Blowback: A Thriller by James P. Sumner

Author:James P. Sumner [Sumner, James P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B08B38TC1B
Publisher: Both Barrels Publishing Ltd.
Published: 2020-07-06T23:00:00+00:00

19

17:27 JST

I spent most of the afternoon asleep on the sofa, recharging my batteries after the exertion in the tattoo studio earlier. Ruby, for the most part, left me in peace to rest, but I’m guessing she’s now bored.

How do I know?

The TV is blasting out, and she’s just sat down heavily on the sofa beside me, jolting me back to the land of the living.

Let’s be honest. She’s not exactly subtle, is she?

I shuffle upright and crack my neck.

“Oh, are you awake?” she asks with a wry smile.

I turn to her, raising a tired eyebrow. “Apparently.”

“Can I ask you something?”

I shrug. “Sure.”

“That guy in the tattoo parlor earlier that you obviously killed… did you, by any chance, do anything out of the ordinary while you were there?”

“Um... such as?”

“Such as tattoo ‘FUCK YOU KAZAWA’ on his forehead, using your bullet hole for the O.”

I laugh, embarrassed. “How did, ah… how did you know that?”

She looks at me with mock disappointment and points to the TV. I look over at the screen. It’s a news report showing a police cordon outside the tattoo place. Subtitles are flashing across the bottom of the screen. The name of the guy is displayed beneath an image of his body that’s dominating one corner of the screen. There’s a warning to viewers about the graphic content. The reporter is saying police suspect it was a Yakuza-related hit.

I look back at her and shrug. “Thought it would be nice to say hi, that’s all.”

She rolls her eyes. “Don’t you think that was a little reckless?”

I laugh. “Come on, Ruby. You’re the last person on Earth to question any reckless behavior.”

She looks dejected. “I’m not reckless…”

“Besides, only Kazawa is gonna know that was me, which is the point. He won’t know what, if anything, that ass-hat told me before I killed him, so we still have the element of surprise. No harm done. If we’re lucky, it might just piss him off enough to come up for air… at which point I can smash his fucking head off his shoulders.”

Her expression softens, and a smile creeps across her face. “Yeah, okay. I’ll let you off.”

“Gee, thanks…”

“Are you feeling okay?”

I shrug. “Yeah, why?”

“You’re sweating, despite the fact it’s October. Just worried you might have a fever or something.”

I run a hand across my brow. It’s soaking. I still feel really drowsy too, despite being asleep for… what? Four hours, almost? Christ.

“Huh. No, I feel fine, honestly. Maybe a little dehydrated. Could you grab me a glass of water?”

She smiles patiently, then gets gracefully to her feet, running her hand faintly over my shoulder as she does. “Yeah, of course.”

She glides into the kitchen. I sink back into the sofa.

Man, I feel like crap! I’m still half-asleep, but my heart seems to think I’m running a marathon. I bring my right hand to my face, massaging my temples for a second. It then starts to shake.

Oh, for crying out loud… not this again.

I look around for my Oxy-whatever-it’s-called.

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