“Nothing to say for yourself? Well, I’m here. If I have to beat it into you, I’ll straighten you out like I should have done when you were a kid.”

“Henry, he’s tired. It was a hard case,” Tex’s mother pleaded.

“You don’t know what it’s like! The boy needs to toughen up. I saw ten times the amount of shit he did.” The door of his car swung open, and he angrily got out. He wobbled with his cane, not finding good purchase on the gravel.

I hung Tex’s phone up. Before Henry could so much as take a single step toward the building, I stepped behind him and caught his gaze in his side mirror.

He had the same blue eyes as Tex, but his were far duller. They widened, and his face went ashen. The passenger side door opened.

“Kate, stay in the car!”

She glanced over at us, wiping at her face. I smiled at her.

“I’m an old acquaintance, and seeing Henry again, I couldn’t help but come over.”

She looked at her husband again. “Oh, um—”

“Kate, get in the car,” Henry said through clenched teeth.

Her face reddened, but she followed his instructions.

“Are you here for my family?” Henry asked.

I closed the car door and walked around him. I made my way toward the back of the small building in case Tex came out earlier. Henry Caster followed behind me, limping as he made his way to the back. He attempted the tough guy act but old age and time off the force made him soft in certain areas. Fear peeked through the cracks, but it wasn’t enough for me.

“You’ll let my wife go,” Henry said.

With a single step forward, I snatched the cane up. He staggered but caught himself and leaned against the wall. Good enough. I inspected it. Of course, he’d cleaned Tex’s blood off of it. Good thing, I don’t think I could have held back if I’d seen it.

His mouth opened to spew something I had no time to hear. Before so much as a syllable could be uttered, I whipped the cane around, and it smacked against his cheek.

I tisked. It wasn’t the exact same. Henry crumbled down to the ground, groaning in pain.

“Stand up.”

The old man wheezed as blood dripped down his cheek. His eyes were unfocused as he continued to lie on the ground.

“I said get up.”

Henry attempted to get up twice, his leg giving out on him each time. I watched, unmoving. There was so much I wanted to do to him. I could easily spend weeks torturing him, bringing him nothing but suffering and it would still be only a drop of the anguish he’d caused Tex.

“If you’re going to kill me, get it over with,” Henry spat.