Cunningham pisses himself. “No! I-I’ll give you whatever you want!”
“Give us back our fucking brothers, you fuck,” Carter growls. “Give me and Eddie back our memories without you using us. Give me and Eddie back pain-free days, where we didn’t almost get killed because you had our unit deployed to cover your fucking ass.”
I grimly smile. “Go to fucking hell you miserable old bastard.”
I show exactly the amount of mercy he showed us—
Not a single damned bit.
* * * *
We drag him into the hole we dug, but before we set his body on fire, Jace stops us. “Hold on.” He unzips his bunny suit, whips out his cock, and pisses right on Cunningham’s face, making sure to get plenty of it in his gaping mouth and sightless eyes.
Carter and I follow suit, and I don’t know if I start laughing first, or Carter does, but it feels damned good. Later, once his body’s well-consumed by flame, we break up the bones and remains with shovels and then bury him at the bottom of the hole.
We fill it partly in, create the fire pit, light a fire in it, and burn our bunny suits, making sure they’re completely consumed. An hour before dawn, we’re driving away in pleased silence.
When Jace and I finally return to our rental condo, we take a shower in silence and then, exhausted, fall into bed and crash into sleep.
Hopefully, I won’t have any new nightmares.
Even if I do?
Worth it.
Part IV:
Peace
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chapter Nineteen
Jace
Standing on the back porch with a steaming mug of coffee in my hand, I stare out at the bayou stretching beyond our spacious backyard. Just before dawn on what’s sure to be a beautiful late-spring morning here in the Florida panhandle, I listen to the last of the night sounds giving way to the day crew in the cypress woods surrounding the rest of our property.
At my feet, Eddie maintains his perfect bow, his forehead resting on the top of my right foot. It’s the position he assumed several minutes ago after preparing and bringing me my coffee as he does every morning. He thrives on routines like this.
Won’t deny I enjoy it, too.
He’s naked, so thank god I insisted on rescreening the wrap-around porch when we bought the place, or mosquitoes might have carried us both off by now.
I love staring at the pink scar on his back. It’s perfect and completely obliterates the old one that was there.
Not a hint of her remains on his body.
Only me.
We own fifteen acres, much of it wetlands, and it backs up against a nature preserve. A very stout wall and gate protect the head of our driveway, which sits at the end of the quiet gravel road we live on. There, I have IR cameras mounted at the gate intercom. Our closest neighbors are over a mile away, and the only people who ever come down our road to our driveway are the mailman, deliveries, the garbage pick-up for the dumpster we rent, and the occasional expected repair or maintenance workers to do something at the house.
The chances of someone sneaking up on us are few and far between. Not to mention, I put the property in the name of a landholding trust controlled by one of my aliases that my old handler didn’t know anything about.
Contingency plans are good.
Over the month we’ve lived here, while I can’t speak for Eddie’s peace of mind, I know I’ve never felt more contented in my entire life than I do now. Eddie hasn’t had a nightmare in weeks, so I guess that’s good, right?
