by Keta Kendric
Sorio attempted to wiggle loose, but his efforts were useless. Every move caused him pain as the areas wrapped in chain started to saturate with blood. His whimpers were a pleasant sound to my ears. Each of his agonizing groans was a healing cleanse to the areas of me he’d broken. With every fiber of my being, I hated this man. I’d never hated anyone except him.
With the box of matches in hand, I inched my body a few steps closer, ensuring he had a clear shot of me.
“I’m sorry, Regina,” stammered over his chapped lips, the sound faint in my left ear. It was a lot more than I expected from such an evil man, but it was too late. If he weren’t here facing his death, he’d have done unimaginable things to me by now.
His unexpected apology was the shock of the century. Sorio had been broken, but like he’d promised, Ansel had left him with enough mental focus that he understood what I was about to do to him.
His apology was not accepted. It meant nothing. He could spend ten lifetimes making up for what he’d done, and it would never be enough. I didn’t say a word to him. I wasn’t going to taunt him in his misery as he’d done to me.
The struck match sounded as the flame flickered past my gaze that remained aimed at Sorio’s wide tortured eyes. I brought the match up so that he could see the flame and would know what was coming. I tossed the match, and the fire ignited before it had even struck the saturated ground.
The flames licked at his back and legs, making him twitch and flap about as the chains clinked and his movement rocked the thick poles that suspended him above the ground.
The heat and flames were high enough to snatch at his clothes before they’d started to catch at certain spots. When the flames started to kiss his flesh, his whimpers grew into agonizing cries. The fire ate at his epidermis, burning hair and destroying his top layer of skin.
Sorio’s cries were those of the desperate. The cries of the tortured. The cries of the beaten and destroyed. They reminded me of my own cries when he’d unmercifully raped me, and the many times he’d beaten me bloody and left me scared and helpless.
His wailing screams didn’t come until I aimed and squeezed more of the accelerant under his body, refusing to let the flames die beneath him. The screams were loud but rang hollow in my ears. His suffering was a horrific sight to witness, much like the way I’d struggled and screamed and pleaded for mercy. I’d not been given mercy, and neither would he.
I watched without remorse as the fire bit into his dermis, the denser tissue where his blood vessels would pop from the extreme heat, his sweat glands would burn to a crisp, and his hair follicles would dehydrate before cracking into pieces. His nerve endings would deliver maximum amounts of pain as they withered and fried before the heat touched the rest of the nerves waiting below.
With most of his clothing melted from the back of his body, the flames ate at more of his skin that was being revealed, turning portions of it black as blisters bubbled up. The scent caused a few of the men to step back a few paces.
The odor of Sorio’s burning flesh left a twinge of nausea in the pit of my belly, but I’d learned all too well how to swallow the feeling and press on. Although the scent was strong enough to singe my nose hairs, it was a tolerable stench to someone that had encountered hundreds of unnatural odors from all manner of decayed bodies. Sorio was the sole reason I’d seen more dead bodies than I could count.
There was only one reason I turned away from Sorio. I faced Megan, before I handed her the bottle. Sorio had been hunting her for years, so she deserved revenge as much as I did. She took the bottle with a smile.
She stepped up and stood close enough to Sorio that I feared she’d get burned from the heat swirling off him. But, like me, Megan wanted him to see her face. She’d allowed the fire under him to die down as smoke continued to billow from his burned clothes and blister the black skin on the bottom side of him.
The odor of burned skin mixed with self-defecation permeated the air. The stench lingered instead of spreading itself out in the environment. It was as if it clung to Sorio, knowing he was rotten to the core and didn’t want to spread his evil into the world.
Megan leaned down close to Sorio, her mouth near his ear. The stench permeating off him was gag-worthy, but Megan didn’t show a hint of repulsion. I don’t have a clue what you could tell someone in his state of agony to get his eyes to go wide, but she’d managed.
The scene had us riveted to her and Sorio’s first and last moment with each other. Unconsciously, our bodies leaned closer. What was she going to do next? I’m sure I wasn’t the only one that wanted to know.
Megan sat the bottle of fluid against Sorio’s cheek. She placed her other hand over his mouth before she squeezed his lips apart. The plastic bottle made a clunking sound in her small hand as she poured the fluid down his throat.
Sorio must have understood that if he didn’t swallow the fluid, the fire would light his face up. He gulped the fluid, coughing and gagging until Megan believed he’d had enough. She let go of his mouth and backed away from him as she aimed the bottle under the low flickers on the ground below him.
Megan squeezed an ample amount of the accelerant below him, and the fire blazed back to life. Sorio nearly tore his limbs apart to get away from the hell Megan had sent blazing beneath him.
The chains that bit into his wrists and ankles clinked as his powerful bucking caused the ground to tremble beneath our feet. He’d yelled loud and long enough that his sound edged out in jagged ripples like his throat was on the verge of tearing into pieces.
By now, the flames should have been licking at portions of his cutaneous membrane, the fatty layer that protected his internal organs.
Any small flame or piece of flying ash would set his face and mouth on fire where some of the fluid had spilled. Megan stood at his side, soaking in his suffering cries until the fire began to die back down. She aimed and shot another big squeeze under him before she backed away and handed the bottle back.
