I gasped when I realized what I was seeing.
“Rabbit,” I managed to whisper. “Is . . . is that blood?”
My head was woozy. Rabbit turned and pushed me back against my papa’s desk. I sat on the edge, needing the rest. He stood in front of me. Blocking me from my papa and uncles. I peeked around his arm to see what was happening.
“I want them both,” I heard Uncle Lester say. “I want them at the same time. Fuck the poker games, I’ll pay whatever I have to to have them. Just look at them together . . . the way he loves her. Protects her. The way she gravitates to him. They are like magnets.” He shook his head. “For years I watched them get closer. You can’t create that kind of connection.” He sucked in his bottom lip. “Imagine how explosive just ten minutes with them both would be . . . You know I like the fight. Ready, able and willing is so fucking boring.”
Heathan made a choked noise in his throat. Then my papa came toward us. I ducked lower behind Heathan’s shoulder. I tensed. I didn’t like my papa much right now. He let Uncle John hurt me.
“Get back,” Heathan snarled. “Fuck me all you want, but touch her again and I’ll fucking kill you all. No one touches Dolly.”
My papa paused, all of my uncles did . . . then they all started laughing. The loud laughter hurt my ears; their open, laughing mouths wounded my eyes. I wanted them to stop. Wanted them to stop laughing at my Rabbit. I pressed my hands over my ears and tried to stop the laughing.
“Move aside, Heathan. You’re both going to have some fun with Uncle Lester.”
“Take me. Leave her.” Heathan moved so close to me that his back was flat against my chest. I didn’t like the way Heathan’s back smelled. It smelled of smoke again . . . like my uncles.
Like Uncle John had smelled.
“Last chance, boy,” my papa warned Heathan. “Don’t push me. This honorable shit is admirable, but futile.”
Then suddenly, Uncle Eric rushed from the back of the room, right at Heathan. Heathan reached behind us and ran his hand along the desk. He took something in his hands. As Uncle Eric grabbed Heathan’s black hair to pull him away from me, Heathan reached up and did something to Uncle Eric’s neck.
My eyes snapped shut. They wouldn’t let me see what Heathan had done. I heard a grunt, and a thud, and Heathan’s body was no longer pressed against mine. I opened and rubbed my eyes, and when I lowered them to the ground, I saw Heathan stabbing Uncle Eric’s throat . . . his chest . . . his stomach. Blood spat up and splashed my face, the warm liquid spilling down my cheeks.
Heathan’s black clothes were covered in red, as were his face, his hands, every inch of bare skin.
My papa and Uncle Lester lurched forward and pulled Heathan off Uncle Eric. I let out a scream when they hit my Rabbit . . . they hit him and hit him again. Heathan dropped whatever he was holding, and I realized what the blood-covered object was. Papa’s letter opener lay on the floor, the one engraved with a picture of the King of Hearts. Papa and my uncles loved to play poker. They always had cards lying about the house. Hearts was Papa’s favorite suit.
I looked at Uncle Eric on the floor, studying him harder, and I cried out. He was so still, and his eyes were open and staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t blinking. Blood poured from his neck.
“Rabbit!” I felt my tears coming faster. I needed him. I wanted to protect him. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t hurt. “Rabbit . . .” I sobbed as he fought to get back to me. He punched out at my papa, at my uncles, but he couldn’t get away.
“Dolly . . . Dol . . . ly . . .” he spat out as Uncle John wrapped his arm around Heathan’s throat. Heathan couldn’t speak, but his eyes never left mine. My hand reached out for him.
Papa ran to the phone beside me. He made a call, hung up and walked back to Heathan, who was still struggling against Uncle John’s arm. “You’ve fucked up, boy.”
“Leave her alone,” Heathan snarled, turning his head from Uncle John’s grip. My papa hit Heathan again. Heathan’s lip split open, blood dripping down his chin. Papa kept hitting him. And hitting him until Heathan’s teeth were coated in blood. Heathan sneered at my papa, blood and spit dripping to the floor.
I couldn’t stand it anymore.
I jumped off the desk and ran over to stop it. But Papa took hold of my arm and pushed me against his chest. Heathan looked me in the face. There was so much blood. My papa’s mouth arrived at my ear. “Say goodbye to your little friend, baby.” I stilled. “He’s going away now . . . to a place he can’t come back from.”