Chapter Twenty-Five Deacon
As I started coming into consciousness, something warm and wet slid against my lips. With a groan, I said, “Mm, Alex, wrap those lips around my cock.”
At the sound of yip, I jerked my eyes open. Instead of Alex tongue fucking me, it was Walter. “Christ, Walter,” I grunted as I eased his head away.
When I rolled over in the bed, overgrown green grass and leaves rubbed against my face. “What the…”
My wild gaze flickered around my surroundings. I wasn’t at home in the comfort of my bed. Instead, I was flat on my back under a canopy of Georgia pines just beyond Case’s house.
At the thought of Case, the synapses of my brain began firing in rapid succession.
Case and I shooting the shit as we walked down to his house.
The two of us starting up the steps when Walter spotted a squirrel and dove out of my arms to tear off the porch and into the woods after it.
Me sprinting down the porch and jumping over the railing after his dumb ass because I knew he would get lost, and both Willow and Alexandra would have my ass.
A ear-splitting roar tearing through the trees that jerked me into the air before slamming me to the ground.
“Oh fuck,” I croaked.
As I pulled myself to my feet, I stared in the direction of Case’s house. But all that was left was angry orange and red flames and plumes of black smoke.
Just as I was about to start running to the house, the sound of footsteps crashing through the brush stopped me. I quickly dove behind a downed tree. With my heart pounding in my ears, I held my breath.
As the footsteps grew closer, a voice echoed through the tree line. “Boss? You’re never going to fucking believe this.”
There was only one person that could’ve been his boss.
Sigel.
Unable to hear the reply on the call, I waited for the man to keep talking. “Yeah, yeah, the bombing went off without a hitch with Case inside. But he wasn’t alone. Deacon was with him.”
My blood ran cold. The fucker thought I was dead? If he’d been close by, hadn’t he seen me leave the porch? Obviously, Sigel hadn’t sent his finest.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure. I have a picture of them both on the porch. I gave them both time to get inside before I hit the detonator. Malloy is nothing but burning pieces and ash now.”
The man paused as he listened to what Sigel was saying. “Jesus, Boss, I thought you’d be happy. Yeah, I know you wanted to torture the bastard before you killed him, but let all that fucking go and be glad that Deacon is out of the picture.”
Of course Sigel wasn’t happy. He’d planted the bomb to piss me off enough to draw me out. He wanted to enact all the torture I’d done to his son.
“Whatever. I’m headed to the compound!” the man snapped. A moment passed before a phone went sailing over the tree trunk, landing a few feet a way from me.
“Fucking asshole,” he grunted before he once again started running through the woods.
Closing my eyes, I leaned my head back against the tree trunk. My heart twisted in my chest as I heard screams and cries coming from the vicinity of Case’s house. At the blaring of a fire siren, it took everything within me not to leave my hideout and show everyone that I was safe.
But I couldn’t do that.
While it was unbelievable cruel to let my family and friends suffer, it was the smart thing to do. The only thing I had over Sigel now was the element of surprise. If he wasn’t looking for me, I could strike out without fear of retaliation.
I don’t know how much time passed before I pulled myself to my feet. I started in the opposite direction that Sigel’s man had fled in. I knew the path to my destination well.
I’d been fifteen the first time that Preacher Man had taken me to tohi a-ma. To anyone else, it was just a clearing with a clear stream that poured into a lake. But to the Cherokee who had resided in this area hundreds of years ago, it was known as healing waters.
I’d thought Preacher Man had lost his fucking mind when he told he walk into the water to purify myself after I’d killed my father. I’d remained in disbelief until he stripped into his boxers and walked down into the stream.
But then I’d watched the change that came over him. The darkness that shrouded him was washed away, and his body shone like the noon day sun in that water.
Without a word, I’d stripped down and waded in the water. And like Preacher Man, I had my own personal transformation.
Now we kept a tent and a burner phone there for emergencies.
Tonight I’d reach out to Rev and Bishop. I’d have to keep the others in the dark, especially Alexandra.
And that fact killed me.