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CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

SYDNEY

T he lemon tart and coffee Blake bought are exactly what I needed, but the pleasurable feelings they induced don’t last long. Vanishing completely as we leave the main roads behind and join a small country lane.

I try to imagine Pa growing up here, but even that thought is marred with thoughts of what awaits us at JC’s house.

“Do his parents still live here?” I ask, trying to get either of them to give me some information, which has been in short supply.

“No, his parents sold up and moved away after his apparent death,” Roman says, and I note a I don’t want to talk about this to his tone.

“Okay, so who lives here now?” The instant the question leaves my mouth, I know the answer.

Blake catches my gaze in the rearview mirror. “A family…with a teenage daughter.”

“No!” I exclaim, shifting forwards, poking my head between the seats to look at Roman. “Please tell me they aren’t dead or hurt,” I plead, but his momentary silence is answer enough.

“We don’t know for sure,” he finally says.

I flop back against the seat, looking out the window and scanning the beautiful dusk painted landscape. How can we live in such a bewitching world filled with monstrous people? How can God have created this only to allow it to be corrupted by suck wickedness?

My thoughts are halted when Blake turns the headlights off, plunging us into darkness. We turn down a small dirt track surrounded on both sides by barren fields, which in the summer I imagine are filled with crops.

There’s a passing place about halfway down, and Blake pulls over, cutting the engine.

“Why are we stopping?” I ask, and even I know it’s a ridiculous question.

With the sun almost set, any chance at scoping the place out, like the guys originally planned, is gone, and we have to go in almost blind.

Blake and Roman climb from the car, and I follow. My breath is trapped in my lungs at the chilly air. Reaching back inside the car, I grab my jumper and throw it on. As I go to close the door, a hand grips it, stopping me. Roman raises a finger to his lips, then gently pushes the door until it clicks closed.

I walk a couple of paces forward, squinting at the large silhouette of the house up ahead, as Roman and Blake grab things from the boot. There are no lights on in the main house, but there is a dim flicker in one of the outbuildings to the right.

The soft crunch of footsteps behind me has me swivelling my head to see Roman and Blake approaching.

“You know the drill,” Roman whispers, holding out a vest for me to put on.

I quickly put it on. If nothing else, it will keep me warm.

“You ever used a gun, Syd,” Blake says close to my ear.

My head snaps back and I pin him with a what do you think glare. “And I don’t want one either,” I whisper firmly.

They exchange looks, both sighing in resignation.

“I’ll stay close, and I won’t go off on my own. I’m not stupid.”

Roman moves in front of me, and Blake steps in behind me. When Roman glances over his shoulder, we move forward. Every sound is heightened as we make our way down the dirt road; the crunch of a stone, snap of a twig, even our breath betrays us.

“There’s a light on in the building to the right,” I whisper as we reach a fork in the road.

“Son of a bitch is leading us right where he wants us,” Roman grits out and takes the right turn.

The cold I felt earlier is suddenly replaced with heat as we draw closer to what I can now see is a large barn. Nervous energy swims through me, and my arms and legs tremble. My mouth goes dry, and I swallow, swirling my tongue around my mouth and lips, trying to wet them, but it does absolutely nothing.

When we near the barn door, Roman holds his hand up, and we stop. He takes another couple of steps forward, turning his head to listen at the door.

Stepping back, he shakes his head. I don’t know what that means, but before any of us do or say anything, there’s a piercing scream from inside the barn.

“Why don’t you join us, Sydney and Roman and Blake,” JC calls out. “We wouldn’t want sweet little Hannah here to pass out and miss all the fun before we’ve even started, would we?”

I fight the need to barge in there and save that poor girl, to take her place.

“Daddy’s here too, Sydney. Or should I call you Summer? I actually prefer the name Summer. Anyway, don’t you want to see your precious father, the almighty and righteous Reverend Amos Kincaid.” The venom in his words is unmistakable. And to prove he isn’t lying, another cry shatters the silent night.

This time I can’t help the shout that flies from me. “Pa! Pa, are you okay?”

Roman spins, covering my mouth with his hand. “Shhh, I know. I know,” he whispers angrily.

