The Good Kill

by Kurt Brindley

  In the high, frenzied state of mind she was in after killing Henderson, she was more concerned about washing off all the blood of his that had covered her body and of getting out of the room where his stinking corpse lay as quickly as possible, so when she left the room to follow McKnight she had forgotten to grab the dead man’s gun from the dresser drawer. But, considering how quickly Henderson had bled out from the gashes she had made, first to his jugular vein in the neck, and then the femoral artery near the groin, she had to admit that her raggedy-edged sticks were rather effective.

  One benefit the sticks had over a gun was that they were silent in their work. They could make their kill noiselessly, without alerting any other of the bad elements on the boat. She looked down with appreciation at the bloodstained sticks she was holding in her bloodstained hands and hoped they still had some of their lethal magic left in them.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

  With Ruby taking her time in the bathroom, McKnight was left with no alternative but to try and dress Toni himself. Despite his battered right hand and the pain flaring through it, like the former soldier that he was, he soldiered on. Slinging his rifle around to his back, he managed to slip on Toni’s thong bottoms without too much difficulty. But the top proved a different story. He didn’t have too much of a problem sitting Toni up and getting the top placed properly over her breasts, but when it came time to tie the strings together behind her back with a bum hand, he was continually unsuccessful. He gave up after several attempts, laid the passed-out burden back down, and cursed Henderson for not being there to help him.

  Ever since he had been stationed out in the passageway by the Russian, he had been wondering where his partner had gotten off to. But as he looked down at Toni who, despite her present passed out condition, looked sexy and inviting as hell, it suddenly occurred to him that Henderson would be down with the redhead, breaking her in and living out his fantasy.

  Ruby came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her looking fresh and clean. When she saw McKnight sitting glumly on the arm of the couch holding her sister’s bikini top, she had to laugh. “Don’t know why you even bother to try. Every girl knows you horny mother fuckers are only good at getting us out of our clothes, not back into them.”

  McKnight grunted in affirmation, remembering that Henderson had said something similar to him not too long ago.

  After she had changed into a bright yellow bikini top, white, skintight yoga pants, and a pair of white slide sandals with a bold Nike swoosh logo in yellow across the uppers, Ruby walked over to McKnight as she pinned her hair up in the back into a messy bun. She took Toni’s top from him and said, “Okay, big man, hold her up.” As she was placing the top around her sister’s breasts, she looked back at DeBlanc lying passed out on the bed. “Too bad the little pervert’s out. He’d like to see this.”

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

  RJ’s heart jumped when she heard the door to DeBlanc’s stateroom open. Her first instinct was to peak around the corner to assess the situation; but she didn’t, knowing that if she did, it would probably lead to her discovery, which would probably lead to her death. She got herself into a position like that of a sprinter, ready to rush out of the blocks at the sound of the gun, and yet hoping like hell there wouldn’t be any gunfire to set her off. She readied herself and did the best she could to slow down her breathing so she could focus on the sounds coming toward her. She heard what sounded like something being dragged across the carpet. Then she heard a voice. At first she thought it was Toni speaking, but from the context of what was said and of the way it was spoken, she quickly assessed it to be Toni’s sister speaking instead.

  “Damn, McKnight, don’t you go dropping my sister now. You know DeBlanc don’t want his girls damaged.”

  “It would be much easier if you helped me, Ms. Black,” McKnight said. There was the sound of strain in his voice. “I’m having a bit of trouble holding her up with only one good hand.”

  RJ wiped the sweat from her hands on the rug and then got a good tight grip on the sticks, inspired by what she had just learned from the conversation.

  “Fuck that,” Ruby said as she passed RJ’s corner. “I ain’t getting’ near that bitch. Looks like she’s about ready to puke.”

  RJ almost sprang reflexively into action upon seeing Toni’s twin passing the corner of the bulkhead, but she pulled back right at the last second. Next, several steps behind, came Toni, with McKnight walking alongside her on her right. As they passed, RJ hunched back on her haunches as if trying to make herself disappear. McKnight was practically dragging Toni along with him with his left arm. His rifle was slung around his back. It appeared that he was holding his right hand up by his chest.

