Roy Glenn - In A Cold Sweat

“I’m not plannin’ on shootin’ it,” I told Bobby, and put silencers on both of my guns. He was more than just my partner and my best friend; he was my brother.

Once they had their room key, we watched as they went inside the room. I could see CeCe lookin’ back at us. I could only imagine what was goin’ through her mind as the door closed behind them. “Let’s go.”

Bobby went and got the knife and the sawed-off out of the trunk, along with some plastic handcuffs and a roll of duct tape. When we got to the door, I could hear the music playin’ and them yellin’ for CeCe to take it off. “You ready?” I asked.

“Let’s do it,” Bobby replied and kicked the door open. When I rushed in, one of them reached for his gun. I shot him in the hand before he could get to it. “Anybody else wanna try that?” Bobby asked with the shotgun pointed at one of their heads.

Complete silence was the answer he got.

I looked at the three of them for the first time in good light. None of them could be any older than twenty. “You mutha fuckas know who I am?”

Complete silence was the answer I got.

“I’m the nigga that’s gonna kill you tonight,” I said and turned to CeCe. “You can go now, CeCe.”

“CeCe, you fuckin’ bitch! You set us up!” one said.

“I’ma kill you!” the other said.

Me and Bobby laughed and so did CeCe. “No nigga,” CeCe said and got in his face. “Didn’t you hear what the man said? You the one gonna die.”

“I said leave,” I reiterated.

“I’d rather stay,” CeCe told me.

“I don’t remember askin’ you what you’d rather do.”

“Please,” she said in a voice that made me remember that she was dangerous.

“If you don’t get the fuck outta here, I’ll kill you, too.”

“Okay, okay,” she said and started for the door.

“Before you go,” Bobby said and handed her the duct tape. “Put tape over their mouths.”

When she was done with that, I told her to put the plastic cuffs around their wrists and ankles. “Cuff those two to the chairs.”

When she was done, CeCe came and stood next to me. “What now, baby?”

“Nothin’. Get out of here.”

This time she didn’t protest, “Yes, baby,” CeCe said and walked toward the door. “Am I gonna see you again?”

“Yeah. Now get out.”

As soon as CeCe slammed the door, I turned my attention to the three of them. “You mutha fuckas gonna wish you were never born.” I walked over to the one I shot. I pulled him up from the bed. I hit him a few times and then me and Bobby dragged him into the bathroom. We put him in the shower with his hands above the showerhead, then Bobby secured him to it with the plastic handcuffs. “You're gonna bleed to death,” I said and ripped off his shirt sleeves. I could see the fear in his eyes. “Give me your knife, Bobby.” I made two long cuts on each of his arms and a very small one on his neck.

I came out of the bathroom and looked at the other two. I got in one’s face; he was scared too. “I’m gonna beat you to death,” I said, and began hitting him in the face. When I stopped, Bobby took over.

Then I turned to the third. There was no fear in his eyes. When the other two were screaming about CeCe settin’ ’em up and what they’d do about it, he was quiet.

“It was your idea to try me, wasn’t it?”

He nodded his head slowly.

“You was gonna be the man that killed Mike Black.”

He nodded his head slowly.

“I can respect that.” And I could. I could see the position that it would put him in. If he killed me, he could go to Stark, who’d been hidin’ from me, in a position of power.

“Too bad you missed and you gotta die for it,” Bobby added and continued his work.

“I’m gonna kill you quick; break your neck. But not before you watch me kill your boys.”

For the next hour or so, me and Bobby took turns beating our would-be executioner while his partner looked on. Every so often, I went into the bathroom to check on the bleeder. I came out and grabbed their leader. “Come on. I wanna show you something,” I said and pushed him in the bathroom. He flinched and tried to look away, but I grabbed his face and made him look. “Look at him!”

By this time the bleeder was covered in blood and shaking. The leader had sat there calmly and watched his boy take a beatin’, and didn’t flinch or close his eyes not once, but this scared him.

“He’s shakin’ ’cause he’s goin’ into shock, he’s startin’ to get cold and he’ll start losin’ color.” I pushed him out of the bathroom and he stumbled to the floor.

“Get up,” I said and pulled him up and back into his chair so he could watch Bobby work. I watched Bobby and thought about us two old guys doin’ shit we ain’t done in years. It felt great. Then Bobby went old-school style on him.

Back in the day, Bobby's idea of torture was while he slapped the guy around, he’d tell jokes. Some of them were funny, but most of them weren’t. If you laugh, you get slapped. If you don't, you get hit-hard. Only this guy got duct tape covering his mouth so he couldn’t laugh. So Bobby’s was just whalin’ away, tellin your-mother jokes, and swingin’. “Your mother is so ugly that they had to hang a pork chop around her neck so the dog would play with her.”

About two hours in to it, Bobby got a call from Nick. “Bobby. Is Black with you?”

“He’s right here. It’s Nick,” Bobby said and handed me the phone.

“What’s up, Nick?”

“I just got a call from Monika. She wouldn’t say what it was about, but she said Jackie needs to talk to you.”

“And she didn’t say what, huh?” I asked, wondering what Jackie could possibly want.

“Nope, but Monika wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important.”

“Okay, call her back and tell them to meet me at Cynt's,” I said and pressed end. When I handed Bobby back his phone, he was laughing. I didn’t tell him that I made Mystique stop working there, and I didn’t feel like goin’ into it. “Let’s wrap this up,” I said and went in the bathroom and shot the bleeder twice in the head. When I came out, Bobby was doing the same to the other.

I walked up behind the leader. I promised to break his neck. I picked up the sawed-off shot gun by the butt, and swung it as hard as I could to the back of his neck. I don’t know if it actually broke his neck and I really doubt that it did, but his neck and head did jerk forward. I walked around in front of him, shot him twice in the head, and followed Bobby out the door.

Jackie and Monika sat at Cynt's and waited patiently for Black to get there, or at least Monika did. Jackie was nervous and couldn’t sit still for very long. She’d be all right for a while, but then she’d bounce up and walk around, just in case he was there and she just couldn’t see him while she was sitting down.

“I wish you’d stop doin’ that,” Monika said when Jackie came back and sat down. To her, waiting to report was nothing new and she seemed content sipping her drink and people watching.

“I can’t help it,” Jackie said and picked up her watered down drink.

“I understand, but finish your drink and relax. He’ll get here when he gets here. You like pussy, don’t you?” Monika asked. “Well there’s plenty in here to look at.”

“I noticed you gettin’ your eyes full, Ms. I’m-strictly-dickly,” Jackie came back.

“How could you not? It’s very compelling to watch. The atmosphere, energy of the dancers, the raw sexuality of it all, you know what I’m sayin’? I mean, just the look on some of these guys’ faces is priceless.”

“I know. It’s like they’ve never seen a naked woman before. I never have understood that one,” Jackie said as she stood up again and noticed that Black and Bobby had come in.