Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
KNOX
Tears run down her face as she chokes out, “They will be here soon, and when they get here, you’re dead. All of you.”
Lifting my gun, I hit her in the jaw.
“Shut up and sit down. Back against the wall.”
Heather and Bella move the children to the other side of the room and sit them so they’re facing the wall and help each of them put earplugs in their ears to dampen the sound of what’s coming.
I would’ve liked to move them to another room but we don’t know how long we have and that could prove dangerous.
We stand aimed and ready as we hear footsteps approaching.
We have stared at their photographs and know which ones live for questioning and which die immediately.
Heather will question the three men and her mother.
Our job is to kill the others, and to keep our girl safe.
Bones nods to the door as it opens. One of the men in the images we’ve memorized, stops and stares.
“What the fuck?” The others draw their weapons as bullets fly through the air.
Carter hits three of them like a game of dominoes, and they go down.
I stand with a gun on another, ready to shoot a man with a beard hanging down to his belt buckle.
My finger is on the trigger when I realize his firearm is aimed behind me, at the goddamn children.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Carter hurtling through the air, an arrow piercing the man’s palm as the gun rattles loose and falls to the floor firing as it clatters against the white tile.
We watch silently as the ammunition makes a hole through the center of a large white cross on the wall.
I fire a bullet into his forehead, blood and brain matter sprays from his wound as he collapses on the floor.
Another man stares at Heather, his lips drawn up in a snarl as he darts for her with Killian directly behind him.
Before he has a chance to even touch our girl, Killian wraps his hand around his throat and holds him against his chest.
“Try again, fucker. Touching her is the quickest route to a painful fucking death.”
Swinging his fist over his shoulder he punches Kill in the jaw and Carter groans in frustration. He releases an arrow and it lands in the guy's ass and we both laugh.
Carter shrugs.
“It’s a fleshy, non-fatal area.”
As we zip tie the three men and sit them with the woman, the one with the ass wound cries like a bitch.
Psycho squats down with the kids and instructs them in a soft tone.
“Hi. I’m Massimo. We are going to take you somewhere safe. You will only be restrained if it’s deemed necessary. I promise you will not be hurt.”
“Massimo?” All three of us ask and Psycho turns to us with a glare.
“Not for you. I don’t want to scare the kids.”
Reaper, Psycho, and Bella tell the kids to follow them, leaving us alone with the few adults still alive. As they move bodies out of the doorway I have the thought that this is probably traumatizing for the children but assume it can't be worse than what they’ve already experienced in life.
I motion for Heather to come over to me with a come hither motion.
“You look worried.”
She nods as her eyes fill with tears.
“They are scared. You don’t understand. This is all they know and they just watched a bunch of their family executed. It was necessary, but I’m scared for them and what this means for their mental health.”
Placing my gun in my holster, I pull her into my arms and hold her for a moment.
“I know, Tesoro. Tonight they’ll be safer than they’ve ever been. It’ll take time to undo the brainwashing, but eventually they’ll get there. One day at a time.”
I’m careful with my words because I’m trying to keep her from freaking out, but I’m not really sure what the hell we are doing.
Sixty fucking kids. What are we supposed to do with them?
Heather has reservations about taking one kid.
Now, there’s sixty, and I have no idea what fucking happens to them.
I kiss her on the forehead and she walks over to the people on the floor. The one with the arrow in his ass, leans forward, his hands on the floor because of his injury. He looks fucking pathetic.
Bones comes over to me, and we stand watching Heather.
“What are we doing with these kids?”
“Butterfly House.” He says and I arch an eyebrow not having a fucking clue what he’s talking about.
“My wife has wanted to have a place for victims of child abuse, trafficking, and everything that goes along with it for a long time. We didn’t know there were this many, but we knew there’d be a lot.
If Heather agrees, this is what Athena wants to do.
They’d have every need taken care of including medical and schooling. ”
I stare at my girl and know she’ll be on board for this.
“Butterfly House.” I say, testing it out on my tongue.
Glancing at Bones quickly I nod.
“That sounds beautiful. I think Heather will approve.”
His expression is proud as his eyes lighten, and I know he’s thinking about his wife.
Heather stands in front of her mother, arms crossed over her chest.
“Where is he?”
She glares at her daughter, hatred marring her face as she speaks with poison dripping from her tongue.
“I’m not telling you anything, heathen.”
Carter reacts with lightning speed and races to her, wrapping his hand around her throat and squeezing hard.
“You will never say that again. Only I call her that. Say it again, and I’ll cut your fucking tongue from your mouth.”
When he releases her, she coughs and sputters like he was killing her but I don’t think he cut off her air supply.
I’m fairly certain her theatrics are an attempt to appeal to Heather's softer side, but it’ll never work.
Maybe she doesn’t know her daughter will end her life.
It doesn’t matter that she is a woman. This pathetic excuse for a mother has caused as much pain as the men.
She inflicts pain.
Forces them to spread their legs and take the abuse.
The one person who should’ve saved them enables the torture.
Heather once told us her mother participated in it, and I’m not sure what that means or if I even want to know.
She turns to Bones.
“Is there a way to keep the Prophetress alive for now? I think if she wants to be a Prophet so fucking bad she should die like one.”
This woman is fucking perfect. Vengeance will not only be hers, it’ll be brutal. And everything she deserves.