The next morning, when Nikishi came into the kitchen to find Bill, eating breakfast with a small but rather nasty looking puffy cut on his already naturally prominent lower lip, he told her gruffly that he'd cut it during training with Aiyana.
He hadn't quite sorted out what had happened with Elle the night before, and he wasn't exactly sure he wanted to even try at the moment...he'd already spent too much time pondering over it throughout the night.
With a scowl, he picked up his paper, cringing at the sting of pain when he attempted to take a sip of hot tea.
"Goddamnit Elle," he mumbled to himself and flipped open the paper with an angry rumple.
It was midweek and the tall blonde was sitting comfortable at the counter of the relatively vacant record store. She was clad in a pair of loose fitting pants and an equally loose fitting powder blue blouse with flowing sleeves that she had purchased from the maternity store; this being one of the outfits she didn't detest. She had had on a pair of neon yellow sandals, but they were now on the floor and her bare feet were propped up on the bottom rim of the stool she was seated upon. Blonde locks of hair were let down and combed out to look presentable at work, not that she ever didn't look presentable.
Tommy had gone out five minutes ago to retrieve the couple lunch from the deli down the block. The hour was slow, having had only ten customers within the four hour period she had been sitting there. The store continued to be slow and Beatrix found herself bored. She first began leafing through a magazine, which not surprisingly consisted of wedding gowns. She already bookmarked and highlighted her top choices, but she had pretty much narrowed it down seeing the wedding was coming up.
And, speaking of weddings, when she finished with the bridal magazine, she moved on to the pamphlet Tommy wanted her too look over. The brochure advertised various wedding chapels in the area, most of them being small, nice ones. Tommy had already circled his number one pick; The Two Pines wedding chapel. Bea so far had no objections, and reminded herself to mention visiting the place to Tommy before the week was over.
Twenty minutes had passed and Tommy was still a no show. She knew the deli could be slow, stupidly slow sometimes but they did make the best sandwiches; it was worth the wait. So, to amuse herself further she put the pamphlet aside, and moved onto doodling aimlessly on the back of a void sales receipt.
Within a day of attempting to track down the killers of Bill's former lover, Beatrix Kiddo, Dantae aka El Lobo and his partner in tracking and in life, Helen Vowell, had quickly found out that their mission was not going to be a typical one.
Through a series of dizzyingly fast events and leads, the two of them had gone from LA to El Paso Texas. They'd only been in LA for two days, because as it turned out, LA was not even close to where they needed to be.
Dantae would have to explain what had happened to Bill...if his theory proved right. But first he had to put that theory to the test...
Entering the comfy, well worn, used record store, Dantae loudly shut the door behind him. At the moment he was nearly unrecognizable as the man who'd had dinner with Bill and Budd a few days ago. He was known for altering his appearance and altering he had certainly done.
His long straight jet black hair was now completely in braids. It had taken Helen hours of assistance last night in their hotel room to get it this way. He'd put some Native American looking beads around the bottoms of the braids. Likewise, he hadn't shaved for a few days...which gave him a scruffy look. He had wrapped a tie-dyed bandanna around his head, pulling some of the braids randomly through it. He was wearing ripped up brown corduroy pants, black Doc Martins, a holey Megadeth t-shirt, a black leather biker's jacket with some random patches and a big heavy metal style graphic airbrushed on the back, a giant gold hoop earring, and a pair of black fingerless gloves.
He looked like some stoned out, metal head, pirate wanna-be. Even if Beatrix had known him, which she didn't of course, it was highly unlikely she'd make him out to be the same man.
Dantae came sauntering in, flashing a quick look out the small window by the door, just to make sure Helen was ready and in place with her camera. Then, putting on a complete act, Dantae began shuffling around the rows of records, sniffing, flipping his braids around, and clearing his throat loudly. Going into the "Metal" section, he sorted through the records for a few moments. Picking out one, which he really had no damn clue who the band was, he glanced over the top of the record at the woman sitting behind the counter.
She looked bored. She was pretty, blonde...and she looked just like Beatrix Kiddo. Dantae's dark eyes flashed and then flicked back down to the record. He'd been right.
