Page 48 of Brick's Redemption

I didn’t blame him for taking her away despite the vengeance he craved. Dagger knew I would avenge every member of the Desert Titans. But Butcher? He was getting something special.

Maddog joined me at same moment I plucked Butcher from the ground and lifted him into the air. My shadows became restraints as they tightened around his wrists and ankles. And that was when that cowardly piece of shit peed his fucking pants.

Maddog chuckled.

But a deeper, more terrifying laugh followed.

I turned toward the door, my lips lifting into a grin when I saw Grim, the president of the Tonopah Graven Bastards and a Reaper. As in the actual Grim Reaper. Behind him, more reapers joined us, infiltrating the shadows to prevent the other men in the room from bleeding out and dying.

They had no idea their torment was only beginning.

I held onto Butcher, watching as Maddog’s shadows merged with mine, and every Crimson Skull member in the room rose off the floor to dangle above us. Below, where the carpet used to cover the ground, it began to crack open, groaning as if in ravenous delight.

“Judgment day,” Lucifer announced in a voice that boomed through the lower levels of the casino.

Fissures opened in the ground, and hot, humid air hissed as it escaped. Flames that flickered in eerie shades of green and purple billowed as they licked at the feet of our prey. They watched in horror as the reapers came forward, hovering above the hellfire in black robes, holding scythes that gleamed in the darkness. The blades hummed in anticipation.

The Crimson Skulls began to scream as the reapers slowly reaped their souls, ripping them from their physical bodies like a wild animal tearing flesh from bone. Their agonized cries echoed in the ballroom as Butcher began begging for mercy.

“Who betrayed Judge?” I asked, pulling on his extremities.

He swallowed hard, grimacing at the fresh wave of pain. “A prospect. He reported everything to me.”

“Is he alive?”

Butcher shook his head. “No.”

“You murdered him with the rest of my club,” I realized.

“Yes.”

“You’re pathetic. You’ll answer to Lucifer for your sins.”

“Please!” he cried as the men around him withered in their human husks, their souls sucked into the fissures below. I heard slurping noises as Lucifer gobbled up their tainted, evil essence, grinding his teeth on their wickedness.

“You showed no mercy for Hesh or the Desert Titans, and none will be shown to you.”

He tried to make excuses, but I didn’t care.

“You will be tormented for all eternity without any break. Your soul will never know peace.”

The Reapers rumbled their agreement.

“Die, motherfucker!”

And with that command, Butcher’s soul was yanked from his physical body and plummeted into the hellfire flames that awaited. The bodies of all the Crimson Skulls withered into dust and fell into the abyss. When it was over, the fissures popped and crackled, closing as Lucifer laughed.

I’d never heard anything more terrifying in my life.

The Reapers lowered to the ground, and their robes disappeared. The bony, skeletal features I had seen as they rose off the ground faded, but I knew each possessed the demonic beings inside them the same as we did with our shadows. They worked in tandem, and that was what Lucifer had planned all along.

I felt free, knowing my enemies had been vanquished and Ginny was no longer in danger. Lucifer had been right. Therewasn’t anything like experiencing this and knowing I could always protect my woman, son, and club.

I didn’t regret a fucking thing.

Maddog gripped my shoulder as we walked toward the exit. “You did good. Welcome to the Graven Bastards, Bedlam.”

The Reapers followed us, joking around like they didn’t just send all those men to hell. It was intoxicating. Power like this was unheard of, yet I possessed it. Me, and every Graven Bastards MC member, regardless of Chapter location.

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