Page 49 of Bronx

Then he starts blubbering.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

“Then get your sorry ass up and stop embarrassing yourself. She’s not here. She doesn’t hear you.”

I’ve been lucky that Ruby’s block is not a heavily trafficked one, but now a beat up blue Honda Civic has arrived and is stuck behind my Benz, which is still sitting in the middle of the street with the ignition off. It’s a teenaged girl in the car with long braids, a few of them hot pink. She honks her horn before she looks over and gives the two of us an irritated teenager's death stare.

She rolls down her window. “You can’t just leave your car here,” she says in a flippant tone.

“One minute,” I growl at her impatient ass and she rolls the window back up.

Ray stands and faces me with watery eyes and a crazed look.

“I will not ever let her go. You tell her that, okay? You tell her that I didn’t just pick up and dust off her broke ass, so she could just turn around and leave me for some wannabe biker she’s sleeping with!”

Karma is just a beautiful woman who’s had some hard breaks in life, and while she doesn’t mean anything to me, anyone can see that she doesn’t deserve this. I don’t think any woman walking the planet earth deserves this little shit.

Something clicks inside my brain as I listen to him spew his angry comments at me. Ray’s not a complicated man, he’s a weak man. A loser who probably belittles Karma any chance he gets to feel better about himself. I also realize at this same moment that he will not stop looking for her, but I can at least give him something to consider before he tries again.

When my fist lands against the hard bone of his right side eye socket, it’s some of the most satisfying pain I’ve felt in a long while. It hurts like a bitch, but I hit him again because something about his suffering makes me feel alive.

So I hit him again.

And again.

Then I switch to my less dominant hand and hit him in his left eye with it.

Then again.

And again.

“Stop!” He yells, holding up his hands, and tripping over himself as he backs away. “You’re going to kill me.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” I tell him in a gritty, pained voice. “Death would mean an instant release for you. Pain is a long-term reminder of the mistake you’ve made fucking with Karma.”

I can see with my peripheral vision that the girl stuck behind my car has now rolled down her window again and is holding her phone out the window. She’s taping us, although I’m not really sure how long she’s been doing it, but I bet a video of me beating Ray’s ass will probably be on Twitter within the next ten minutes. I’ve got to stop, which is fine, because my knuckles are burning, anyway. This dude’s eye sockets are hard as hell.

“Are we done here?” I ask, breathing heavily but pleased with my handiwork. His eyes are already swelling up.

“Yeah.”

“What did you say?”

“Yes, we’re done! She ain’t worth this.”

That’s probably how he feels in the moment, but like I said, I’ve seen his type before. After his bruised face and ego heal, I’m pretty sure he’ll be back. It’s just a matter of how long it takes for him to rebound.

I angrily point straight at the girl in the car. “Put that camera away.” She looks terrified as she stops recording and rolls up her car window.

I look up at the house and notice that only Ruby is in the window now. Kim has no doubt dipped out to make another call to the police, probably wondering where they are, so I better get moving.

I pick Ray’s scrawny body up by the collar of his designer duped Polo shirt. “Where is your car?”

“I took an Uber here,” he mumbles.

It figures he has no car. What was that woman thinking when she moved in with this bum?

“Of course you don’t. Get in mine.”