Page 26 of Cole: Bloodlines
“Baby…” Dane reached over and took his hand. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”
Angel began to tremble. “When is it ever going to stop?” he whispered, chin quivering. The wall of tears spilled over, running down his face. “I watched over him… protected him…” He bit his lower lip, chin trembling harder. “Now, it’s like… it’s like something out there ispissedand… and determined to get him… and hurt him like I was hurt.” His slender body curled in on itself as he pressed his face to the cold window and cried.
Blinking, Dane squeezed his hand. “Baby, nothing is going to get him. He’s coming hometonight.”
Angel choked on his sobs. “What… What if that…man… did something to him?”
“He hasn’t had him very long,” Dane said. “The deal to trade for Gabe was made quickly. I think… I think he just wanted them for leverage.”
“Dane…” Angel looked at him, horror radiating from his face. “He’s aserial killer.A serialrapist.What if heraped him?”he cried. “What if heraped them all?”
Dane couldn’t allow his mind to go there, even though Angel’s fears were real and justified. The madman was intent on hurting Cole — to make him suffer by hurting those he loved. For a serial rapist, violating his victims seemed like the natural starting point.
Gabe slightly shielded his arm behind his back as the short club slid further into his hand. Had he not known the deputy was an imposter, he might have found it strange that the madman didn’t disarm him.
When Roland discreetly moved his hand toward his sidearm, Gabe made his move—striking the deputy alongside the head with the club. The man yelped in pain and shock, staggering to the side. Gabe’s body wasn’t working as well as usual; his injury and recent surgery kept him from delivering the full force of his strength into the strike. The momentum threw him off balance as a sharp, stabbing pain shot through his fresh wound into his chest and shoulder.
Gabe threw himself into Roland, taking them both to the ground, and kneed him in the balls as they fell. The Deputy grunted, the air rushing out of his lungs as Gabe scrambled for his weapon. The sidearm was still secured in the holster, and Gabe fumbled with the snap, yanking the gun free. He spun around and fired, with no time to aim, praying he hit his target.
The killer swore sharply and ducked into the doorway. Gabe stayed crouched low to the ground, using the deputy’s distorted body for minimal cover. He aimed the weapon at the entrance and along the dark windows next to it. “Poke your head out, motherfucker,” he whispered tightly. Roland swore at him and started to move. Gabe kneed him in the kidneys. “Move and I’ll blow your fucking brains out,Mark,” Gabe hissed. “Yeah, Ifucking remember you, motherfucker.” He winced as the pain in his side billowed outward, and his head felt heavy. He blinked as his vision blurred a little.Please, God, don’t let me pass out.
“You’re going to regret this,” the madman spoke from somewhere inside the dark factory, his voice echoing through the skeletal ruins like a sinister ghost.
“Stick your head out,” Gabe growled. “And we’ll see how much Iregretit—” Gabe propelled back seconds before he heard the gunshot, his right arm nearly wrenching from its socket as the bullet blazed a clean path through the outside of his bicep, tearing flesh and spraying blood. The gun flew from his hand and struck the concrete with a hollow clatter and skidded away.
The deputy crawled to his feet before Gabe could recover, still feeling the impact of the knee to his groin and kidneys. The man stepped on his chest, bent down, and punched Gabe in the face, then kicked him in his injured side.
Gabe gasped sharply as he struggled for breath, tears burning his eyes as the nightmare transformed into a monster, the likes of which they had never faced before.
The madman approached and stood before Gabe. “How’s your faith, son-in-law?” Cold satisfaction laced his voice. “Still believe inGod?”
CHAPTER 10: BLOWING IN THE WIND
The deputy cuffed Gabe,hands in front, and pushed him forward through the old factory's entrance. The wound on his side screamed, causing him to hunch a little, while blood drained from the torn flesh of his arm. Dizziness caused his steps to stagger, and he stumbled a couple of times, held upright by the deputy’s firm grip.
The madman led the way through a maze of corridors. The air was thick with the stale stench of mildew and rot. A faint trace of chemicals still lingered, a reminder of this place's dark past. The cold air carried a sharp, metallic bite, and the taste of dust and decay coated the tongue with every breath, leaving a bitter aftertaste.
Amid the bobbing flashlight beams and thick gloom, Gabe had no idea how far into the factory they had gone when the madman forced open a heavy metal door that scraped loudly against the concrete floor. The deputy pushed Gabe into the room. The madman flipped a switch, causing an overhead bulb to flicker, bathing them in a faint, pale light.
The room had once been an assembly hall where machines sang in sequence and men shouted over the din, but now it was a shrine to a darker trade. Rows of iron-barred cages lined the walls, their doors warped and pitted with corrosion, the floor beneath them blackened in places by irregular spatterings of dried blood. Ghostly trails of crimson snaked across the pitted concrete, some old and brown, some shockingly fresh, coagulated into thick puddles that gleamed even in the dimness. The walls, thick with condensation, ran with streaks that caught the faint, blue-white light filtering from the single bare bulb hanging overhead. The bulb, swaying gently from a frayed cord,cast sickly halos onto the iron lattice and cut the space into islands of shadow, making the cages seem like the ribs of some defunct metal beast.
“Do you know the story of Goldilocks and the three bears?” the madman asked, breaking the chilled silence. He looked at Gabe. “Not the fairytale. Thetruestory.”
Gabe stared at him.
“First off,” the man murmured. “There were only two bears: Papa Bear and his son. There was no Mama Bear.”
Gabe looked around the horror room, his mind conjuring images of Abel and the kids stuffed inside the cages.
“Goldilocks didn’t come into their home on her own. Theyfoundher…huntedher…trappedher. But she wasn’t alone, as in the fairytale. She had two pretty boys with her—the three of them caught in the trap together.”
The deputy stood next to Gabe, a smug look on his face as the madman wove his dark version of a children’s fairytale.
“Now, Papa Bear had been isolated for alongtime and hadn’t seen anything so fresh and pretty as Goldilocks in so very long.” His eyes narrowed with a dark, malevolent pleasure. “So, he fucked her.” A sinister grin etched his face in the eerie pale light. “Her screams brought out thebeastin Papa Bear, and he began to tear her flesh with his claws while he fucked her, shredding her soft, tender skin, ripping her open—”
“Stop it,” Gabe rasped, his horror mixing with rage.
The madman looked at him, his smile fixed on his lips. “But I didn’t get to the part where the bear son took his turn with the pretty boys.”
