Saturday, January 12, 2008

A Tangled Web


The stairs creaked slightly, just like before, but finding my way to the bedroom in the dark proved to be no challenge. Easing the door open just a crack, revealed her undressing by the bed, part of her normal routine. Mesmerized by her sculpted, flawless body, I nearly forgot the nature of my business, but only momentarily. Like a tiger on a fresh piece of meat, I pounced on her quickly, thrusting her violently against the wall, enjoying of the pleasure of pressing my body against her partially nude frame.

“How’s that feel?” I asked, as the cold steel barrel of my .45 rested against her forehead. The terrified woman offered no response, but the fear that widened her brown eyes and caused her lower lip to tremble gave me inappropriate pleasure.

“What’s the matter, Violet, cat got your tongue; can’t come up with anything under pressure?”

Kill my wife? Of course not, but she didn’t know that. From the outside, this little game might seem extreme, but considering her shenanigans over the last six months, I figured she deserved every bit of what I had in store for her.

Six months ago we began the dissolution of our three year marriage. Sitting there in the lawyer’s office on our very first meeting, she delivered an unwarranted and debilitating low-blow. Mistakenly, I supposed this separation could be amicable and we settled on using the same lawyer. Common representation proved to be only my first mistake, the second being, a belief that anything involving Violet could be amicable.

Truthfully I don’t recall much from that morning, up until Violet spoke. In response to the lawyer asking what she wanted (in the settlement), she stared across the table at me with vengeful eyes, and through gritted teeth, grunted out her demand.

“I want his balls!”

Even the lawyer couldn’t help but be impressed by the eloquence of this charming woman; the one I had chosen to be my lovely bride. To this day, I’m certain sympathy pains were responsible for Mike’s decision to represent only me. Fortunately Violet had tipped her hand the very first day, and my defense had seen for himself what a ‘peach’ she could be.

Looking back there were plenty of reasons to have throttled back this wild ride; having met Violet in a chat-room being the most glaring, but once we met in person my high levels of testosterone seemed to blur my normally good judgment. Violet, a gorgeous combination of Greek and Italian descent, resembled a fine tuned Italian sports car; built for thrills. What dweeb is thinking about gas mileage when he climbs into a Ferrari, and jams the accelerator to the floor?

Not only is it a custom to break plates at a Greek wedding, Violet extended that tradition to nearly every argument. On more than occasion my quick reactions resulting in a plate shattering on the wall instead of my forehead, the intended target.

Our plagued marriage couldn’t be pinned on her ill-temper. In fact her feisty nature made for a spicy bedroom, and indeed that aspect of our marriage still frequented my mind, especially on lonely Saturday nights. Actually, her over-involvement in my business decisions raised a waving red flag. She became extremely irate at certain choices made regarding the business that I painstakingly built from the ground up, and that irritated me. The suspicions grew to a point where I chose to seek the services of a private investigator. The case file that he built regarding Violet’s past made my jaw drop.

It would seem she had kept very busy in the ten years previous to our marriage. Entertaining for a short time and then divorcing five husbands and amassing (stealing) awards of 4.5 million dollars, all of which resided in a bank account in Greece. All of this sprinkled with a few stays at a mental facility. This all added up, when rummaging through her things, exposed one-way airline tickets back to Athens.

My first question to the detective regarded the health of each of the ex-husbands. Were they ‘six feet under’? A black-widow, she was not, all of the husbands were still living, scattered across all parts of the country. A brown recluse described Violet, not quite as infamous as the black-widow, yet under a cloak of anonymity she quietly injected her venom.

I intended to put this game to an abrupt end tonight, and had every intention of preventing her from laying claim to even a miniscule penny of my assets. After letting her know her sordid past had been exposed, I presumed she would agree to drop the whole thing, but as a backup plan if she became uncooperative, every ugly detail would be splashed across all of the major news networks in the country. The complete file of her dirty deeds lay on the front seat of my car parked outside, just in case she needed a convincer.

“Although you look very inviting tonight, I’ve come for business. Let me throw out some facts for you. I know everything about you; the five husbands, the money, the stays in the mental facilities, everything you did before we met! Also the ticket back to Greece; did you think you were gonna screw me then call it quits. Hell, you’re not greedy—a girl can live nicely on around five mil, huh?”

Figuring the scare tactic had done its work, I removed the gun from her forehead, yet the imprint of the barrel remained. With the gun still pointed in her direction I laid out my plan.

“Here’s how it’s going to go down. You’re going to tell your lawyer you only want fifty grand, so you can get this whole thing over with. In return for your newfound generosity, all the dirt on you stays under wraps. How’s that sound?”

