Smirking, Joe leaned in, his hand still firm on the kid's throat. "Could be a sex thing," he said in a low voice, although that wasn't really it either. He could have this done in seconds, but there was something in the fight before death that Joe enjoyed. There was the fear and the bargaining, like they actually had something he might want.

I won't fight you, okay? Like Joe would just let him go if he was a good boy.