by Miller, Tim
He checked out and rolled his purchases out to the parking lot and filled the trunk and backseat. From there he stopped at a convenience store and picked up a pre-paid cell phone. He got it activated and logged into his Gmail account and watched his contact list download. Tossing the phone onto the passenger seat, he headed back to San Antonio. During the drive, his mind drifted away from his sadness for his lost family. All he could think about was what he was about to do.
Once in San Antonio, his first stop was his house, or what had previously been his house. He took some things out of the car and went inside. Setting up only took an hour or so. After he finished, he got back in the car and headed south of the city. There was an abandoned warehouse there. The place was condemned the last he knew. It used to be a distribution center for some farm equipment company. Now it just sat empty.
At the warehouse, he took out the rest of his items and carried them inside. It took longer than the house to set up, but he wanted everything to be neat and in order. Once he finished, he went back to the house. Parking the car in the garage, he walked inside and pulled his favorite chair about ten feet in front of the door. He took out the cell phone and dialed. Slade answered on the second ring.
“Hello Slade.”
“Tony? What the hell? I was just looking for you.”
“I know.”
“You decided to come in after all?”
“No.”
“Did you see what we did to your wife and kid?”
“Yes.”
“Ok. I’m sorry we had to do that man, but business is business. They got off easy. We made it quick. If you come in to Ramos, I’ll make sure it’s quick. You have my word. If I have to track you down, it’ll be ugly. Really, really ugly,” Slade said.
“I’m at my house now. Come and get me.”
Chapter 22
Slade was sitting in the office at Ramos Medical when he hung up the phone and looked at Hector.
“He’s at his house.” Slade said.
“So we gonna pick him up?”
“No. You are.”
“What? Why just me?” Hector asked.
“There is something off with that guy. He told me to come and get him.”
“Oh shit. We killed his family, now he’s acting tough. Happens all the time. Every time I off some dude’s kids or girlfriend he gets all big. I still kill him though.”
“Well so it shouldn’t be a problem for you to go take him out. Don’t even bring him back here. Just kill his ass so we can move on.”
“All right boss. I’ll go take care of him. Should be easy.”
“Good. Call me when it’s done.” Slade said as Hector walked out. Once he was gone, Slade dialed the Lt. Governor.
“Hey boss. Our driver should be out of the picture in an hour or so. We took out his family earlier, they were just in the way. He’s at his house now. Hector is gonna take care of it.”
“Good. This is taking way too long.”
“I know, I apologize. Any word with the Mexicans?”
“I have a meeting with Esteban later this week. He seemed oddly cheerful.”
“That doesn’t sound good. Watch your back sir.”
“Of course. That stupid wetback isn’t gonna get the best of me. I don’t care how far he rose in the criminal ranks or how much money he has. If it wasn’t for me and this business, he’d still be herding goats for ten cents an hour.” Adams said. “So just get this asshole taken care of. We need to clean all this up and get back in business. I need campaign funds when I run for Governor this fall.”
“It’ll get done sir. I’ll call you as soon as I hear from Hector.”
Slade hung up the phone and started reading a magazine on his desk. He tried not to worry about all the problems the company had been having the past few days. He’d seen some hiccups over the years, but never anything this bad. The magazine was one of those entertainment rags. There were interviews with movie stars and some shit about upcoming releases. He stopped going to movies when the comic book people took over.
He always liked a good war movie. There hadn’t been a good war movie in a good ten years or more. Most actors these days were pussies anyway. He couldn’t imagine what kind of war film they’d even do now anyway.
He tossed the magazine aside and lit a real cigarette. Hector and his vaping shit cracked him up. Electronic cigarettes. That was some shit right there. They going to have electronic chewing tobacco next? Or maybe electronic pipes. He might actually try an electronic pipe. As he took a puff of the cigarette, he picked the magazine back up. There was a whole article about some kid who became a millionaire on YouTube. He tossed the magazine aside and decided he was no longer cool in his old age, though he wasn’t all that old. He’d always felt older than his years. His phone ringing pulled him out of his deep thoughts on pop culture. As he picked up the phone, he saw it was Hector.
“Is it done?” Slade asked. There was no reply at first, only breathing. “Hector?”
“Hey boss,” Hector said, but he sounded like he was straining to speak.
“Hector. What’s going on? Is it done?”
“I’m supposed to give you a message.”
“What the hell are you talking about? What message? Did he get the drop on you?”
“Tony said to tell you there are things worse than death.” Hector grunted.
“Oh really? Like what?”
There was a rustling sound and more breathing. This time, he recognized the voice as soon as it came on the other line.
“Like me.” Tony said and hung up.
Chapter 23
Tony sat in his chair waiting. He knew Slade would be coming for him soon. It took exactly thirty minutes. He hadn’t heard a car pull up, so Slade must have parked down the street. Once the door knob began to turn, Tony tensed, hoping everything worked like he’d set it up. As the door slowly opened, he could tell right away it wasn’t Slade. Slade had sent the Mexican.
