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“Sure you haven’t. I must say your friends, the Dark Patriots, intrigue me. Are they all like Mark and Sloan? And you have nothing to worry about. We know how to keep our mouths shut,” Ben replied.
“I’d say the main Patriots I know, which are the founders—Sean, Mark, Gabe, and Griffin are like this. We’ve worked with Sean’s wife, Cassidy, in the past. She’s Mark’s sister. They’re a good group. We’re lucky to call them our friends. Ready to do this? I’d like to prolong the torture, even if it’s mental for a bit. They deserve it.”
“They sure do,” Ben grunted. I could only imagine what it had been like for him to grow up. His experience was different from Cassia’s but probably no less traumatic. We all went inside.
Jake and Lance had been efficient. They had both men stripped to their underwear and tied up in our favorite position—hands over their heads chained to a hook and standing on their tiptoes. It caused horrible cramps and pain in the feet, legs and arms especially their shoulders.
They were already sweating and looked terrified. Good. The others all stood back and let Ben and I take the lead. We’d agreed to share in this, although when it came to Reuben, he was going to be mainly mine. I understood Ben’s need to excise his demons when it came to his dad. I couldn’t deny him that pleasure. We’d talked about our approach before we ever captured them.
“Well, they don’t look so scary now, do they? They think they’re big men, intimidating women and children, beating them, raping them, locking them up for days at a time and starving them. All so they can live out their sick fantasies that women are here to serve them and to be used. Their kids are to be used as pawns in their sick cult,” I said casually to Ben.
He nodded. “They sure don’t seem like much to me either. I know Alaric loved to beat the hell out of his kids and punish us for every little thing. If we didn’t do exactly as he said, it was some kind of punishment. He could get creative. And those poor women he claimed as wives. My mother was lucky she died years ago. She gave him more than enough of her life. I’m sad that the only sibling to escape them was Cassia, although she had to go through hell first.”
“I don’t know what my children have been telling you, but they’re lying. No one was abused or forced to do anything they didn’t want to do. Benedict apparently has brainwashed his sister into thinking she was and to tell people that. I’m a well-respected man in my community, and so is my son-in-law. All we want is to find my daughter, Cassia, so we can take her back to where she belongs. She belongs with her husband and family. Her mother misses her.”
“This piece of shit isn’t her husband. She didn’t choose him. She was sold to him and held hostage. He raped and beat her. She escaped and it was my luck that I found her. There’s no way she’s leaving here with you.”
“I never raped her! She’s my wife. You can’t rape your wife. As for beating her, I only did that when her behavior warranted it. The Bible says a woman is to obey her husband. Ephesians 5:22-24,Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything,” Reuben piously quoted.
“Don’t quote scripture to me. Nowhere in there do I hear that being subject to your husband means to be treated the way her and your other wives and children are treated. I can pull quotes out too Reuben, but I’m not going to play that game with you or Alaric. We’re not even going to debate with you. We know what you’ve done. You’ve been tried and found guilty. We could end your miserable lives right now, but what’s the fun in that? We want you to feel just a taste of the pain you gave others,” Ben hissed.
He withdrew a pair of brass knuckles from his pocket. While he did, I took out my favorite knife. It was one that was sharp, large and made for hacking meat. One side of it had saw-like teeth on it. It was one I liked to use when making a point. I was called Blade for a reason. My go to weapon has always been a knife. I could shoot and I was good, but knives had been my thing since I was a kid. I could throw them and be deadly with them. I could carve a man up with them easily too. They were silent killers if you needed that. And you didn’t have to be right on top of the person to take them out. I held it under Reuben’s nose. Ben was standing in front of his dad.
“She told me how you’d beat her and lock her away. How you beat her so badly the last time that she lost her baby. You took something precious away from her. Luckily, I was able to give her something precious as well. It won’t replace the one she lost, but this baby and our future ones will be loved and cherished by both of us. We won’t harm them or threaten them. We won’t force them to be with someone they don’t want to be with or be in some crazy cult. They’ll grow up knowing we’ll support them no matter what they want to do in life.”
His face grew dark as I watched rage build in him at the mention of our baby. He didn’t like that idea. I kept going. I wanted him fuming mad. Crazy mad and out of control when I started in on his physical torture. This was all a mental game. I heard Ben talking to his dad, taunting him, but I didn’t pay attention to the words.