Putting the record back, he sauntered up to the counter, leaning on it. "Heya," he spoke in a completely different tonality and style than he usually did, "...see..lady, I'm looking for this really rare Megadeth album...called Absolutely Live High Voltage….you heard of them right? And I don't see it in that shelf back there...," he smiled, revealing a gold tooth, a cap. He'd also smoked a few cigarettes before coming in here, even though he didn't smoke...all for the effect. "Thinkin' maybe, you..ah..you could check that back room of you'res for it...eh?"
Beatrix had peered up briefly when she heard the opening chime and closing ding of the front door. She hadn't doodled in years and she was finding it enjoyable. Most of what she had been doodling were zigzagged lines, random bubble letters, her name written out in various scripture, hearts that looked more like squares, and squares that looked like rectangles, she was never good at drawing. She had taken glances to the customer whom was browsing the shelves. She didn't give him a queer eye as it wasn't too much of a surprise to see a person dressed in such a manner. Hell, she'd seen people dress like that; they weren't necessarily from the El Paso area, but visited randomly. So, the man wasn't too out of the picture.
She settled down her pen, pushed the doodled receipt to the side of the desk, and met the customer's gaze with a welcoming smile on her angelic and somewhat deadly facial features.
"Actually," she turned in her stool in the process of getting up. "I thought we still had one out on the floor." She slid off the stool and began to come around to the front of the desk. She swore every day it was getting harder to get up and will her limbs to move; not to mention every time she made a sudden movement it tended to 'wake' up the baby and thus the kicking began.
"Sometimes albums get moved by customers," she explained in a light, customer-friendly type tone as she motioned for the man to follow her back to the section the album he desired was supposed to be located.
Only Dantae's years of practice and experience kept him completely nonchalant and in character as the pretty blonde turned, slid off the stool, and walked around the counter...
Jesus, fucking, Christ...she was pregnant. Bill was going to...
"Cool," he smiled and giving a casual shrug of his leather clad shoulders, Dantae followed her to the back of the store.
He watched her with a put on friendly indifference as she deftly sorted through the albums along the back wall. He took note of the pretty ring on her left ring finger. By the design, it looked very much like an engagement ring. His mind was suddenly racing...this wasn't how it was supposed to be, no not at all...
His gaze one again flickered out towards the window; Helen was out there, still snapping photos. Dantae turned back to the blonde, making sure he wasn't blocking Helen's view, "Eh, noticed your gunna have a young one pretty soon there ma'am," he spoke in a friendly tone, "Just wanna say congratulations, that's real exciting I'm sure."
"It sure is and thank you," the tall blonde replied as long white digits flipped through the various album covers in stock. She wasn't trying to be antisocial. She was just doing business, sweet-short conversations with the customers as she tried to help them out. So far she had yet to find the requested album and the thought of going to the back was daunting. She kept a pleasant smile still on her face as she moved to investigate the next stack.
"Gotcha," she stated bluntly cutting the momentary silence as she plucked out the so desired rare Megadeth album. She gave a long thin smile, her bright blue eyes glimmering with satisfaction at her find. Okay, so the things that thrilled her now weren't exactly that exciting….but hell, at least she wasn't as bored. "I knew it was around here somewhere." She held the album out to him. "Is that all, or would you like me to tear apart the rest of the store in search of another misplaced album?" She joked in a friendly tone.
Dantae laughed, taking the record from her, "Oh, no, no...this is all I wanted." He looked at the cover lovingly, "I've been lookin' for this everywhere I've stopped in throughout Texas." He flashed her a quick smile, "Good ol' El Paso came through."
She was a very beautiful woman. He could certainly see her as 'Bill's type' and he knew she was putting up just as much of an act as he was. She was a trained killer...'was' being the key word there. She'd traded that life in...but why? Dantae had no idea, but it wasn't his place to figure out all of that. His job had been to find her killers...and in turn, he'd found her.
"Think I'd just like to get this," he said and followed her to the counter so she could ring him up for the record. As she was doing this, his keen observational eye took note of the bridal gown magazine, the cute little doodles, the obviously new maternal clothing...
She was still so young, and so ready to live...
Part of him pitied this woman. He had a sudden urge to grab her and tell her to run...run as far as she could. For Dantae did not have the option of lying to Bill...he had to tell Bill, he had to tell him the complete truth. He wasn't sure how he was going to tell Bill...but he'd start with the mere fact that she was alive, since surely that would make him happy. Then, he'd tell Bill the rest. At that point...well, may God…..if there was one, have pity on this woman's soul.
