The Book of Death (Bourbon Kid 4)

asked.
    ‘Yeah. Who are you? And what the
fuck is that on your head?’
    Silvinho arched his shoulders
back as JD approached. The man’s attempt at a pleasant aura had gone. He had
taken on an aggressive stance. ‘What’s JD stand for?’ he asked.
    ‘Mind your own business.’
    ‘Does your girlfriend here know
your face is all over the news?’
    JD walked up to Silvinho and
stopped two yards in front of him. Then he spoke in a gravelly tone that Beth
had not heard from him before. ‘Who sent you?’ he growled.
    ‘Bull.’
    ‘Bullshit.’
    ‘No, Bull Thompson actually.’
    Something about the name Bull
Thompson set both men off. Silvinho stepped forward and lunged at JD’s face.
Beth watched on in shock as JD ducked out of the way and responded by swinging
a punch straight into Silvinho’s midriff. The big man took the blow in his
stride, throwing a punch of his own that crashed down hard on top of JD’s head.
The blow threw JD off balance and he staggered back, almost losing his footing.
    Beth screamed. ‘STOP IT!’  
    Neither man seemed to hear her.
They both flew at each other. Silvinho was the taller and more muscular of the
two. His biceps were huge. As JD hit him with another blow to the ribs, the big
hulk grabbed him in a headlock and swung him around, off his feet. He threw JD
against the wall. In response JD simply used the wall as a springboard and
launched himself back into Silvinho, knocking him into the opposite wall.
Silvinho once again grabbed high and wrapped his huge right arm around JD’s
neck. He twisted him around and it began to look as if he would close off JD’s
windpipe with ease. Beth thought about what to do. She had a baseball bat under
the bed in her apartment just in case she ever heard burglars. She had no
intention of using it, but if she could just grab it and brandish it in a
threatening manner maybe she could make Silvinho leave.
    She dashed inside her apartment
and raced through the living room and down the hall to her bedroom. The door
was closed but she burst through it and dived down onto the floor by her bed.
She felt around under the bed until she touched upon the wooden bat. She
grabbed it by the narrow end and pulled it out, hauling herself up from the
floor immediately. She raced out to the living room again, unsure quite what
she would do with the bat once she reached the corridor outside. When she got
there she stopped dead in her tracks. The fight was already as good as over.
    Silvinho was sat on the floor
with his back leaned up against the wall opposite her, his face a bloodied
mess. JD stood over him, holding a large bone handled knife with razor sharp
edges pointed at his face.
    ‘Who the fuck sent you?’ he
growled at his fallen enemy. Beth felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand
on end when she heard his voice. It dripped with venom.
    ‘I’m not telling you anything,’
Silvinho, spluttered, blood dribbling from his mouth.
    The scene reminded Beth of the
time she had been prostrate on the floor with her stepmother standing over her
brandishing a knife, with the intent to kill. It sent shivers down her spine.
Then JD did something she would never forget. He leaned forward and thrust the
knife straight into Silvinho’s throat. Right through his Adam’s apple.
    Beth immediately threw up. Her
stomach launched itself up towards her lungs as the vomit spewed from her
mouth. She dropped to her knees and sprayed sick all over the floor in front of
her. The image of the blade entering Silvinho’s throat raced through her mind
over and over. How could JD do such a thing? Was this really the same man she
had spent the last eighteen years longing for? A cold-blooded killer?
    Hauling herself back up, she
looked over at him. He was still staring down at the dead body of the man he
had just slain, the blade in his hand, both his hands covered in blood.
    ‘What have you done?’ she
spluttered, tasting the sick in her mouth as she spoke. ‘You’ve killed him!’
    JD turned around slowly. There
was blood on his face as well as his hands. He was taking deep breaths too, his
chest heaving. He looked over at her. ‘We’ve gotta get out of here now,’ he
said in his new gravelly voice. ‘I’ll explain on the way.’
    Beth shook her head in disbelief
and stared open mouthed at the dead man in the corridor. ‘You stabbed him,’ she
mumbled. ‘You stabbed him in the throat.’ Her voice rose. ‘Why would you do
that? He was incapable of defending