Knockout Games (30 page)

He wasn't amused. “Really? A
Star Wars
reference? Well, doctor, the rest of your theory is bullshit. We play the game because we can, and there's nothing they can do to stop us. We'll keep knocking out people and if someone tries to stop us, they might end up like poor Mrs. Lee. Like I said before, we meant to take out her husband, but hey, shit happens. Which is part of the reason we're here now.”

She glanced at her watch. 11:30.

And that's when she had a moment of clarity, of what this was all about. He didn't want her to knock out just anybody; he wanted somebody special—

“Right on time,” he said, glancing over her shoulder.

Down about a block away was Joe Lee. Wrapped up in an Army jacket and limping his way into the alley. He was carrying flowers.

“It's touching. I mean, it really is, that you of all people will be the one to take care of business on this very spot. It's almost what they call ironic.”

She glared at him. “Leave him alone.”

“Oh,
I'll
leave him alone.
You're
the one who's gonna take him out. I got him started, but you can finish him. He's barely on two legs—”

“What
happened
to you?”

He ignored her. “He's getting closer. He hasn't recognized us yet. Probably lost in thought—”

“Jesus, Kalvin . . .”

His eyes searched hers. “You don't want to find out what'll happen if you back out.”

She looked back. Joe was getting closer, but was still out of hearing range. He hadn't seen them yet.

“I said, leave him the fuck alone.”

“Or what?”

He noticed her fists balled up and the look in her eye that said
enough
.

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, now's she's ready! You'd like to smack
me
, is that it? You'd like the chance to knock my face in?”

“The difference is, you'd deserve it.”

“Well, come on then. Take your best shot. Now's your chance. I won't even protect myself.”

He put his hands behind his back and just stood there. “Come on, Fish,
do it
.” It sounded like he wanted her to. Boner began yapping, running back and forth between them.

She raised her fist.

“There you go! See? You
are
like me, Erica. Don't you get it? You were so hopeless and defeated when I first met you and now, you got spirit, you got rage, and you want to let it all out. You're just like me, Erica!”

Erica slowly breathed out and lowered her fist. “I'm nothing like you. I don't know what happened to you, but I will never be like you. There's something broken in you, Kalvin.” She opened her hands and shook them out. “And fuck you if you think I'd ever stoop to hitting that man. He has suffered enough, but to you, he's still a joke, a thing to be played with. Well, I'm done with this game. And so are you.”

She glanced over her shoulder. Joe was about ten yards away, watching them. He recognized her. She looked Kalvin in the eye. “Now just walk away, before it's too late.” She stuck her hand in her pocket. There was an audible click.

He rolled his eyes. “It's never too late.” He took a step toward her.

She took a deliberate step to put herself between him and Joe. When Kalvin smirked, she pulled out her gun and pointed it at his face.

He froze, his eyes wide with surprise. Then he kind of laughed. “Damn, girl. Is that thing for real?”

“As real as it gets.”

“Have you ever shot a gun before?” he asked. His voice wavered.

Erica swallowed. “Don't have to be a sniper to hit something from this range.”

He took a step back, admiring her. “Look at you. You're one tough motherfucker. And I mean that in the best way. I'm impressed.”

“I don't give a shit. Start walking.”

Now he was getting pissed. “You really think you're gonna shoot me, right here? On the very spot where that woman died, the one you helped kill?” He said it loud enough for Joe to hear.

She cocked the gun. “I didn't kill her. But I think the police would say I was acting in self-defense if I shot you. They might even find it fitting that it happened right here.”

He seemed unsettled for the first time.

When she heard the footsteps coming up fast behind her, she spun around—Joe rushed toward her, holding out his hands.

“Don't do it!” he shouted. “Don't! Please! It's not worth it!”

She froze, distracted. She felt a
pop
in her head and everything went white and blurry. All she heard was the ringing in her ears as the ground came rushing up to her face.

47

A loud bang startled me awake. My face was numb. I couldn't feel a thing. For a minute I thought I was still in bed, but that didn't make sense because why would my bed be covered in snow? When I tried lifting my head, my cheek was kind of frozen to the ground. I had to peel it off slowly and that's when my face started burning and the world began to spin. I dry heaved, but nothing came up. My jaw hurt like hell. I tried to open my eyes, but they felt frozen shut and crusted over. I could smell flowers. And candles. I could feel the snow falling gently on my face.

I heard some whimpering and Boner started to lick my face.

Stop it
, I tried to say but I couldn't get my mouth to work. The dog came right up to me and licked my left eye. I let him. It felt good. I forced my eye open. Everything was blurry, but I could see Boner's nose, then his big eyes staring at me. For a second I saw the reflection of a zombie in his pupils. The zombie had red hair.

I felt my face. It was like touching my lip at the dentist—I couldn't feel it. From the swelling, I probably looked like the Elephant Man, all puffy and distorted. I rubbed the crust off my eyes and looked at my hand.

Blood.

I tried getting up, but it was like the earth was tied to my back. So I pushed myself to the fence next to me and pulled myself up into a sitting position.

I almost heaved again.

Fuck, what happened?

I was in an alley. Why was I in an alley?

Then I saw footprints leading away from me. There were little droplets of blood splattered in the snow.

It came rushing back.

Kalvin.

Joe.

There was a gun. My gun. But now it was gone. Boner was yapping in my face, which fried my ears and sent a train roaring through my head.

“Shhh . . .” I croaked. Even saying that stung my brain. Boner grabbed my jacket sleeve in his little teeth and tried to yank me up.

