The Kingmaker

9 - First

Their first date tonight had gone well. Eden removed her shoes and kicked them side-by-side next to the front door of her apartment. Well, one of her apartments. This one was the cramped little studio on the west side of Alexandra, not quite situated on the Slum Belt but close enough that the cost was astronomically low. Well, it had better be cheap, she thought with an amused smile when she felt a strong draft suddenly circulate around the room. A quick glance told her where it had come from: a poorly sealed window just above the sink.

How nice, she thought. From the looks of it, the window would be easy to open and escape through if there ever arose such a need. It would be a little awkward, but the counter was low enough that she could climb up and clamber through fairly easily. And with the trouble that she was bound to stir up soon, she well knew that was a distinct possibility.

A probable one, in fact.

But that wasn't her concern yet. Right now, she had information to sort through, a great deal of it in fact. She'd gotten exceptionally lucky on multiple counts tonight. For one, she had discovered that Nate was just awful at keeping his phone secure. He had simply handed the device over to her, all but demanding that she put in her contact information so that they could 'keep in touch.' i***t. He should have just made her text his number with her name, and then that would have been the end of that. But no, he was careless. And so, all she had had to do was giggle and pretend to fumble with the phone, bat her eyes a little as she wandered through the numbers on speed dial.

His carelessness with his digital security reminded her a lot of someone she'd known a long time ago, if only she cared to take the time to remember. But she didn't, so she immediately got down to business with pen and paper in hand.

There were no furnishings in this apartment unit - why waste the money and effort when she would be abandoning this place in the near future? - so she made do with writing on the floor. The first three numbers on Nate's speed dial, the only ones programmed that came before Donna's number, Diana's number, and the diner they owned. Logic dictated that any phone number that took precedence over his own mother's and aunt's was incredibly important to him, which meant that they would prove important to her, too.

She jotted down the three numbers, leaving a blank space next to them so that she could fill in additional information. Piecemeal, she told herself. It would have to be quick, subtle. She couldn't afford to lose this fish by alarming him before the jig was up. The next time she got a hold of his phone, she would search those three numbers and see when he had called them last. It was too unsafe to up and dial them herself right away. If these phone numbers belonged to burner phones, then she could prematurely alert whoever was on the other end that someone was snooping - and she wouldn't be able to pass it off as a wrong-number incident, either. After all, what would be the chances that someone would accidentally misdial a prolific cocaine distributor?

Well, Eden assumed one of them would be a cocaine distributor, at least, if Nate Gilligan indulged in the same habits as he had a decade previous. Eight years was a long time, but it was interesting that he didn't recognize her at all. Then again, he had never been very smart - such a limited mind, half-wasted away with constant drug use already. And there was also the fact that he had been far more involved with her sister at the time, not her. Who would pay close attention to a girlfriend's reclusive younger sibling, after all?

Oh, Brook. She had always been a down to earth and steady woman, what could she possibly have seen in this stupid i***t to date him for three months? She had never been particularly rebellious, so she must simply have felt sorry for him and so had let him hang onto her - up to the day she died.

It had particularly galled Eden to find Brook's number still buried there in Nate's contact list. No doubt he had saved it to his online cloud service way back when and never removed it, even when he swapped over to new mobile devices. No, not galled. It had infuriated Eden. If it weren't for the desire to destroy him far more thoroughly, she would have settled for tearing his face from his skull on the spot. But then he would have died a merely agonizing death instead of a humiliating, despairing one, and she would have gone to prison. Which would have summarily ended her crusade here. No, she couldn't have that. Nate Gilligan was just one fish, the beginning of the chain. She had more to pursue after she stepped all over him and ground him into dust.

But even so, how dare this...insect...?

One week, Eden promised herself. She would flirt and play and let him stroke her thigh a little in the darkness of a movie theater. Maybe she would even let him kiss her with that disgusting mouth. But for every pleasurable thing he sought from her, she would make him pay back in pain ten times over. Oh, yes. She would enjoy it when the time came. Very much. And as he died pathetic and writhing, she would make sure he knew exactly why it was happening to him.

