Chapter 17
Levi
“What the fuck are you doing?”
I flinched at the anger in Jed’s voice as he watched Ricky yank the woman to her feet.
“The missus and me are going to go check things out upstairs. Maybe someone” – Ricky viciously kicked the man kneeling before him – “will start remembering better if he ain’t got his pretty little wife around to distract him!”
“No!” the man screamed as he lunged to his feet. Jed kicked the back of his knee and the man went down hard. The boy was sobbing as he tried to get closer to his father.
“Fred!” the woman shouted as my brother dragged her from the room.
My stomach rolled violently since I knew what was coming. My eyes darted around the room in desperation. There had to be something I could do.
“Hey!” Jed snapped as he hit me upside the head. “Get the tape!”
I stood there and stared at him because I had no idea what he was talking about.
“In the bag, you idiot!”
My eyes shifted to the small green duffle bag a few feet away. I’d assumed Jed had brought it to carry the money, since it looked practically empty.
Why the hell did he need tape? He’d already tied all three people’s hands with plastic zip ties .
Another smack had me moving forward. The gun in my hand felt like it weighed a ton, even though it had no bullets in it. As I neared the bag, my eyes fell on the cordless telephone sitting on a side table. I desperately wanted to grab it, but I knew Jed would probably shoot me if I did.
I searched the bag for the tape, but between my shaking hands and tear-filled eyes, it took me a while to locate it. I could hear Jed yelling at the guy behind me, along with the teenager’s muffled cries, but I purposefully tuned out as much as I could.
But I couldn’t tune out the female scream that rattled through the house. I let out a guttural sob and felt the vomit crawling up my throat.
“Hurry the fuck up!”
I returned to Jed and handed him the tape.
“No, cover his mouth,” he said as he waved his gun at the kid.
“What?” I asked.
“Cover. His. Mouth.”
I shook my head. “No,” I said automatically.
Jed didn’t hesitate in the least as he stepped past the guy and pressed his gun to my head. “Cover his fucking mouth.”
I stifled a choked cry and forced myself to walk around the boy’s body so I was facing him. He was on his knees, his hands bound behind his back. His wet eyes were on his father.
He flinched when another muffled scream came from upstairs.
“Corinne!” the man shouted just before Jed hit him with his gun.
“Shut up or I’ll start putting bullets in your kid!”
The man instantly fell silent, except for the sound of his crying.
I so badly didn’t want to look at the young man as I tore off a piece of tape and leaned down to put it over his mouth. But his terror-filled eyes lifted to mine and I saw the silent plea.
I can’t help you. I can’t even fucking help myself.
I didn’t say the words to him, of course. I did as I was told and put the tape on his mouth.
“Good, now that that’s out of the way,” Jed said as he turned his attention to the man. “Where’s the safe?”
“Safe?” the man asked as he shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about-”
“Wrong answer!” Jed snarled and he hit the guy again .
The man seemed physically stunned from the force of the blow. But when Jed asked him the question again, he said, “We don’t have a safe.”
Jed went from pissed to lethal just like that. I watched in horror as he pulled a knife from a holster on his belt. He yanked the roll of tape from my hand and slapped a piece over the guy’s mouth.
I was frozen with fear as I realized what was about to happen. But instead of stabbing the guy, Jed moved towards the boy. He rolled up his sleeves, exposing a long snake tattoo on his arm.
“No!” I said as I pushed between him and the kid when I realized what he was doing.
“Step the fuck off or you’ll be first.”
He didn’t yell the words at me. I probably would have been less afraid if he had. But I didn’t move. I couldn’t.
But I also wasn’t any kind of match for Jed and he easily shoved me out of the way.
I scrambled to my feet and grabbed Jed’s arm, but he hit me hard, knocking me on my ass.
I was too physically stunned to move, but what I saw Jed do had me rolling onto my side and covering my ears with my hands as I closed my eyes.
The kid moaned as Jed began cutting him right through his T-shirt.
Even though I wasn’t watching, I knew exactly every time Jed slid the knife across his skin because the kid cried and the father screamed through the tape.
I heard Jed curse and opened my eyes long enough to see Jed kick the father in the head, knocking him to the ground before he could reach his son.
The boy’s stomach was covered in blood and he was sobbing uncontrollably.
