Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
WILLOW
“Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to murder we go!” I sing as Atlas pulls through the back gate of Briar’s home and into the yard. We’ll make sure to keep the noise down, but I’ve heard her stories about the Widows.
No one is saving these assholes.
“Epic song, Hummingbird,” Atlas grins, turning off the engine once he’s parked. “Let’s go show Briar her present.”
Hopping out of the vehicle, I grin as I see our omegas walk into the backyard to greet us. The privacy fence surrounds us, and it’ll make for a great kill zone.
“Hi,” I say, smiling happily.
“You look like the cat who ate the canary,” Jude grins, hugging me as they reach me.
“I feel like I did,” I giggle. “Are you ready to see your surprise, Briar?”
Atlas opens the tailgate, grabs someone’s foot and yanks him out, uncaring when the dickhead hits his head.
“I’m not sorry about that,” Atlas grunts. His strong arms continue to toss Briar’s stepfathers out of the bed of the truck, as if they were no more than bothersome tree trunks.
I love this mountain man so fucking much. Briar’s face remains curious until she walks to the back of the truck and looks down. Recognizing them, she screams and kicks one of them in the head.
Shuffling back, Jude catches her as she almost trips. She’s pale, and looks like she just saw ghosts from her past.
“They can’t hurt you,” I remind her gently. “They’re just waking up from the sedative Atlas and I administered. We’re going to make sure they can never hurt you again, baby. Atlas found them with Lark’s help.”
“This is the best and scariest surprise ever,” Briar breathes, watching as our alpha lifts the bodies and deposits them in the middle of the yard to give us room to work.
Atlas is amazing with rope and zip ties.
It makes me wet just remembering how well he tied them up for the long trip back.
“Can we make a bonfire with their bodies?”
“Absolutely,” I say immediately. “A pyre of shitty stepfathers sounds fantastic.”
Jude’s lips press together to keep from chuckling, while I skip to the front of the truck to pull out my kill bag.
“I got new stakes for camping,” Briar muses. “I think that would be a great way to lay them out, don’t you think?”
“Ooh. I love that. Yes, please,” I reply.
I grin as Briar turns and jogs back into the house, watching closely as she shakes out her anxious, trembling hands.
“I’m on it,” Jude grunts, already feeling my concern.
“Thank you. Maybe this was too much,” I admit.
Turning to face me as he walks backward, I watch as he nimbly avoids any debris on the ground. He’s still the most graceful person I’ve ever seen, even if his leg is sometimes stiff where it was broken.
“No, she’s just surprised. I’ll tell her she can watch until she’s ready to join you two in your torture,” he says. “Don’t kill them too quickly, baby.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
I’m still concerned, but I’ll trust that Jude knows what he’s talking about. By the time they return, Briar appears a little more settled, and helps me stake out her stepfathers.
“You killed my son, you stupid bitch,” Buck growls. Atlas brought me up to speed on each of the despicable alphas in Pack Barns, and I can’t see a single redeemable quality in the bunch.
“He deserved it,” I grunt for Briar.
“You packed up with some crazy assholes,” Mitch snarls, trying to get away as Briar hammers in the stake. Thankfully, it rained recently and the soil isn’t too dry. The stakes keep his bound hands in place beautifully, and I notice that Briar’s body relaxes with each swing of her mallet.
If she misses and hits her stepfather’s shoulder here and there, I’ll never tell.
“Better than sticking it out with a rapist and having his babies,” she mutters. “Ryan was my first kill, but not my last. Now, you can join him in roaming the world without a final resting place. You’ll never know peace, Mitch. Where’s my mother?”
Fuck.
“She’s dead, Honey,” I say gently. God only knows how Pack Barns would deliver the news.
“I bet she’s better off for it,” Briar huffs, returning to Jude’s arms once she’s done staking out her stepfather’s bodies. While their legs are zip tied together, I dare them to try to kick me.
They smell like a brewery and the metallic scent of the drugs they were shooting up with. It’s gross and makes me want to gag in disgust. Atlas has a snarl on his face as he glares down at them. He systematically tore off their shirts and now hefts a flanged mace that’s fucking beautiful.
Imagine a thick medieval bludgeoning weapon with sharp metal fins at the top, and that’s what it looks like. Briar shivers as she licks her lips when she sees it, and I know she has to be as turned on as I am.
Atlas packed his own bag of fun, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to up his torture game for Briar’s surprise.
“Consider this my entry into torture, Little Rose,” he says, smirking as if he read my mind as he speaks to Briar.
“How much damage can that thing do?” she asks, watching as he lifts it up and then slams it down on Buck’s body.