My camera was still in my hand, the strap around my wrist. I got onto one knee and pulled myself up on the fence. It felt like climbing a ladder made of ice; I kept slipping and catching myself.

Once I was on my feet, I had to rest my head against the fence. I was burning up. The cold felt good on my skin. I opened an eye and searched the empty alley. The little drops of blood looked like red bread crumbs sprinkled along the white snow.

OK, think ...call someone....

I fumbled for my phone and managed to get it out of my pocket. But I couldn't think straight. I thought about calling Destiny, but it was too much to find her number.

I dialed the only number I could think of. Each ring made my head vibrate with pain.

“911, how can I help you?”

When I tried to open my mouth to talk, a pain shot through my jaw. I couldn't move my mouth. No words came out, only garbled sounds. I managed to croak, “Gun.”

“Ma'am, I'm afraid I can't understand you. Are you in distress?”

I nodded.

“Ma'am, I'm showing that your service provider carries a Public Safety Answering Point device in your phone. We can locate you to help. Do you need assistance?”

I managed a “Yes.”

“Keep your phone on. Assistance is en route.”

I shoved the phone into my pocket without thinking. I looked at those footprints and the trail of blood. It looked like there was a scuffle, then like someone ran.

Each step sent a wave of pain through my jaw and into the space behind my nose. But I was not going to let Joe down again. He deserved to live. It felt like I walked a hundred miles. The pain absorbed my head, dulled my thoughts, set me on autopilot. My body knew how to get there. Just follow the blood.

Somehow it did. Boner ran around me in circles, excited I was taking him on a walk. Stupid dog.

Two smaller boys passed me on their bikes and almost crashed into each other when they saw me stumble by. A homeless person gawked at me from the inside of a refrigerator box he was living in. I heard him say, “You OK?” But I kept walking.

Then I heard voices. I wasn't sure if they were real or not. The footsteps led into the yard of a partially torn-down house. The voices were coming from in there.

I spotted them immediately.

Kalvin, his back to me, had Joe cornered against a tall gate. He was pointing my gun at Joe.

I could finally hear them over the pounding in my skull. “—don't have to do this,” Joe said painfully. His arm was bleeding.

Kalvin was out of breath, like he'd been talking a long time, psyching himself up to do something.

“
Fuck
. I'm
tired
of this shit,” he said. “Why you making me look bad? If you don't keep your mouth shut, I'll have to shut it for you!”

“How can I be silent after what you've done?” he said. “I have nothing more to lose.”

“You can lose your life.”

Joe didn't have to think about it. “I already have.”

That pissed Kalvin off even more. “Jesus, you really are fucking crazy.”

“Go ahead then, do it.”

“Stop saying that!”

They were both breathing hard, their frozen breath huffing into the air like smoke signals. Neither seemed to know what to do next.

Kalvin was looking for a way out. Joe saw me out of the corner of his eye and cringed. I must've looked pretty bad. “You can do like that girl said—just walk away. From everything. You have your whole life in front of you still. But once you pull that trigger, it'll be murder. Then it'll really be over.”

“Over for you.” He saw Joe look at me and glanced over his shoulder.

“You got a witness now,” said Joe. “You kill me, then you'll have to kill her too.”

Kalvin wiped the sweat from his eyes. “Shut up. I'm sick of you!” He took a step forward and stuck the gun in Joe's face. “Take back what you said.”

Joe didn't cower. “I can't. I remember now. As soon as you pointed that gun at me back there, it came flooding back. I remembered you attacking me and my wife—”

“You can't remember. Your head, it's not right. You're making things up.”

Joe looked exhausted. “I'm tired of running. . . .”

“You want me, you're going to have to turn her in too. She was the one who did it.”

Joe looked at me. “I don't believe that. I know she was there, but she's not like you are. You're responsible for all of it.”

“Fuck you, you racist piece of shit!” Kalvin was panicking, swinging the gun wildly. “Listen. Take your own advice and walk away. Why would you even want to stay here with this hanging over you? Leave, and then I won't have to kill you.”

Joe thought about it, but I could see it wasn't going to happen. “This was our home. I refuse to leave it because of you. You committed yourself to this trap. I'm going to keep speaking out. So, you might as well take the next step. You seem to want to destroy everything, including your own life. So do it.”

“Maybe I will.” Kalvin shook his head, his body tensing up like he was going to do just that.

“Kalvin,” I said through gritted teeth.

He didn't look back. “Go away.”

I struggled to speak. “I called . . . the cops,” I managed to say. His shoulders slumped. “You people don't know how to play . . .,” he said quietly.

“It's not . . . a game.” Each word stung like ice picks. “Let . . . him
go
.”

He had the muzzle of the gun resting against Joe's forehead. “I can't.”

I stepped closer. I could taste the blood on my tongue. “You . . . can.”

“No, I can't. Stay back.”

“Kalvin,” I said. I swallowed the pain and reached out to put my hand on his shoulder.

“You don't understand.”

I was trying to talk him down, all the while thinking,
did he already fire a shot
? “I think . . . I do. Now . . . let him go.” I wrapped my arms around him.

“Fuck,” he said to himself.

I made eye contact with Joe, motioning for him to leave. He slowly put his hands down. “Look at me . . . Kalvin.”

He gazed over his shoulder, lowering the gun.

Joe moved away as quietly as he could.

“Give . . . me . . . the gun.”

“Can't do that, Fish.”

Far in the distance, I could hear the sirens coming.

“You . . . are better . . . than that.”