The sound was a sharp snap, like a breaking branch. Dean gasped. Percy stared at me in utter shock, his eyes so wide they looked as if they must fall out of their sockets. His mouth opened and closed, opened and closed, like the mouth of a fish in an aquarium tank.
“Shut up and listen to me,” I said. “You deserved to be punished for what you did to Del, and we gave you what you deserved. This was the only way we could do it. We all agreed, except for Dean, and he’ll go along with us, because we’ll make him sorry if he doesn’t. Isn’t that so, Dean?”
“Yes,” Dean whispered. He was milk-pale. “Guess it is.”
“And we’ll make you sorry you were ever born,”
I went on. “We’ll see that people know about how you sabotaged the Delacroix execution – ”
“Sabotaged-!”
“how you almost got Dean killed. We’ll blab enough to keep you out of almost any job your uncle can get you.”
Percy was shaking his head furiously. He didn’t believe that, perhaps couldn’t believe that. My handprint stood out on his pale cheek like a fortune-teller’s sign.
“And no matter what, we’d see you beaten within an inch of your life. We wouldn’t have to do it ourselves. We know people, too, Percy, are you so foolish you don’t realize that? They aren’t up in the
state capital, but they still know how to legislate certain matters. These are people who have friends in here, people who have brothers in here, people who have fathers in here. They’d be happy to amputate the nose or the penis of a shitheels like you. They’d do it just so someone they care for could get an extra three hours in the exercise yard each week.”
Percy had stopped shaking his head. Now he was only staring. Tears stood in his eyes, but didn’t fall. I think they were tears of rage and frustration. Or maybe I just hoped they were.
“Okay – now look on the sunny side, Percy. Your lips sting a little from having the tape pulled off them, I imagine, but otherwise there’s nothing hurt but your pride … and nobody needs to know about that but the people in this room right now. And we’ll never tell, will we, boys?”
They shook their heads. “Course not,” Brutal said. “Green Mile business stays on the Green Mile.
Always has.”
“You’re going on to Briar Ridge and we’re going to leave you alone until you go,” I said. “Do you want to leave it at that, Percy, or do you want to play hardball with us?”
There was a long, long silence as he considered.
I could almost see the wheels turning in his head as he tried out and rejected possible counters. And at last, I think a more basic truth must have overwhelmed the rest of his calculations: the tape was off his mouth, but he was still wearing the straitjacket and probably he had to piss like a racehorse.
“All right,” he said. “We’ll consider the matter closed. Now get me out of this coat. It feels like my shoulders are – ”
Brutal stepped forward, shouldering me aside, and grabbed Percy’s face with one big hand – fingers denting in Percy’s right cheek, thumb making a deep dimple in his left.
“In a few seconds,” he said. “First, you listen to me. Paul here is the big boss, and so he has to talk elegant sometimes.”
I tried to remember anything elegant I might’ve said to Percy and couldn’t come up with much. Still, I thought it might be best to keep my mouth shut; Percy looked suitably terrorized, and I didn’t want to spoil the effect.
“People don’t always understand that being elegant isn’t the same as being soft, and that’s where I come in. I don’t worry about being elegant. I just say things straight out. So here it is, straight out: if you go back on your promise, we’ll most likely take an ass-fucking. But then we’ll find you – if we have to go all the way to Russia, we’ll find you – and we will fuck you, not just up the ass but in every hole you own.