And when it came down to it, Dantae wasn't the most moral man in the world himself. He was loyal to Bill and loyal to his job. Sadly, neither of those were favoring this young woman at the moment.
"Ah, thank you...I appreciate it," Dantae spoke up suddenly as the blonde handed him the now neatly bagged up record. He started for the door, and then turned around to look at her one last time, "I hope you have a lovely wedding day and a beautiful healthy child miss," he tipped an invisible hat, "Good day."
With that, he slipped the record under his arm, and left the record store.
"We went all the way to fucking LA," Dantae had allowed Helen to fill their 'employer' in on how they gained the valuable information they retrieved before telling him the other valuable information. Helen liked doing this part of the job because it gave her something to do rather than just displaying her works of art; photographs.
The group was sitting in similar positions to their first meeting. Dantae and Helen sat beside one another on the couch opposite Bill, with an oaken coffee table sitting between them. Helen was wearing a baggy dark green hooded sweat shirt and a pair of khaki jeans. Her messy locks of fire red hair was up in a sloppy bun and her lips were colored a pink shade. She had legs crossed over one another and hands at her side as she told of their adventure, "We get to LA and Dantae here finds out about from that hotel ya gave us…that some woman checked in under that alias but never checked out. So, yeah, she was killed but no body was turned up. Weird. So, we investigated more…underground. Nothing," she paused. Helen was never that descriptive with details but she got down to the finer more important points pretty well. "Dantae and I decide to hit this bar, and outta pure shit luck overhear these fellas talking about how a couple months back this hot chick had nearly killed two drunkards at a bar in Texas all because they wanted some. It gets curious…So, we listen further and it ends up in good old El Paso, Texas. Shitty place if you ask me…" She pursed her lips.
"A little more clever workings from Dantae here," she nudged her partner affectionately. "And we end up in a used record store. Dantae along with my help came up with a little theory and we wanted to test it. So, you find your test subject. And…" The red head made a grab for a black folder at her side and put it on her lap. "We found this." She delicately pulled out a glossy 8X8 color photo and placed it on the top of the coffee table.
The picture was of a young woman, although the picture was from the chest area to the tip of the head. She was beautiful. Blonde locks dipped past her shoulders, clean cut bangs framed her angelic features; fine chiseled facial features, and bright blue eyes that were half lidded by a down cast look. Obviously the woman was unaware of the picture being taken. A placid smile graced her pink shaded lips. She wore a powder blue blouse with a low rounded neck that added perfect picture coloring to the background of various browns, indicating the inside of an area not entirely brand new. Helen fluidly took out the picture Bill had originally supplied them with and put the two side by side. "Spitting image, huh?"
Bill felt as if he'd been kicked in the chest by a horse.
It took him a few seconds to respond to Helen, as he stared down, dumbfounded at the two pictures.
"Like a reflection in the mirror," he said in a barely audible raspy voice.
Dantae sat silently, watching Bill closely. He wasn't' sure what to say at this very moment, so he stayed quiet. He had warned Bill, before they sat down, that the assignment had turned up unexpected results. Bill had waved Dantae's warning away...obviously he had no idea what he was just about to find out.
Bill just sat there, staring at the two pictures, his hands clasped onto his knees. Dantae noticed the man's fingers slowly pressing harder and harder around his kneecaps.
"Bill," Dantae started tentatively, "I-"
"Sshh!" Bill hissed, rising a finger like a threatening snake. His eyes were still plastered on the two pictures, dark and intense.
Bill's mind was currently doing stomach plummeting summersaults. There was absolutely no doubt that the woman in the picture Helen had taken, just yesterday, was Beatrix Kiddo...his Beatrix Kiddo. Jesus Christ...she wasn't dead. He should have known, she was too good to have been killed so easily...
He sat back, a hand covering his face. It was a rare moment; a public display of emotional weakness...but at the moment, Bill didn't give a fucking damn.
She wasn't dead, she was very much alive. She'd been living there in El Paso, mere hours from his house, for the last three months...while...he...sat here...in a FUCKING HELL! How could she? How dare she!
Bill inhaled a deep breath, which was just a little too short and forced to be healthy. He had to sort this out before he went ballistic...Beatrix was not dead. She had not killed Lisa Wong, but Lisa Wong had not killed her. Instead, she'd left him...she'd taken off and moved to El Paso Texas. But why? Why had she left him?
