It was anti-climatic.
I’d expected more blood.
After tossing the dirty steak knife into the tub, I grabbed her cell phone off the vanity.
Careful that no sign of me could be seen in a mirror, I snapped a picture of her partially submerged body with a sunny day filter, and sent it to her only contact saved under Jayce.
I looked at her closely, wondering how she’d ended up with him in the first place. She wasn’t anything like the girls he seemed to have a penchant for.
Oh, well. Now, they could burn in hell together.
I tossed her phone in the water and made a quick exit.
–Chapter Twenty-Two–
Harper
His wife’s murder made the local news.
The local freaking news. I didn’t understand how we could live on two separate ends of the same town, and I’d never figured it out.
I supposed I had ice-cream to thank for my great triumph.
It took me some time to prepare for what I was going to do next.
By time, I mean I had to haul boxes, stop at a garage sale, a hardware store, and ultimately a pet store. Everything else I needed was ordered online—like the dildos.
I made sure to keep tabs on Jayce the entire time, wondering if he knew it was me who’d killed his wife.
I couldn’t imagine he didn’t.
Then again, the sick fuck probably had his fair share of people who despised him.
When everything was set, I followed him for two solid weeks, day in and day out. I went as far as swapping my ruby red Jeep for a rental car to blend in a little better.
Wherever Jayce went, I went.
His auburn hair looked thicker, and he had a bit of scruff, but otherwise, he looked the same as he always had.
For a man who’d just lost what should have been the love of his life, he didn’t seem too distraught. He was more pissed that he’d been a suspect.
If the cops only knew the half of it.
They wouldn’t hear about it from me, but I had an anonymous letter ready to go that I’d hand typed after I was found.
I felt the other girls, wherever they’d wound up, deserved some form of peace for their families.
If they had any.
There weren’t any missing persons reports filed in our area, which led me to believe Jayce took girls who had nothing and no one, or who weren’t from around here.
That didn’t change anything on my end.
I learned rather quickly he led a ridicuously boring life.
Breakfast with the same group of men on Tuesday.
The pool hall on Thursday.
I’m sure he knew I was following him; I stopped trying to hide it three days in. I wanted him to see me.
I made my appearance on Sunday.
Leaving my rental in front of a shopping complex, I slipped on my signature purple gloves, grabbed my gun, and walked the few blocks to Holy Trinity Church.
I couldn’t understand why, or how this man could be religious in any way. Maybe it was another role he played.
He came out alone, just like he had the week before. I waited until his car was unlocked before coming up behind him.
“Get in,” I demanded, pressing my gun into his back.
“Harper,” he mused, turning his head to the side. “I was wondering when I’d see you again. I know you’ve been following me.”
“That’s nice. Now get the fuck in the car. And please don’t make me ask again,” I added sweetly.
We didn’t have an abundance of time to stand here like this. I cocked the gun to hurry him along, and it worked.
“Okay, okay, calm down. No one needs to get hurt.” He slid into the driver’s seat, and I got in behind it.
“Give me your phone,” I said, keeping the gun trained on the back of his head.
He wordlessly handed it back to me.
“Now pull out of this parking lot and make a right.”
“This is entertaining,” he laughed, doing as I said.
“If you think this is fun, wait until you see what comes next,” I quipped.
That made him shut up for a minute—but only a minute.
“You know, if anything happens to me, I have friends who will come looking.”
“I find it extremely hard to believe that you of all people have friends. Are they as fucked up as you are?”
“Actually, they’re a lot worse,” he chuckled.
Now it was my turn to shut up. How could anyone be worse than J? I made it a top priority to look into these friends of his.
“You know, you look just as pretty as you always did.”
“Shut up, J.”
“Now that Minnie’s gone, we—”
“Shut the fuck up!” I yelled, whacking him on the side of the head.
“Dammit,” he cursed, touching a small gash.
“Don’t say anything else. This isn’t a social call.”
He remained quiet as I instructed him all the way to an old farm road.
Digging into the satchel I had looped across my chest, I retrieved a cool syringe and popped the cap off.
“What are you planning on doing with me way—ah!” He smacked at the back of his neck where I’d just stuck him through the headrest.
“Don’t worry, it’s not life-threatening,” I laughed, instructing him to pull over and cut the engine.
“What did you give me?” he questioned, already slurring his words.
I chose to look out the window at the cornfields instead of responding.
When I looked back in the front seat, J was slouched down.
I couldn’t believe I was this close to him again, and how calm I felt in his presence.
It was satisfying in a way, not to be afraid of him. He was just a man. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I sat for a few more seconds to clear my head and get ready for what I was going to do next.
When I’d reassured myself this was what I needed to do, I got out of the car.
–Chapter Twenty-Three–
Harper
He came to just as I was about to go back upstairs.
His muffled, emasculated screams brought a smile to my face. I’d removed his clothes, already burning them in my firepit, and chained him up.
