Eric sat at a table. His eyes stared at his grandfather, but his mind was elsewhere. Patterson was chattering on about some nonsense that didn’t matter to Eric, which was usually the case. He found Patterson tiresome. The fact that they shared DNA was the only reason Eric put up with him. They were nothing alike. Eric hadn’t killed for the love of killing; he’d done it for justice, plain and simple. Patterson had killed for the enjoyment of killing. The fact that he had meted out some justice in the process didn’t make them the same.
Unlike his sister or his grandfather, killing bothered Eric. He had nightmares about it. However, he had talked a big game, and now, it was time to put his money where his mouth was, so to speak. The Fortress grapevine was full of gossip regarding one Alejandro Gui, former SCTU member. They had found enough evidence in his house to put him away as a serial killer.
Eric had dealt with Gui in the past and he didn’t like the man. Worse, Eric did like Aislinn, and Gui didn’t. He could wait and kill both Nick and Alejandro Gui, when Gui arrived, but he wasn’t sure he had it in him. He could enlist the help of Patterson, but that made him feel ill. His only real solution was to kill Nick the Bomber now and deal with Gui when the time came.
He finished his container of milk and stood up to go scrape his tray. For this, he would spend time in solitary confinement, which wasn’t such a bad thing. At least, he’d get a break from Patterson and his inane chattering. He walked back over to his table and sat back down, a new plan forming.
“Grandfather,” Eric interrupted whatever monologue Patterson was delivering.
“What?” Patterson looked at him.
“Have you ever heard of Alejandro Gui?”
“I’ve had dealings with him in the past, mostly because of your sister. He busted down her hotel room door once, and I wanted to kill him for that.”
“You are going to get your chance,” Eric said. “I’ve decided Nick has lived long enough on the government dollar. I promised to kill him, so it’s time to do it. However, there is a good chance that while I’m in solitary, they will bring Alejandro Gui into the Fortress. Nick the Bomber hurt Aislinn, and he deserves to pay, but Alejandro would do much worse to her, given the chance.”
“You want me to remove Alejandro from the equation,” Patterson made it a statement.
“Yes. You handle Alejandro, I’ll handle Nick.”
“I can do that,” Patterson nodded. Eric nodded back. He stood up and casually walked over to where Nick was sitting. It was rare for the Clachans to be in the mess hall at the same time as Nick the Bomber. It happened about a week a month, when the Fortress changed the lunch schedules of the inmates.
“Hiya, Nick,” Eric sat down, “remember me?”
“What do you want?” Nick asked.
“I don’t want anything. I just came over to prove that I was a man of my word.” Eric grabbed Nick in a snake-like strike around the throat. His hand squeezed, and Nick’s face started to turn red. Eric’s fingers dug into the soft flesh. His nails broke through the skin, sending tiny rivulets of blood down Nick’s neck. For a moment, Eric hesitated, but then he saw the guards moving towards him. With one final push, his fingers broke into the skin and he yanked. Nick spluttered, covering the table in blood. Electricity coursed through Eric’s body as he blacked out.
Patterson wanted to stand up and cheer. His grandson was not so different from him after all. He felt a little more, but the psychopath mutation was definitely in his DNA. It was nearly impossible to actually rip out someone’s windpipe, but Eric had managed to do just that. It was the proof that Patterson had been waiting for. Both Eric and Aislinn carried the psychopath gene, but did not display psychopathic personalities. Aislinn had become a sociopath. Eric was something else, more human than his sister, but just as capable. It made him proud.
Eric would get a couple of months of solitary confinement for killing Nick the Carnival Bomber. Patterson would be waiting though for Eric to be released and for Alejandro to arrive. He was very glad that there were whispers about the giant Native American coming to the Fortress as an inmate. He’d wanted to kill him before, but didn’t because he was Aislinn’s boss. Now, he was just a disgraced US Marshal and serial killer with a bad attitude towards women. Patterson could fix that.
He picked up his tray and moved to a different table. The Clachan men were given a wide berth in the cafeteria. Even serial killers didn’t seem to want to deal with them. Either he ate alone for the next couple of months or he found somewhere else to sit. He joined Brent Timmons, president of the Aislinn Cain fan club inside the Fortress.
Timmons immediately began talking at him. He would have said something to him, but Timmons didn’t require his input, just his presence to listen. Patterson ate quietly and listened. Once he killed Alejandro, he might kill Timmons, just for fun. The man was tiresome.