"Bill," Dantae started again, exchanging a quick glance with Helen, "The-"
"I said to be quiet Dantae!" Bill snarled, still pressing his fingertips into his forehead. God, he was so happy she was alive...but at the same time, he'd rather her be dead than to find out she'd done this to him. He was shocked, distraught, appalled and completely confused at what she'd done.
"Bill," Dantae started up again quickly. "There's more..." He had to tell Bill before the man processed this too much. Dantae and Helen had both agreed to not tell Bill about Beatrix being pregnant until he'd been able to take in this first round of information. Thus, they'd chosen pictures that, under Helen's expert eye, hid the blonde's pregnancy rather well. Dantae felt it was better this way. He was well aware of Bill's temper, and it was the best thing he could think of to make this emotionally wrecking information a little...'easier.'
Dantae licked his lips, fixing his look on the now very gloomy looking Bill, "Bill...she's...she's getting married..."
Bill's head swung up, "What?" His hooded eyes widened momentarily.
Dantae took in a deep breath, "She's getting married...ah...at the of the month. Helen and I were able to acquire a little blurb in the local paper about the rehearsal date and the wedding date. It's at a place called...The Two P-"
"Stop!" Bill cut in with a raised hand, his voice raw, "Just...that's enough..."
This was it. Bill leaned back, staring up at the ceiling. This was the worst personal fuck over he'd ever got in his entire life. He thought Beatrix being killed had been it...but no...this one took the cake. This one put all of the others throughout his life to shame and Beatrix had been the one to administer it, how fucking fitting. Again, he returned to the same words over and over again...Why had she done this to him? Suddenly leaving, that was somewhat in Beatrix's character to do yes...but run away and then decide to up and get married? No fucking way. No FUCKING way. She was his woman.
He remembered vividly, months ago...he and Beatrix joking around with Budd on the back porch. Both he and Beatrix had kidded about how much they found the concept of marriage revolting. They'd laughed about it...she was so against it. Ah, but there it was...she was so against marrying him, but apparently she wasn't against marrying some other asshole out there.
She'd made a fucking cuckold out of him. Nobody had ever made a cuckold out of him.
God, this hurt. Bill's chest felt heavy...felt caved in. He'd loved her, fuck...he still loved her...he always would. He'd loved her more than any other woman in his entire goddamn long woman filled life. He'd treated her well, despite being a bastard. He would have done any goddamn thing for her...hell, he even would have married her if that's what she really fucking wanted...but she didn't...at least...she didn't want him...
If Bill had had a broken heart before, it just got paired in half again; like a easily cut piece of fruit. He realized then the mistake of having the heart in the first place. He should never have made that mistake. He forgot how much it hurt, to have his heart broken...it had been so long, and this one...this was the worst.
Bill had thought she had been happy with him, flaws and all...she'd been so clear about that. But, he'd always known she was a pathological lair...he should have listened to himself from the beginning. He shouldn't have let himself fall in love with her. How could he have been so weak? He was far too cunning, far too hard and far too cruel to let this happen to him.
But, she'd taken him alright. He had to give it to her, she was good. She'd managed to fuck him over like nobody else ever could or dared to. And here, he'd sat, pining, missing, self abusing, sentimentalizing, and acting like a fucking pussy...while she...went off and found some other man, doing who knows what. Jesus fucking Christ it made him angry...
"Bill? Bill?" Dantae finally decided to speak up, after Bill had been sitting there, staring up at the ceiling for a good five minutes. It had been eerie watching Bill sit there, in complete silence, his breathing just a little too controlled, his demeanor just a little too calm; like a true sociopath just waiting to strike.
Bill finally looked back down at Dantae and Helen, the look on his face could have defined the word 'sadistic' in the dictionary.
At that moment, Dantae was extremely happy they had yet to tell Bill about Beatrix's pregnancy.
Helen exchanged an alarmed glance with Dantae. They both had been watching Bill and the facial expressions and tenseness they received from him was alarming. Usually when their employers were given bad news they reacted pretty harshly…but no, Bill outdid ever single employer they had ever had. The glint in the older man's eyes was enough to scare Satan himself, or close too it.