The hair at the back of his head started to catch fire. He’d become so delirious with pain that he’d attempted to blow away the flames, twisting his lips in a useless attempt to blow them out.
I aimed and squeezed more of the fluid under his body as the flames scorched the sides of his exposed legs and more of his clothes caught and burned.
The stench of burning hair mix with the rancid aroma of burning flesh grew thick enough for us to choke on. The odor stung my eyes as rapid blinks help keep my focus, but I didn’t dare back away. The burning rags fell to the ground as they peeled away from his clothes piece by piece.
“Re-re-gina. I’m so-sorry,” was what sounded among his screams and sputters. It had all started to sound like white noise. The fire had started its climb over the sides of his body. It flickered and ate at the top layers of more skin. I’d not put a lot of the fluid near his head because I needed him focused on his pain and suffering for as long as possible.
When his body started to twitch, I knew he was close to meeting his father, the Devil. His eyes begin to flutter as they started to roll back in his head. His mouth dropped open, the fluid Megan had poured down his throat ignited, and his final breath blew the flames, making a blaze shoot out from his open mouth. Each inhale sent charring heat down his throat and into his lungs, suffocating him. His eyes had gone wide as he choked on fire. His body jerked hard enough to make one of the metal poles lean.
When I was certain that there was no chance he’d survive, I aimed and shot the fluid all over him, letting the flames burn away whatever life he had left in him.
Ansel walked up and stood next to me as Sorio’s burning body sagged on the chains. The flames danced joyfully over him, happy to assist him away from this world. I’d never been so grateful to see another human die. I’d never rejoiced at witnessing death until now.
Megan and Aaron stood beside Ansel and me as the charred remains of my cousin burned. I didn’t stop dousing him with the accelerant until the bottle hissed air.
“Two,”
Ansel murmured so low, I almost missed it.
Epilogue
I pressed a delicate kiss over the bruise in Regina’s side, causing a deep smile to bend her lips. Fresh from a long hot bath, the scent of coconut milk drifted off her warm silky skin and stirred my lust, but I choked it down.
My finger skimmed her back, grazing over the area I’d implanted the tracker. I’d inventoried every mark on her before I tied her into my big white robe. Despite the events of the last twenty-four hours, a genuine smile managed to shine through her eyes.
I wanted her relaxed and in a good mood before I approached her with the news that would finally break the carefully constructed allegiance she held for me. She’d fought every instinct she’d known to stay at my side even after she’d discovered my twisted mentality where it concerned dispensing death.
“Regina, there is something I must tell you. Would you join me in the living room, please?”
“Sure,” she answered. The smile on her face meant more than she’d ever know.
After I sat her on the couch, I dragged the coffee table closer and sat facing her. I needed to see her face when I revealed what I’d done. Although I expected her to leave, she had no idea the crazy shit I was willing to do to get her back.
“Regina, I need to explain to you how we found you. I’m sure D, with all of his magic tricks, would have found a way, but I couldn’t wait that long.”
Her face drew into a questioning squint. “How did you guys find me?” she inquired.
“You had a tracker on you, Regina. One that I put there,” I informed.
She shrugged, not understanding the full concept of the tracker and where it was on her body. My hand sat atop the medical bag I’d placed on the table beside me. Her gaze followed my hand.
“I don’t think you understand. I put a tracker under your skin. In your back.”
Confused, her wide gaze traveled back and forth between the medical bag and my face.
“That’s good, I guess. It helped you guys to find me. But, how did you know when or that you’d even have to put a trac…ker…”
Her words stalled. She’d caught on to what I’d revealed.
“Wait. You put a tracker under my skin? How? When? How long has it been under my skin, Ansel?”
“For over two weeks. I know it’s a fucking sick thing to do to a person, but I can’t even apologize to you because I know I’d do it again. Therefore, I’ll understand if you prefer to get the hell away from me.”
I retrieved a pair of tweezers and a lancet from the medical bag. Her gaze sat on the items in my hand as my anxious fingers played with the tweezers that made pinching metallic clicks.
“So, let me get this straight. You put a tracker under my skin so that you could find me if I decided to leave you? You didn’t put it there with the intent of finding me if I got snatched?” Her questions hung in the air. She stared, blinking and not saying anything while she mulled over my actions in her head.
“Ansel, if I did leave you, I have nowhere else to go but to Aaron who happens to live in your spare apartment. My family would kill me if I tried to make it on my own. Wait…two weeks?”
The wheels turned faster in her head, her eyes motioning left and right while her fingers dug into her thighs.
“Ansel, I’ve been around you for over a month, but alone with you for a little over two weeks,” she stated, her questioning gaze meeting mine.
“Everyone leaves me, Regina. You are the first person I didn’t want to leave. I put it there in case you decided to get away from me and all the craziness I knew you’d eventually see from being here alone with me.” I raised the tweezers and lancet. “I’ll have to make a small incision on your skin to get it out.”
She raised her hand to still me. “How did you get a tracker under my skin without me knowing it?”
“The first time I took you over my knee,” I revealed.
