Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81040 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
“Walk with me, Tabitha. I have a story to tell you,” I said as I pushed her forward toward the hallway.
Gage was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Gage, this is Tabitha. Tabitha, this is Gage. And you remember me, right? We met at my brother’s funeral.”
Gage smirked, and she started twisted and jerking against me as if she was going to get free.
“Keep it up, and I’ll let Gage slap you across the face.”
She stilled and glared at me.
“Now, like I was saying, I’ve got a little story for you. We were killing some traitorous bastards, and Gage put a gun to a woman’s head, but I stopped him because I recognized the ass. You see, Trinity has a world-class ass. If I could write a song, I’d write one about it. I didn’t want my dead brother’s fiancée killed, so we took her with us. Joke was on me though because I got addicted to her pussy. Sweetest fucking cunt I’ve ever had, and her tits, goddamn, they’re incredible.”
Tabitha was making noises again, and I slammed her face against the wall.
“Shut up. You’re interrupting me. I’m telling you a fucking story, Trinity owned me with that pussy, but dammit if I didn’t start getting obsessed with her smile, her laugh, the way she walked, those big eyes. Took her having a traumatic meltdown for me to realize that I’d fucking kill for her. And that leads me to why we are here.”
I pulled her back from the wall and started walking again, pushing her as we went.
“Last night, Roy was a wealth of information. Of course, I had to cut off his pinkie, his dick, slice up his face, and a few other minor jabs of my knife to get it all out of him. Once he was done telling me all your sins and his own, he got off lucky. I just slit his throat. It could have been much worse.”
I looked down at Tabitha, and she had gone pale. I laughed as we walked to the stairs. I shoved her forward until she had to either walk down the stairs or fall face-first.
“My dad made sure to raise me to respect women. He had never met you, and I realize that, but it’s still deeply ingrained in me. You won’t be hung up and sliced to pieces like Roy. Instead, this closet, where my woman was tortured during her childhood, is where you’re headed.”
Levi opened the door for me, and I threw Tabitha inside. She sat there, staring up at us. I could see the hatred in her eyes. Not even a fucking tear. Levi began to tie her feet up, and she fought against it, but it didn’t bother him. Once he was done, he walked over and tied her gag on with a rope so she couldn’t get it out.
“When you get to hell, tell Roy I said hi,” I told her before Levi closed and bolted the door.
Turning, I headed back up the stairs with Levi behind me. Gage was at the top, and he led the way as we headed for the back door we’d broken into. None of us said anything as we left. The absence of any proof Trinity had lived in that house spoke volumes. Family photos of Tabitha, Roy, and Benjamin, but nothing with Trinity’s face in it. The room that must have been hers was a sewing room full of old women’s crafts and shit. The room Roy had used had his pictures on the wall. High school trophies, diplomas, it was all there.
We headed back through the woods until we made it to the place we had left the SUV. Gage climbed into the driver’s seat, and I took the passenger seat. I wasn’t in the state of mind to drive. My fucking chest hurt from seeing that place. Knowing what she’d gone through, living there. I hated everything about that house.
Although we were almost a mile away, we could hear the explosion. I sighed and leaned back in my seat. That shit was done.
“Bye-bye, Tabitha.” Gage chuckled.
He was one messed up son of a bitch.
Thirty-Two
Trinity
I listened to the voice mail again. Hayes’s grandmother, telling me that if there was anything I needed or something she could do for me and Roy to let her know. She’d called Roy, but he hadn’t returned her calls. She hoped we knew how much they loved Tabitha.
I stared at my phone, trying to understand what this was about. Did I call her? She expected me to know what she was talking about. I searched the internet for Tabitha’s name and read the first thing that popped up.
Fire, explosion, gas leak … nothing left. I looked at the date—two days ago. Tabitha had died in an explosion caused by a gas leak. The house and everything in it had burned to the ground.