Page 215 of You Might Be Bad for Me

I leave the phone on the bed, on the sheets that never belonged to me. It can stay there and when the men come and take everything inside because the bills go unpaid, they can have it.

They can have every piece of what’s here.

It never belonged to me and I’m done belonging to it.

SEBASTIAN

Ican’t stop staring at the note on the counter. It’s only a Post-it with the words, “Leaving for the weekend – Seb” written on the yellow square. Eddie will get it on Monday, or maybe this weekend if anyone comes in. The shop is supposed to be empty, with most of the guys going down to the docks for Romano this weekend. There’s a large order of coke coming in. And the butcher shop isn’t needed for that.

I’ll leave a note and I’ll ghost. He can try to find me all he wants, but I’m done with Romano and this place. Just as the thought hits me, I hear the bells chime at the front door and a chill seeps into my veins.

“Eddie,” I greet him with a grin, hiding the fact that I didn’t want anyone to know I was leaving until I was gone. I didn’t want anyone to ask questions. “What are you doing here?” I ask and casually lean against the counter. The spool of butcher’s cord is right below me. All of us who work in the shop are familiar with it; we use it to secure packages and orders.

I don’t reach for it yet, but with the pounding of my blood, I know it’s going to end like this. The desire to get it over with forces a numbness through my fingers and I shake it off, smiling as he answers me.

“What am I doing? How about, what the fuck are you doing here?” He shoots me a twisted grin as if he’s being friendly, but the look in his eyes is filled with the psychotic glee he’s known for. “I heard Romano wants to talk to you,” he adds as he walks to the counter, the sound of his boots slapping against the floor in time with the pounding of my heart. He tosses the keys to the shop down on the counter and leans closer to me just as I reach for the cord.

I wind it over my fingers under the counter. The dumb fuck is so hellbent on letting me know my days are numbered in the darkened butcher shop that he doesn’t realize his own imminent demise is only a moment away.

“Seems he thinks you have something to do with those assholes coming up dead,” he tells me, eyeing me and then glancing out the window as the headlights of a passing car shine through the glass.

Dread rips through me, thinking it’s someone else and I won’t have time to finish Eddie off, but it’s not. The lights flash and keep on going, heading down to the mechanic shop behind us.

“Why would he think that?” I ask him, wrapping the rope around once more and then starting on the other hand. I leave less than a foot of cord between the two. Enough to get the thin rope over his head, but not so much that it’ll be too loose when I choke him out.

“Someone said Marcus came looking for information and was directed to you.”

My lungs halt and a harsh thud slams in my chest. I ask him quietly, knowing the smirk on my face is dimming and finding it hard to swallow, “And who would that be?”

“Yours truly,” he gives me the answer with his grin widening. “It was kind of a test,” he tells me as I take in a single deep breath and grip the rope tightly with both hands, my thumbs running along the rough bundles that are fastened around both my hands. “And you failed, Sebastian.” For the first time, his smile fades and he shrugs. “I’m sure there’s a reason though,” he says, feigning sympathy.

I nod once, making it look like I’m full of regret. And I am. I regret not killing this fucker sooner.

In one swift moment, my arms are up and around his head. He tries to turn and get out of my reach, but all that does is spin him around, so his back is to my chest as I get the rope right where I want it.

His feet come back first, trying to kick me as his hands reach up and try to grab the rope before it tightens. He gets the tip of two fingers in the loop, but I don’t give a fuck. I’m squeezing so tight I can’t breathe, I can’t move. My muscles are on fire and my teeth grind together as I grunt out the pain. His large body slams into me, shoving me against the back wall. I grit my teeth as his boots squeak against the floor as he throws his head back into my shoulder.

He throws his body to the left, knocking us both into the tables and I almost lose my grip as I fall hard, smacking the side of my head against the edge of one chair as we tumble to the floor, but I hold on with everything I have, feeling the thin rope dig in deeper.

I watch his face closely, seeing how red his eyes are getting and how pale his face is.

His cheeks puff out as his strength wanes. Another kick, but this one’s weaker. A few more seconds and his head lolls. I still can’t breathe, and I pull back harder, feeling the rope nearly cut into his fingers, giving it more slack as the bones break. I hold on tight for another moment, and he doesn’t react. He’s limp and heavy, his dead eyes bloodshot and staring ahead at nothing.

When I finally release him, I have to slowly unwind the rope and bring the circulation back to my numb fingers. It’s still dark as I pick up the chairs and tables, grabbing Eddie’s corpse by the ankles to move him out of the way. There’s no blood, no sign of a struggle. I check the wall we crashed into, feeling the burn and sting of my muscles. I’ll bruise, but there’s no dents or any sign of what happened. And that’s what matters.

My shoulders burn as I drag his heavy ass to the back, kicking the swinging door open and pulling him through the kitchen to get to where the freezers are. He isn’t the first and he won’t be the last dead body to be stored here.

I shut the door hard, giving it the last of my anger and locking it with a loud click that resonates through every inch of me. My body is still on fire, my pulse hammering in my ears.

Shipments come on Mondays. I’ll be long gone by then. I lock the freezer and look down at my hands. They’re red and the skin is ripped from the rough rope digging into them. Swallowing thickly and breathing in deeply to calm the adrenaline still racing through me, I let a moment pass.

* * *

Sitting in the car,I’m still making sure I’ve thought through every bit of this.

Romano will send people to watch out for me to return, and he’ll send people out looking for me, I know he will. He’ll never find us though and I’m never coming back. I already know that.

Marcus will let me go, so long as everything happens the way it’s supposed to tomorrow.

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