  Like an attacking snake, RJ sprung from behind the bulkhead. Possessed by fear and high on Henderson’s nose spray and her own adrenaline, she screamed like a crazed warrior rushing into battle as she launched at her prey, holding one of the raggedy-edged sticks between her teeth and the other in two hands high over her head in a striking position.

  McKnight tried to turn to see who was screaming behind him, but he couldn’t get himself turned around fast enough while holding onto Toni. RJ drove the stick deep into the back of the right side of his neck. The big man dropped Toni and howled like a wounded monster as he frantically tried to remove the deadly weapon sunk deep into him.

  Ruby was confused at first when she turned to see what was going on behind her. Toni’s stoned ass lying crumpled on the deck she could understand. But big ass McKnight fighting with some crazy white girl in a bikini, what the fuck was that all about? She hollered at the girl, “Bitch, what the fuck you doing?”

  RJ didn’t hear Ruby. She was only aware of McKnight and of the hate for her she saw in his eyes as he raged in pain while holding onto the stick in his neck. She took several cautious steps back from him and watched as he staggered in the tight passageway, bouncing back and forth off its bulkheads and streaking them red with blood. Because the first stick wasn’t the kill shot she had hoped it would be, she had to get another shot in without him being able to get his deadly hands on her. And as long as the big man was able to stay on his feet, she knew that would be just about impossible for her to do.

  When she noticed that McKnight had stopped trying to remove the stick from his neck, probably having realized he would bleed out in a matter of seconds if he were to, and was now struggling to pull the rifle from off his back around to the front to shoot her, she took the second stick from her mouth and, like a blocking back running straight up the middle, head low and legs pumping, she led with her shoulder and struck him on the side of the left knee as hard as she could, which, considering his size and mass versus hers, wasn’t hard enough to send him to the deck. But the leg did buckle enough to knock him off balance and force him to take several unsteady steps backwards, right into Toni, who, with the help of a screaming and cursing Ruby, had just made it to her hands and knees. McKnight tripped over Toni and fell backwards, hitting the deck hard.

  RJ didn’t hesitate. She jumped down to the deck next to him and with powerful, double-fisted downward striking motions, began stabbing him in the gut. She only got two or three good shots in before he swatted her away with the brick-like force of a backhand. This dazed her and sent her sprawling to the ground. The bloody stick flew from her hands and landed several yards away.

  As she struggled to get to her hands and knees, Ruby ran over to her and began kicking her in the side.

  “What the fuck you up in here trying to kill this man for, bitch?” Ruby screamed.

  RJ dropped down and folded into a tight ball. “Ms. Steele… Whitney, please stop,” RJ pleaded.

  But Ruby didn’t stop. Unable to get a decent kick in on RJ’s ribs, she tried to stomp down on her head. “The name is Ruby Black, bitch.”

  “God damn it, Ruby,” RJ screamed. “Don’t you understand that they’re going to kill us. All of us.” She rolled away and pivoted her hips around to where she could kick ou
t at Ruby and sweep her feet out from under her. Ruby went down hard.

  RJ stood and prepared herself for McKnight’s onslaught. However, when she saw the big man still on the deck, lying lifeless in a pool of his own blood, she knew that the onslaught wouldn’t be coming. But she had to make sure, so she went over to the fallen hulk of a man and knelt on top of his chest. She pulled out the stick from the back of his neck. Blood shot out from the wound. Ruby crawled over to her and grabbed her by the ankle and tried to pull her away from McKnight.

  RJ shook her off and pointed the bloody stick at her. “You’re next, bitch, if you don’t get you’re fucking hands off me.”

  Ruby, breathing heavily, stepped back from RJ. “You’re fucking crazy, white girl.”

  RJ shoved the stick close to her face. “Damn right I am, and it would be wise for you to remember that.” She lowered the stick from Ruby’s face. “Now, make yourself useful and get your sister to her feet.”

