“Next time you have a young lady in your presence, you’re going to think twice about drugging her and trying to take advantage of her. You need to learn how to have respect for thefairersex.”
“Fuck you,” he yelled in my face; I started to punch the shit out of him, but Abelstoppedme.
“Not here, remember the plan. We need to stick to it. Now go light a match. I gotthisguy.”
Abel and I ran up to his truck. I grabbed gas cans out of the back before Abel drove into the backyard to getourguy.
Abel called over to me before climbing into the front seat. “Let’s make this quick. We don’t know how long it is going to take for the rest of the Sinners to realize their guys aren’tcheckingin.”
“Gotit.”
Pouring the gas on the porch and through the small cabin as fast as I could, I felt liberation take hold of me. I knew that being an outlaw was looked at as being wrong, but teaching theses rapists and scumbags a real lesson did more than a slap on the wrist and some jail would have ever done for them. I knew deep down that what we were doing was the right thing. Throwing the final can down into the cellar, I flicked open my Zippo and took a deep breath. Abel was already up on the road waiting for me. It felt so fucking amazing to throw that lighter into the frame shack and watch it light withinseconds.
With blazing flames getting farther and farther away, Abel and I drove to the house where we’d found Raine the night before. It was roped off as a crime scene already, but Jesse had taken care of the cops to make sure none of them would be anywhere near there by the time wepulledup.
I grabbed the guy from the bed of the truck, dragging him behind me up the front steps of the porch. “Remember this place you fucking piece of monkey shit?” I started kicking him in the stomach, stomping down on his jaw once with my boot. He cried his muffled screams through the gag Abel had putonhim.
Abel walked up after shoving his phone in his pocket. “Jesse and Red will be here any minute.” He handed me a shovel. “Take your time with him, make sure hesuffers.”
“But don’t you want to?” I reluctantly took the wood handle intomyhand.
“Defend your girl, Ryder. I’m just so fucking proud of you and thankful that my daughter found someone that loves her as much as I love Crickett. I would do anything for my girls and now I know you feel thesameway.”
It was the most fucked up moment for us to be bonding over, but in that moment, I knew Abel finally completely accepted me into his family and the role I was going to be playing inRaineslife.
I started smacking and stabbing the guy with the shovel, making sure to wait a few seconds in between blows to keep it going longer. It was sick and twisted and completely vindictive, but my rage started to cool and my heart slowly started to mend. Vengeance was sweeter than I hadexpected.
I heard Jesse and Red’s motorcycles pull up. I kicked the guy one last time before trotting down the front steps tomeetthem.
“Is it ready?” Abel asked as Red pulled a box out of hissaddlebag.
He nodded. “Give me two minutes and this baby will be ready to light up the sky like the FourthofJuly.”
Red made his way inside while Abel and I carried the guy into the living room of the house. Even though Jesse was a hard as nails outlaw, he didn’t want to go into the home where his niece had been killed by his own men; it was a little too fucked up for any of us to process at thatmoment.
We made our way a safe distance away from the house. Abel held the detonator in his hand. After a deep breath, I slapped him on the shoulder. “Let thatmotherfuckerburn.”
Under his breath, Abel counted to three and then we watched the house erupt into a blazing glory of victory over ourenemy.
“Nice work, kid.” Red hopped onto his bike. “See y’all back atthebar?”
Abel and I shook our heads inunison.
“I think we need to head to the hospital.” Abel glanced over to me. “Youready?”
I let out a long breath. “Yeah, let’s go tell our women the good news. They’ll be able to rest easytonight.”
Epilogue
Ryder
It tooka couple of months for everything to really start to get back to normal. I ended up working at the bar more often and Abel found a couple of decent mechanics to take over some of the burden aroundtheshop.
I was in the back of the bar doing inventory when Abel came into the office, his lips bright blue from the Fun Dip he was licking off the candystick.
“I don’t know how you and Raine love those thingssomuch.”
Abel just laughed. “It’s the simple things in life, Ryder. Never forget to enjoy those littlepleasures.”
