Scripture slipped from their lips. Matthew, Revelation, Thessalonians…

They were conversing with the Lord, too lost in the rapture of Glossolalia to hear my cries.

The flames grew higher and any hope of me being saved from this horrid death departed.

I closed my eyes and prayed it would be quick.

Chapter Twenty

Ky

“Ready?”

Smiler turned to AK and began unscrewing the fuse box to break the electric current running through the fence.

The rest of us—Me, Styx, Flame, Cowboy, and Hush—sat back waiting, but I was fuckin’ desperate to get inside.

AK and Smiler hadn’t been fuckin’ lying; this place was a damn military stronghold. Walls, fences, and lookouts stationed everywhere. So far, two guards had been taken down, one by Styx and one by me. The fuckers hadn’t even heard us coming, making it just perfect to surprise their stupid asses, slugging a bullet right between the eyes, the suppressors on our Uzis not making a damn sound.

“In!” Smiler whispered, throwing the door of the fuse box on the ground. Taking his Uzi, he shot the fuckin’ thing to pieces.

Taking the butt of his gun, AK tested the fence—nothing.

Hush stepped forward with the wire cutters, ripping enough of the huge fence to allow us through.

One by one we passed through the row of fences into a fuck-off great field. Sticking to the line of trees, AK guided us into the woods.

“What now?” Cowboy asked.

“We head north,” Smiler answered. “The blueprints showed most of the buildings in that direction.”

“You lead. We’ll follow,” Styx signed, and we moved out.

Sticking to the cover of the dark woods, we’d traveled a couple of miles when the sound of voices caught my attention.

Freezing, I held up my hand, the brothers stopping dead in their tracks. I listened harder as all eyes fell on me. “You hear that shit?” I hushed out.

AK frowned. “There’s nothing out here. Fields and shit.”

The voices got louder, and stepping back, following the direction of the sounds, I saw what looked like flames not too far in the distance.

“Looks like a fire,” I said, and the brothers gathered to look. “Why the fuck would there be a fire all the way out here?”

AK turned to Smiler. “We need to check this shit out. The blueprints could’a been wrong.”

But then a scream so loud cut through the strange low murmurs, a scream that sent ice through my veins. My chest grew tight, and when I heard it again, I set off running, ignoring my brothers behind me. That voice… that fuckin’ voice…

When it sounded again, I had no doubt who it fuckin’ belonged to.

LILAH!

Pushing my legs as fast as they could go, I aimed for the flames, that creepy deep murmuring becoming clearer. It didn’t take me long to realize it was that fuckin’ strange-ass Bible talk shit that Lilah did.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I glanced round to see Styx and Flame on my trail. Flame’s face was lit with excitement, Styx’s with concern.

Raising my Uzi at Lilah’s screams, I finally broke through the trees and froze.

Two men were flat on the ground, rolling around and babbling a language no fucker could understand… in front of a fire… a stake… a fuckin’ stake with a naked Lilah… screaming… in pain.

“Lilah!” I shouted, tearing forward, hearing Flame’s angry roar and curses stringing from my brothers’ mouths.

The men on the floor didn’t even concern me. Lilah, all I could fuckin’ see was Lilah, flames licking up a pile of wood, almost at her feet.

Looking around, I saw Cowboy and Hush fuckin’ paling at the sight. “Cowboy, Hush! You’re with me!”

Both brothers followed me toward the pyre. Lilah’s eyes were shut, a damn crucifix burned into her naked torso. She was beat, bloodied. I scanned down her body as Hush and Cowboy ran behind the stake and, one on either side, began slicing off the rope around her wrists and feet.

Knowing Cowboy and Hush had the ropes, I started kicking at the wood around her feet. AK and Smiler joined me until a path had cleared enough for me to get through to my woman.

“Lilah!” I called as I approached, but her head was lolling from side to side. Fuck, she wasn’t with it.

“Ky, brother,” Hush called. “Her back’s been lashed to all hell, real fucked-up Jesus crucifixion shit.”

I was visibly shaking with rage, and when Hush and Cowboy signaled the ropes were free, I lifted a limp Lilah from the stake, her blue eyes opening. “Ky? My Ky… you are here… but you do not really love me. It was all a falsehood… I am so sorry… sorr—”

Lilah’s eyes suddenly rolled back and she lost consciousness. “Lilah! Lilah!” I called out, confused as fuck, but she wouldn’t wake up.

Running out of the path of flames, I bent down, checking her over. There was blood everywhere. Burns, scars, bruises, lashes, and—

No… fuckin’ NO!

Blood staining her pussy… fuckin’ cum streaming out of her cunt.

They’d raped her… They motherfucking raped her!

Fists clenched, I laid Lilah on the grass, a fuckin’ red mist flooding my eyes. Ripping off my cut, I laid it over her body and turned to face the bastards spewing that psycho shit.

Styx held some old fucker in his arms, the bastard almost shitting himself as he stared at us. But Flame, Flame was holding his blade to a man’s throat, his pig-sized brown eyes watching me with my bitch, my bitch that he’d tried to motherfucking burn.