defensively. I reached for his arm, and when I gave him an angry tug, he yelped, “Wait! I’ve got some money. It ain’t much, but you can have it. Just give me some time and I’ll get you some more. Whatever you want, just let me go,” he pleaded.
“What I want…? That’s a good place to start,” I told him as I reared back my fist and punched him in the gut. He bent over with a pitiful groan as I said, “See, I got this friend. He’s a real decent guy, Puckett. Unlike you, he minds his own fucking business. Stays out of trouble. Doesn’t fuck with people just to be fucking with them. Turns out, he had a run-in with you and a couple of your buddies the other night. You decided to use him as a punching bag, and that was a mistake, Puckett. A big fucking mistake,” I told him as I punched him again.
He groaned as he stuttered, “I’m s-sorry. I didn’t … know.”
“Of course you didn’t know he was my friend. How could you know that? You’d have to be some kind of genius to know that, but we both know you’re just a stupid asshole,” I told him as I slammed my fist against his jaw.
“I said I was sorry,” he cried as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. “Please … just stop.”
I hit him again, causing his eye to immediately begin to swell. “Did you stop? No, I don’t think you did. As a matter of fact, you even used a crowbar to wail on him, and you were bragging about it at school. You were making plans to do it again. Isn’t that right, Puckett? You were going to do that shit again. You had no intention of stopping.”
“I was just … fucking around, man,” he stammered. “I wasn’t gonna—”
“You’ve got a bad habit of running your fucking mouth, Puckett. No one likes an asshole who runs his fucking mouth all the time. And no one likes an asshole who’s always fucking around with folks … especially me, Puckett. I can’t stand that shit. There’s nothing worse, but all that’s going to stop. Isn’t that right?”
“Uh huh,” he mumbled.
I yanked him up and started dragging him towards the water. When we reached the bank, I said, “I didn’t hear you, Puckett.”
“I’ll stop running my fucking mouth,” he shouted.
“And?”
“I won’t fuck with anyone ever again. Just please.”
“You’ve got one shot here, asshole. You or your friends make one wrong move, there won’t be any more second chances. Next time, your sorry ass will be at the bottom of this river, and no one will ever find you. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir. I understand.”
With the chains still wrapped around his feet, I pulled him back to the car and tossed him back into the trunk. I drove back to the school, and once I had pulled up next to Puckett’s Jeep, I got out and walked over to the trunk. I opened it to find Puckett staring back at me with a worried look on his face. He knew I wasn’t done with him. I reached for him, yanking him and the cinder block out of the trunk, and pulled him over to the front of his Jeep. I lifted him up, sitting him on the hood, then I pulled a permanent marker out of my back pocket and wrote, “I’m an asshole” on his forehead.
I took a step closer and got up in his face as I said, “Don’t make me come back here, Puckett. Walk a straight line, or you’ll be done.”
“You gonna leave me here like this?” he asked as he tried to move but couldn’t.
“Yeah. I am,” I told him as I started walking towards my car. “Remember what I said, Puckett.”
As I started the engine, I could hear him pleading with me to let him go, but I just ignored him and drove out of the parking lot. I didn’t bother telling Charlie about my night with Puckett. I knew he’d find out as soon as he got to school. Sure enough, the next day I overheard him telling Olivia all about it. He was laughing as he told her about the kids finding him bound to the hood of his car. Apparently, Puckett’s cronies were nowhere to be found, and it took several hours before anyone released him from his restraints. Charlie seemed relieved when he told her that there was an immediate change in