Eden sucked in a deep, refreshed breath, reveling in the imagined bliss of the moment.

Soon, she told herself.

Soon.

--------------

"Sto-o-op," Eden squeaked, batting away Nate's wandering hands as they clambered clumsily over a set of metal steps. They were climbing the scaffolding of an apartment complex indefinitely under construction, conveniently located in an area no one dared frequent this time at night. No one except them, at least. And as it so happened, the incidence of nighttime visitors here was so low that police patrols barely even skirted this area anymore. One of the numerous shortcomings of the notorious Alexandria City Police Department. Why drive out here when they could enjoy themselves in the more pleasant parts of the city, all while being on duty?

Meanwhile, Nate had insisted on climbing up behind her, no doubt enjoying the view as he grabbed at her waist.

"Nate, stop that! What if I fall, you're being ridiculous!"

"I don't know, I call this having fun," he retorted, and he dug his fingertips into her side again, making her flinch and laugh aloud. "See? You're having fun, too."

"No, it's because you're tickling me," she protested, and she expertly hid a disgusted grimace when she felt his thumbs rub small circles into her lower back. Easy, she told herself. Go easy. "I can't help laughing when you do that, Nate -"

"And I can't help being a fun guy," he insisted. "Listen, hey, relax. It's late, you don't want to wake anyone...if there was anyone around here to wake."

"Nate, shh..."

"Why? You think someone's going to come out and tell us to stop? We can do anything we want out here, Abby. Anything we want."

By now they had reached the third landing of the scaffolding, and Eden was stepping out of it and into the building itself. She rolled her eyes at how he pitched his voice low again, no doubt thinking that he sounded sensual and irresistibly provocative. How little he knew. He was attractive, but only conventionally - light brown hair, tousled and free. Big green eyes. A little on the stringy side, but he was confident in his height. Funny to think how none of that would matter in just a few minutes. She might have even pretended to feel sorry for him if she cared even remotely about his final fate, but of course, that simply wasn't the case.

Well, she did care. Just not in the way he would probably want. She spared his mother a passing thought, wondering if she would grieve for him overmuch, but it was her fault for raising a worthless piece of s**t like him anyway. Donna Gilligan had two other children; she would just have to content herself with them instead. Because Nate belonged to Eden, and as her property, she possessed full authority over his sorry existence.

And she would make sure to exercise that authority to the full when the time came. Wouldn't be long now, she thought with a silent hiss. Wouldn't be long at all.

"How'd you know about this place?"

Eden tucked her hair behind her ear and allowed her legs to dangle off the edge of the landing. The ground wasn't too far below them. Only thirty feet or so. If someone happened to fall from this height, it wouldn't kill them necessarily, but it would certainly break their legs. She ducked her head and peered sideways at Nate with an enchanting smile as he crawled over, still half-drunk but clearly still in the mood for some nookie nonetheless.

She had strung him along quite well, protesting demurely every time he so much as knocked his knees into hers on accident. It had driven him crazy, especially as they'd gone out every night this week and he had gotten nothing to show for it. Well, maybe a hard-on or two or five. A well-situated accidental bend at the waist here and there had given him something to think about from time to time, and after seven days, he was well-primed for the kill.

His hand slid onto her thigh, warm and groping and a little sloppy. "Oops, sorry," he whispered, voice slurring slightly. "Trying to sit down next to you, dunno what happened..."

"Ugh, Nate. You're so bad, I hate you." Eden smiled and bit down on her bottom lip, pushing his hand away as he finally settled down next to her. She noted clearly how his eyes lingered on her mouth, and noted even more clearly how his legs were dangling off the edge of the building next to hers. Hm. Tempting. But it was a little too early, she told herself after weighing her options. Just a little longer.

"You hate me?" he repeated. "Then why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you want me to be bad."