The guy had a gun in his hand. The man pushed the door all the way open, which set things into motion. There was a loud click as the sledge hammer swung from the left side, striking the Mexican on the top of the head. It was meant to hit him on the side, but Tony had set it up for Slade. The Mexican was so short, it clipped the top of his head but it was enough.
The gun went off as he fell back. The bullet fired into the ceiling. Tony jumped on him before he could recover, knocking the gun away. They tumbled to the floor, with Tony on top. Tony began wrapping duct tape around the Mexican as he struggled. By the time the man regained his focus, Tony had him wrapped in tape.
“Let me go motherfucker!” The Mexican yelled.
“You’re not exactly in a position to bark out orders,” Tony said as he sat back in his chair.
“I’ll tell you whatever the fuck I want. Let me out of here or I’ll kill you bitch.”
“You were going to kill me anyway. As a matter of fact, I’m about a hundred percent sure Slade sent you here with the sole purpose of killing me.”
Tony watched his face. He could see it began to register making threats wasn’t going to help him.
“Ok. You’re right. He did. Let me go and we can forget all about this. I’ll tell Slade I killed you and you can go on and do whatever.”
“Really? You’d do that? Make him think you killed me?”
“Yeah. I would. No one would fuck with you again. I promise man. You have my word.”
“Oh, that’s quite comforting.” Tony said as he stood and walked over to the man and knelt down next to him.
“So you give me your word on that?” Tony asked.
“I do man. I swear on my dead grandma’s grave. I’ll walk out of here now. You’ll never hear from us again.”
Tony considered it for a moment, stood and kicked him in the stomach several times.
“You think I’m fucking stupid! I watched you guys go in that hotel room and kill my family! You think you’re going to walk out of here? You’re out of your fucking mind.
Fact is, by the time we are done tonight, you’ll be begging me to kill you.”
Tony dragged him into the garage and stuffed him in the trunk of his car. He pulled out of the garage and headed to the warehouse. As he drove, his mind was on one thing and one thing only. While he had hoped to get Slade, he was at least glad he grabbed this one. This man helped kill his family, so he should be taken care of as well.
Once they arrived at the warehouse, he dragged the Mexican inside and strapped him to a workbench before cutting the tape loose.
“What the fuck are you gonna do?” The man screamed.
“I’m going to torture you,” Tony said.
“You can’t do that! You know what Slade and his guys will do to you?”
“They won’t do shit. And I’m pretty sure you’re not much more than the hired help. He doesn’t give two fucks about you,” Tony said as he cut away the man’s clothing until he was completely naked. He wheeled a cart over that contained a car battery and some wires and cables. He took one of the cables and clipped it to the man’s scrotum.
“What are you doing? You playing with my nuts man? You some faggot?”
“Oh. I’m playing with them all right.”
“Don’t do this man. Please! Come on!”
Tony ignored him as he attached another cable. Once both were connected, he went to the battery and picked up another cable that had a dial attached to it.
“Ok buddy,” Tony said. “Hang on.”
Tony turned the dial to the right as the current coursed through the man’s testicles. He screamed the shrillest sound Tony had ever heard before as his body twitched and gyrated on the table. Tony turned the dial back and the man stopped. He was breathing heavy as he looked at Tony.
“Come on man. Don’t do this,” he pleaded.
Again Tony ignored him as he cranked it back up. This time spit shot out of the Mexican’s mouth as he twitched and flopped on the table. After several rounds of this, Tony dug through the man’s pockets and took out his phone.
“Here. Let’s give Slade a call. Let him know how you’re doing,” Tony said.
He found Slade’s number on the contact list and dialed it. Once they completed the call, Tony took the battery out of the phone and tossed it aside. He removed the clips from the man’s nuts and took out a large tool that looked like a big set of pliers.
“You know,” Tony said. “My uncle used to own a hog farm.”
“So, what do I give a shit?” The man was covered in sweat now and panting so hard Tony thought he’d hyperventilate.
“Well, this tool is what they would use to castrate hogs with. Would you like to see how it works?”
“No! Don’t man! No!”
Tony took a knife and made an incision on the man’s scrotum.
“You see, I’m doing this because it doesn’t take a lot of balls to shoot a woman and little girl in their sleep. So I figure you’re not going to be needing these.”
Tony inserted the tool into the opening as the guy screamed worse than earlier. He wiggled and cried as Tony used the tool to pull on one of his testicles. With a ripping sound, it tore free as the guy kept screaming. This time he didn’t even sound human. Tony sat the detached testicle aside and went to work on the second one.
“No! No! No! No!” The man yelled. “Please! Ahh!” He screamed again as Tony twisted and pulled the testicle free.
Tony walked up to him, holding one of the testicles up to the hanging light he’d brought with him.
“Wow. These are much bigger than I’d have suspected.” Tony said. “You know. I have been incredibly rude.”
“Fuck you man. Fuck you,” The Mexican said. By this point he was actively crying.
“No seriously. I haven’t offered you anything to eat. Here.” Tony jammed the testicle into the man’s mouth. He struggled and tried to spit, but Tony shoved it in and duct taped his mouth shut.
“There you go. Chew it up good. Don’t want to choke or anything.”
