A deliciously dark smile curves my lips. “I remember your response when we begged. Fuck them. Kill them both.”
With that, I take the slice, struggling to cut through the harder appendage than I’ve worked with in the past.
His screams pierce the air, and his pleads fall on deaf ears. Just as ours did.
The blood starts running, and I squeeze out three bottles of lube, letting it clump on him as he continues to wail, losing his color as quickly as he loses blood. They bleed more and faster when they’re hard. Interesting.
Just to be a total sick freak, I throw a knife to the floor, stabbing it through the severed appendage I’ve dropped beside his face. He screams and screams, and I laugh as I walk outside.
Two gasoline cans are already waiting. Jake has done as he promised he would. Now that he’s heard what I’m doing, he’s probably on his way to Delaney Grove to execute the first part of our plan.
Singing while Morgan cries and chokes on his own vomit, I spray the gasoline around, then douse his body.
“They say the most painful way to die is by fire. I wonder who volunteered to find out that information,” I chirp cheerfully.
Morgan shakes his head, trying to form words, but he’s in too much pain, overwhelmed by agony and shock.
I strike the match, and his eyes widen one last time.
“I didn’t even need to hear you confess your sins,” I say quietly.
I watch the flame slowly eat away at the matchstick, almost reaching my fingers, before I drop it to his body. The flames start to soar, rapidly licking up the trails of gasoline. I slowly start walking out, hearing the roar of the fire as it spreads, chasing each strip of gas.
“Pretty soon, they’ll all burn,” I say as I walk out the door.
Chapter 13
Lawless are they that make their wills their law.
—William Shakespeare
LOGAN
“What’s beyond these woods?” I ask the sheriff as he tries to blatantly ignore me.
He’s at least 6’3, almost even with me in height. He looks like he spends more time in the gym than any county sheriff I’ve ever seen. His active deputies are more plentiful than small town sheriff departments I’ve been around in the past.
One town hall/sheriff’s department is large enough to host all the deputies also, and it appears Delaney Grove is their central headquarters, so to speak. The police department has five officers on its own, but the county? So many more.
Twenty-three deputies? Who needs that many in a county this small.
“I asked a question,” I say with authority, eyeing down the man with salt-and-pepper hair and dead eyes.
I should have come sooner. I’d have seen more than I expected. Already I see too much Leonard and Elise missed on their visit here.
“Four or five hunters’ cabins, and a whole lot of wild life you city boys don’t want to tangle with,” he says shortly, his tone thick with condescension.
He turns back to Johnson before glancing to one deputy. “You show these folks around. I’m going to go with SSA Johnson back to the fort.”
“The fort?” Elise asks.
“It’s what he calls our town hall,” one of the deputies says, grinning at her like she’s his type.
She casts a glare at Craig when he snickers.
I’m happy to get the sheriff and Johnson out of our hair, so I don’t object to them leaving us behind.
“Okay,” Elise mumbles to the deputy who is still beaming at her. The kid practically has hearts in his eyes. “They seriously don’t have women here, do they?” she adds.