“Good. You know your place.” His words are slurred, but I still understand every misfired shot. “Is that why you’re here? To save your family of sinners? Hmm?” He flinches at the pain that sound causes him, and I keep my face neutral even though I want more than anything to smirk.
Justice’s boots echo on the simple wood floors, and Nathaniel slowly turns toward the sound. “I remember you.” His eyes dart to mine before finding Justice once again. “Justice right? I remember watching Elder Goodson with you. The way he’d use your body. The way you would stiffen, in more ways than one,” Nathaniel sings. I don’t miss the way tension roils through Justice’s body. “Admit it, to yourself and to God, you liked his touch, you little fag-”
Nathaniel’s scream echoes off the walls as my blade lodges deep in his thigh. Damian’s eyes meet mine, from his position behind Nathaniel, his own blade poised to slit Nathaniel’s throat.
I dip my chin, letting him know I’ve got this, and he has Justice.
“You fucking whore! You used up fucking cunt! You’ll pay for this on your back. Used like the fucking slut you are until you learn your lesson!”
I tip my head to the side, waiting for Nathaniel’s rant to cease. “And what is my lesson?” The grit in my voice has him blinking, once, twice, mouth hanging open.
“What is your lesson?What is your lesson?That you belong tome. Every fucking inch of your filthy, whore body belongs to me. Every move you make. Every. Fucking. Thought in that pretty little head will belong tome.” He straightens slightly, and there, right there I see a glimpse of what the public sees, as he pulls himself together piece by piece until he’s nothing more than an unassuming monster, but a monster none the less. “You have become corrupted out there. By your mother,” He spits thatword. “by the world, by the MC. Filling that pretty little head up with dreams you can never have because you, my child, are nothing but a little lamb for the slaughter. But me? I’m your shepherd. Your saviour. Pain purifies and you’ll thank me once the sin is beaten out of you.”
I drop my gaze, staring at my hands resting on the tops of my thighs. My legs tucked underneath me, in the perfect, submissive pose. If only he knew.
Chapter Twenty
Chef
Every instinct inside me screams to get to Sage. To rip Nathaniel Mercy apart with my bare hands, but right now all I’m capable of is leaning against the warm wood of the church door as I watch the scene unfold.
Sage kneels before Nathaniel, head cast down, hands folded in her lap calm as death itself. The realization of what I’m watching hits me like a fucking bullet to the gut. Nathaniel thinks he’s the predator in this room. He has no fucking idea he’s the hunted.
“The shepherd guides his flock, Sage. Even when the lamb kicks and bites, fights against the hand trying to feed it,” Nathaniel smiles through blood. “A good shepherd corrects.”
Sage doesn’t say a word. She sits silently, drawing him in. All the while Damian stalks back and forth, like a caged tiger, between Justice and Nathaniel Mercy.
“She’s going to tear him apart. If she doesn’t, Damian will,” Loyal says softly as she wraps her warm fingers around mine.
“That she is,” I agree, squeezing her hand before letting it go. There is only one hand I want in mine, and it’s my wife’s.
“- For whom the lord loveth, he correcteth,-” Nathaniel’s voice is stronger now, more forceful.
His body may look beaten to shit, but words, words are where his power lies.
“And how will he correct me?” Sage asks sarcastically, “With fists? With belts? With whips and chains?”
“With whatever he deems necessary to cleanse your mind and body of sin.”
Sage’s face tips up, her dark tresses sliding back along her shoulders until all I can see is her pale face illuminated in the dim light of the church.
“Hard pass.”
She gets up with shocking speed, her foot kicking out landing with a sickening crunch on the side of Nathaniel’s knee, causing him to buckle. His pained cry fills the church, the harmony of it resonating through the building. Sage stands over his writhing body.
“I will never submit. Just like my husband.” Her gaze meets mine and I can feel the adrenaline leaching out of me.
“Ooohh girl!” Joe’s voice carries as she punches the air. “Boom, mother fucker!” She points toward Nathaniel on the floor as she struts out of church.
Lovely’s elbow nudges me, “Come on, let’s get you in the car. I can’t imagine that lot will be too far behind.”
I nod, letting her lead me away from the Church, Justice dragging out another body while Damien throws Nathaniel’s limp body over his shoulder. We stop abruptly at the bodies lying naked outside the church. Joe is squatting down beside one ofthem, taking off their socks and tossing them in a pile of clothes a little way behind her.
“Whatareyou doing?” Loyal asks, stopping just short of the SUV.
“Gotta get rid of all identifying evidence,” Joe says over her shoulder as she moves to the man Justice has not long dumped.
“How do you even know this stuff?” Loyal asks incredulously.
