Chapter Twenty-Seven
Abel
When I arrive at what used to be the pawn shop, I can’t believe my eyes.
The place is torched. Not to the ground, but close enough.
It smells like gas and… Something else.
Death.
That image of Emily, nailed to the wall, dead, will forever be engraved in my head.
Walking around, kicking debris out of my way, I head to the other side… The Gym.
That’s where Peter and Knuckles found her, beaten, apparently raped, and strangled.
The words ‘She is ours’ outlining her body, made my fucking blood boil. “Oh, Emily. I’m so fucking sorry.”
Thank God they’d taken her down before I got here, but not before Capone saw her.
Speaking of Capone, walking deeper into the room, I meet his wild, rage-filled eyes. “Abel, I swear to fuck I’m going to kill whoever did this to her.” He sniffs. “This is fucked man, fucked!” He screams.
“Save that rage for when we find the mother fucker that did this. Does anybody have any leads?” I yell.
“I don’t know how stragglers could have slipped through the cracks like this. Keeping a low profile is how I get the information I need to pass on to you, Abel, but whoever did this had to have known her.” Peter says, walking up beside me.
“She’s never been here a day in her life.” Capone shouts.
“I know that, trust me I do. This was done while the streets were quiet and people were tucked safely in their beds. No witnesses and no way for her to call for help,” He says, clearing his throat. “She didn’t deserve this, Abel.”
“You’re fucking right she didn’t. She deserved so much more. God, Abel, she’s really gone?” Capone yelps.
I don’t have the words he needs to hear right now. The only thing on my mind is not leaving any stones unturned. We need to find who did this and fast. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Peter, get the camera footage. I had a security camera installed around the building, inside the shop, gym, and the tattoo place. They torched the shop because they saw the cameras, but there’s no way they could have seen the others because they’re hidden, but in plain sight.
“Yes, sir.” Peter says, ready to catch the fuckers that did this. “What are you gonna do with the information you find?”
“I’m going to give them what they gave Emily.” I promise. “Capone, go back to The Sandlot, get the guys, and some heavy artillery… We’re going hunting.” I say, taking off after Peter to go watch the camera footage.
An hour or so later, we’re all sitting in the office of the gym… Fuming. I see the two punks from The Underground the first night I met Ivy. Emily was there with Capone, so I’m not sure why they picked her.
Watching closely, I see them attempting to drag her inside the pawn shop as she puts up one helluva fight. Finally, after about ten minutes of her fighting for dear life, Buzz punches her so hard in the face, her head whips back, and the blow knocks her out. Once inside, they don’t come out for about two hours, with a very dead Emily. Her clothes were disheveled, skirt hiked high above her waist which leads me to believe she was raped.
They take her on the other side of the building, which is The Gym, and string her up. The end of the footage is of them standing outside, lighting a gas-soaked towel and tossing it inside my pawn shop. I don’t know how the whole strip didn’t go up in flames, but I’m thankful it didn’t, otherwise… We wouldn’t have Emily’s body to give her a proper funeral.
“They’re dead. Find them!” Peter scurries out of the office with his task. I pull out my phone and call Tark.
“Whaddup?”
“Hurry up and get here, I know who killed Capone’s girl. I ain’t asking no questions, I don’t want any of their forgiveness, I want their fucking heads. So do not ask me to think twice about going into Scavengers’ territory because I will not.”
“Nah, man, I wasn’t gonna question you on this at all. Capone is a fucking mess over here.”
“He doesn’t need to come, we can handle this on our own.”
“The fuck I’m not gonna be there. She was my girl. My girl! And I’ll kill all those mother fuckers until I get to them.” Capone shouts in the background.
“Then it’s settled. Peter has gone to find them because I know they aren’t fucking stupid enough to go back to their hangout. If they did, he’ll know and get the information to me” I think, but anything’s fucking possible. They were stupid enough to fuck with one of our own, so. “Saxon, Capone, you know where their spot is, go check it out with Peter, keep an eye on him and make sure he’s okay.”
“We out.” Saxon says.
Time passes by faster than I imagined, and I’m starting to think Pete’s never gonna call me, until my phone begins burning a hole in my pocket. “Yeah?”
“Hey, Boss?” Peter has a bad habit of calling me his boss even though he unofficially works for me.
“What did you find?”
“Them. Crazy George, who ain’t so crazy, spotted them about half an hour ago, crossing into No Man’s Land.”
“No Man’s Land? They think God will cleanse them of their sins by spilling a little blood and saying they're sorry, even though they don’t mean it? They can’t hide there forever. They must not know, I don’t give a fuck who I have to kill to get to them. Let’s ride.”
On the way there, the only other thing I can think about is Ivy.
She’s my everything, and I can’t imagine life without her.
She’s the air I breathe, the light I need to see, and the end to a bad day. Every day begins with her.
Some may say I’m turning soft, but I don’t care.
She makes every day a good day to be alive.
I can’t just think about my happiness when Capone is suffering. That’s why I’m going to make sure they both suffer before I finally take what they owe me.
Their life.
“Go around the back. Pete spotted a few stragglers by the entrance. They’ll be easy to take out. I’m not looking to spare lives tonight. I have one thing on my mind… Blood.” The guys look at me, and I see a hunger that needs to be fed staring back at me. “These mother fuckers killed one of us. Emily did not deserve to die the way she did. Think of that when you think about saving a life.”
“This ain’t our first rodeo, Abel, let’s go in there, find them, and be done with it.” Capone yells.
