“Because you told him to. You, Mommy Dearest, are evil incarnate.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m going to unleash God’s army so they can send you to hell for good!”
“We’ll cleanse the world of you, you immoral tool of Lucifer,” Jed piped in.
Seth scoffed. “Yeah? You’re just a plain ol’ tool.”
Beck softly chuckled. “And, Mother, you encouraging your son to impregnate your own granddaughter in the name of the Lord is a new low, even for you. But I know what a dedicated servant of God you are,” he drawled. “Did you watch Jed rape her, make sure he did the job properly?”
“You filthy vermin,” Esther hissed, chin raised. “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Beck interrupted. “Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and goodwill, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers…” He paused to add his own twist to the passage from Ezekiel. “Or in this case, rip away his daughter’s hymen in some perverted sacrifice for the Lord. And the fact you liked it enough to knock her up, brother, says a whole lot about you.”
Jed’s expression took on a familiar twist of rage. Their father’s face had contorted with that same maniacal gleam—just before Beck had slit his throat.
His crazy brother raised his hands to the heavens. “And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.”
By unleashing his army now? The hair on the back of Beck’s neck prickled. Beside him, Seth cursed under his breath and slid his finger over the trigger of his AR.
“Smite those who rise against Him and hate Him, for they will never rise again,” Jed bellowed.
“You just butchered that passage, asshole. You’re not much of a Messiah if you crucify the word of God,” Beck tsked.
With hate blazing in his eyes, Jed tucked led Esther to safety behind one of the big trucks and shouted at his army, “Destroy this blaspheming minion of Satan!”
“You just had to egg him on, didn’t you?” the PI groused.
Then hell began to rain on them.
Beck hunched down farther as the plate-glass window behind them exploded. “Figured you were antsy to get this party started.”
“Yeah, and the second those bozos stop to reload, we’ll start having fun.”
The anticipated lull came seconds later. Beck already had his brow pressed against his scope and his finger wrapped around the trigger.
“Now!” Seth roared. “Make it count, boys!”
When they returned a hail of bullets, the Saint Squad went scrambling for cover behind the trucks. Had the stupid, cocky bastards really expected them not to retaliate? They were learning the hard way otherwise. Any too slow, they cut down. The soldiers who crumpled to the ground cried out as their blood oozed across the driveway. But most made it behind the heavy-duty vehicles, leaving Beck and his friends still vastly outnumbered.
“Aim under the truck,” Seth urged the shooters on the porch. “Take them out at the knees. When they fall, cap ’em in the head. They won’t get back up.”
Beck moved his scope and aimed the crosshairs at the multiple legs exposed between the big knobby tires. He squeezed the trigger as rapidly as he could. Screams peppered the air. The Saint Squad started dropping like flies. When his weapon was empty, Beck tossed it aside and grabbed another fitted with a full magazine.
A brave idiot rushed behind the fifty cal and swung the big gun in Beck and Seth’s direction.
“You want to play with a big gun? Suck this, motherfucker,” River called out.
“Wait! We’re too close,” Seth yelled. But a grenade was already sailing above their heads. “Shit! Duck and cover!”
The projectile landed with a metallic ping and rolled under the Jeep as they curled up against the sandbags and covered their ears. Even with his eyes squeezed shut, Beck was nearly blinded by the explosion. The detonation was deafening. The wave of heat rolling over them felt like it might singe his face off. Hot metal fragments rained down on them, burning through their clothes.
As soon as they dared, they uncoiled themselves and brushed the smoking shrapnel from their bodies. The Jeep was now in pieces, engulfed in a raging bonfire.
“Liam?” Seth shouted to his friend in the balcony above.
“Fine. Won’t need to shave for a few days but…”
Ears still ringing, Beck took aim at the rest of the enemy—and started pulling the trigger.