Eden's eyes would have rolled up into the back of her head if not for her extraordinary, superhuman talent when it came to stroking the egos of stupid, blundering asswipes. "Stop it," she said in a warning voice, but she measured her pitch carefully, made it sound breathy and embarrassed. Maybe a decibel too low for this half-drunk i***t, though, she thought, and she adjusted her volume accordingly. It was good that he was so taken in that he was leaning toward her this way, but judging from the way he was squinting a bit, he was having a little trouble hearing her.

"Yeah? You don't want me to be bad, then?" he asked, and he placed his hand on her thigh again. "That's not why you brought me out here to this abandoned construction site under the full moon, with lots of nice, flat places to roll around on?"

"Oh, my God! Nate! I just wanted to show you this place...to thank you." She tucked her hair behind her ear again, let her eyelashes flutter with assiduously calculated precision meant to go straight to his groin. "You've showed me so much here this week. I was feeling...so alone. I've never been away from my parents until I came here. I barely left the house for anything, and I never went anywhere with guys, especially. I know that sounds ridiculous, by the way, which is why I didn't tell you."

"Oh?" he inquired, now stroking her knee with small, circular motions of his thumb. "You could have told me. Just means you were a good girl, that's all. I love good girls."

"Well, you seem like...a good guy, too," she said softly, and she bit her bottom lip again. "Well, besides joking about...you know. All the time. You're seriously a bad influence."

His hand squeezed around her thigh a little tighter. She didn't stop him. "Joking about 'you know?' What's the thing you're talking about? What do I joke about all the time?"

"Ugh," Eden sighed. "You're so...My parents would hate you."

"Every good girl's gotta have a bad boy. And you're so far from home, Abby."

His hand was sliding up her thigh now, and she had to suppress the all-out laugh that almost exploded from her at his rasping declaration. Oh, very good. Pretending to swoon at his cringe-inducing lines was was like sucking on a lemon and trying not to pretend it was sour.

"Yeah, I guess I am," she said. "Hey..." She placed her hand on his, and then turned so that she could look into his eyes.

"Yeah? What's up."

"I...I know what's going to happen here tonight," she said softly. "I want it to be you. It's going to...be my first, and...I want it to be special."

She saw his Adam's apple bob furiously under the luminous glare of the moon. Oh, yes. Very special, she thought. He wasn't the most important fish, but she was going to commemorate him just the same.

"Do you have your phone on you?" she asked, and although she could see the impatient confusion in his eyes, he obediently took it out and showed it to her. "Can you turn on the camera? I...I was hoping we could watch ourselves later..."

Oh, God. The speed at which his pupils dilated nearly blew Eden away with gale force winds, but she would chalk that up to a clean victory.

"I'm going to put it against the column over here. Um...and...I'm going to take off my clothes, but you have to turn around."

She saw his jaw working, the way his eyes roamed over her. And in her peripheral vision, she noticed something else too - but as it was located at the crotch of his pants and she was sure it would disappear completely in about the next minute, she didn't pay it any mind.

"You're not gonna let me see?"

She gave him a nervous smile. "...After. Please. I'm...really nervous. I don't think I can do it if you don't turn around for me."

And that was all it took. Eden took his phone - he had swiped in his unlocking pattern in full view, i***t that he was - and stood up with it in her hand. She took a step back away from the ledge, eyed Nate with a cool, careful eye as he stared out into the night with unbridled eagerness, nearly shaking in excitement. He was even swinging his legs slightly, no doubt too overcome to stay still.

"Don't turn around until I say so, okay?" she said softly, and he answered with an unintelligible mess of syllables assuring he wouldn't.

Right. She had nothing to worry about, because he wouldn't have the chance.

Eden took half a dozen careful steps backward, watching him with bright eyes - and then dashed forward. With a heave, she shoved him off of the building and caught herself just before she fell over with him, and watched as he plummeted to the ground below. Excellent angle, she thought with satisfaction. Little risk of breaking his neck and dying instantly, but he would definitely break at least one leg if not both. If it was only one leg, that was fine, too. She would take care of the other in short order.

With a merry whistle, Eden slowly descended the scaffolding to join him.