“Keep your fucking voice down, idiot. Do you want them to run before we can catch them?” I ask, speaking with authority. “I didn’t fucking think so. Now, let’s go in and find their leader. Either he’ll tell us what we need to know, or they’ll have a new leader by the end of the night.”
“Hells yeah.” They agree in unison. “Let’s go.
Knuckles and Capone take out the guys hanging around the entrance while the rest of us move forward, guns blazing. Nobody stops or questions us as we pass them by.
Smart move.
We’re coming down a hallway when someone’s voice rings out. “Who the fuck thinks they can just waltz into Hawk’s domain and attack my men?”
“Me.” I say, raising my gun and pointing it straight ahead. “Unless you want to join them, bring us Buzz and his pickle dick friend, Hardhead.” Laughter erupts as the man in question comes out flanked by two men at his sides.
He gives me a once over, squaring his shoulders like he’s ready to fight me til the death.“First off, who the fuck are you?”
“That’s irrelevant right now. You either give Buzz and his friend to me, or we’re gonna start taking members of your crew out.” I promise.
“Yeah, you and what army?” Hawk laughs
Glancing over my shoulder, I give a signal to Tark. A little red dot appears in the center of this asshole’s chest as his eyes travel down and see it there. “Don’t worry about my army, they’re here and ready for my other signal. Now, give me what I want.”
Eyeing me up and down, clicking his tongue, he asks, “What charges do you have against them?”
“Why don’t you bring them out and ask them yourself?” He watches me. Thinking whether or not to give me what I want since I’m making a fool of him on his own turf.
Men and their fucking pride. It’ll be the death of most.
The look in his eye is bitter, and he has an urge to prove me wrong. Finally, he says, “Bring them out.” His two men take off in another direction, with nothing more than just a nod to their leader.
Moments later, we hear a whole bunch of noise and cussing mixed with shouting as his two men come back and toss those two pieces of shit out in the open.
“Here they are, sir.” One of them says.
“Yeah, they were trying to make a run for it.” The other one spit. “You pieces of shit. If we find out what they say is true and they don’t kill you… We will.” He promises, flashing his teeth.
“Hey, man, you can’t do that!” Buzz yells, trying to get up.
“Yeah, man, you’re supposed to help us.” Hardhead adds.
“Help you? No, this is a place for people to come that need redemption, but something tells me you’re both beyond that”
“Fucking right they are.” Capone yells. “They kil-'' But I stop him.
“All in due time.” I whisper. “Why don’t you ask them what they need redemption from? What crimes have they committed?”
“We didn’t do nothing.” Buzz smirks, making me want to slice that smile right off his fucking face.
I can’t stop myself from walking to him, grabbing a fist full of his hair and exposing his neck. His heartbeat throbs in the vein at his neck, while something is telling me to jab my knife there and let his blood coat me.
But I can’t.
They haven’t suffered yet.
“You shut your fucking mouth or tell him before I make sure you never speak again. That’s gonna happen anyways, but they’ll never find you which means it’ll be like you were never born. You are a waste of life. The scum of the Earth that should have never been allowed to be born, you fucking piece of shit.” Punching him won’t satisfy the thirst for blood that lives inside me. “I’m going to kill you, whether he gives me the okay or not.”
“What has he done?” Hawk asks.
“Him and his friend over there murdered my girlfriend tonight. They beat and raped her as she lay there, helpless and unable to fight them off.” Capone says, holding back tears, but letting his anger shine through.
“Oh, she put up a fight alright. Sweet young thang was a virgin? Did you know that?” Buzz taunts him, making Capone lunge for him, but I move him out of the way.
“Don’t! This is what he wants. A fast death. Well guess what, buddy boy, you won’t find it here.” I say in between punching his face in. “Now, am I free to take him or do you want to give your crew a new leader?”
Hawk turns to Buzz. “Did you really do that? Kill and rape this young man’s girlfriend?” Silence. The silence is so loud it’s making my ears bleed. The only answer he gives is that fucking smirk. I can feel it. “Your fate is out of my hands. You may take them and go.”
“Nooo! You can’t do this! We asked God to forgive us, but you fucked up the rest of the ritual.”
“Oh, you’ll still be spilling blood alright, but it won’t have the same meaning you were going for.” I promise.
“No Man’s Land is all about redeeming yourself. You have to honor that.” Buzz cries.
“We don’t have to honor anything when an innocent life is taken.” Hawk reminds him. “You should have thought about that before doing what you did and then coming here.”
“What about the innocent lives of your men they took?” Buzz shouts, trying to win Hawk over.
“The people that come here are no more innocent than you are. They just aren’t cold-blooded killers, but they are all guilty of something. If they are dead, then God had a plan for them, and it was their time.” He says.
“So, that’s it? You’re just going to let them kill us in cold blood?” Buzz asks.
I can’t take anymore of his shit. “Shut the fuck up!” I yell, clocking him so hard in the fucking mouth, it knocks his pitiful ass out.
“He’s outta there.” Razor laughs.
“Take his ass out to the truck. They’re going underground until I’m ready to deal with them. Don’t feed them, chain them up, and gag ‘em.”
“Oh hell no, you ca-” Capone comes around me and knocks Hardhead out cold.
“The fuck we can.” Capone giggles. “Thank you, Hawk, for your service.” He bows, grabbing the other dirtbag.
“My pleasure.” Hawk says. “What’s your name?” He calls out to me as I turn to walk away.
“Name’s Abel, of The Anarchy Saints.”
That’s the last we see of them as we drive to The Underground.