Page 27 of Atonement

“Is... is that wrong,” he expels on a shaky breath as I slowly turn my heated gaze back towards him. Timmy glances in her direction and then frantically looks back at me. “No...no I know I am right. I heard what they said,” he stutters again. “I swear it.”

“No,” I hiss, as my molars grind. “That’s got to be right, Tim. After all, you heard what they said. No bullshitting. No fucking around. Right?”

He shakes his head in agreement, like the chump he is, and I shake mine back, telling him no, just to fuck with him. There’s something in his eyes I don’t trust. There is something here that is not adding up. And I’m determined to figure out what he’s hiding.

“When was this?”

“Last week,” he quickly says. “Two nights before I met you. Two nights before...”

“What time?”

“Fuck, I don’t know what time.” I lean in and press the tip of my blade against his cock, applying just enough pressure to scare the shit out of him, but not enough to cause him too much damage. Yet. “9...9 o’clock. Fuck, 9:30. I don’t know, it was dark outside. I remember that.”

“You said them? How many were there?”

“Two, maybe three. It was hard to tell, it was pitch black in that alley. I wouldn’t have even been there if I didn’t have to piss. But the line was too long to get into the club, and...”

I drown him out as he stammers on. My mind racing, knowing that I could’ve caught the fuckers that stole away both mine and Magnolia’s life seven years ago last week if I hadn’t been holding my wife’s face down in the back of that damn car, drowning in heartache when I should have been seeking vengeance.

But, shit, if they cornered our friend Timmy in that alley, they must have seen us there too. So why didn’t they take us out when they had the chance? Why fuck with us even more? With our life one time was enough. But twice? There’s more to this than any of us know and I’m getting a fucked-up sense of Deja vu the longer I stand here talking to our little friend.

“Did they take you anywhere, Tim?” I hiss. “Did you leave with them?” It would explain why Timmy was MIA that night and we had to locate him a few days later.

“They took me to an empty warehouse on Second Street,” he eagerly says. Too eagerly. It gives him away, and gives me an idea.

“Do you think you can remember how to get there?”

“I..I can try.” He looks back at Magnolia as if she’ll praise him again for a job well done. He’s more of a fool than I originally thought. Walking back over to my wife, I cut her restraints and help her out of the chair. Timmy’s eyes grow wide as I brush the hair back away from her face and study the redness I inflicted there.

“How’s the cheek?” I whisper, ignoring the rat next to us as he pathetically starts to struggle against the ropes that bind him. Leaning in, I take her face in my palms and study the side of her face. The one I never thought I’d hit in my whole damn life, and the one Magnolia told me to smack while I was tying her up if it meant getting the information we needed. “I swore I’d never lay a finger on you Sweetheart that wasn’t meant to bring you the most pleasure. This red mark, right here,” I whisper, brushing my hand gently against her skin, “doesn’t make me happy.”

“Who’s to say I didn’t enjoy it.”

Shaking my head, I smile. “Who’s the masochist now, Mags?”

I look down into little Timmy’s eyes and shake my head, telling him to stop the bullshit. He’s not free to go. The only way to end this is with vengeance for a life that was stolen, and with going forward with the original plan.

The one I told my wife about right before I dragged her in here, told her to play along, and then tied her beautiful, breathtaking ass to the chair behind me.

“I could find them, if you want me to,” Timmy cries. “Just please, please. I don’t want to die.”

Funny Tim. That’s all I’ve wanted for seven fucking years. Until tonight.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I rasp out, stepping away from my wife and moving closer to where he sits. When he still doesn’t look convinced, I shake my head and say, “Hell, Tim. I thought we’d become better friends than that. You’re hurting my feelings.”

He stares at me in shock. Entirely not believing me until I slowly walk behind his chair, untie his wrists, and give him the freedom he never thought he’d walk away with. When I’m done, I walk towards my wife. My eyes holding hers the entire time and knowing that what we started tonight, our new beginning, runs deeper with the knowledge that the one fucker we’ve been hunting down since that day seven years ago is now closer than we ever thought possible.

As my fingers brush against my wife’s skin and I slip her hand into mine, a sort of hopeful faith filled me inside. We’ve atoned for our sins. It’s time they paid for theirs.

“Wha...what do we do now?” Timmy stammers at our side as I take my wife’s hand and place a tender kiss against her wrist. She smiles at me as I release her hand, and reach behind my back.

“For starters,” I smile, as I pull my Sig from its holster and take aim. “You take us to this warehouse, Tim. You have no idea who you’re fucking with, so let me enlighten you. You stepped into a war you have no chance of winning. People are going to die tonight. Better start praying you’re not one of them.”

***

11:45 p.m.

“I have the rat,” I hiss into my phone as I push Timmy towards the backdoor of the warehouse. “Although, I can’t promise I’ll keep him alive after I finish off his friends. Looks like I didn’t need you after all, Kira.”

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