Sean

I stayed outside of Walker’s place for a few calming, centering breaths.

They didn’t do shit, so after a moment, I went back inside.

He stood exactly where I had left him, still holding his gun in his hand.

“So now that Jake is gone, let’s sit down and talk about this like men,” I said.

“Talk?” he repeated.

“Yeah,” I responded, “talk.”

I grabbed a wooden chair, one of the few surfaces that wasn’t visibly disgusting, and sat in it.

Walker looked confused, which wasn’t too much of a surprise. I knew exactly what he had been expecting, which was why I was taking the opposite approach.

“You see I don’t have a gun, and you see I haven’t tried to attack you. So sit.”

He hesitated for a moment but then sat across from me, studying me. He probably regretted letting Jake go so easily, but there was no turning back now.

“Whose idea was this?” I asked calmly.

“Misty’s. It was all her idea. You should’ve heard the way she bitched about her foster sister. She was pissed that she’d had the kid and Jess got the car and the place. And that you gave her money,” he said quickly.

That may or may not have been true, but I couldn’t regret what I had done. Jess’s only concern had been Jake. Misty’s only concern had been herself.

I tilted my head and looked at Walker, studying him. “I don’t know. This whole scheme seems like a lot for Misty to come up with all on her own.”

“That bitch fooled you too, huh? Had her stupid sister thinking she was a saint. And what, you think because she had nice tits she was soft? She was cold as ice,” he said.

Walker didn’t seem to have trouble thinking of Misty in the past tense like I had. His little spiel was also the only authentic thing he’d said to me. Still, despite his beliefs about Misty, he wasn’t being forthcoming.

“Maybe,” I said after a silence that was long enough to get Walker on edge again. “But this seems like a little more than Misty would be able to come up with by herself.”

“I mean,” he said, shrugging, perhaps hoping his nonchalance would help him, “I helped her with some of the details.”

“And that shit at the park?” I asked.

“That was all her, man. I actually think she had a mind to keep the kid.”

“And you discouraged that?” I asked.

“I just wanted her to see that there might be other options,” he said, looking both smarmy and justified. I wanted to bash his head in, but I stayed still.

“So why did you shoot her?” I asked.

“Sorry about that. But I saw an opportunity,” he said.

“One you couldn’t pass up?” I suspected I knew the answer. No way scum like Walker could walk away from cash, even if it meant putting a child in danger.

“I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I had,” he said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“That kid is worth the most money I’ve ever come into. I would’ve been set forever. It was my shot. I had to take it,” he said.

As he spoke, he gripped the gun a little tighter. I pressed down the rage that was boiling inside me, telling myself not yet.

“Did you really think you’d get away with it?” I asked, genuinely curious. Walker knew of me, so he had to know I would chase him to the ends of the earth, farther, for what he’d done.

“I had to take a shot,” he said, his voice absent, distracted. I had to wonder if he was telling me that or trying to convince himself.

I stayed silent, studying him. We stayed like that for several minutes, and then he finally looked at me, his expression a mix of sadness and accepting.

It did nothing to move me.

He sighed and then spoke. “So you’re about to fuck me up, right? Torture me. Peel my skin off and feed it to your dogs or some shit?”

“No,” I said quietly, not surprised Walker would think that.

Walker looked at me, his confusion apparent. “No?” he said, the hand that held the gun falling to his side.

I sprang at him, pulled the knife I had tucked in my sleeve, and buried it directly in his heart.

“No, Walker,” I said as he stared at me, his face etched with surprise. “I’m not going to torture you or feed you to my dogs. You’re not worth the time and my dogs deserve better.”

He slapped at the knife, his body twitching as he slid out of the chair and hit the floor with a soft thump.

He stared up at me, and I smiled. “So I’m going to watch you die, and I’m never going to think of you again,” I said.

And that was exactly what I did.