Chapter 26 #2
He prayed that God would watch over Sister Matthews and the orphans. He even prayed for Hattie. She needed someone to help her, but Ben could no longer do it.
Cutter retrieved a cigar from his jacket pocket. “I’d offer you one last smoke before you die, but you don’t look like a smoker to me.” He cut off the tip with one of his knives and lit the end.
“Now then, we need to discuss Bo.” Cutter inhaled deeply, sending a puff of smoke rising toward the rafters. “I loved my brother. I also kind of hated him, but I loved him at the same time. That’s how brothers are. He was a pain in my ass sometimes, but I’m going to avenge his death.”
He blew a thick cloud of smoke into Ben’s face. “And once I’m done with you, I’m going back to St. Thomas.”
“They don’t have anything to do with this,” Ben growled. He writhed like a worm on a hook, but he only managed to twist the rope more tightly around his wrists. “Leave them alone!”
Cutter’s finger pounded into Ben’s chest. “I told you, that if you did anything else against me, I’d take my revenge on that place. Do you think I’m a liar, Ben? Did you think I didn’t mean it?”
“Coming here was an accident,” Ben told him. “I was just trying to get food for the orphans, food they no longer had after you burned it all up.”
Rage was starting to work its way through the numb acceptance. If he was going to die anyway, then he might as well die with the truth on his lips.
“But here you are, anyway, and you killed my brother.”
“Only because he was trying to kill me,” Ben retorted. He’d been so careful around Cutter back at the orphanage, but what did he truly have to lose? “I never wanted to kill anybody, but it seems like the whole world keeps making it happen.”
“Aw, poor Ben.” Cutter clucked his tongue. “Just an innocent victim, with everyone forcing his hand and turning him into a killer. That’s such a shame.”
“Mock me if you want to. I don’t care,” Ben spat. “I know what’s in my heart. I know what my intentions for my life had been. I made mistakes, yes, but the rest of the time I just did what I had to do.”
Cutter picked up the first knife he’d brought out. He ran the tip of it down the front of Ben’s shirt, grazing over the fabric but not piercing it. “You know, I’m awful tired of people who want to pretend their life has just happened to them. You sound just like that stupid bitch Hattie.”
Ben held his breath, waiting for Cutter to tell him they had Hattie, that they’d strung her up somewhere and were giving her the same awful death. Ben had delivered the very thing Cutter wanted into his family home. Hattie’s death would be on Ben’s hands, too, along with so many others.
“Ah, well.” Cutter let the knife blade glide along Ben’s arm. “She’ll get hers when I catch up to her. Once I’m done with you, I’ll still have plenty of business to take care of. I’m a busy man, Ben. You ought to feel lucky that I’m spending so much time on you.
He didn’t know! Somehow, nobody had realized that Hattie was traveling with Ben. They didn’t have a clue that she was right there in the inn. Ben wouldn’t be around to help her get away, but she’d already proven just how capable she could be. Ben smiled.
“You won’t be smirking like that when I go back there and find those nuns,” Cutter informed him, his easy demeanor quickly changing. “I think I might take my time with them, too. That Sister Andrews that we brought back to you could be a tasty little treat for me.”
Cutter was a sick and sinister man, and he wouldn’t be satisfied with Ben’s death.
Dozens more sins would be piled on Ben’s head for that.
He’d been the one to let Hattie in the door.
He was the one Cutter had caught, and it would be his fault when Cutter went back to take out the last of his vengeance.
“Not so smart now, huh?” Cutter pulled a long dowel of steel from the bag. He swept each side of the blade against it, deburring the knife and ensuring it was as sharp as possible.
The swishing sound of steel against steel buried itself in Ben’s bones. Cutter could just shoot him again and get it over with, but he was enjoying this.
“It’s a package deal, as far as I’m concerned,” Cutter informed him. “I’ll take care of you, and then I’ll return to St. Thomas. I’ll drag those nuns out by their habits. I think I might have some real fun with them before I kill them off.”
Bile rose in Ben’s throat.
“Then there’s the children, but don’t you worry.
I won’t kill them. I’ll make sure they’re employed.
There’s a mine about three days’ ride from the orphanage that would pay a pretty penny for young workers, especially the kind who don’t have any family looking for them.
Sure, some of them never come back out of the mines, but that’s no real loss. ”
Ben thrashed out with his leg, but Cutter was just out of range.
He jerked at his hands, the rope scraping at his skin as he tried to fight against his restraints.
“You better just kill me now, you son of a bitch! Because if I get out of this alive, I’m going to send you to your grave alongside your brother. ”
Cutter laughed. “Finally getting some guts, boy?”
Ben spat, the gob of blood and spit landing at Cutter’s feet. “You’re the one who’s going to open me up, so you take a look and tell me! Cut me down and fight me like a real man, if you think you can!”
“Oh, I’ll do some cutting. Just not on the ropes.” Cutter raised his knife and held it to Ben’s throat. “Where should I start?”
Bullets cracked through the morning air. They splintered the old wooden walls of the barn, sending bits of wood flying.
“Son of a bitch!” Cutter ducked into one of the stalls, crouching behind the low wall. “Who’d you bring with you, boy?”
Ben couldn’t be sure, but he had an idea. “Someone you’ve been dying to see.”