I had to dose him again in the midst of dragging his heavy ass to my basement. Thank god I didn’t have neighbors.
“You’re awake,” I said, walking back towards him.
He squeezed his eyes shut, clearly not liking the feel of the vibrating dildo hanging out of his ass.
“I know it’s not comfortable, but I didn’t have time to add any nails yet.”
I also didn’t have the desire to spit between his asscheeks, so I used the rubbing alcohol in my medicine cabinet.
“Do you like your new home?”
He yelled some more—nothing that sounded very nice.
I looked around my basement, satisfied with how it had turned out.
It had no windows, and the only door led straight into my closet.
It wasn’t listed on the blueprint of the cottage, so technically it didn’t exist. That’s what the realtor had told my parents, anyway.
It was perfect.
Buying bars to build a makeshift cell was a little out of my expertise, so I’d settled for a dog kennel from the pet store.
I had no idea where to get a gynecology chair, and was using an old weight bench from the garage sale instead.
Given that he was stronger than me, I used chains in place of nylon.
“I’ll remove the gag once you’ve calmed down a bit. Then you can yell as loud as you like. No one will hear you; this room is soundproof. You can beg, too. I think I’d like that.”
He looked at me with the same hatred I imagined he saw reflected right back at him.
It was so easy to break him down to nothing. His power was nothing more than what I had now. The upper hand.
We’d see how well he liked being a fuck toy, having the tables turn
ed on him before I put a bullet in his head.
His obnoxious yells followed me out of the kennel. I shut the gate and clicked the padlock in place.
Just before I went up the stairs, I hung the silver stopwatch on the wall, and started the timer.
DEVILS WITH HALOS
Standalone (63k words) Loosely connected to Depredation. (Harper is in this)
Add to TBR
Release alert
Ma-lig-nant
Adjective.
1. Malevolent
2. Very virulent or infectious.
Beauty is deceitful.
They called it an institution for the diseased.
Freedom is an illusion.
Our choices were no longer our own.
Our bodies became their exclusive property.
Our lives no longer mattered.
Survival is subjective.
We’d all done terrible things.
We all had demons.
We all had secrets.
The truth would destroy everything.
Savages Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
Past-Four years ago
He set her on fire, but it was me he watched burn.
Within seconds, her body was drowning in an inferno. The blaze glowed red, bathing the night sky in blood.
A sheet of flames danced across her naked skin, shrinking and splitting open flesh, leaving body fluid to expel. They reached for her dark strands of hair and singed them to the scalp.
Her mouth had been sewn shut after she was forced to repent for her sins, silencing her shrills of agony and fear.
The familiar aroma of charred flesh permeated the air, filling my aching lungs with every ragged breath I took.
The Order stood by, watching with bored expressions on their faces as the faux nuns held hands and whispered their synthetic prayers.
I wished it were a dream, but I was wide-awake. I wished nothing more than to take her place. I wished someone would have saved us from the hate, but not one person stepped forward.
I had tried so hard to warn her away. I’d begged her not to come back for me. Why didn’t she listen?
My body shook with silent sobs, constricting my heart in my chest.
I couldn’t move. It hurt to breathe. I felt like I were burning with her.
I was forced to watch on as the life vacated her body, leaving her limbs dangling limply above the flames. The bones that had been exposed were slick with the greasy residue of melted flesh.
As two men moved forward to begin extinguishing the fire, still no one said a word.
I tried not to picture what would happen to what remained of her blackened body, knowing she was to be discarded for crows and wild animals to feast on.
“It’s unfortunate it had to come to this,” my father sighed, removing his heavy foot from my spine. “You let me down, Calista.”
He stepped over my body and knelt down, lifting my battered face from the dirt.
His skewed logic made him believe that if my pain wasn’t visible, I wasn’t hurting—yet he was the one who’d taught me to handle abuse.
I looked into his cold, grey eyes and hoped he saw the hatred I no longer bothered to mask. If I had the strength, I would have torn out his jugular with my teeth.
I had done everything he’d asked of me, even when I didn’t want to, when the aftermath always killed me a little more each time.
I suppressed parts of me to appease him, but no matter how hard I tried, it was never good enough.
Once upon a time, all I wanted was for him to remember I was his baby girl. Now, I wanted him dead. I wanted to feel his blood between my fingers and keep his head as a trophy.
“Feel better…now?” I wheezed out, choking on phlegm.
“You’ve learned nothing from any of this; you are truly hopeless.” He squeezed my cheeks and then shoved my face back in the dirt, a look of disgust twisting his features. “Your sins will eat you alive.” With one last shake of his head, he chuckled and regarded me with unfeeling eyes before standing up and strolling away.
“Take her past the border and leave her,” he demanded over his shoulder to my brothers, who had been standing by, watching the events unfold.
“If you don’t kill me…I will kill you,” I called out to him.
