Page 39 of Spark

“Think carefully before you lie to me, Edmund,” I warned. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. It’s up to you.”

“I… I don’t r-remember,” he stuttered again.

I shook my head. “Hard way, it is.”

I nodded at Scott, who knelt down, took Edmund’s loose arm, and snapped it behind his back in an extremely awkward and painful angle. Edmund screamed and struggled against Scott. He was such a baby. This was nothing compared to what I was really going to do.

“Give me a name, Edmund,” I ordered.

“He… he didn’t give me a name. He just called me from a blocked line and gave me the info. Ah! Said one of his guys would meet me there to grab their cut. I never saw his face.” Scott twisted his arm further when he went silent. “Ah! No names! That’s it, I swear!”

I sighed in disappointment and shook my head. My snitch was smarter than I was hoping.

“Okay, Edmund, I believe you. Now, listen carefully because this next part is very important.”

He nodded quickly. Taking several deep breaths, he thought he was in the clear. I almost started to laugh.

“In the next twenty-four hours, you’re going to return everything you stole from my warehouse, plus the extra one hundred thousand dollars you cost me for the inconvenience of having to come out here and deal with you myself. And as a reminder of your newfound loyalty, your clubs will now be turning over twenty percent of its profits to my company, effective tomorrow morning.”

The little fucker just gaped at me, too fear stricken to reply.

“Questions?” I asked, raising my brows in enthusiasm.

Wide-eyed and shivering, he shook his head.

“Good. Now, if none of which I just told you is accomplished within the specified time, you and your little gang of toddlers will find yourselves in pieces at the bottom of the ocean. Understand?”

He nodded.

“Say you understand.” I growled at him.

“I-I understand,” he whimpered.

I relaxed, my smirk returning to my face. We still weren’t done.

“Good. Now to seal the deal.”

Reaching down, I grabbed the little shit by his scrawny neck and dragged him over to the gas fireplace. Scott turned it on and placed the ash shovel inside while I pulled out my hunting knife, and pushed Edmund down to the floor. Pressing my knee into his spine so that he remained flat on his belly, I splayed his right arm out in front of him so he would have a good view of his hand.

“Oh, God, man, please don’t!” he cried as he struggled underneath me. “Please! I’m sorry!”

“Remember what I said by ‘pieces’?” I sneered into his ear.

“Fuck! NO! Come on, man! Please!”

And then, one by one, I cut off each one of his fingers, his blood-curdling screams only encouraging me as I sawed away through the fragile bones.

“Stop! Oh, fuck, please! Please! Stop!” he screamed.

Edmund writhed and cried, his body flailing under me in an attempt to get away, but there was nowhere for him to go. When I was finished, and the only remaining digit was his thumb, I nodded for Scott to grab the now bright orange metal shovel from the fire. Blood pooled all over the floor while Edmund cried and shook with fear as Scott brought the shovel over to his bleeding hand. As I held his wrist down, Scott placed the flat part of the metal shovel against Edmund’s bleeding nubs. The room immediately filled with Edmund’s screams as the hot metal seared into his flesh, cauterizing the wounds. By the time Scott was done, the smell of burning flesh had lingered throughout the room. But I didn’t want the fucker bleeding out on me, and I certainly didn’t want to leave him with the option to potentially reattach his fingers.

“Sorry, you’ll have to jack off with the left hand from now on.” I snickered into his ear. “Now, if I ever have any more trouble from you or any of your little shit-head friends, I’ll come back here and finish what I started.” I flicked his injured hand for emphasis, and he howled. “Got it?”

“Yes!” he nearly screamed.

“Good,” I said enthused as I stood up. “Then we’re done here.”

Heading for the door, we left Edmund in a bloodied mess as he curled his now mutilated hand into himself. But the moment I reached the door, I remembered something important.