Hawkeye was silent for a moment as he considered it.really thought about it.
“I’d like to put the fuckwad who told her they were married and started abusing her when she was a child into the ground.I’d love nothing more than to put her father beside him for giving her to him.But that would be too quick—they would go too easy and not suffer nearly long enough.”He fell silent for a moment as he tried to figure out how best to say this.“As much as I would love to kill both of them, I think putting them in prison would be a more appropriate punishment.”
“In prison there’s always a chance they’ll get released, and that’s if they’re convicted to begin with.”
Hawkeye didn’t know if his president was being serious or playing devil’s advocate.It didn’t matter.
“I can make sure they have the evidence to convict them.And there’s always the option that if they let them go, then we can go with the dirt nap option.As for the being let out eventually,” Hawkeye couldn’t help but smirk, “I have no intentions of that ever happening.”
Raven lifted one brow in question.
“If it ever looks like they’ll be released, I just reach out to some contacts and make sure they’re aware of it.Same way I’ll make sure those same contacts know what they’ve done.”
“So you’re planning to make sure they have a prison stay equally as pleasant as her stay in Jericho?”
“Oh, no.Delilah was raised to believe it was normal.That that fuckwad raping her every night was the way it was supposed to be.But even with that, she’s still mostly innocent.Now, I haven’t asked too many questions—I don’t want to push her farther than she’s comfortable—but from what she’s said, that fuckwad never touched her in a way that couldn’t get her pregnant.At least sexually.He did beat her.Him and her father both did.They will have a far less pleasant stay than she did in Jericho.”His grin held all the malice he felt toward the two men, or more accurately, all the men in Jericho who abused those weaker than them.
“So you think we might not have to go all the way back down to Jericho to take care of them?”
“I don’t think so.We might need to go back and do a little clean up on the Crows, but I’ll see what I can do from here.I don’t want to be back in their territory too soon.Someone might put two and two together and realize we’re responsible for their end.”
Raven nodded but didn’t reply.Hawkeye pulled out his phone and texted Pike.With what they were working on, his brother might be awake, or he might be passed out from working all night long.You could never tell.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Idon’t know if itwill work for you, but what I would do is list all the men ...you called them bishops, right?”Taylynn said, laying the notebook on the table between them.“Then we can list spouses and children next to them, then add them up.I think it might be the easiest way to make sure you don’t miss people.”
Delilah stared at her a moment, considering, then she nodded.“You want me to write it all down or you want to?”
“I can write, unless you need something to do with your hands while you think?”
“No, I don’t think that would help.”Delilah tugged her chair closer to the desk so she could see the notebook, too.
They spent the next half an hour working on the list.By the time Delilah decided they had it as complete as it would get, including adding marks next to each woman who had a baby under two years old, because Taylynn thought that information would be helpful, Another woman and man had poked their heads in.Taylynn had introduced them and Andy had joined them.Her man, Dagger, had gone to join Hawkeye and Raven in the next room.
With the list finished and the numbers all added, there were seventy-six women and almost three hundred children.Taylynn tore the pages off the pad, folded them in half and wrote something on the outside.
