Page 24 of Joker
“BJ’s called church. I’ll sit with him,” she whispers to me.
Ruffling the kid’s hair, I say, “I got church, Beau. Pip will watch with you. Be back soon.”
He looks up, grinning at me, and cuddles into Pip as I leave and head into church.
Seems I’m the last one in and quickly take my seat. Looking around, all the brothers seem uneasy. Looking at BJ’s face, I can tell what he’s got to say is not good.
“Okay, Wire came to me today as he and his web friend have been hunting for any trace of Carrie they can find. About an hour ago, he came across a video that was uploaded on a fetish website.”
Taking a deep breath, he lets what he just said sink in. A fetish website, what the fuck! This is not going to be good. I can feel it already.
“Wire and his friend are currently working to trace the link of who uploaded the video and where from. Hopefully, this will give us a location for Carrie.”
The brothers all nod.
“What was the video?”
“Reck, I knew you or Joker would ask, but I’ll warn you against seeing it.”
I can’t help myself. “Have you seen it?”
He lowers his head and lets out a sigh. I have my answer.
“Yes, I’ve seen it, and I wish I hadn’t.”
“I wanna see it. I wanna know what they’ve done to my baby girl so when we catch the sick fuck, I can make sure she has her revenge.”
Prez nods his head like he understands. He presses a button, and the television on the wall behind him comes to life. Clear as day, I can see Carrie, her head is hanging down. She’s strung to some device, but also looks like she’s sitting too. She’s naked and does not look good. I can feel the rage building inside of me. Prez presses play.
I watch the girl I love as she’s electrocuted, and her body defiled while she’s unconscious.
“Stop,” Reck screams out, his head in his hands.
Unable to help myself, I stand and leave church. Heading straight for the bar, I grab the bottle of tequila and take a mouthful straight from the bottle. Feeling the burn run down my throat helps my rage. I take a few more swigs from the bottle and head for the family room.
Beau is playing some game, but I scoop him up and hold him close to me. Walking to the corner of the room where the big comfy chair is, I drop down in it holding Beau even closer. As if he senses what I need, he wraps his arms around me and holds me just as tightly. This is my undoing. Tears stream down my face. I bury my face in his neck and just hold him tight. This grounds me, having him in my arms. I’m not too man enough to admit seeing my girl like that broke my soul. At least she was unconscious and won’t know the sick things he did to her, and I didn’t see all of the video. I just couldn’t stomach anymore. Reck joins us a little later and holds Beau the same way for a while. Then we sit together, the three of us watching a movie. Beau’s head is on my chest, but he’s holding Reck’s hand and has his little feet touching him as if he’s trying to comfort us both.
“Tank’s in the gym beating the shit out of the bag,” these are the first words Reck has spoken to me. His voice is a little more strained than normal, so I know he’s still trying to rein himself in and get control of himself.
“It’s hard on us all who love her,” I tell him.
I knew this would affect Tank as much as it did us. He loves Carrie like a sister.
We sit in silence for a while longer, and Beau falls asleep. Lifting him carefully, I carry him to bed. On the way, Prez stops me.
“I know that was hard, son, and if I had my way, you wouldn’t have ever seen your girl like that, but also, I think it will help us when we get her back to understand what happened so we can work out the best way to help her.”
I know he’s right, but it still kills me.
“Was that the only video?”
Placing his hand on my shoulder, he looks at me with a sadness I’ve never seen before.
“Wire just told me a new one was added a few minutes ago.”
Dropping my head, I hold Beau a little tighter.
“I’ll just put him to bed and be back in church.”