  As Ruby struggled unsuccessfully to stand Toni up, RJ discreetly stabbed McKnight one final time in his leg, allowing the femoral artery to bleed him all the way out, just to make sure.

  With the dead man’s rifle now in hand, RJ pointed it up the passageway and said to Ruby, “Okay, let’s go back to DeBlanc’s room and figure out what to do next.”

  RJ, together with Ruby, got Toni to her feet and helped her back up the passageway.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

  RJ was still in her white thong bikini, the same as Toni’s, but hers was now stained red with McKnight’s blood as was most of her body. She positioned herself next to the master stateroom door as Ruby struggled with Toni up the passageway toward her. “What do you think DeBlanc is doing in there?” she whispered.

  Ruby saw the same wild look in RJ’s eyes that was there just moments ago. She looked over her shoulder down the passageway at the silhouette of McKnight’s body heaped on the deck and then back to RJ. “Why? You planning on wasting DeBlanc just like you did that dead mother fucker down there?”

  RJ shook her head in frustration. “I don’t have any plans right now, Ruby. That’s why I want to get inside so we can catch our breath and figure things out. So let me put it to you another way. Do you think DeBlanc is in there waiting for us with loaded guns pointed at the door?”

  Ruby considered her response. “Doubt it. That little mother fucker popped more pills and shot up way more junk than Little Miss Junkie here.” She nudged her unresponsive sister with a hip. “And you see how she looks.”

  “Okay, good,” RJ said. As she looked over the rifle to familiarize herself with it, she said, “So tell me, Ruby. Why is it you seem so sober and awake when DeBlanc and Toni are so out of it? Stronger tolerance?”

  “Tolerance shit. It’s because Ruby ain’t no fool, that’s why. Give her a little weed and champagne and she’s straight. She don’t never mess with no pills, pipes, or needles.”

  RJ smiled to herself as she shortened the rifle’s butt stock to better fit her shooting profile.

  “What’s so funny?” Ruby demanded.

  “Oh, nothing,” RJ said, her smile widening. “I just get a kick out of you talking about yourself in the third person, that’s all.” And then before Ruby could respond with one of her snide comebacks, RJ continued quickly, “Okay, I’m going in. You stay out here with Toni while I clear the room.”

  Ruby, uncertain whether RJ’s third-person comment was a diss or not, hesitated, and then said through clenched teeth, “Well hurry up ‘cause this bitch is getting heavy.”

  “Okay, I will,” RJ said as she released the twenty-round magazine from its holder and checked it. It was fully loaded. She smacked it back into place and then pulled back the charging bolt to chamber a round. She gave Ruby a nod and then turned to the door to open it.

  It was locked.

  Ruby scoffed. “You need the code, dumb ass. Anyway, why you acting all Rambo up in here? What you think, the little man’s gone and booby trapped the room or something?”

  RJ turned back to Ruby with a look that said she wasn’t fucking around. “You could have reminded me about the code, Ruby.”

  “And you could have kissed my ass, bitch. I ain’t your damn mother,” Ruby said, matching RJ with an equally hard look.

  “Jesus, Ruby. Will you please stop taking offense at every little thing and just open the fucking door before someone finds us and we all get killed?”

  Ruby sighed dramatically and then leaned Toni against the bulkhead, letting her slide down to the deck where she landed hard, slumped over, and moaned. Ruby then went to the security pad next to the door and stared at it for a moment trying to remember the code. Just as she was about to punch in the numbers, she snapped her head back at RJ. “You seem to forget that it’s all you mother fuckers who fucked my shit up, not the other way around. Ruby Black was living like a queen before—”

  RJ pointed the rifle at Ruby and hissed, “Punch in the fucking code now, Ruby.”

  “Or what?” Ruby said dismissively. “You gonna shoot me? That would kind of defeat the purpose of why you’re here, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yeah, you’re right, it surely would. But if it ever comes down to me having to choose between rescuing you from this perverted hellhole or doing what I have to do to keep my own self alive, try to guess which choice I’m going to make.”

  CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

  After Ruby opened the door and RJ went in briefly to make sure DeBlanc was in fact sleeping as Ruby had predicted, they both helped Toni in from the passageway and over to the couch where they laid her down.

  “Now what,” Ruby asked.

  RJ signaled to her to keep her voice down and then whispered, “I need you to find some things we can use to tie DeBlanc up with.”

  Ruby looked at RJ as if she were crazy. “What the fuck you talking about, tie him up?” she said, making no effort to speak quietly. “Girl, you better walk up to that bed right now and put a bullet in his head while he’s sleeping. Don’t let his narrow little ass and prissy behavior fool you. That vengeful little prick’s a mother fuckin’ gangster, and if you don’t kill him now, he’ll hunt you down and kill not just you, but everyone who knows you.”

  “Well, you’re probably right,” RJ said seemingly unfazed by Ruby’s threatening assessment of DeBlanc. “But for now let’s just get him tied up. We can figure out what to do with him after we figure out how we’re going to make it off this boat without getting our own selves killed.”

  “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Ruby said as she climbed the two brief steps running the width of the room that led up to the bedroom suite.

  RJ followed Ruby up the steps to assess how best to manage DeBlanc. She found him sleeping peacefully on his back with a white silk sheet pulled up tight under his chin. His small eyes, close-set against the large, aquiline nose, flickered slightly. His mouth, with its lips pencil-thin and pale, hinted at a slight, suggestive smile. His thinning light brown hair was scattered staticky and mussed about his head and pillow. It was hard for her to imagine the clownish yet serene-looking man as the ruthless killer Ruby had described.

  She turned her attention from the sleeping murderous billionaire’s son to the glamorous suite itself. Its three bulkheads were built out, from deck to overhead, with richly adorned drawers, cabinets, a double wardrobe, bookshelves, and a small computer desk, all handcrafted from a dark red, almost brown, lush bubinga wood. In front of the desk located midway on the right-side of the bed, opposite the wardrobe that Ruby was digging through, RJ saw a classic-looking wooden swivel chair that would be perfect for their needs. She rolled it around the bed, its caster wheels squeaking as they plowed reluctantly through the thick cream-colored carpet, to the other side where DeBlanc lay. She had to pick up the thick bedspread from the floor and set it on the end of the bed before she could get the chair into position.

  Ruby came out of the wardrobe with two fabric belts, a light pink satin one from her robe and a dark blue cashmere one from DeBlanc’s robe, and
four shoestrings that she had stripped from DeBlanc’s several pair of cross trainers, shoes bought for exercising at the yacht’s gym but never worn. She tossed everything on the bed and then gave RJ an impatient look. “Now what?”

  RJ tapped the back of the chair and said quietly, “Now you can help me get him into this chair so we can tie him down.” She slung the rifle onto her back and then pulled the sheet off DeBlanc. A lively erection sprang up at her.

  Ruby laughed at the reaction on RJ’s face. “Right?” she said knowingly. “Pretty impressive for such a scrawny little white boy.” She then put a knee on the bed and grabbed DeBlanc under the arms.

  RJ went to the end of the bed and grabbed DeBlanc by the feet, the only part of his body still clothed, as they remained partially donned in a pair of heather gray, purple, and pink argyle socks, one sagging loosely down at the left ankle, and one barely holding on by the toes of the right foot. On the count of three, they began sliding him around slowly, working to angle his head toward the chair.

  DeBlanc jerked himself awake from the sudden movement, thinking he was falling off the bed. When he opened his eyes and found himself not falling but spinning around on the mattress, he moaned nauseously, thinking the spinning was from the hangover. But when he saw through unfocused, burning, and bloodshot eyes a beautiful white woman in a bikini holding his feet, he had no idea what was happening. “Who the hell are you?” he asked in a dry, scratchy whisper, uncertain whether the woman he saw was real or just a sexy character in one of his drug-induced nightmares.