Page 23 of King of Cruelty

Quickly, I crept back toward the door, keeping low. “Hey!” I growled, expertly mimicking Brother Abraham’s voice just like my favorite conman dad taught me. “Get out here, you fools! Help me, I’m hit! That stupid cunt bitch shot me!”

“Boss?”

“Boss, are you okay?”

“Is it clear?”

“It’s clear,” I gruffed. “Hurry up!”

I quickly ducked behind a deck chair as four grunts rushed to their savior’s aid. I ran inside and shut the door while they were still midway through crying and shouting his name.

Sweeping the dim room, I felt the pressing weight of silence. As predicted, everyone guarding the front door went tearing off at their master’s call, so I was alone. The blackout curtains and cheap table lamps didn’t provide much light, but it was enough for me to see the cabin wasn’t as charming on the inside as it was on the outside.

Dirt from dozens of muddy boots traipsing in and out ground into the worn once-blue carpets and turned them into an unappealing mottled brown. Not a single painting, mirror, or picture adorned the peeling white walls, and the small living room I stepped in had nothing to say for itself except for two old, smelly brown couches, a wall-mounted television, and a coffee table with a broken leg.

Slowly, quietly, I moved toward the hall—sliding my back against the wall.

It was quiet. Too quiet. The insulation was too good in this place because I couldn’t hear what was going on outside, or ifthose bastards were on their way back. From what my brothers told me, Luca kept his prisoners in separate rooms—alone and chained to the wall. An act which made it impossible for them to plot an escape, organize, or even have a friendly face to look to while surviving hell.

My gaze traveled up.If my Cardinals are here, they must be upstairs.

I crept further down the hall, picking up the pace. The staircase faced the back door, and I needed to climb up it before the brothers came back and got between me and my only way out.

Gun up and leading the way, I took the stairs two at a time. Topping the landing, I came out into another too-dark hallway, squinting at the seven doors split between either side of me. I reached for the knob directly on my right, and threw open the door—my finger ready and desperate to fire off a shot.

“Hmpgf!”

I dropped my gun running inside.

Everything my brothers told me about that horrible place where they found Kenzie, and the sight was still worse than I imagined.

All that made a bedroom a sanctuary had been ripped out, and the only things left in its place were dirty, stain-covered mattresses, metal bars secured to the walls, a bucket in the corner emanating an eye-watering smell, and three young, gagged women chained to opposite walls.

Boo, Lils, and Nella still had on the clothes they were taken in, and that was the only part of them clearly recognizable. All three of them were beat to shit, with swollen black eyes, welts and bruises up and down their arms and legs, and split lips separated by blood-stained gags.

Rage I’d never known before filled me to bursting. Everything in me screamed to hunt down those scurrying morons outside and put a bullet in each of their skulls.

I dropped beside Boo and pulled the gag out of her mouth.

In spite of everything, she granted me a wobbly grin. “It’s real great to... see you, FGH.”

“Sorry I didn’t get here sooner.” I freed them all from their gags, but the chains were another matter. One look told me I wasn’t shooting or breaking those shackles. “Who has the key?”

“A fuck-ugly, weedy little... bitch,” Nella rasped. “Face riddled with... acne and his smirk dripping with incel.”

Lils nodded—barely. Her head strained to carry out the command and lolled instead. “Abraham... ordered them not to rape or grope us, so instead—instead—”

“Instead he beat us.” The words scraped from Boo’s parched throat. “He beat us and said if we begged for his cock... he’d stop.”

I was wrong. This feeling— This hatred right now... is the most rage I’d ever felt.

“He dies first,” I hissed. “Well, seventh, but I’ll make it slow.” I glanced back. “I’ve got to check and make sure the others are all here. If anyone but me walks past that door, shout.”

I squeezed Lils’s hand as she tried another nod. “I’m getting you out of here, Lils. Today.”

“Never doubted... you, boss.” Her swinging head dropped on my shoulder. “Never.”

I didn’t mess around with emotions like guilt. I do what I do and I say what I say. When I’m wrong, I accept responsibility for it and own the consequences of my actions. Wasting time moping and crying got in the way of making it right.

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