When I moved and reached my hands out, Regina lifted her hand again.
“Wait,” she exclaimed, halting me. “If you hadn’t put this tracking device in me, there may have been a chance that you guys would not have found me? You probably wouldn’t have found me before my cousin had tortured me?”
“Yes. The tracker is the main reason we were able to find you so quickly.”
Staring, I realized she wasn’t pissed. Regina had the ability to deal with my crazy better than anyone I knew. On a deep inhale, her lips pinched and her eyes drew tighter as she contemplated my actions.
“If Sorio would have gotten to me again, Ansel, I don’t know if I’d have survived it. This tracker helped to save me, right?”
“Yes,” I answered, reaching for her again only to have her hand block mine.
“It’s not a danger to my health or anything is it?”
“No. It emits a tiny frequency. It’s safe, no bigger than the tip of a pen.”
“What if I don’t want it removed?” she asked, her gaze holding mine.
My brow pinched tight. This was another in a mounting number of times that Regina had shocked me into a state of stunned silence.
“What are you saying, Regina? You’re not pissed that I did this to you without your knowledge? For my own selfish reasons, no less?”
“It’s creepy, stalkerish, borderline psychotic, but coming from you, it’s also kind of sweet.”
My body fell back. I was as surprised as I was confused by her reaction to it all.
“Ansel, the fact that you were willing to do something, however drastic it was, to keep me from leaving you, was sweet. It was a gesture proving that I meant something to you. It also saved my life. Given who my family is, I’d rather be tagged with this tracker in case they come after me again.”
Her chest rose on a deep breath as her gaze traveled over me before she exhaled.
“The only people that wanted to keep me was my family, and they treated me like a caged animal that they abused on a whim. Everyone else I’ve ever loved was killed at the hands of the same family. You’ve never laid a hand on me in harm, Ansel. You’ve never made me feel caged or captured. No man has ever fought to keep me enough to do something this drastic. It’s a strange and unique way to express it, but the fact that you care means everything to me.”
My smile inched across my lips before it filled my face.
“Ansel, even if you hadn’t put a tracker in my back, I’d have never left you. You’ve cared for and protected me since the moment you decided you weren’t going to kill me. You’ve given me everything I needed whether you realize it or not. Although you won’t admit it, you’ve given me more love and care than anyone I know.”
After I placed the tweezers and lancet on the table, I stood and then sat next to her on the couch. I raised her hands to my lips, placing soft kisses to the backs.
“You’re a beautiful and incredible woman, Regina. I’m realizing that you’re also the only person that can deal with my kind of crazy.” My body leaned closer to hers, my gaze inches away from her inquisitive one. “I haven’t touched another woman since you walked into my life. I only want your pussy wrapped around my dick. You’re the only woman I want tied to my headboards.”
I’d muttered the words while doing my best to keep from smiling. At my words, her smile grew wide before she giggled at me, and a flush of pink washed over her cheeks.
“Ansel,” she teased, placing her hand over her heart. “I didn’t know you had it in you. I think those are the second sweetest words you’ve ever said to me.”
My hand wrapped around her wrist as I assisted her over my legs so that she straddled my lap. Her fingertips teased the scruff on my face before she leaned in and placed a soft kiss on my lips.
“I love you, Regina,” I blurted.
My gaze met hers as my heartbeat hammered in my throat. The overwhelming anxiousness in my body had me gripping her waist to keep my hands from shaking. My harsh breaths escaped and collided with hers. She knew as well as I did, if I said it, I meant it.
Gazing i
nto her eyes, I found pure love reflected back at me. There weren’t butterflies in my stomach, there was a fucking dragon in there, lighting it on fire.
She must have spotted the seriousness in my gaze and noticed how difficult it was for me to take this final step. Unable to move, the emotions that flooded me spilled over, too much for me to contain.
“I love you too,” she whispered as the smile in her eyes spread across her lips. Her hand slid over my stubbled chin and rested against the strong pulse beating in my neck.
“I’ve never experienced this kind of high, Regina. I’ve never felt this way about anyone but you. There’s never been a challenge that I’ve been afraid to meet. Then, you happened. From the moment I met you, I knew it. I knew that if I didn’t kill you that first day, I’d not want to let you out of my sight.”
My head was too heavy for my neck, my eyes hooded with emotions instead of lust. Regina was the only woman to ever make me feel this amazing rush. She had my endorphins hopped up on her secret drug, and my heart and mind were confused as to how to control the overwhelming currents.
We sat forehead to forehead, allowing the impact of our declarations to sink in. There was no sound, only the harmony of our breathing and the rhythmic beat of my heart in my ears.
Staring into Regina’s eyes, I knew at this moment that nothing or no one would ever come between us. My lips covered hers, the kiss easing the sensation of drowning in emotions. Did she sense the depth of the love I gave? I eased back, but kept my forehead against hers, allowing our feelings to encircle us.
The nagging reminders of my relationship shortcomings had me stressed that I was incapable of loving Regina the way she deserved. However, I was a Knox. If there was one thing I had in abundance, it was determination.
I’d give Regina everything I had to give until it was enough.