The redhead tentatively licked her lips and began to search through the remaining photographs. Thank goodness she put all of the full frontal and partial frontal photos on the bottom, as Dantae had suggested. It was a good idea. Taking care to her precious photographs she began placing them down one by one on the table top. She glanced up to find Bill's hard brown eyes glued to the photos she displayed.
The next one was another facial profile; equally as beautiful and oblivious. Helen felt a ping of remorse when she displayed the fifth photo. It sure as hell was Beatrix, wearing that same pale blue blouse, a facial profile, but beside her stood a man. He was tall, a good head taller than the woman. He had light blonde hair that was sloppy military style cut, some shades of that blonde almost appeared bleached, but it was all natural. The same blonde color was decorated along his side burns that leveled off into stubble and a make-shift goatee. He had soft blue eyes and a classic dopey grin on his face. Helen had to admit the guy was a type of classic cute.
"That is Tommy Plympton, her fiancé," Helen said quietly after she put down the 8X10 photograph. She set down one more picture; the 'couple' appeared to be sitting down together, the pretty blonde had her head in the nook of the man's shoulder, eyes canted down, and her pink shaded lips partially parted as if in misspeak. The man's head was canted down as well as his gaze; a contented smile on his face. Obviously they were looking at something. Helen recalled when taking the photograph they were reviewing the contents of a bridal magazine. Thank God she wasn't fucking stupid enough to capture the magazine as well.
Helen pressed her lips together and sat back to let Bill examine the new set of photographs. She caught Dantae's eye and she motioned to the folder on her lap. That had been all of the 'non-pregnancy' photographs she had taken. She hesitantly glanced to Bill.
Bill took in this new round of photographs...each was now just a heap of painful salt in a raw gaping open wound.
He slowly picked up each picture with a an overly calm hand. But as he looked at each photograph there was no missing the growing hurt and pain in his eyes; it was too hard to hide that at the moment. He picked up the picture of Beatrix and her fiancée.
This Tommy Plympton looked just like the kind of dumbshit asshole Beatrix would go after. She was always trying for those 'nice guys' throughout it all. Bill resisted a bitter laugh, oh how he'd let her down in that category...
Was that it? Had he simply not been what she wanted after all? He didn't know what to think...but, he did know that up and leaving him, having him believe she was dead, was not exactly the nicest way to tell him that she didn't want to be with him. It was rather cruel, in fact Bill wasn't even sure if he'd stoop that low….perhaps, but not with somebody he'd loved as much as Beatrix.
She could have just told him...
Un-focusing from Tommy, and taking in the whole picture of both he and Beatrix, the hurt and angry look in Bill's eyes deepened. Seeing her like this, so happy, so contented...with another man...it was unexplainably wounding. His fingers tightened on the edge of the picture. That look of happiness on her face...that was HIS look, that was how she'd looked at him...at times...and, the way she was lying her head in the crook of the man's shoulder...that was HIS...she'd done that to him... God, he'd loved it when she did that...and now she...
He suddenly set down the picture and picked up the other one, the profile of Beatrix. She looked so beautiful, as always. How he missed her...
Without even really thinking, he traced a fingertip along the gently sloping photographic profile of her neck; his head cocked to the side in an almost imploring expression. His eyes crinkled further with a mixture of pain, longing and growing bitterness.
Dantae, who decided he didn't want to watch this anymore, had turned his head away and was staring blankly out at the strips of blue daylight beaming through the slats in the wooden patio doors. He'd never seen Bill like this. He didn't know what to make of all of this exactly, but he knew that Bill had been deeply hurt...and that...was not a good thing, for anybody involved.
After having stared at the picture of Beatrix for far too long, Bill set it down on top of the other. He pushed the photos towards Helen's side of the coffee table.
"I'd like you to put those away now...Miss Vowell," he said in a deathly quiet tone.
As Helen complied, he slowly and gingerly sat back against the couch, as if his entire body was now covered in open cuts.
Dantae turned back to look at Bill, completely dumbfounded as to what to say...so once again, he remained momentarily silent.
Bill calmly folded his hands in his lap, his forefinger wrapping just a little too tightly around his large turquoise and silver ring. He was obviously making a struggling effort to regain a more neutral expression on his face; something that was normally as naturally easy as breathing for him.
"Perhaps, we should head back to the hotel for a bit Helen?" Dantae suggested to the redhead next to him, his dark eyes flicking back to Bill for some sort of approval.
