonsensically until I punched him in the face again, busting his nose and spraying my shirt with his blood.
“I said, do you have a gun on you?”
“Y-y-yes!” he cried. “It’s on my right ankle!”
“Raise your leg up,” I instructed.
He obeyed, and I kept a good grip across his neck and chest with one arm while reaching for his pistol with the other. I pulled it out and put it in his face.
“You don’t take care of your things,” I told him bluntly. “I don’t think you deserve to have them.”
“It was just business!” he cried out. “They paid good money!”
“Oh yeah?” I asked. “How much?”
“A grand for an hour!” he told me. “You pay that for the whole night! You can have her right now – all night! No cost!”
I hummed and tilted my head to one side, lowering the gun a bit.
“Yeah, all right,” I agreed. “I think I will take her tonight, no cost to me. Tomorrow, too.”
“Anything you want!” he promised with a quick nod of his head. Sweat poured from his temples and down his neck.
“I think she’s gonna keep the money from that last trick, too.”
His brow creased, and for a moment he looked like he was going to argue. He thought better of it, though, and agreed with me.
“Whatever you want, Mister Arden,” he said. “She can have it.”
I nodded.
“Whatever I want, huh?”
“Anything!” he confirmed.
I nodded again.
“Okay.” I raised the gun, kicked back the safety, and blew his brains into the bricks.