“Such a good boy, Eddie. I think you deserve a little treat.” Heath fists his dick moving it closer to Eddie’s mouth, which opens wide to receive him. But it’s his hand with the cigarette that moves forward, and he extinguishes the ember on Eddie’stongue. “I’ll give you a hand job instead,you fucking rapist,” Heath says as he steps to Eddie, raising his fist..
“Come on now, Heath,” Eddie says, his voice laced with fear. His eyes go wide when he realizes the cigarette wasn’t the worst thing Heath could do to him and he’s in no position to negotiate. “That’s just role-playing between a married couple, Heath,” he chokes.
Heath is immovable, unstoppable. He stalks to Eddie’s and winds up, laying an incredibly forceful punch to Eddie’s testicles. Eddie yodels and tries to writhe in pain, attempting to curl into a fetal position and protect himself from Heath’s fists, but can only jerk and squirm in his restraints. Heath returns to my side of the bed and removes from his pants pocket the same knife he used on the beach. He drags the blade along my skin, making a superficial cut that leaks ruby droplets that run down my skin. “You see that, Eddie, not only does her heart and cunt belong to me, so does the rest of her body.”My eyes fall to my chest as Heath takes a finger dipped in my blood and paints his initials onto my flesh as if signing his very own work of art. He stares at his artwork, observing it, unsure if it’s complete before digging the blade into my flesh and actually carving his initials over the blood-painted letters on my skin. Then he cradles my face in his palm, still holding the knife now stained with my blood. The pain should be sharp, yet all I can focus on is the heat and devotion in the depths of his eyes.
“I’m never letting you go again. I’ll kill us both, Kat, before I live another day without you. You’re mine, Kat. You’ve always been mine. You’ll wear my initials on your skin like a brand, the same ones you’ve placed on my heart.” He brings the blade to my sex. “Push some of that cum out for me, baby.”
I flex, and our mingled arousal drips and clouds his sharp blade. He lifts the knife, a vicious smile crossing his face, one that even frightens me.
“Open your mouth, Eddie.”
“Heath, come on, man,” Eddie protests, thrashing in his restraints. Heath ignores him and plugs Eddie’s nostrils until his mouth opens, and he gasps for breath.
With a single flick, Heath slashes the blade from one side of Eddie’s mouth to the other, tearing his face into a wide, bloody, and grotesque Joker’s smile.
“Did you think I would let you touch her again?”
Tears stream down Eddie’s face, and I don’t realize Heath has cut out his tongue until it flops to the floor like gutted innards coated in slaughter blood.
“Did you really think either one of us would want to go anywhere near your pathetic rape-hungry little dick?”
Eddie makes pained, barnyard animal sounds as Heath stabs the blade right into the flesh of his now flaccid penis.
I close my eyes tightly so as not to see the horror show unfolding before me.
Throughout our whole marriage, Eddie’s kept a gun in the bedside table, a Glock to protect us from intruders, to theoretically hold them off until the authorities can come save us. He’s never once used it.
“How you must suspend your disbelief to convince yourself that I wouldn’t slice you up like a cow to slaughter for all you’ve done to her.” Heath opens the drawer in the table like he lives hereand pulls out the Glock as if it were his gun. He clucks his tongue while Eddie gurgles on his own blood. “You must have had some understanding of how much I loved her?”He holds the Glock to Eddie’s temple and grits his teeth as he leans into him, spitting, “Apologize to Kat for being such a sad sack of shit.”
Eddie whines.
“Before I shoot your fucking dick off, you worthless scum.”
Eddie makes noises. His eyes are wild with horror, and I can smell the acrid fear as it pours off him.
“Too late,” Heath says. He drags the gun down Eddie’s face and shoves it into his mouth. “Blow the gun, you disgusting piece of shit. Pretend it’s my cock.”
I hear Eddie’s teeth chatter against the barrel. He’s too scared to play along.
Heath pulls the trigger. Stone cold, no flinching.
Warm crimson blood splashes against my face and white nightgown, staining the room in countless spatters on our marital bed sheets. An arc of red spatter spans across the white curtains.
CHAPTER 19
Heath
I hadn’t thoughtabout how Kat would react when I shot her husband. Perhaps I should have shielded her from the trauma, but I meant for Eddie’s murder to be retribution. He hurt her. I hurt him. There’s no in-between.
She covers her mouth with her hands but doesn’t scream or cry. It could be shock or maybe his death is a relief to her. Either way, I’ve had years of practice adjusting to this type of thing, while I can’t imagine there have been many murders in Montauk while I’ve been gone.
“Kat, I know you to be iron-stomached, a fish-gutting scientist. Try to look at this through that lens. Blood is blood, be it the frogs or your late husband’s. There’s a lot to be done. Can you take instructions?”
She nods into her hands, then lowers them from her mouth. I begin to roll Eddie’s corpse in the bed sheets and comforter before the blood soaks through the mattress. Kat jumps up to move out of my way.
“I can take care of all of this. Pull down those curtains and take off your nightgown. Is that bar restaurant, The Point, still open all night?”
“I think so,” Kat says as she throws her spattered nightgown onto the pile that was once her husband.
