Filed to story: The LORDS Series Free PDF by Shantel Tessier
I step further into the room, and Gavin’s eyes meet mine. “We did everything we could…” He reaches over and turns off the machine, bathing the room in a deafening silence.
The blood rushes in my ears like a freight train. My eyes are on Haidyn’s peaceful, but bloody face as Gavin pulls the white sheet up and over it, covering my dead brother from the world.
SIXTY
SAINT
I’m storming off the elevator down in the basement. I can hear voices behind me, but I ignore them. I’m on a mission.
My wife and brother were taken. And now one of them is dead. Someone has to pay for that. It’ll be the three pieces of shit who brought her back. Because those three make the most sense to me. If they’re innocent? Then it sucks to be them. Talk about wrong place wrong time.
“Saint?” I’m grabbed and yanked back.
I spin around and come face-to-face with Tyson. I fist my hand, and he steps back, placing his out wide while Sin and Ryat stand on either side of him. “I’m sorry about Haidyn,” he says softly.
I block him out. I refuse to believe that my brother is upstairs, under a sheet as if he never existed. The sour taste in my mouth makes me want to vomit. But I swallow it down. “Where did you put them?” I demand. “Where are the three guys you all brought in?”
“We separated them.” Ryat is the one who answers. “Kashton didn’t want them anywhere near one another because they would be able to talk.”
I give them my back. “And Luke?” I snap.
“Same place he’s been,” Sin responds.
Making my way down the hallway, I shove the plastic dividers out of the way and storm through the pits. Then hit the hallway with the cells on either side. I dig the key out of my pocket and open Luke’s cell.
He flinches at the loud squeak of the door being yanked open. “Get the fuck up,” I bark, rushing over to him. His dead wife still lies on his floor, well what’s left of her. The skeleton of her body is all that remains. It takes two to three hours for a body to burn. She’s been lying there for four days now.
“N-o,” he says hoarsely, pushing his body into the back corner.
I step on part of Whitney’s body, feeling the bones crush under my weight stomping over to him. I grab his hair and yank him to his knees. “Who the fuck killed Haidyn?” I scream in his tear-streaked face.
He cries harder. His frail and bony body trembles.
I yank him over to Whitney and place my boot out in front of his bare feet, tripping him. He falls to his knees next to what’s left of her, and I shove his face into the ashes sprawled out on the floor. He coughs and sputters as I rub his face in what was once his wife.
Yanking his head back, he screams, his hands coming up to his face and wiping her off while crying. “Who the fuck did this?” I shout, my hand tightening in his hair. I’m shaking as much as he is, but for different reasons.
“I-“
It feels like a hammer hits me in the face, knocking us both back into the far wall. The sound of a blaring alarm begins to go off and the floodlights come on throughout the basement. I cough, waving my hand in front of my face to clear the dust and probably Whitney’s ashes that now swirl around the small room. “What the fuck?” I bark out, grabbing ahold of Luke that tries to get up beside me.
“A bomb.” I hear Tyson cough, and I look up to see him and the others out in the hall through the wall that’s been knocked down. All three of them getting to their knees, brushing debris off of themselves.
“Who the fuck set off a bomb?” I ask, shaking my head and trying to get the ringing to stop. Maybe it’s the blaring of the alarm. Either way, it’s given me a headache. Or it could be the fact that I was just slammed into a concrete wall.
Luke begins to laugh, and I shove him to his back, straddling his naked chest. I wrap my hand around his throat, lowering my face to his. It’s still covered in Whitney’s ashes. “Who the fuck set off a bomb in here?”
His eyes grow hard, and he stiffens underneath me. “You did exactly what they wanted.”
“Who?” I shout. What the fuck is he talking about? He could be lying. Or he could believe every word he says-men have been known to go delirious while caged.
“Them.” He gives me a wicked smile, and I see the dirt and ash in his gums and on his tongue. He has no teeth. Tyson ripped them out one by one. “You brought them into Carnage. Just like they wanted you to.”
“The guys who delivered Ashtyn.” Ryat is the one who speaks.
I look up at him. “Where did you put them?” The alarm stops, but the ringing in my ears continues.
“We spread them out…I put my guy down the hall.” Sin states, pointing down the now rubble-filled hallway.
“How the fuck did they plant bombs?” I wonder. “Didn’t you guys pat them down?” Jesus Christ, who the fuck are these men?
All three of them nod. “We did.” Sin dusts off his jeans.
“We stripped them down to nothing,” Tyson adds.
I frown and look down at Luke. “You’re lying.” Stripping those who come into Carnage has been something our fathers taught us to do. It serves a purpose. Gives them no defense. There’s something very vulnerable about a man being stripped by another, hosed off and thrown into a cage like an animal. It’s humiliating.
“It was a suicide mission,” Luke speaks.
“Are you saying that they willingly swallowed bombs?” I question with a snort.
He gives a rough laugh, and I narrow my eyes on him.
“Are they shoved up their asses or something?” Sin asks, making Ryat laugh.
Luke doesn’t find it as funny.
“They each have bombs?” I look at him. They brought three men in, that means two more are still to go off. Are they on timers? Triggers? How long until the next goes off?
“Four of them have bombs.” His wicked laughter fills the room.
“But there were only three men.” Tyson frowns.
“Who is the fourth?” I yank Luke’s head off the floor only to knock it back into the concrete. “Who the fuck has the fourth bomb?”
His laughter grows, and I’ve had enough of his shit. “Sin, there’s a box of gloves right by the door. Hand me two.”
“What?” Luke’s laughter stops, and he starts to thrash under me to get away. “What are you going to do?” he demands.
Sin enters with a pair of gloves, and I get up off Luke to turn him over. “Put your knee into his back. Hold him still.”
Sin does as I say, placing his weight onto Luke’s back, making him cry out, and I yank his arms behind his back, holding his forearms parallel, and I nod at Sin to take them. He pins them down for me.
“What the fuck?” Luke cries.
“He’s about to be elbow deep in your ass, man,” Sin informs him.
“It’s not me!” he shouts, squirming. “I swear to God-“
“There is no God.” I interrupt him. “Just you and me. Now be a good boy, spread your legs, and relax.” I place my legs between his, shoving them apart and forcing his ass up in the air.
“Saint?” I look up as Ryat tosses me the tube of lube sitting next to the gloves. Honestly, I was going to use spit, but this will help speed up the process.
“You can’t do this!” Luke screams, thrashing on the floor. “You can’t do this to me, you motherfucker!”
“You kidnapped, raped, and murdered innocent women with barbed wire. I’d say an arm up your ass is getting off easy,” Ryat tells him.