Shotgun rattling in my nervous grip, I stare at the screen, visions of what the sick fuck did to that innocent child appearing unbidden as Derick stares back at me. I clench my jaw, refusing to take blame for his death. I can’t. Still, as Derick starts to pace the office, I have a feeling the kid’s short life will stay with me until the moment I take my final breath. Maybe even after.
Derick lurches at the camera, a wild look in his eyes as he shoves his face into the lens. “You fucked up, Cunningham! You should’ve never let that pussy friend of yours Ryder talk you into saving the dirty whore and her brat!” He scratches at the stubble lining his jaw, a broken-toothed smile curling his mouth as he backs away. “Shit happens, though. Everyone’s allowed a moment of weakness, right? But I digress.”
Taking his seat yet again and rocking back and forth in his chair, Derick produces a dagger out of the thick, smoke-filled air. Wooden handle intricately carved with what appears to be Chinese lettering, the thing makes my forearm look like it belongs to a dwarf, its length a good twelve inches or so. Its surgical steel blade catches the domed lighting at a perfect angle, momentarily blinding me, my eyes squinting in response as he runs it along his shaved head. Continuing to stare at me intently, the dick smiles and drags the tip of the weapon down the side of his cheek, producing a trickle of blood. His smile spreads from ear to ear, his eyes tumbling into the back of his head as his tongue sneaks out, collecting his blood from the blade in one slow, calculated sweep.
The cocksucker’s a monster. The kind children imagine lurk in the shadows of their bedrooms but have never seen. The Boogeyman brought to life, he’s what haunts nightmares.
“Did ya know I couldn’t even give Dom a proper burial?” he announces, breaking the silence shrouding the airwaves between us. “My baby brother, my last goddamn living relative, is buried right here on our property. I turned his stupid-as-fuck sidekick friend into pig feed too, so there’s no chance in hell he’s ever gonna be found. His family thinks he took off to California with his mistress.” He lets out a condescending cackle, a smile lighting up his eyes as he finishes the last of his whiskey. “I always hated that dumb fuck, but Dom? Nah, Dom loved the dick like a brother.” He pauses, an icy emotion—one I can’t decipher, but if I had to guess, it’d be jealousy—coating his face, as he sparks up another cigarette. “Getting back to Dom: I couldn’t chance the DEA sniffing all over the warehouse here. I’m sure they wouldn’t have taken well to a drug lord calling in the murder of his brother. Well, maybe they would’ve, but that’s neither here nor there. Either way, I wasn’t about to hand them over my business or my life. Not even for my family.”
Before I can blink, he leaps from his chair yet again, his nose inches from the screen. “You killed my brother!” he growls, spittle flying from his mouth as he grabs hold of the camera, shaking it to near destruction. “Now I have nothing! Nothing, Brock! No family, just hatred! I’m going to kill you, motherfucker, make no mistake about that! Before I’m finished with you, I’m gonna make ya wish your mother swallowed you instead!”
A certified Jekyll and Hyde, Derick dips back into his cool-cat character, not a beat missed between the eerie transition as he shoves his hands into his camo pockets. “You’re probably wondering how I found out about all of this. Am I right? Hell, if I were you, my head would be all over the fucking place.” Attention aimed at the ground, he leisurely strolls back and forth in front of a swastika hanging on the wall behind him. “It’s pretty simple, actually, but stay with me here if ya can. The video from our warehouse feeds back to a low-key apartment I keep a few miles from here. Bamo! Your buddy figured he had everything covered when he tore apart the camera system, but the asshole never thought about that one, did he? So much for his supposed genius status. Dumb fuck. Ya might wanna think about getting a different partner to head your operation.”
Laughter punches from his chest, his thumbs running up and down the slim black fibers of his wifebeater as he continues to pace. “Oh yeah, revisiting the loose ends we were discussing earlier. You’ve left a fuckload of them for me to handle. I’m not talking about you, your useless counterpart, Ryder, or Lee, but so very much more. Unlike what my brother said, this is not a game, nor is it an empty threat. There’s gonna be a reckoning, Brock. A reckoning of biblical proportions not seen since Moses destroyed the pharaoh.” He stops moving, a crooked grin hiking up the corner of his mouth as he faces the camera. “I’m gonna kill every single person you hold dear to your filthy heart, your two prick friends included. To make things even more excitin’, I’m making sure you’re the last bastard to die. Nothing personal, buddy, but I really gotta make sure ya suffer as much as, if not more than, I have. Just knowing I took everyone ya love, slowly, one by one, from your waste of a life, will make the day I cross through the gates of hell that much more . . . special, if you will.”
Derick’s half-skeletal-tattooed face swallows the screen, his countenance every bit the rabid animal he is—foam flowing from his mouth, his words nothing but mere growls, none of which I can decipher as he continues to scream out a list of threats. However, before the camera fades to black, I’m able to make out one sentence—one sentence that has my heart tripping: “I plan on startin’ with that brunette Barbie of yours first.”
Anger, hatred, and fear pound through my muscles with every uneven breath I take. “Bet I’ve really got your attention now, Cunningham, eh? Ah yes. Yes. I. Fucking. Do.” A fit of laughter rockets from his mouth, his hollow stare clamped to mine as he continues to verbally rape my universe. “She’ll be the first to go, the first to feel what the tip of my blade is gonna do to her slender neck. The way it’s gonna expose her delicate veins. The first to beg for her life when I drag my magical steel wand down her chest and slowly rip her open, her tears hardening my cock as I slide it into her ass, fucking her better than you ever have.”