Smoke Bomb by Abbi Glines
Thirty-One
Huck
It smelled like mothballs and cheap floral perfume as I stood over Tabitha Bennett as she slept in her king-size bed alone. I wondered if she had realized Roy was missing yet or if they spoke often enough for her to be concerned. Didn’t matter either way.
Hitting women wasn’t something I did. My dad always told me that even if a female drove you fucking crazy, to be easy and just set them free. Tabitha wasn’t a woman. She was a monster. One that had haunted Trinity for too damn long.
I slapped her face, then shoved the gag in her mouth, enjoying the wide-eyed look as she woke up. Her muffled scream made me laugh. Grabbing her arm, I yanked her up, then shoved her face-first into the pillow in order to tie her wrists together. I made sure to do it tight enough that the blood flow was cut off. She kicked and bucked, screaming into the damn gag.
When I had her restrained, I grabbed her arm and jerked her up until she was standing.
“Walk with me, Tabitha. I have a story to tell you,” I said as I pushed her forward toward the hallway.
Gage was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Gage, this is Tabitha. Tabitha, this is Gage. And you remember me, right? We met at my brother’s funeral.”
Gage smirked, and she started twisted and jerking against me as if she was going to get free.
“Keep it up, and I’ll let Gage slap you across the face.”
She stilled and glared at me.
“Now, like I was saying, I’ve got a little story for you. We were killing some traitorous bastards, and Gage put a gun to a woman’s head, but I stopped him because I recognized the ass. You see, Trinity has a world-class ass. If I could write a song, I’d write one about it. I didn’t want my dead brother’s fiancée killed, so we took her with us. Joke was on me though because I got addicted to her pussy. Sweetest fucking cunt I’ve ever had, and her tits, goddamn, they’re incredible.”
Tabitha was making noises again, and I slammed her face against the wall.
“Shut up. You’re interrupting me. I’m telling you a fucking story, Trinity owned me with that pussy, but dammit if I didn’t start getting obsessed with her smile, her laugh, the way she walked, those big eyes. Took her having a traumatic meltdown for me to realize that I’d fucking kill for her. And that leads me to why we are here.”
I pulled her back from the wall and started walking again, pushing her as we went.
“Last night, Roy was a wealth of information. Of course, I had to cut off his pinkie, his dick, slice up his face, and a few other minor jabs of my knife to get it all out of him. Once he was done telling me all your sins and his own, he got off lucky. I just slit his throat. It could have been much worse.”
I looked down at Tabitha, and she had gone pale. I laughed as we walked to the stairs. I shoved her forward until she had to either walk down the stairs or fall face-first.
“My dad made sure to raise me to respect women. He had never met you, and I realize that, but it’s still deeply ingrained in me. You won’t be hung up and sliced to pieces like Roy. Instead, this closet, where my woman was tortured during her childhood, is where you’re headed.”
Levi opened the door for me, and I threw Tabitha inside. She sat there, staring up at us. I could see the hatred in her eyes. Not even a fucking tear. Levi began to tie her feet up, and she fought against it, but it didn’t bother him. Once he was done, he walked over and tied her gag on with a rope so she couldn’t get it out.
“When you get to hell, tell Roy I said hi,” I told her before Levi closed and bolted the door.
Turning, I headed back up the stairs with Levi behind me. Gage was at the top, and he led the way as we headed for the back door we’d broken into. None of us said anything as we left. The absence of any proof Trinity had lived in that house spoke volumes. Family photos of Tabitha, Roy, and Benjamin, but nothing with Trinity’s face in it. The room that must have been hers was a sewing room full of old women’s crafts and shit. The room Roy had used had his pictures on the wall. High school trophies, diplomas, it was all there.
We headed back through the woods until we made it to the place we had left the SUV. Gage climbed into the driver’s seat, and I took the passenger seat. I wasn’t in the state of mind to drive. My fucking chest hurt from seeing that place. Knowing what she’d gone through, living there. I hated everything about that house.
Although we were almost a mile away, we could hear the explosion. I sighed and leaned back in my seat. That shit was done.
“Bye-bye, Tabitha.” Gage chuckled.
He was one messed up son of a bitch.
