Page 25 of Hearts Etched in Glass (The Afton Adders #2)

I Got Mine, Black Keys

We find Baba approaching Mr. McKinley’s shaking form.

Her face is covered with black paint, long onyx robes and her hands are raised above her head.

One hand brandishes a knife in an unsettling fashion.

Mr. McKinley is crab walking backwards in the dirt, the gravel shifting beneath him.

Baba swings the blade, slicing the side of his upper arm.

His cries fill the night air as he wallows in pain.

She continues delivering small stabs and slices, until she spies us coming down the path.

She halts her onslaught and taunts him by continuing to walk in a predatory fashion.

Surrounding the forest line are Mr. McKinley’s rich friends and Ronald’s comrades.

They each are hanging from the trees, with sharp implements stabbed under their jaws, atop their skulls and impaling their torsos.

The bodies slightly sway in the cool night breeze.

Tilly wraps a noose around Ronald’s limp neck as Bobby and I hoist his mangled body onto the tree, like an ugly Christmas decoration.

There is a large gaping hole in his chest cavity, from Tilly shooting him point-blank.

The blood slowly drips from his abdomen and onto the ground.

Once Bobby and Kenneth help me secure his corpse, we turn to watch Baba tease and torture Mr. McKinley.

“Get back! Get back you witch!” He turns to run, the gravel path kicking up behind him, but he gets nowhere, knocking into my stiff body and stumbling into the dirt, onto his knees.

“There’s a witch! A witch! Run!” The are drugs clearly still in his system, as he grabs onto me for dear life to try and steady himself. He is slow to rise. His hands roam from the tops of my arms to clutch the lapels on my camouflage jacket. In slow motion he gazes up at me and gasps .

“No,” he says, then releases me, taking small steps back, his eyes wide with fright.

I crack my knuckles together.

“Hello, rich prick, or shall I call you coward?” My words drip from my lips like poison as I stare down the man who abused me.

An owl hoots in the distance giving Mr. McKinley a startle and he looks in that direction. Which is the same direction Ronald’s body is hanging. Mr. McKinley hollers and cries, his hand trembling to his mouth.

“My boy. Fucking hell.” His voice is high pitched in terror.

“Hurry up and take care of him. I want to clean up and get some sleep,” Kenneth mutters, as Bobby elbows Kenneth in the side.

I nod.

Grabbing Mr. McKinley, I kick his knee out from the side, making sure to hear a satisfying crack. He pleads, but I have no remorse. He made me feel like I was nothing.

He used me.

Tormented me.

Exploited my kink and made me feel less than human.

The recollection of how he manipulated and abused me, behind a covered mask, crawls to the surface of my being. The mishandling, the pain, and knowingly taking advantage of my ignorance makes bile rise to the back of my throat.

“Will you fellas help me treat him like the pig he is?” I look back at Kenneth and Bobby, as slow, slick, sinister smiles adorn their faces.

It takes a considerable amount of time, but the men assist me in tying Mr. McKinley onto a wooden branch and placing him over the fire, to roast him like the sow he is. Before we place him over the flames, like a rotisserie, I ram a wide branch up his ass, for good measure.

He screams, but it is short lived, as we watch Mr. McKinley pass out from the pain. His skin begins to bubble over the heat of the fire. Then the sound of an explosion erupts near the mansion.

The ground shakes for a few moments, as I clutch Tilly close to me.

“What the fuck was that?” Kenneth shouts.

Bobby begins cackling as he is changing his clothes, one leg caught in his pants. He jumps up and down, trying not to topple over. His head pops out from the tent as he exclaims, “Sorry, forgot to tell you I set a bomb to go off, thinking we would be long-gone from here, by now.”

Everyone shakes their heads. “Thanks for telling us, jack ass,” Kenneth retorts and takes a long drag of his cigarette.

We get ready to leave the confines of pompous aristocracy.

We’ve decided to leave the place to burn to the ground.

Kenneth was going to clean the area and bury the bodies, but instead sets it up like these pompous cunts ran into business with the wrong individuals.

“Who we pinning this on?” Bobby asks Kenneth while we walk back to the trucks. Kenneth has his hands in his pockets, kicking a stone, while a cigarette sits between his lips.

“Everett said the Italians.” Before I can ask about how this can tie together, I jump nearly the height of Bobby as a cold, grueling hand wraps around my wrist and an eerie voice shouts behind me, “Boo!” Bobby jumps alongside me, while Tilly’s beautiful laugh echoes in my ears.

“Fucking hell, woman, you’re gonna give us a heart attack,” Kenneth remarks then throws his cigarette on the ground. Baba just runs up behind him, smacking Kenneth on his stiff arse as her cackle fills the night sky.