Bottom Feeder (40 page)

“
What is that?” I move to
pry the object from her hand.

“
Baby, please look at me,”
Beraz pleads.

Finally, I gently force her fingers
open.

“
You should see the other
guy,” she laughs without humor.

“
Who. Did. This?” Beraz
asks through clenched teeth.

I glance down at the heavy Georgia
flag belt buck in my hand. “Where is he?”

“
Gone.”

“
Gone where? Is this his
tooth?” I look to Beraz. His face has turned a sickly pale. His
breathing is coming in long, ragged inhales and exhales. “Who works
for Cordell?”

“
I got rid of him.” She
lifts her eyes to mine. “He was shocked after I kicked his tooth
out so I took the opportunity to run for the Taser in the bedroom.”
A wild look shades over her eyes. “I Tased him twice. I took the
prongs out and Tased him again with the one I keep in the kitchen.
I wrapped his hands and feet and called down for So—for someone to
come get him.”

And there’s my answer. “What’s the
doorman’s name, Beraz?”

“
Sonny,” he answers
absently. “Why is that . . .” His eyes widen. He runs out the door
before I can get to my feet.

“
Dom, no!” Maddy yells.
She tries to stand but crumples back into the tub with a loud moan.
“Jackson, please go after him.”

The door to the stairwell closes as I
exit the apartment. There aren’t many—if any—occupants on this
floor, but I race down the hall in silence to steer clear of making
a scene. I open the door to see Beraz leaping over the railing of
each flight of stairs like he’s an action star or some
shit.

The first couple of hard landings give
me a jolt. Each one after isn’t much easier. I finally make it to
the bottom level on shaky legs.

Again, trying to avoid attention,
Beraz and I run out a side exit then loop around to the front of
the building.

“
Mr. Beraz,” another
doorman opens the door for us.

Beraz calmly approaches the man. “Hey,
James,” he says conversationally. “Is Sonny around? I had something
to give him before he left today.”

“
He’s probably around by
the garage.” He gestures toward the east side of the building. “You
might be able to catch him before he goes home.”

I nod to James and sprint to catch up
with Beraz. We spot Sonny walking up a ramp at the side of the
parking garage.

“
How ya’ doin’, Sonny?”
Beraz yells, breaking into a faster sprint. Sonny is smiling as he
turns. When he sees us, the smile fades into a fusion of fear and .
. . is that relief? The look of relief quickly diminishes as I run
ahead of Beraz at breakneck speed, jumping over the railing to
block Sonny’s escape.

“
Where’re the cameras?”
Beraz asks, following my lead to finish off the
blockade.

“
You have to understand,”
Sonny begins. Something like a growl releases from inside me and he
pauses before saying anything else. Sweat pops out on his
forehead.

“
Cameras,” Beraz repeats.
“I will not hesitate to break every bone in your body, you fucking
coward.”

Sonny jerks his head to a small
opening at the left of the parking garage, behind the stairs. We
herd him into the nook. Beraz pushes him against the wall and wraps
his hands around Sonny’s thick neck.

“
Tell me where he
is.”

“
I don’t know.” Sonny’s
voice comes out as a harsh gurgling sound as Beraz tightens his
grip. “I swear I don’t know.”

“
You better tell him
something,” I say. “I think he’s serious about this bone-breaking
thing.”

“
Mary, Mother of God,” he
prays. “Please help me.”

“
You know, Sonny, God
gives us free will,” Beraz says matter-of-factly. “You have the
free will to pray because you might be scared or in need of
salvation. Me? I have the free will to do this,” Beraz slams
Sonny’s head against the wall, “Because you are not cooperating.
You knew he was gonna hurt her and you let it happen, you sorry
sack of shit. You were going to let him rape and kill her.” He
bangs Sonny’s head against the wall again. “What the fuck did she
ever do to you?”

I step up to Beraz and calmly pull his
arms away from the terrified doorman’s throat. Sonny breathes a
sigh of relief. My fist swings around, landing with a crunch on
Sonny’s jaw. He drops to the ground, but not before another punch
crashes his nose.

Beraz squats in front of Sonny and
grabs the collar of his uniform.

“
That girl may just be a
paycheck for you, but she—she is my
life
. Do you know what will happen
if she were to lose her life?”

Scared to answer aloud, Sonny shakes
his head.

“
If she loses her life, I
lose my life. If I lose my life, then I have nothing else to lose.
You think about that when you’re sitting down to a nice dinner with
your family tonight. A wife and little boy, right? You think about
that real. Fucking. Hard.” Beraz slams Sonny against the wall one
last time before walking away.

James greets us as we enter the
building. “You boys find Sonny?”

“
We just missed him,”
Beraz says glumly. “We’ll catch him another time.”

In the elevator, I look over to a calm
and collected Beraz. “You do any hard time before the
Army?”

He snorts. “The Army doesn’t take
felons, Monroe. You know that.”

Maddy

Earlier

I break away from Larry as soon as he
pushes me through the door. I grab the cake plate on the counter
and pitch it as hard as I can. He dodges my throw and the plate
smashes against the wall. There are no screams, no shouts, no
verbal threats. The fight between us has been going on for too long
to need anything more than action and reaction.

We punch, kick and throw whatever our
hands land on. I finally get to the hallway, where I try to run
inside the bedroom for the Taser and hopefully find a split-second
to catch my breath. I don’t make it.

He grabs around my waist, lifts me in
the air and slams me against the wall like a ragdoll. I crumple to
floor. With vengeance in his eyes and an ugly, smug smile splayed
across his face, he begins ripping my clothes off. My skin jaggedly
frays open with each snag of the material.

