“What’s up?” Noah asks, as he and Asa shut and lock the door behind them.
I explain everything that went down at the precinct.
“So that’s it. He can roll over for a life conviction for his confession?” Asa asks, as appalled as I am.
“Yeah.”
Noah is watching me close, too close. “What’s this private meeting really about?”
I look to my two closest friends and answer Noah. “Hypothetically speaking. If you had got to Carrie in Gig the night your dad attacked her, would you have turned him in, or killed him if given the chance?”
“What the fuck, Sully?” Asa gasps, knowing damn well why I ask. Noah’s eyes haven’t left mine.
“You know what I would do,” His arms are folded, and he is not afraid to admit he would kill his own father for the vile things he did to his sister, let alone himself. “I guess the only real question is, if you were given the chance to let the law handle Levi Tenpenner or yourself, what would you choose?”
I stand as he did, my eyes on him, just as his were on me. “You already know,” I admit.
“No fucking way, Sul!” Asa yells and pushes me. “Killing him would not bring her back. It would ruin your life, our lives, because everything we built would be tainted.”
“I figure if he can get a plea deal for killing a minimum of four children and sexually assaulting two others, then I can get a sympathetic judge and…” I pause and look to Noah. “The best attorneys TAT money can buy…”
I leave it at that knowing the best defense is money, even I don’t have the money. The members of TAT do, and every one of them would take up for my me and my reasons. “It’s what? Temporary insanity? Manslaughter? Even if I get twenty years? I survived ten in hell, I can survive twenty in peace.”
“Look,” Noah says, his voice uncertain. “Hypothetically speaking is one thing. Actually, planning it, is premeditated murder, Sully.”
I know he is right, I do. “I can’t live with this shit, Noah.”
“Yeah, dude, you can. It sucks and it isn’t fair, but you live a fucking hell of a life for that little girl. You live for her and waste no time on the trash in prison,” Asa says and grips my shoulder.
“Asa is right, Sully. Besides, there are ways to get word to a prison that a fucking child predator is there. I did with Cody, and I know damn well he is feeling my wrath daily and that is more comforting than death.”
“Yeah… I know. I am just not rational,” I admit, but my mind is still on vengeance as I think of ways to get the word into a prison. “Hypothetically speaking… How would I get word to a prison?”
Noah laughs, as does Asa. “Dude, we are tattoo artists. Former inmates are like a third of our business.”
It eases some of the anger and I am no longer plotting his death. The idea of daily torture is better than death.
Anyone can judge me for wanting this prick to suffer in ways that would make a serial killer shiver, but walk in my shoes a minute, just a minute… I guarantee you couldn’t take the pain.