My wide eyes bore into his, apologetic and pleadingly. His soften in understanding, but when the barn doors swing open a second later, his hand vanishes and he turns, aiming his gun at the man standing just inside the barn.

He’s not alone. Pa is there, his face even more battered and bruised, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. JC is holding a knife to his neck, and I can just make out a small trickle of blood running down his torso.

I whimper, my legs turning to jelly beneath me, and I almost tumble to the ground. Blake’s arm circles my waist, holding me up with one arm while the other is pointed at JC.

“Now, now, gentlemen, put those away. Better yet, toss them over here. Such hostility, and I’ve no idea why.”

“The fuck you don’t!” Roman shouts, and I can feel the anger rolling off him.

“Ooh, I’m going to enjoy watering down that fire, Roman Stone.” JC winks as a smirk grows wide on his face. “Toss the fucking guns before I get ahead of myself and stab this cunt in the neck.” And to show he means it, he pierces Pa’s neck again, causing him to grimace.

Roman and Blake both toss their weapons aside as Blake whispers to me, “It’ll be okay. We’ve got you.”

“Wonderful,” JC exclaims gleefully, and if he wasn’t holding a knife to Pa’s throat, he’d be clapping. “Now, hands up in the air, let me see those fingers wriggling.”

Blake slowly removes his arm from around my waist, raising both hands above his head, as Roman and I do the same. “Shall we,” he says, moving to the side in invitation.

Roman walks forward as we follow, keeping me between the two of them. But the further in we go, the closer JC gets, like he’s walking parallel to us. I get my first proper look at the man responsible for so much death and pain and misery. He’s wearing a pair of tatty jeans with rips in the knees, a dirty white T-shirt and no shoes. Around the same height as Pa, but despite them being the same age, JC looks older, more weathered.

I feel it. The shift in the air, a moment of anticipation, then like a viper, JC jerks forward, snatching hold of my vest and tugging me to him as he releases Pa, shoving him in the direction of Roman and Blake, who catch him.

I scream and Roman roars, holding himself back as Blake steadies Pa on his feet.

Cold metal meets my skin as JC holds the knife to my neck, mirroring his hold on Pa moments ago. I quiet instantly, my eyes meeting Pa’s as tears roll down his bloodied face.

“This is much better,” JC drawls as he runs his free hand over my body. “Hannah was lovely, but she doesn’t have your rack, Summer,” he says, grabbing at my breast, and I see Roman and Blake’s eyes blaze with fury. “Now we are all here and everyone is almost where they’re meant to be, just the little matter of tying you up first, I’m sure you understand, the fun can begin,” he declares and drags me over to a metal framed bed beside an identical one where Hannah lies, arms and ankles tied to the frame, completely naked. Her body is covered in bruises and bite marks and blood smears her inner thighs.

He calls Roman and Blake, and Pa over, and they don’t refuse knowing it’ll be me who suffers if they do. He orders Roman to chain Pa and Blake up to a bar that runs the length of the barn, which looks recently installed, and once they are secured, he has me do the same to Roman, keeping the knife to my throat the whole time. But I shut it out and only focus on Roman.

As I slide the last cuff around Roman’s wrist and click it shut, a tear rolls down my cheek, and I whisper, “I’m sorry.”

He shakes his head and opens his mouth to say something, but JC pulls me away. Tossing me down on the bed, he drops over me, the knife in his left hand beside my head.

“I wonder…does Daddy know you fucked them both? Ooh, who was first? Maybe we need to give him a visual so he can see what a dirty fucking whore you really are.”

His words hit me where he wanted, only they hit different and not as he expected.

“Fuck. You!” I spit out, and ram my knee between his legs, but he moves at the last minute. As he laughs at my failed attempt to escape, I clench my hand into a fist and strike his ribcage. This time my hit is true, but it does no more than cause him to puff out a breath.

“Oh, Summer, Summer, Summer, this is not how this goes,” he says, his tone like ice spreading across my skin. My fists rain down on him, and I kick out, hoping to hit something, but when he cracks me across the face with a fist, my fight leaves me, heading spinning and black dots dance in my eyes.

“That’s it, have a little cat nap while I set everything up,” he whispers in my ear as shouts from Roman, Blake and Pa fill the barn.

I try to fight the pull of darkness, but I can’t, and a second later, it envelopes me.