“Yeah, Cassia is the best damn woman I’ve ever met. And the intimate side of things are wonderful. I’ve never been with a woman who is as sexually adventurous as her. She’s a wildcat in bed.”
I’d warned Ben I was going to say some things he might want to close his ears to about his sister. It was all to make Reuben crazy. I hoped he was closing his ears now. He didn’t deck me, so I took that as proof he was tuning me out. Old Reuben wasn’t. His face was now almost purple. The vein in his forehead was throbbing. I watched as he swelled up then blew.
“She’s mine! Do you hear me? She’s mine. She’ll be punished for ever letting you put your filthy hands on her. She’s committed adultery and the Lord will punish her. That bastard in her stomach will be taken from her. I won’t allow your evil spawn to taint the world. I can make sure that baby is never born,” he yelled.
I didn’t say a word back. I responded with a slice across his stomach. It wasn’t deep enough to spill his guts or let him bleed out, but he did bleed and it hurt. He cried out.
“Nah, you’re not going to do a damn thing to her or our baby. I’m going to make sure of it. I wonder, how long will those other women you call your wives and your kids celebrate being free of you? I’ll bet it’ll take them weeks, possibly months to calm down. And those women will be so glad to be free to go out and find new men. I bet they’ll dress sexy and be out on the prowl in no time. Letting men touch them and stick their cocks in them. They’ll learn what real men are like and what a real cock feels like, not that pathetic thing between your legs,” I said, laughing as I cut away his underwear.
I wasn’t lying. He wasn’t that impressive. Unless he was a major grower instead of a shower, he didn’t have much to satisfy a woman with even if she was willing. I knew pricking his male pride would only cycle him up more. It did. He let out a wild scream and started to swear at me. I tsked him.
“You should be ashamed. A religious man such as yourself using such language. What did I say? Does the truth hurt? I bet it does. The only way you could feel like a man was to force yourself on women, to beat them down physically and mentally. To treat your children like dirt. Cassia told me how glad she was that she’d been able to fool you for almost three years into thinking she was barren. I can tell you, she isn’t. I got her pregnant the first time I made love to her. God, that night. I’ll never forget how she looked, felt or tasted. I know she’ll forever remember the same about me. You, all she remembers is pain and disgust. You made her sick.”
“Cocksucker, I’ll kill you. You’ll regret ever meeting her. Wait until our congregation is back together. We’re regrouping and we’ll make you pay.”
“Really? Are you that stupid? Who do you think took out Hiram and his leadership goons? The fire and the men who helped all of you leave? They were sent by us. You might recall someone else who got away from your cult many years ago. Does the name Peter Markum ring any bells?”
Reuben squinted at me. I saw Alaric jerk and look at me in shock.
“Aww, so you do. Yes, good old Peter, or Patrick as he’s known now, was smart enough to run with his family. He got the hell away and changed their names. My brothers Thorn and Tiger were lucky enough to fall for his daughter, Neriah. When we found out about the Church of Converts and the fact she was to be given to Hiram and he was still searching for her, well, we couldn’t leave him and his lieutenants out there to continue searching for her. It was easy to arrange that little shindig. If your church starts up again, we’ll do it again.”
“No, you’re lying,” Alaric said aghast.
“If I am, may God strike me dead right now.” I paused as if waiting for the lightning. When it didn’t come, I smiled at them. “See, I’m telling the truth. While I’d love to stay here all day and debate with you, I have shit to do. Ben, it looks like you’ve done some nice work.”
While I’d been focusing on Reuben, he’d been busy taunting his dad and beating him. He had bruises all over him. He’d yelled a lot, but I’d ignored him. Cuts had appeared all over him from the brass knuckles tearing his skin. Underneath him, I saw a puddle. That explained the piss smell.
While a part of me wanted to torture them for days, another part wanted to get it over with and to move on with our lives. I gestured for Ben to come to me. He did, and we walked away from the two men.
“What do you want to do? We can keep going and even let some of my brothers in on this. Or we can let them hang here and come in for a little bit every day and add to their misery or we can end it quickly and say good riddance.”