He continued walking away, not bothering to give me as much as a backward glance. My hope that he would turn around and end it all was gone just as quickly as it had arrived.
My brothers rushed to obey his command. They each grabbed an upper arm and began dragging me face-down across the ground. I gritted my teeth as my hands were secured behind my back with strips of twine.
“Let’s get this over with; I haven’t eaten supper yet,” my eldest brother grumbled, lifting me up and tossing me in the bed of his truck with an irritated sigh. I let out a soft grunt as my side impacted with the plastic floor.
A second later, the engine revved, and I was flying forward as the truck sped off into the night.
Much quicker than I expected, signs warning that we were about to leave a safe zone began to appear on the trees. I remained on my stomach, trying to come up with a quick plan of action.
I knew once we reached our destination that the inevitable would be moments away from happening.
And I was right.
Seconds after the truck came to a full stop; one of my brothers dropped the tailgate and grabbed hold of my habit to pull me out.
“We could fuck her now,” my younger brother, Noah, whispered, pressing his elbow into my back to keep me pinned down.
“No, Judy is enough for me. Besides, look at her, she’s filthy.”
At their words, my stomach twisted into a knot, acidic bile rising in my throat. Judy was our thirteen-year-old cousin.
How did I not know this was going on? When did my brothers start feeding on the bullshit our father spewed like every other brainwashed acolyte?
This shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did.
The entire Order was made up of one giant, incestuous family exchanging body fluids.
“Suit yourself; I don’t care what she looks like. I only want what’s between her legs.” Noah laughed. He gripped the dark fabric around my waist and started sliding it up.
“Make it quick; I’ll wait in the truck.”
The sound of retreating footsteps had one of my worst fears quickly becoming a reality. I was really being left alone to be violated, which was normal under usual circumstances, but never by my brothers.
“Don’t,” I choked out, struggling to move away.
“Shhh,” he blew in my ear, pressing the side of my face into the bed of the truck.
Grabbing my cloth underwear with one hand, he easily tore it away. His heavy cross amulet pressed into my back as he crushed me with his weight.
I heard the telltale sound of his belt being undone, and my stomach turned to stone.
“Stop,” I pleaded a little louder, my voice chock-full of emotion.
He cleared his throat and spat into the palm of his hand, rubbing the DNA we shared between my ass cheeks. I swallowed repeatedly to hold down vomit, but when his disgusting, hard cock pressed against my sensitive hole, it erupted from my mouth and dribbled down my chin, leaving an acidic taste on my tongue.
I thrashed from side to side, trying my damndest to dislodge him, failing miserably. My haggard body protested at the movement, radiating with pain.
Louis Armstrong began to croon out the words to What A Wonderful World from the truck’s cassette player, overshadowing my pleas and sobs.
“Hold still,” Noah growled, flipping me over so I was on my back, forcing my head to lie in my own vomit.
My shoulders screamed in their sockets, and twine cut into my wrists.
“Please don’t do this,” I begged as he settled between my legs. He covered my mouth with his hand and managed to shove half his length inside me.
Vigorously shaking my head back and forth, I freed my mouth and sucked in
a breath, releasing it on a broken scream as he pulled out and pushed back in.
Friction coupled with dryness tore the delicate tissue, making me bleed. My mind blanked, unable to believe that this was happening, that my sweet little brother was moving inside me, moaning his pleasure in my ear.
Nausea tossed my stomach. I couldn’t get out from beneath him, and I was wasting all my energy trying, but I had to do something. No one was going to save me.
Adrenaline had my pulse racing at a hazardous speed. I could hear my heartbeat thundering in my ears. With a single-minded focus, I lurched up and brought us nearly mouth to mouth, catching him by surprise.
I snagged his lower lip between my teeth and bit down as hard as I could.
“Ah, fuck!” he garbled, immediately pulling out of me.
His fist and pain simultaneously hit the right side of my face. The impact forced me to let go, but not without tearing a soft piece of flesh from the inside of his mouth. I spat it out, along with the blood I tasted on my tongue.
He jumped up and swiped his face with the back of his arm. With nothing to balance me, I fell off the gate of the truck. Before I could get my bearings, his boot kicked me square in the stomach.
Gasping, I managed to roll onto my side, receiving another kick to my back. I bent my spine, pulled my shoulders in, and tucked my chin to my chest to form a protective ball.
“Fucking bitch, you’re not even worth it.” A glob of spit landed on my cheek, and his hand came down and attempted to tear the necklace from around my neck.
When he failed to remove it, he kicked me one last time in the back of my head. Pain exploded in my skull, and I saw stars.
A door slammed, and then they were gone. As the taillights faded, darkness eagerly swallowed me up.
AVAILABLE NOW
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Upcoming Releases 2018
Heathens (Badlands Book Four)
Devils With Halos (Standalone)
Depravity (Love Depraved/ standalone/ mmf/ mfm/mm)
Depredation Page 8