With the next slice, he screamed, but the tape muffled the sound.
The father’s agonized cries had me backing away from the horrible scene.
I barely registered the sound of the woman’s screams from upstairs.
They too, sounded muffled. I remembered how Ricky had always shoved my face into the bed or my pillow to keep me quiet.
On the occasions when he hadn’t fucked me in my bed, he’d used his hand to cover my mouth if my father happened to be home.
Jed ripped the tape from the father’s mouth.
“Seth! Oh God, stop. Please, I swear, I’m telling you the truth!” the man cried. I was having trouble seeing anything because of the tears in my eyes. I wanted to run, but I knew if I did, the man and his son would have no chance whatsoever .
“Where’s the fucking safe?” Jed yelled as he yanked the guy’s head back by the hair.
“I swear to God, we don’t have a safe!” the man cried. Broken sobs bubbled up from his throat. “Please, please don’t hurt my son. Take me…take me with you. I’ll take you to an ATM. You can have my car, anything. Just please let my wife and son go!”
“If I want your fucking car, I’ll take it!” Jed shouted. “Last chance…where’s the safe?”
The man cried, but didn’t answer and I knew it was because he was afraid to.
“He’s telling the truth!” I yelled as I stumbled to my feet. “Look at him!” I said. “He wouldn’t trade his kid for money!”
Jed seemed to get lost in thought for a moment. “You’re right,” he murmured.
Thank God!
“Let’s just go!” I implored.
I was certain my words had gotten through to him, so I wasn’t prepared for what happened next.
Of course, nothing could have prepared me for it.
I was dimly aware of the kid screaming, but I didn’t make a sound. I knew what I was seeing couldn’t be real.
Because shit like that only happened in the cheesiest of horror movies.
The movies I hated.
But the blood that gushed from the gaping wound across the man’s throat was very real. I began retching, but there was nothing in my stomach, so I was really just dry heaving. My stomach cramped as my body tried to expel something that wasn’t there.
I was dimly aware of my brother reappearing in the room, his gloved hands covered in blood. There were blood splatters on his face, but he either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
“Where is it?” Ricky asked as his eyes dispassionately roamed over the scene before him.
“Not here,” Jed snapped as he dropped the man’s body to the floor.
“What do you mean, not here?” Ricky asked.
“It means there’s no safe here.”
“You said your source was good!”
“Well, obviously, he got it wrong! ”
“Fuck!” Ricky snapped. I watched as he walked towards the back of the house. Jed eyed the boy whose head was hung. He was crying softly.
I’d cried like that once.
The night Ricky had taken my innocence.
I didn’t give my actions any thought because I didn’t care anymore what Jed or Ricky did to me.
I kept my gaze on Jed as I reached behind me and searched out the cordless phone.
It seemed to take forever to remove it from its cradle, though I knew it was likely only seconds.
I froze when Ricky reappeared with a bottle of bleach in his hand.
“What the hell are you doing?” Jed asked.
“This little bitch puked all over the fucking floor up there!” Ricky snapped as he jerked his head towards me and pointed towards the ceiling. “I saw a show where cops can track DNA or some shit like that!”
I dropped my eyes when Ricky passed me. The second he was out of the room, I maneuvered the phone carefully behind my back.
I squeezed my eyes shut as I hit the button.
I waited for Jed to ask me what the hell I was doing, but he seemed preoccupied with destroying what was left of the room.
The first thing he and Ricky had done when we’d gotten everyone tied up had been to rip the paintings off the wall.
I hadn’t realized until Jed had started asking the father about a safe that that’s what they’d been looking for.
Now, he was tearing up the rest of the room, though I had no clue why.
All I knew was that he was giving me the time I desperately needed.
The sound also helped drown out the sound of the dial tone.
I couldn’t see the phone so I had to feel around the keypad and hope like hell I got the numbers right because I was only going to get one chance at this.
As soon as I dialed, I pressed the phone against my back to muffle the sound I knew the operator would make when they answered.
I could only hope and pray that they wouldn’t think the call was a hoax or wrong number and disconnect it.
A good minute passed before Jed finished trashing the place. I whispered silent pleas in my head as I listened for the sound of sirens. But there was nothing. I was so busy trying to listen for the 911 operator on the other end of the phone, that I didn’t notice Jed returning to the boy.