Jack gave Loki a quick glance as he finished with ‘SCUM’ and went lower to carve what turned out to be ‘PIMP’. Ted gave up the fight, sobbing loudly against the van floor as blood dripped down his sides. “Should have stuck to just nicely fucking your pretty boyfriend,” he said quietly, leaning over Ted.
Loki bit his lip, staring at Jack with a smile slowly blooming on his face. With Jack always chasing after girls, he kept wondering what Jack really thought of him, a guy who was not feminine in any way, with a hard, toned body, not that much shorter than Jack himself. “You think I’m pretty?”
Jack pulled up the bloodied knife, like the embodiment of the phrase ‘caught red-handed’. “I…”
Loki slid off the seat and kneeled next to him, over the twitching body that didn’t scare him anymore. The coppery scent mingled with a subtle aroma of grime and gas as he leaned closer and moved his nose through Jack’s rustled beard. Its herby smell brought him right back to the safety of the large bed, of the clean sheets in Jack’s beach house.
Jack swallowed, but gently pushed Loki away as soon as the van drove over something that felt slightly bumpy, like gravel. It stopped soon afterward. “Stop whining, you piece of shit. This is just the beginning.” He got up and put his boot on Ted’s carved-up back, making him scream into the gag.
“We should have Cumwhore carved on his face,” muttered Loki as he watched Ted try to move away like a fat maggot. “You heard me, sicko?”
Jack gave Loki a nod and when the backdoor opened, he grabbed Ted’s leg and pulled him out of the van, dropping him onto the gravel with a dull thud.
Loki couldn’t help a pleasant tingle at the base of his spine when Ted moaned. Loki hoped Ted would lose more teeth tonight than he had to meth throughout the years. The scum didn’t deserve even a niceish face. He didn’t deserve a quiet death or mercy.
“Loki, you sure you don’t want to stay in the van?” asked Sam, pulling on a pair of black rubber gloves.
Loki jumped off the back and breathed in a big gulp of the cool night air. The smell of plaster, dust, and concrete made Loki instantly aware of the new surroundings. There was a big construction site to their right, with metal barracks close by, all completely dark. Deserted.
Monster looked back at them, but led the way for Jack, who dragged Ted behind him by the legs. Seeing Ted cry and squeal made something dark and warm rise in Loki’s chest. He’d never thought an opportunity like this would ever arise. That he’d have a man-mountain like Jack on his side. He carried Ted with such ease, as if he were hauling a dog.
Ted’s back was a mess, the letters barely visible with blood smeared all over, but Loki trailed behind, watching him struggle, raise his head not to have his face dragged over sharp gravel, screaming into the gag as the tiny stones scratched the flesh of his chest and stomach. Loki felt no remorse whatsoever. It was like watching a deadly spider have its legs ripped off one by one.
“Let’s take him to the parking lot,” said Monster as they entered the bones of the building. Clear plastic sheets flopped with the breeze rushing through bare rooms, making a ghastly sound in the deep darkness around them, but with the company he had, Loki wasn’t afraid to walk in deeper. A silly smile emerged on his face. He’d never felt more confident than with these three bikers on his side. Even if two of them thought they were avenging Jack, he still felt safer than ever. None of them would let anything happen to their friend’s cousin.
At some point, Monster insisted Ted was too cut up to be dragged over the naked concrete, as it would leave traces, and so he helped Jack carry Ted down the ramp leading to what was meant to be an underground parking lot. It was completely dark down there, and when they started to climb into the thick blackness below, Loki’s first reflex was to stop. It was only when Sam lit a handheld spotlight that the huge space dotted with concrete pillars emerged in all its creepy emptiness.
They walked on until they reached a metal barrier. Monster opened it into another room, which had a lower ceiling and thicker pillars. Loki shuddered at the low, rhythmic rumble echoing all around, but when Sam lit up one of the corners, they saw a working cement mixer, with full bags piled around it. He had no idea whether it was Monster who switched the thing on, but it was clear it was there to fill two large cuboid gaps in the cement floor by one of the walls.
Jack stood over Ted with a snarl. “You think you can shoot a Nail and get away with it, you cunt?”
Ted mewled into the gag, no doubt trying to explain that it was a mistake. That he had nothing to do with that, that he never shot anyone, that they had the wrong man. Neither Jack nor Loki would go back on what they told the others so far, and as Jack kicked Ted over and onto his torn back, Loki felt satisfaction rooting itself in his heart when he saw the wet traces on Ted’s cheeks. Ted hadn’t had any mercy when Loki cried his eyes out and begged for him to stop.