“Thank fuck,” he laughs. “I’m done with this shit for the day.”
Cracking my knuckles, I grab a clean coat hanger, some leather gloves, and a blow torch off the tool rack.
This is where shit’s going to get smelly.
“Antibiotics?” I ask Andrew.
“There’s enough in him right now that he should be good,” he says.
Standing up straight, I use the blow torch to heat up the coat hanger until it’s glowing
“Hey, can someone hold the eyelids for me?” I ask as I glance down at the old man.
We put him back in a medically induced coma and he’s sleeping peacefully now.
“Got ‘em. Let me get a glove on,” Johnathan says.
The hissing then the quiet pop of each eyeball is a bit of a stomach turner. Haven’t done this in a long time and I wish I didn’t have to again.
I won’t be eating grapes anytime soon, that’s for fucking sure.
Doing the ears is only a matter of cramming the red-hot coat hanger in there far enough to reach the eardrum, then pushing in further to the inner ear.
Rotating the hanger around just enough to make sure it’s completely ruined, I smile.
Job well done.
Dropping the metal coat hanger in a bucket of cold water, I head over to the waiting guys.
Lucifer’s big smile for me makes me feel almost giddy inside. I did good and I didn’t have to do anything with severed fingers. I got the information, and I figured out the best place for us to send this asshole to.
“We’ll all meet up soon,” Simon says as he begins to put up his laptop.
“Sounds good,” Andrew says. “I’ll stay until Harrold gets here. Lucifer, you said he’s good with the transporting?”
“Yes, he’ll be taking Andrey to Portland,” Lucifer says. “Then a separate service will leave him in front of one of their restaurants.”
“Sounds good to me,” Andrew says with a nod of his head.
A thought occurs to me as I look at Andrew. “Hey, you guys remember that doctor at Garden City General? The one who got prison time for letting that child molester die?”
“Yes,” Simon says. “He was sentenced to 15 years to life, I believe.”
“He was a trauma surgeon,” Lucifer adds.
“Why not get him a pardon and a job?” I ask.
Again, everyone looks at me like I just did something strange.
All silent then smiles.
I must be on a roll today or something.
Right as I’m about to get into my BMW and head back to watching over Sophia, I hear the loud thuds of John’s feet stomping behind me.
Turning to face him, I lean back against my car. “What’s up?”
Johnathan raises an eyebrow at me. “Sophia’s dad’s funeral is in a couple days.”
“I know,” I say with a shrug of my shoulders.
“You gonna do something that gets me in trouble with the wife?” he asks me.
“Define the word something,” I say with a smirk.
Shaking his bushy head and beard at me, he says, “Beth is already going fucking crazy trying to help her. Just wondering what kind of interference I’m going to need to run for you.”
“You think I’d kidnap a girl from her dad’s funeral?” I ask.
He stares hard at me for a moment then says, “Yeah.”
He’s not wrong. That’s exactly my plan.
My thoughts are a little fucked up when it comes to this.
Am I crazy enough about this woman to take her from her own father’s funeral? Am I that sick and twisted?
Of course I am.
I’m absolutely going to take her.
I just need to figure out the timing.
3
Sophia
I’m not a stranger to death.
Ever since my mother was killed six years ago in a car accident, it’s something I’ve thought about often. Her passing was so quick, so out of the blue and sudden, the shock has lingered in the back of my brain.
Ever present.
Like a dark shadow stalking me, I carry around the awareness that I or anyone else I care about could go at any second.
Yet being aware of the danger doesn’t seem to offer any protection when it happens.
There was no protection from the shock and pain when my childhood friend Lindsey was murdered in cold blood in front of me.
There was no protection from the fear of it when I stood on the wrong end of a barrel.
And it hurts just as much now staring at my father’s flag-covered casket as it did when I looked upon my mother’s.
The pain is so sharp, so all-consuming, my mind and body have gone numb from it.
Above me, the sky is overcast, the threat of rain heavy in the air. At least a hundred people have gathered here in Saint Michael’s cemetery, most dressed in uniform, ready to pay their last respects.
My father is gone.
Gone to become ash and dust.
And now I’m all alone in this cursed world.
The only one in my family left standing.
Beth tightly squeezes my right hand while Amanda leans into my left side, her tears soaking my shoulder.