Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51051 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
“Please, if you kill me, you’re sinning. You’ll burn too,” Ali cried as he listened to my taunts.
I chuckled as I dug a hole in the sand beside Cyrus. “The thing is, Ali, I’m okay with internal emanation. Hell can’t be any worse than the demonic situations I’ve witnessed.”
Cyrus flicks his zippo with one hand and points to his face with the other. “I was born in a fire. Besides, living with flames has a certain poetic appeal to me.”
Ali’s eyes darted between Zeke, Cyrus, and me, searching for the weakest link. “I don’t want to die. Please have mercy.”
Zeke scoffed. “All you poser devout Abraham's followers are the same. Cry out for mercy when you have none for anyone. But I’ll tell you what, Ali. I’ll give you the same treatment your bosses gave Marjan Abedini. She pleaded with them, telling them that the man raped her, but the authorities punished her for adultery. So, I’m going to take an eye because that’s biblical, and I like to stay true to my roots. Then, I’m going to give you the same opportunities that you and your friends gave Marjan.”
Ali’s face morphed into shock as Zeke dipped the tip of the spoon into his eye. Zeke gripped Ali’s throat, holding him still as he scooped out his eye with the spoon. Ali’s tortured screams drowned out the pop of his eye leaving its socket. Zeke discarded it on the golden sand.
I’d never heard anyone cry the way Ali did as he searched the desert sand for his missing eye.
Zeke grabbed Ali’s collar and dragged him toward the ditch Cyrus and I had been digging. I smiled at Ali before I kicked his body into the hole, and we covered his body with the dirt, leaving only his head protruding.
“Please don’t do this. Please!” Ali screamed in a last desperate effort to save his life.
“Now, now, Al,” Cyrus crooned as he pulled two pillowcases full of rocks from the car's trunk. “Pray to God, and if he wills it, you’ll free yourself. Once you’re free, we’ll spare your life. Isn’t that how you killed those women? Isn’t that the rule?”
“Men are to be buried to the waist,” Ali squealed.
My trigger finger itched to blow his brains out, but Zeke was adamant about the method of killing—this man had to die in the same way he’d facilitated the deaths of others. He had to experience humiliation and despair. A bullet was too quick and too merciful.
“Ali,” I said, “You think you’re a man?”
Ali opened his mouth to respond, but his head jerked back as the first rock caught bounced off his forehead. It was the first of many. Zeke threw one after another. A large one hit his nose, and we heard the bone break. Another oozed blood from his temple.
The three of us were like kids throwing a baseball as we slammed stones into the man.
Soon, Ali’s screaming halted, and his head hung to the side, his blood-covered lashes flickering slowly.
Cyrus pulled a rag from his pocket and filled it with a few rocks. He walked to the car trunk and dosed the rag with gasoline before returning to Ali. Yanking his head back, Cyrus pushed the burning cloth into Ali’s mouth and laughed as he watched his head burn.
Chapter 23
Azadeh—Age 29
Present Day
“You know Dariyus is going to kill you for not calling him instead of The Cinders, right?” Zeke whispers in my ear as we get off Lev’s private plane.
“Briar is having a baby. My brother doesn’t need to be worried. We’ve got this. Besides, Alaric is good at all the espionage stuff and has more connections than Lev.”
Zeke laughs. “Don’t let Lev hear you say that.”
We were briefed in the morning before we piled into the jet. The group holding my sister was called SALT, a religious cult that kidnapped children and young women. They didn’t take Mona for their usual reasons. Mona was being leveraged for money. We still didn’t understand how they got her since Lev’s house is secluded and has a state-of-the-art surveillance system. There was nothing on the monitor to show it was even them who took them.
“Why did you think I was working for The Cinders in the first place? Alaric’s connections from the club have come in handy. He’s made some strong connections with the black market in Iran. I wanted it. Besides, they’re fantastic guys who were in a shitty situation.”
Zeke chuckles. “Good guys don’t fuck their stepmother and kill all her husbands.”
I glare at Zeke. “It’s complicated. Trust my judgment, okay? They aren’t that bad. Besides, without them, I doubt we’d have a concrete plan. Lev has blueprints, but Alaric has a way in. Apparently, the leader is a frequent patron of the club. Into some funky shit, too. If the man has a cult, why is he bothering to find services that cater to his brand of crazy?”