“Whatever you say—just put that gun away. Yeah, yeah fifty grand that sounds fair to me. I’ll call my lawyer first thing in the morning, I promise.”

A smile crept across my face, relieved we had come to a mutually acceptable deal. I now took time to admire her sensuous brown breasts, perfectly contoured. Truthfully in the end as in the beginning, Violet offered only cheap, naughty, jungle-love. Yet the image of another man’s meat-beaters on those beautiful breasts, in place of mine. Suddenly an idea occurred to me, a little side deal, something to sweeten the pot. Moving forward, my body came in contact with hers again. Moving her jet black hair aside I whispered in her ear.

“You remember in the lawyer’s office what you said you wanted—my balls. That’s going to cost you. You’re plane leaves on the 14th, no later than the 10th, you’ll deposit two million dollars in a Swedish bank account, in my name. If you choose to be uncooperative, on the 11th at midnight the cops will receive the complete file of your dirty little history, and you’ll never see Greece again!”

Violet pushed me away, her growing hatred for me evident in her pouting expression. Not only could she envision loosing half of my assets, due to my clever plan I had now laid claim to a piece of her ‘hard earned fortune.

“You dirty bastard! That’s my money!”

“What’s yours is mine, right baby? Fifty-fifty, we’re still married remember. Don’t forget, two million by the 10th; or you’re going away for a very long time.”

I pushed Violet down on the bed, and turned around to leave. My heart hit overdrive; I could feel the thrusting in my temples as my steps carried me closer toward the bedroom door. This whole ordeal reminded of some kind of freaky suspense novel, but I had played my limited hand brilliantly. Truly, what alternative had I given her?

Just barely audible over the beating of my heart I heard the dresser drawer slam shut. I had completely forgotten the purchase of a small pistol for home defense. Whirling around with my gun at the ready, a brilliant flash from the muzzle temporarily blinded me, just as the hot bullet ripped through my chest and I fell helplessly to the floor.

I stared down the length of body at the .45, still miraculously in my grip. Perhaps it would be of some value to me, had I not left the clip for my gun lying right next to the files on the front seat of my car. I truly never intended on physically harming her.

Writhing in pain, she knelt over me, her warm breath coming in quick pulses.

“You don’t look so tough now”, she taunted. “You still have something of mine, though.”

Violet maneuvered around to my side and as the sound of unzipping of the fly on my jeans reached my ear, I knew her horrible intentions. Her evil laugh echoed in my head, as my broken body made a feeble to attempt to move away from her. Surely she wasn’t crazy enough to do that.

As she got to her feet, the echoing laugh trailed off to only a chuckle. “You never were that good. Out of six husbands—well, let’s just say you didn’t measure up. But you’re money’s just as green as the others.”

“You’re a crazy bitch! No wonder they had locked up in the loony bin!”

She raised the snub-nose and again pointed it my chest. I could see the tension of her finger increasing and the cylinder beginning to rotate, but my body wasn’t responding to my brain’s pleas.

“Yeah I’m crazy alright—crazy like a fox!”

Another round scorched through me into the now blood-soaked floor—before everything slowly faded to black.

9 comments:

Bubba said...

Goodness... talk about your anger management issues... there's enough dysfunction in that room to populate the entire third floor at the local psychiatric care facility.

Be that as it may, I suspect there's a pretty simple explanation for why she had the money... Ha!

I gotta go... I need to check and see who I assigned as beneficiary to my life insurance policy.

Good one...

hfurness said...

Wow, I thought that I'd been clobbered by a divorce. Good piece of writing - but then it matches other pieces that I've read by you. thanks - a fan.

Dan said...

Bob, if all the folks that warranted it, were placed in the 'ward', who's blogs would we visit??

Dan said...

Harry, thanks for your kind words. Never been through divorce, but listened to enough horror stories from friends. Don't need to get hit by a bus to know it hurts!

Jo Janoski said...

Great story! And the chick won! ;)

Dan said...

Common Jo...you know the 'chicks' always win.

Wendi said...

I love it when I find myself in the midst of really great writing without intending to do that. Bravo. As someone who has recently went through a divorce I know now, after the fact, that I should have possessed more black widow in me but since I don't I was the one left bleeding.

Dan said...

Thanks W. Sorry to hear about your divorce. Hope to never write about it from first-hand experience.

Word Catalyst Magazine said...

Wow! Good story Dan! One reason we should all make sure we're worth more alive that we are dead!