Fight, Carrington! Get up
and fight! Don’t let him take this from you again.

He tugs his belt off and begins
shrugging his unbuttoned slacks down when something inside me
snaps. I let out a terrible scream. Larry tries to cover my mouth,
but I bite down on his hand. I make a fist and punch him in the
throat with the knuckle of my middle finger.

Everything after that is a blur. Blood
pours from his mouth when I kick him in the face. Shock registers
as he chokes and spits out a tooth. I take the opportunity to run
for the Taser. I Tase him once and drag him into the living room. I
Tase him again with the Taser from the kitchen. I pull his belt off
and beat the hell out of him with it while he’s twitching on the
ground. I get a sick pleasure out of watching him convulse into
fits. I secure his legs with his belt and retrieve a roll of duct
tape from the kitchen. I bind his hands. Larry yells for
help.

“
Not today,” I whisper. I
place the duct tape over his mouth and wrap the roll around his
head twice. “Another sound, Mr. Duvall, and I will stab you and
watch you bleed out on Cordell’s floor. You’re finished hurting me.
Do you understand?”

I feel as if I have no control over my
body as I punch him again for good measure. I bind his legs with
duct tape, discard the belt, and remove the buckle. It’s my
souvenir now.

Scrolling through the numbers in
Larry’s cell phone, I come across DMANNY. On a hunch, I take this
to mean “Doorman New York”. I call the number and recognize Sonny’s
voice immediately.

“
Take your break now,” I
say calmly, “And remove him from my apartment.”

I scroll through the rest of the
names—along with the numbers connected to those names. I take a
picture with my cell phone of each contact. I notice one particular
number has an odd country code attached to it.

I dial the number from Larry’s
phone.

“
Mr. Duvall,” Cordell
greets. “You have good news for me?”

“
Guess again,” I reply.
“He’s coming back wrapped in a nice package.”

Cordell inhales sharply.

“
The next one you send
won’t come back at all.”

And I hang up.

“
Take the back elevator
down, and get him out of here,” I tell Sonny when he finally
arrives. “When you finish today’s shift, leave the
City.”

“
Maddy, I—”

“
Listen to me,” I say. “He
won’t come for you directly. He will target your wife, your kids,
and anyone else you love. Quit this job and move as far away as you
can.”

The next thing I know I’m in the
bathtub with my fingers wrapped around Dom’s wrists.

I scrub manically until every drop of
blood is wiped from the surfaces, including the door. I pick
through the shattered pieces of glass. Apparently I am not meant to
have Martha Stewart cake plates.

I sigh in frustration as the last of
the larger pieces are placed in the recycling bin. My ribs scream
in misery when I sigh. I release another frustrated sigh. This is
the beginning of a vicious cycle.

The worst part of all
this? Larry attacked when Dom and Jackson were here. I do not
believe in coincidences. I believe that every minuscule thing that
happens is an event that leads to another event that leads to
another. In this case, Sonny was my
coincidence
.

My stomach rolls and flips
like a single-wide trailer in a Kansas tornado at the realization
of just how close Larry was this time.
Thisclose
. A tingly feeling spreads
from deep inside my chest to the tip of my tongue. I sprint to the
bathroom, barely making it to the toilet before my breakfast comes
up.

Rinse. Brush. Rinse. Slump against the
bathtub. Close my eyes.

Why does anyone else have
to be involved in this? It was my secret to keep.
Mine.
I just want it to
end.

And a shower. I
really
want a
shower.

Sonny, I discovered, has been keeping
tabs on me and reporting back to Larry. Because I had to give
notice to allow Dom and Jackson in the building when I’m not here,
Sonny knew I was having guests this weekend—just like he knew when
Dom arrived last week.

No one in the building knows I am
moving out. I kept that information purposely hidden. I’m sure
President Highland has attempted to contact Cordell. Good thing he
doesn’t know when I’m leaving. My absence will not take very long
to discover. Someone will notice, and that someone will contact
Cordell. Doesn’t matter, though.

By then I will be long
gone.

Jackson

Anger and confusion are running so
thick, the walls inside the building may burst at any moment. Maddy
seems to be buzzing with a calm energy.

I pace the length of the apartment.
Beraz seethes in a corner, watching her every move. Maddy is
cleaning with a sense of urgency.

We offer to help dust,
sweep, mop.
Anything.

“
It’s been a hard day for
everyone,” Maddy says. “Relax.”

She apologizes profusely to Beraz and
me, then apologizes to him for having to be involved a second time.
I want to shake her and scream “It’s not your fault!” But I don’t.
I watch Beraz fumble to find an un-bruised area of her body to
touch her. To comfort her.

A single, silent tear
rolls down her cheek. Witnessing Maddy cry feels as if bricks are
being catapulted on my chest. Before I begin to process
this—whatever
this
is—she smiles weakly and says, “I’m hungry.”

Beraz, as usual, goes out for dinner.
Maddy perches on the arm of the couch, winces, then slides down to
the cushion.

When Beraz and I returned from our
talk with Sonny, she recalled the details of her assault, beginning
with how the bastard attacked her from behind. Never, even with my
time spent in a warzone, have I ever witnessed the degree of
cowardice Cordell and his flunkies have displayed.

I sit next to her and turn on the
television. “You really okay?” I scoot closer. Not too
close.

She nods without looking at me. “A
little tired.”

I turn off the television. “Why do you
apologize for things you have no control over?”

“
Because I don’t have
control over them,” she replies simply. Well okay. “I wish you
could understand. This thing between Larry and me? Cordell and me?
It’s supposed to be private. I never wanted anyone else to
experience this part of my life.”

“
You can’t take on the
world alone, Maddy.”