The man thrashed and struggled about before closing his eyes and holding still. Tony saw the man’s jaws moving to indicate he was finally chewing.
“That’s better. Chew it up real good, then swallow. Need your protein.”
It took the guy quite a while, but he eventually chewed and swallowed his own testicle. Though as soon as Tony pulled off the duct tape, the man threw up all over himself.
“Aww, what a waste. That’s ok,” Tony said. “We’ll eat more later. Right now, let’s see what kidneys look like.”
Chapter 24
Tony stood over the Mexican’s bloody body. Throughout his “operation” Tony had removed one of the man’s kidneys, he’d cut open his stomach and disemboweled him, fed the guy his own testicles and many other things. There was a pile of bloody organs, flesh and tissue on the end of the table dripping onto the floor.
Somehow the guy was still alive. His screams ended quite a while ago. The only sounds he made now were whimpers and gurgling sounds. Tony looked at his bloody face and knelt down by him.
“You know fella, I don’t even know your name.”
“Hector,” the man whimpered.
“What was that?”
“Hector,” he said a little louder.
“Oh. Hector. Well it’s nice to meet you. It’s too bad we had to meet under these circumstances. But hey, you killed my family. So here we are. Ok. I’d say we’ve had enough fun for one night. Are you ready to die now?”
Hector slowly nodded his head.
“Just kill me. Please?”
“Well yes. I have just the thing.”
“Will you make it quick?”
“Oh certainly. It will be very fast.” Tony said as he walked over to another table. He bent down and came up with a gas can. He went back to Hector and began pouring gas all over him. Hector’s screams started up again.
“No! No! Not like this! No! Please!”
“Stop whining. It’ll be quick.” Tony said as he took out a book of matches, lit one and tossed it onto the table. Hector screamed as the fire instantly engulfed his broken body. He twitched and flopped for just over a minute before he stopped moving completely. Tony let him burn for another minute before picking up a fire extinguisher and putting Hector out. Smoke rose off Hector’s charred remains. Tony hadn’t realized how bad burning flesh smelled.
The smell was worse than road kill that had been sitting in the sun too long. It was almost nauseating. He walked outside and got some air. As he stood outside, the sun was beginning to come up. He watched the sunrise as he thought of how he would take care of Slade. As bad as it had been for Hector, Slade was going to get it much worse. As he strode across the parking lot, an armadillo ran out of a bush and across the lot. He hadn’t seen one of those in a long time.
He went inside scraped Hector off the table and into an empty fifty five gallon drum sitting in the warehouse. He hosed off his work area and figured it was time to bring Slade. Tony intended to make Slade tell him who his boss was before he died. Tony had no intention of stopping with just these two. Everyone was going to pay.
Before he’d left with Hector, he’d reset the front door trap in case Slade showed up while he was gone. As he got closer to his house, he noticed a car parked just past his driveway. The front door was closed and there was no immediate sign of anyone. Tony had set a trap or two around the back of the house as well. Tony got out of the car and grabbed the tire iron and slowly crept around the back of the house. As he reached the side of the house, he heard someone grunting and panting. Around back there was Slade, lying on the ground, having fallen victim to one of Tony’s traps. This one had been an old trick he’d read about in a book by a former Marine. He’d taken a twelve gauge shotgun shell, some metal tubing and a nail. By burying the tubing and the shell together with the point of the nail resting on the primer of the shotgun shell, the device became a homemade landmine as soon as Slade stepped on it.
Half of Slade’s right foot was bloody shreds. He was lying on the gr
ound holding his leg, his face as pale as a sheet. Tony was already standing over him before Slade had seen him.
“You motherfucker!” Slade said. “Where’s Hector?”
“You’ll find out real soon.” Tony said before hitting him across the face with the tire iron. He drove the car into the garage, and dragged Slade inside and taped him up as well. He was much larger and heavier than Hector, but Tony managed. Once he got him to the warehouse, he repeated the ritual of cutting Slade’s clothing off and strapping him to the table. Once he had things set up, he shoved a smelling salt up Slade’s nose and watched him gasp back to life.
“What the fuck?” Slade said as he struggled against his restraints. “You little cocksucker. You better let me up from here. I will fucking gut you like a pig.”
“You guys love to make threats when you’re helpless. I’d think you’d be a bit nicer.”
“Fuck you. There’s your nice. You know, I had fun killing your wife and kid. I’m the one who put the bullet in your little girl. She woke up at the last second and looked right at me. She goes ‘daddy? Where’s my daddy? No! No!’ Hahaha. I put the gun right to her forehead and watched her brains spray all over the room. I think I still have some on my shoes.”
Tony didn’t want to show Slade that he was getting to him, but he couldn’t listen to anymore. He gave Slade a backhand across the face. Slade yelped as Tony’s fist connected.
“You’ve talked enough. You’re going to help me though. You’re going to tell me who your boss is.”
Slade began laughing.
“You dumbass. I’m not telling you shit. You can go fuck yourself. You gonna kill me? Then kill me.”
Tony went over to a barrel, reached in with his gloved hand and pulled out a charred skull. He sat the skull on Slade’s chest.