AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When I got back to my place, the light was on in the kitchen, but it was empty. I walked warily into the den, the next room over.
Benjy was sitting silently in the dark. His cheeks shone wet in the dim light coming from the kitchen. A half-empty bottle of whiskey was wedged between his legs, and the gun lay on the sofa next to him.
I watched him for any sudden movements, just in case he was harboring resentments against the guy who ordered him to go kill his old lady. But no – he was basically a zombie, thousand-yard stare and all.
I walked over, picked up the gun, and put it in my jacket pocket. It smelled like burnt gunpowder.
“Anybody see you do it?” I asked.
He shook his head silently as he stared off into the darkness.
“Anybody see you come here?”
He shook his head again. Then he looked up at me like he was in a trance. “I did it, Lou,” he said, and his face suddenly crumpled and he started crying.
I put my hand on his shoulder. “It had to be done, kid. You did good. I’m proud of you. You manned up.”
He just kept crying, tears dripping off his chin and snot coming out of his nose. Disgusting.
I went back into the kitchen and grabbed some paper towels. One I used to wipe down the gun, in case of any fingerprints; the rest I took back into the den and thrust at Benjy.
“Clean yourself up,” I ordered.
He wiped his face and blew his nose, then took another slug right from the bottle.
“So… what happened?” I asked.
120
He got there early and hid in the shadows by a dumpster, just like I told him.
Ali showed up ten minutes later, at 11:55. He said she looked nervous and was chewing her fingernails.
No wonder. Although he didn’t know it, she was strung out from no coke, scared out of her mind, wondering if she was about to die, guilt-ridden about being a narc, and unable to get in contact with her guardian angel at the DEA.
Poor little fuckin’ snitch.
When he said, “Ali,” and stepped out from behind the dumpster, she almost had a heart attack.
“Benjy?!” she cried out, then got angry. “What the fuck are you doing here?!”
He had the gun – and his hands – in the pockets of his denim jacket, so she didn’t know she should still be frightened.
“Did you cheat on me?” he asked.
I could imagine his voice: sad-sack and whiny instead of angry and mean.
She stared at him for a second, then got a look of pure hatred on her face. “You fucking asshole – how dare you ask me that!”
Our little talk back at the Veils had apparently put her in the right frame of mind.
But Benjy didn’t know that. Her anger only shocked and confused him.
“…did you?”
She got all up in his face. “Did you spy on me for Lou? What did you tell him? Did you tell him about me?! Did you tell him about us?! Did you tell him all about us FUCKING?!”
Now he was even more confused – mostly about how she knew. Problem was, he was too stupid to know he should lie or be angry in return.
