Kiss and Die

Chapter 48

Rizal took the back stairs up to the apartment. The flat was on the fourteenth floor, a landing where several families lived long term. Rizal texted Lilly on the way. He knew she couldn’t be far away. She would come if he worded it right. Rizal smelt the familiar aroma of pork curry along the landing. Nina had done a good job but she had left Rizal feeling frustrated; his mind was still on her body. He turned his key in the lock and stepped inside. The babysitter, a young woman who lived nearby, was watching TV, the twins were in bed. He dismissed her and she scurried off. She’d had trouble with him before. He opened a beer and sat on the sofa and waited.

‘I got your text. You said she needed me?’ Lilly stood in the doorway, leaning on the doorframe, a defiant look on her face. She was out of uniform she had on a micro mini and a tight top. She eyed the collection of empty beer bottles around Rizal’s chair and her expression changed to one of disgust. ‘What do you want? I thought my mother was back. I smelt the curry. Where is she?’

‘Still at the station.’ Rizal swigged from the beer bottle. ‘I want to talk to you. I don’t want to worry your mother. I thought we could sort it out between the two of us. You’re in trouble with the law?’

Lilly shrugged, with a cocky smile. ‘They got nothing on me.’

‘I knew you’d get in trouble hanging about with those Indian kids. You think you’re smart running with those mangy kids, the Outcasts? You think it makes you into someone big?’ Rizal swigged his beer. ‘Is he your boyfriend? That Mahmud?’

‘No. It’s nothing to do with the Outcasts.’

Rizal wasn’t listening. His mind had moved on to other thoughts. His eyes slipped down her body as he swigged his beer.

‘I’ll be out of here soon. I have plans. I am going to make it big: live in my own penthouse, drink the best wines from France. I won’t have to live in this pit and smell your sweat and listen to you fart all night.’

Rizal stood, swayed on his feet a little. ‘You can’t do it alone. I can help you. You’re a little princess. I know what you like. You like it here. I’ve seen you watching us at night. I’ve seen your eyes open. I’ve seen you looking at me when I’m giving it to your mother. You listen to her moan. She loves it.’

‘She makes money whilst you sit on your drunken arse.’ Lilly made a dash for the bedroom.

Rizal knocked over the table in his speed as he lurched out of the chair and made it the couple of metres to the bedroom door and pinned Lilly to the wall.

She shrieked. ‘Don’t do it, Rizal. Dad, don’t hurt me. Please.’

He held her pressed against the wall and slammed the door shut as her siblings started to cry; his beer breath was in her face. ‘Don’t call me Dad. My name is Rizal. Your father was some Chinese john that your mother dropped her knickers for. Just another john and she was just another whore, still is. She’ll never change. She has no ambition, not like you, my little princess.’ He released his grip a little and stroked her face. ‘You’re prettier than your mother. You’re a pretty girl and smart. You know what it takes for a girl to survive around here. She has to have something to give. You got money to give me, Lilly? You’re living here in my house. You got money, huh?’

Lilly shook her head.

‘Then you got to give me something else.’

She squirmed beneath his probing hands.

‘You like it. I know you do. Why else do you come back here? You’re a little whore like your mother. I will teach you a few lessons. Now…’ He took her hand and pressed it hard against his crotch. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and turned away in disgust. ‘It needs working, no?’ He held her face in his hands as he locked the door and made her look into his eyes. He looked at her mouth. ‘It needs something to bring it to life.’

Lilly left Rizal snoring. She felt sick to her stomach. She stood in the hallway outside the flat and took out her phone and called Victoria Chan. ‘I have thought about it. I want to do it,’ she said. ‘I am ready.’

‘Take ten officers with you. Teach her a lesson.’