His strangled scream is pretty satisfying, and the spike releases a spray of blood when Atlas yanks it out of his body. It’s as if he doesn’t want people to know how much of a lily-livered bastard he is. I think it’s pretty obvious personally.
“Fuck, that’s hot,” Jude groans. “They’re going to look like pin cushions after you’re done with them.”
“I want to play!” Going through my bag, I grin when I find fireworks. “How pissed off will the sheriff be if I light these?”
“I’ll ask him to turn a blind eye,” Briar says, pulling out her phone to text him. “There he is. Okay, he says he’s going to tell the entire force to avoid my street. Have at it.”
Sweet. “Dance, little monkeys! I’ve always wanted to do this.” Lighting a cherry bomb, I toss it at Ricky, who squeals like a pig as he tries to avoid it. Unfortunately, I have fantastic aim, and it lands on his groin.
“Fuck!” he screams. “Is my dick on fire? It is, right? You sadistic cow!”
“Ouch. You hurt my feelings,” I pout, lying my ass off as I toss another cherry bomb at Mitch. “Consider these the kisses meted out by karma. They hurt, huh?”
“Happy little ouchies!” Jude crows, laughing as he watches the magic.
“I’m doing all the heavy lifting, and you get cheers,” Atlas laughs. “This hardly seems fair.”
“We really like when you get all hot and sweaty,” I smirk. “Take your shirt off. Let’s see those muscles work.”
Grabbing his flannel shirt with one hand, he pulls it over his head to entertain my request.
“So many muscles,” Briar moans. “I swear they’re just stacked on each other. Is that possible?”
Atlas shakes his head in amusement as he switches out his weapon for a knife.
“I want to hear them scream. They’re not doing enough of it,” he grumbles, dropping to his knees to grip one of Mitch’s fingers and snapping it off.
“Fuck! Why me? Buck is our pack leader,” he snivels.
“You’re a coward,” Briar mutters. “You always told Ryan he could take whatever he wanted by force because he was an alpha.”
“Alphas don’t have to take when it’s freely given,” Atlas says, breaking another finger.
Eventually he gets tired of this, and begins to systematically stab him instead.
“Tenderize the turkey for the fire!” Jude yells.
“The more holes the better,” Briar adds. “They should be dickless when they go. It’s a good thing you split a bunch of firewood for me.”
“We have crates too from your latest project,” Jude says.
When I raise my brow in question, Jude shrugs. “She decided she wanted a wall of bookcases and ordered them so I could help her. So that’s what we did, along with fuck and watch movies together.”
“Ugh, I love that.” I’m a little sad I missed that, but I’m glad they got that time together.
“Don’t worry, I’m going to need some muscle to help put them where I want them for my library,” Briar shrugs.
“You just want me for my muscles,” Atlas teases, yanking down Mitch’s pants. Jude moves to Buck’s legs to remove his, while I cut off Ricky’s pants. The cherry bomb made a bit of a mess of them.
I can smell the ammonia-like scent of urine, groaning with disgust as I realize he pissed himself.
“Such big, bad alphas, yet you’re wetting yourself like a toddler,” I sneer.
“Ricky the piddler, aww, he’s just a little baby,” Jude says, looking through the bag to find a bat. “Want to see how blue their dicks turn when you beat them?”
“Ew, that could have been said very differently,” Briar laughs, taking the offered bat.
“The first one to make their alpha sing soprano wins,” I decide. “Leave Buck alone for now. I want to watch you gut him while he chokes on his own knot, Briar. Would you like that?”
“Like a fish?” she asks.
“Mmhmm. I’ll get the knife nice and sharp for you.”
“Yes, please,” she says, taking a deep breath. Each minute helps her feel less anxious and scared of them. They have no more power over her. When they die, I want her to know that. Today, their legacy of fear will die with them.
Jude and Briar both raise their bats, and Atlas stands as he watches.
“On your mark,” he growls. “Get set… Beat the dicks!”
I notice he places his hand protectively over his crotch as Jude and Briar begin beating their respective body’s groin area. Ricky tries to kick Briar, making me growl. Reaching for the first thing I can find, I use the axe to hack at his legs.
“Behave, or I’ll pull out your guts and then leave you for the birds to peck at,” I state. “This is what you deserve.”
“Damn. I like your idea,” Briar admits.
“Fire is just as much fun,” I smirk. “But we can leave him staked out if you can handle the smell.”
“Ew. Okay, fire it is,” she groans. “Someone could stumble upon him and then call the police. That property is just outside of Widows Peak, which means someone other than our department could answer the call.”
“Civilization has its disadvantages,” I sigh.
“We definitely need pigs,” Briar pouts.
“I can see how they’d be advantageous,” Atlas grumbles. “We can have pigs.”