Page 24 of King of Cruelty

But in that moment, guilt and shame ate me out like the rotted shit-heel carcass I was. These women trusted me. Theygave their lives to follow me because they believed in the Merchant name and the protection I promised them.

And I failed.

I didn’t listen to Sunny the first, second, and fifth time he warned me we had an unseen enemy hunting us. I thought my little bro was just making excuses for why his business was going wrong—blaming a phantom boogeyman instead of admitting he was too young to run a borough, and too proud to admit his fuckups.

I let my own hang-ups on Sunny’s maturity cloud my judgement, and then my Cardinals ended up in Satan’s whorehouse being tortured and starved.

This was on me. All of this was my fucking fault.

I backed out of the room before my girls saw me do something really fucking embarrassing—cry.

I went room to room, listening for a warning shout as I ungagged my Cardinals and checked them over. They were all in a terrible state—just as bad as the beaten Boo, Lils, and Nella.

They also weren’t alone.

All of my Cardinals were accounted for, but there were also five other women and one man among the chained and beaten. They were all older—late thirties and possibly early forties. I got their story after ungagging them.

“My name is Wilson,” the dark-haired and broken-nose man croaked. “I was hiking. Just hiking with my girlfriend when I rolled my ankle. We came to this house asking for help and... and...” Sobs crumpled his face. “Where’s Jillian?” he cried. “Where is she? What... what did they do to her?”

“I’ll find her,” was all I could get out before taking off to open another door and find another heartbreaking scene on the other side.

I found Jillian behind that door, and when she broke down in sobs too as she told me what that monster did to her when shefinally begged for the beatings to stop, my tough, diamond shell shattered, and I didn’t bother to hide my bright eyes.

Three of the women confirmed they were here before the Brotherhood moved in—thanks to that evil, disgusting corpse Luca. He just left them there after giving the place to the Brotherhood, claiming they weren’t “big earners” and weren’t worth the trouble or cost to bring them on his big move overseas.

If only I’d been there when Sunny stabbed Luca and left him to bleed out. I’d have liked to poke more holes in that worthless sack, starting with the eyes and crotch and then stabbing my way to the middle.

I stumbled into the last room with Shug, Bee, Pixie, and a silent figure huddled and bleeding in the corner. I gently lifted her head to tug the gag out of her mouth, revealing a pretty, lined face between a sea of black, blue, and red.

She didn’t react to my promise to get her out safely. She didn’t do a thing at all except to drop her head, and resume her blank-eyed staredown with the floor.

“They’re going to realize I’m not out there soon, if they haven’t already,” I told Shug and the others. “I’ve got to get that key. I—”

“FGH! They’re here!”

“They’re back!”

“Kill them!” my girls sounded off. “Fucking kill them all!”

“Oh, well, no plan as always.” I drew my guns, tearing for the door. “More fun that way.”

I tore out guns up and already firing before I crossed the threshold.

“There she is!” Five dicks scrambled over each other to get to me. “That Merchant bitch!”

“Put her down!”

“Kill her!”

Gunshots ripped through the cabin—only as loud as the screams.

MACKENZIE

Vance stood behind his desk as we came in, every limb shaking as he leveled the gun on us.

Sunny’s only move was to push me behind him. Otherwise, the man could’ve been holding a squirt gun for all the care Sunny showed.

“Hello, Hollywell. Is this how you normally greet your guests? With piss stains on your pants and guns in your hand? No wonder Caddell House is bleeding clients.”