Zane, Nico and I exchange confused glances, but we don’t get to exchange any words before six men rush into the house. Three from the direction of the front door and three through the back door. The look of pure joy alights on Gael’s face as he sees and recognizes the men. One of them is Kate’s father and that’s pure murder in his eyes.
“You see? I am not abandoned by my flock,” Gael says pompously. “The people of my town have come to rescue me from your evil intentions.”
“Not exactly, you dirty pervert,” Clyde Cole says with such hate I feel it deep in my chest.
Gael just blinks at him like he can’t make sense of what he just heard him say.
Clyde looks at me, that hate still strong in his eyes. “My daughter told me everything. I know you have a score to settle with this man, but he’s mine. No one hurts my child and gets away with it. No one.”
I don’t think he’ll take it well if I insist I must be the one to do away with the priest. But despite all my noble intentions of bringing him to justice and seeing him rot in jail for what he had done, a big part of me wants to be the one to deal the killing blow.
“He’s all yours,” I say anyway. “Your pain is fresh. Mine is old. I just want to be sure there is no chance that he will ever hurt another little girl ever again.”
“You can be sure of that,” Clyde says firmly.
The five men with him all have identical looks of hate on their faces. And that hate is all for Gael.
“What is this? What are you going to do to me?” Gael asks in a stuttering voice.
“You will die tonight,” I say, my voice colder than I’ve ever heard it. “It is the only way to stop you. And it is what you deserve. You killed a part of me, the best part of me, all those years ago. Just as you killed the best part of many other little girls.”
He tries to run again, but Clyde grabs him this time and holds him tight.
“You won’t get away with this,” Gael yells at me as I walk up to him. “You’ll be caught. I’m a priest of the Catholic Church. I’m untouchable. They’ll catch you.”
I shake my head. “No. No one will miss you.”
“Best to make it look like an accident,” Nico says to Clyde. “Just a suggestion.”
Clyde kicks Gael in the knee. The priest falls to the floor with a scream.
“We will handle this from here,” Clyde says. “The Sheriff’s Deputy is here with. He has a daughter too. And as you said, no one will miss this priest. And no one will find him.”
“You should go now, if you want to stay clear of what is about to happen,” says another man, who I assume is the Sheriff’s Deputy.
I look at him and nod. “Yes, I think that would be best.”
I would love to stay and watch them beat and kick Gael to death, which I think is what’s coming next. A part of me even wants to participate. But Nico and Zane do not need to be a part of that.
“You’ll burn in hell for this,” Gael hisses at me once he knows there’s no hope left.
“I’ll see you there then,” I say and motion to Zane and Nico to follow me out of the house.
The sound of kicks, screams, punches, and grunts follow us out into the darkness.
“We could stay,” Nico says. “If you want.”
I look back at the bleeding mess that is Gael now. The men are still beating him, but he’s unconscious now. Possibly already dead. When the time came, he just rolled over like the coward he’s always been.
“I made my peace here,” I say and mean it with all my heart.
“He had it coming,” Zane says. “This was the only way to stop him.”
“I know,” I say, still looking back at Gael. “I know it was.”
“We should get the hell out of here while the going’s good,” Zane says and heads into the darkness beyond the priest’s garden.
Nico moves to follow, but I take his hand to stop him.