Bill nodded silently, a hand rubbing at his chest...which was now aching with a dull sickening sort of pain. "Perhaps," he added softly.
"Perhaps we should," Helen ended it off and began too rise from the couch. She felt horrible for the man. She could only imagine…well….she couldn't imagine what it would feel like to know the person you loved wasn't dead but alive and in turn found another man. Hell of a way to break up with somebody.
She grabbed up the folder of photographs and cradled them beneath her arm. She gave Dantae a questioning expression. When did he plan to tell Bill the rest? Maybe they should tell him now so he could have the heart attack all that once. So he didn't recover and then be shot with another surprise. That didn't seem fair, but then again it wasn't fair to dose all of this information on the man when he was already suffering.
Her red tinted brows furrowed and she turned back to Bill instead of following Dantae out. She approached the older man cautiously and set down the folder down on the coffee table top in front of him. "There's..uh..a few other things in there you may wanna look at…later," she muttered and turned away. Let him make the decision for himself. She came back up to Dantae and wrapped an arm around his waist as they walked out silently and forlorn.
Bill stared at the folder that Helen had just left on the table as if it was filled with anthrax. He didn't move for sometime, he just sat there...glaring at it, fearing it like he'd never feared anything before in his entire life.
What more could there be? Beatrix had left him, ditched him...fucked him over, and decided to get hitched to some cute young asshole. All of this after all he'd done for her, all he'd taught her, all he'd loved her. He highly doubted it could get worse. Then again, life was fucking funny like that...
After sometime, he reached out and picked up the dreaded folder. Then, he spent a few moments just staring at the plain folder cover, attempting to glare through it. But he wasn't Superman, heh….that was for damn sure. No, he...at the moment, was just like any other fucked over man out in the world...well, one that killed people that is.
Finally, he opened it and slowly began leafing through the photographs. It seemed Dantae and Helen had only shown him a couple of the repertoire that they had acquired. It only took Bill about two seconds to figure out the difference between the pictures they'd shown him previously and the new ones he was looking at now.
For Beatrix was not only getting married...she was fucking pregnant.
Well, if that wasn't the fat ripe cherry sitting on top of the pile of shit he'd just received.
With a snarl, Bill instantly tossed the entire file of pictures over his shoulder. The contents spilled onto the ground with a soft swish. He'd seen enough. It was all clear now.
Leaning forward, he dug his fingers into his scalp. He could feel a massive wave of anger coming on, like a raging storm that had been waiting in wake for years. He was fairly good at controlling his temper nowadays, compared to how he used to be at least, but at the moment...he didn't think he could hold it back...he was far, FAR too upset. He was trying though...
Beatrix was pregnant. Well, perhaps he had been right when he'd made those cruel comments to her...about her being like her whore of a mother. She'd ran off, once again, he had no real idea why, got knocked up and...most likely, in some sort of fucked up idea about making it 'legit' decided to get married to the motherfucker who had so quickly knocked her up.
Bill had the sudden urge to go and fuck some random woman out of pure spite. He could be in San Diego in forty minutes...thirty if he sped. He knew at least five women there, that….after a fancy dinner and some sweet talk he could fuck without a ounce of thuoght. Better yet, he could call Elle...he'd have her on her back in less then two seconds after she'd walked in the door.
No...that was childish, stupid. He wasn't that petty. He didn't need to stoop as low as Beatrix...he could do far, far better than a spiteful, angry, meaningless fuck.
"FUCK!" He yelled suddenly; that momentarily semi-calm lapse giving away to a renewed feeling of betrayal. Standing up, he prowled the expanse of the living room, caught between anger and agony.
In the end anger won. It always did. He couldn't hold it back anymore.
Picking up the nearest Oriental footstool, he threw it at the nearby bar with a cry of angst and fury. The footstool smashed, dead on, into the back of the bar; breaking just about every glass, trinket and bottle sitting on the shelf along the way. Those glasses that were spared from the initial attack came smashing to the ground due to the sheer force of vibrations. The loud shattering eventually died away into eerie silence.
Bill stood staring at this tableau of destruction with a look of pure intense sadism on his face; feet planted apart, fists clenched at his sides.
Oh yes, it was all clear to him now. There was a price for breaking the heart of a murdering bastard. And that price was mighty high. To Bill, he had only one option:
He was going to kill Beatrix Kiddo.