Page 62 of Tav
I allow myself to lean into his solid warmth for a moment. “I feel good. We’ve gone over the plan. We know the women and children will be in their barracks for another hour and a half. Any of the non-council men will be in the hall ready for their meeting. Even without silencers on our weapons the men won’t know what’s happening in the meeting room. My father had that room soundproofed so his skeezy sex schools could run at the same time as the children’s evening lessons.” I shudder at the memory of seeing mothers dropping their children off and then entering the room where my father would tutor them intimately. “As long as we can keep them all separate, we should be able to get this done with minimal loss.”
It’s important that we make this as clinical and efficient as possible. If any of the council members raise an alarm, we’ll have to shoot our way out of the Keep. These people, Mercy’s followers, they’ve been brainwashed that Eden’s Keep is the only way to get to heaven. They will willingly die for their Prophet, which makes them not only fanatical, but suicidal as well. The best-case scenario is that once I take out the senior members, Royal and my father; the Keep will be leaderless, they’ll flounder and go off to find a new church to worship at.
“Team, check weapons,” Marx rumbles, checking the guns and knives he is carrying.
I follow suit, checking the two handguns and two knives that I have on my body. I also have a garotte that my brothers thought I might like, and my self defense ring that has a razor blade in it. My pockets are full of ammunition and the men around me assure me they are packing enough heat to take out anyone I can’t. I know it’s probably overkill, knowing that I will have two brothers and my Ol Man with me, but better to be prepared. Besides, I want this to hurt, so I might need to use all my goodies.
Checking my watch, it’s 5.29am. The lights come on in the compound at exactly 5.30am, lightly glowing through the trees. Marx raises a finger, circling it in the air. He moves first, the rest of us following silently.
Rider is walking forward angling out and away from the group, Tank doing the same thing on the other side. Soon they’ll pull back so they’ll flank me, Tav, and my brothers. Savage and Dex are somewhere in the trees, circling even further around, as are Fox and Nitro, and Sniper is somewhere looking over us. He never returned last night with Savage and Dex, saying something about setting up a nest.
Within a few brief minutes, Marx, Tav, my brothers, and I are all on the edge of the compound. It’s been years since I was lasthere and nothing has changed. Glancing at Vic, I know he feels the same.
Marx looks at us, and I tip my head toward the main hall. The room the Council meets in is off to the side. There is an internal door and an external door. We’ll be coming in the external door and I’m betting on Royal’s cockiness that he will not see me as a threat. Not until it’s too late.
As a group we make our way to the meeting room, Marx in the lead, the men flanking me, alert for any threats that may come our way and yet there are none. As far as my father’s followers are aware, it’s just another day in paradise.
Reaching the door that separates me from my nightmares, I motion toward Marx. I want to be the one to walk through that door first. The men won’t see me as a threat, either. Why would they? I’m just a weak woman who walked away decades ago. Marx steps back and I grip the handle, my heart pounding. One hand on the handle, and one on my gun I swing the door open and step inside, my brothers, my love and my Pres at my back.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my little wife. Come to beg for forgiveness?” Royal leans back in his chair, his dark eyes taunting me as his lips curl.
Nausea swirls in my gut, but I don’t let it show. This man thrives off the fear of others. Every tear, every scream, every beg uttered through cracked lips is like an aphrodisiac to this man, and I will not give him what he craves.
“One of us will beg for forgiveness, but it won’t be me.” Turning to my right I raise my gun and without thinking twice I squeeze the trigger, hitting Peaceful Landry square in the chest.
Any council member that gathered themselves quickly enough to raise a gun at me all hesitate at the sight of the four men behind me with their weapons raised. Clearly wanting to live a little longer, they sit their asses down waiting to see what command Royal will give.
Royal tilts his head at me, his eyes cold even as his eldest son lies bleeding out on the floor.
“Do you feel better, Patience? Do you feel good knowing that you will rot in the depths of hell for your sins? Your lust, greed, gluttony,” he sneers, his eyes drifting over my body. He always said I was too fat. Well, fuck him. “God will strike you down for what you’ve done, Patience, you will spend eternity burning in hell.” By the end of his tirade his face is red, spittle flying from his angry mouth.
“Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you there,” I smile at him and then point my gun directly at him.
Moving my aim slightly, I squeeze the trigger, my bullet nicking Royal’s ear but hitting my rapist cousin behind him. His head flies back, and he falls out of his chair, brain matter on the wall behind him.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. Each and every one of you is going to kneel and repent your sins. Blanche will give you the forgiveness you all preach so fervently,” Dom growls, his gun trained on Discretion Clark, the man most likely to blast his way out of this room.
With their hands on their heads, they all kneel before us. All except Royal, who I let sit on my father’s throne a little longer, Marx standing sentinel behind him. I want him to feel his power slipping through his fingers. Five members kneel before me and my brothers. Some crying, some cursing, some whispering to their God to save them, but he isn’t coming.
Where was He when their child brides were whispering for help under their heavy, sweaty bodies? Where was He when they forced their wives to bear child after child after child? Where was He when Royal was selling their daughters? My hands shake with rage as I hold my gun at the head of the man in front of me. Leaning forward to see his face through his snot and tears, I almost feel giddy when I recognize him.
“Worthy Williams, how do you plead?”
“Not guilty of whatever you’re blaming me for you harpy!” he spits out.
Tav moves to stand directly in front of him, staring down at him like he’s a piece of shit on his shoe. He grabs Worthy’s chin in his hand and then squeezes tightly. “The woman asked you a question. If I were you, I’d confess my sins and beg her to let you live.”
“I have no sins! I do what our Prophet and Savior tell me to do! You know nothing!”
“Oh, you are so very, very wrong. I hear things, whispers from the women I’ve saved. I know you raped three little girls before raping your own wife on your wedding night.” I say, pressing my gun harder into the back of his head, him angling forward to get away from the metal. He remains silent, so I press even harder, “I know you raped your own daughters before marrying them off at 12 years old to your buddies here. I know you and every other man here is helping Royal sell women to the cartel.” I flick my gaze to Royal who looks a little surprised that we know that little nugget of information. “Surprise Royal! We know all about your little venture.” I tap Worthy on the head with the muzzle of my gun. “And I know all about you, Worthy Williams.” His shoulders slump and he cries in earnest. In my peripheral Tav steps aside.
“I have no time for your tears, just like you had no time for theirs,” I whisper in his ear before sending him to his maker.
Two more guns sound out thanks to my brothers, the men in front of them hitting the ground with dull thuds. Worthy Williams’s body slumps in a heap at my feet, my gun still in the same position, now pointing at nothing in the air. Tav’s feet step back into my line of sight, but I don’t want to look at him. He’s just watched me kill, no murder, three men. It’s one thing to say he’ll stand beside me to stop these men. It’s another to watchyour woman so filled with rage that she’ll put bullets in men without blinking an eye. I’m afraid that if I look up, all my fears that Tav will see the real me and be disgusted will come true. Inhaling a breath, I let it out slowly before raising my eyes to look at the man I love, and I’m taken aback by what I see there. Instead of disgust, I see pride and love shining back at me. A soft smile plays on his lips.
“Five down, three more to go, Pixie.”
Chapter 19