CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Brett looked around the corner and shook his head. Where did he go? He was right behind him, following him back to the car lot. He told him to stay close but he didn’t listen. He never listened.
Although appearing to be only seventeen, he was actually twenty-two. He’d been sent by the elders to watch over Tyler Moses because his behavior was erratic and he wasn’t acquiring what they needed. A wife for himself, and possibly others for them.
Brett was always respectful, playing his role perfectly but behind the scenes he was telling his own father of the incompetence he was witnessing with the older man.
Taking out his phone he tried dialing his number but it went straight to voicemail. He angrily stuffed the phone inside his pocket and continued along the street, pushing people aside as they reveled like the devils they were.
He hated this city. He hated everything about it. Women were scandalous and inappropriate. If he were bigger, stronger, he’d be taking them all by the hair and dragging them into a room and beating the devil from them.
For now, he would find Tyler and get him out of the city.
His father and the others would deal with him later.
He’d left the lot unattended but it really didn’t matter.
There were no parking spots available and everything was pre-paid.
Besides, he didn’t care if they fired him.
He didn’t need the job other than to keep his cover.
That fool Tyler, thought that he was mentoring him. He thought he was teaching him how to manage a woman, how to get a woman. He was truly stupid.
Brett often wondered if perhaps he’d been hit in the head too many times as a child. He wasn’t a terrible looking man. He was relatively smart, in a book-sense. Yet he seemed completely unable to get a woman that would agree to his terms.
It’s not like they were unreasonable terms. They were terms that all women had to follow. Obey your husband. Do as you’re told, no matter what it is. Cook, clean, tend the animals and children, keep your mouth closed unless asked to open it, and provide more children for the compound.
It was simple. Even in this city, you should be able to find at least one woman willing to follow those rules.
“Poor bastard,” frowned Brett.
He continued to push his way toward the lot, hoping he would find Tyler waiting for him there. Instead, he found more crowds, many lingering around the vehicles, spilling their drinks all over the various cars.
“Hey! Get off those cars,” he yelled.
“People are something else, aren’t they Brett?” asked Fitch, Sor standing behind him.
“Oh,” he said staring at the two men. “Hello, sirs.”
“You lied, Brett,” said Fitch. Brett looked up at the man, noticing others moving in closer. There were three that seemed identical in every way and he blinked, thinking he was hallucinating.
“Lied? I don’t lie, sir.”
“But you do,” said Finn. “You lied about how well you know Tyler Moses. You lied about seeing him with women. You liked about not knowing where he lived. I don’t like liars, Brett. And I really don’t like liars that cover for other liars, that are hurting women.”
He stood staring at the men, unsure of what to do next. He could make a run for it but he suspected they would catch him quickly.
“Running won’t be smart,” said Sor. “Why did you lie, Brett? Who are you to him?”
“We believe in the same things,” said the young man.
“Same things? You believe in beating women into submission all for your own personal joy?”
“It’s not for our joy! It’s the way it should be!
Ephesians 5:22-24 – ‘Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything’. Everything!
“Colossians 3:18 – ‘Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord’. 1 Peter 3:1 – ‘Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands’. We are doing what God tells us to do.”
“Where in all those fine quotes does it say to beat a woman nearly to death?” asked Quinn. “Where does it say to abuse, rape, and punish?”
“You missed parts of the passage,” said Finn.
“Ephesians 5:21-33 – ‘Submit yourselves to one another because of your reverence for Christ’. One another. That means both in case you missed that. ‘Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave his life for it’. Is this how you love God? If you saw him, face-to-face, you’d beat him, punish him? ”
“Stop! You know nothing! That’s not what it says. It’s not!” he cried out.
“Somebody has done a number on your brain Brett, but it won’t matter in a court of law,” said Finn. “You’re an adult. Another thing you lied about. You’re over twenty-one.”
“I never told you my age,” he said defiantly.
“Nope. You didn’t but you didn’t offer it either. You let us believe you were younger. The thing is,” smirked Finn, “the courts won’t give a shit. You’ll be tried as an adult.”
“No. No, I can’t go to jail,” he said in a panic.
“You will go to jail,” said River.
“I’ll help. What do you want to know? I’ll help you and you’ll be easy on me. That’s what they do, right?”
“Suddenly so cooperative,” smirked Finn. “Worried that the boys in prison might appreciate your boyish charm, Brett?”
“Please.”
“Where are the other men?” he asked. Brett actually gasped, then closed his mouth. “You know that there are more out there looking for women. Where are they?”
“If I tell you, they’ll beat me. I’ll never be allowed to get my own wife,” he frowned.
Rush shoved forward, gripping the young man under his armpits. He lifted him, shoving him into the car behind him. He shoved so hard, they heard the metal as it dented.
“Listen to me you little piece of garbage. You, will never have a wife. Never. I will make sure of it even if I have to castrate you myself.” His eyes went wide, tears building as the thought of losing his manhood hit his young mind.
“If I tell you, if you find them, will you go easy on me?” he asked.
“Oh, no. See, we’re not the prosecutors and the judges, not in the traditional sense. We can definitely lay down some judgment, but it’s usually the final judgement,” smirked Finn. “They’ll know that you helped us and that might save you from the death penalty. Maybe.”