Page 6 of Patching Over

Reaching into my bag, I’m disappointed that I only have two eye speculums, but they’ll have to do. Crossing first to Jayne, then to their accomplice, I prop both of their right eyes open before walking back to Percy.

“I’m not worried about you keeping your eyes open. You’re probably going to pass out a time or two, just at the thought of what these guys are doing,” I tell him as I open the container with the leeches again.

After I get a few of those little suckers attached to his dick, I look all three in the eye in turn.

“Now, maybe you’re thinking, ‘Oh, there are medicinal purposes for leeches. Maybe that’s not so bad.’ But leeches can ingest five times their body weight and I have a couple dozen of them. Y’know, the reason that the blood flows so freely after their three teeth sink into flesh is because of a peptide called hirudin. It is an anticoagulant,” I continue on, until I notice Percy has passed out. Then I reach up to remove his gag, hoping he’ll feel like talking when he wakes up again.

Next, I cross back to Jayne and see if she has any sins that are weighing her down.

“Please, I’m Joey’s mother. Please call her and she’ll tell you none of this was my fault,” she starts blubbering on. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her that her daughter gave me her blessing, but I don’t want to play that card too early.

“About Joey,” I start, preparing my initial questions. “There was a video feed in her bedroom back at your house. Did you sell videos of her? Who, exactly, had access to the feed? And how long had that been going on?”

Her head is whipping back and forth so fast that she nearly knocks off the speculum. “No! No, there wasn’t! I never would have allowed Josephine—Joey—to be touched. That was never permitted. They all understood that.”

When I continue to stare at her, her panic and confusion turn to anger. By not trying to justify my questions, she controls herself long enough to see that I am not playing around. I only saw a few short minutes of an old feed from before Joey graduated from high school, but she was clearly in the process of pulling out pajamas as she prepared for bed.

“No! NO! Percy, goddamnit! Wake up, you bastard!” Jayne’s cries and pleas turn into bellows of rage when she realizes her husband betrayed her. “No. We, Percy and I, had similar fetishes and met through those who shared our interests, but we had a deal. From day one, he knew Josephine could not be touched—or anything else. I had it in a secret prenup for fuck’s sake. Not Josephine, notever.”

“So, your daughter was untouchable, but everyone else’s child was fair game?” I ask, keeping my voice low in order to control it from breaking.

“When did he, how long had it been going on?” she asks, suddenly full of tears and remorse.

From what Diesel figures, it started after Jayne’s father died and thankfully, Joey was moved to boarding school. I can’t imagine how violated Joey felt when Diesel showed them the feeds he found on the Brookhaven’s server, and I can’t ever change that.

What I can do is something I have never had any interest in before now.

I instantly decide to change my tactic with her. There’s nothing that Jayne has to give anyone, so she might as well die the way her ex-husband did.

Removing the speculum from her face, I decide to wait until Timber gets back with Tonic and then I’ll do them together. Making sure that these three are secure, I go out back to the fire pit and check that there’s plenty of empty land between the cabin and tree line before I begin piling up wood for their pyre.

When Timber returns, I motion for him to meet me around back and I tell him my plan. Belatedly realizing that I didn’t factor in his response.

The big guy turns nearly as white as I am and that’s when my brain snaps into focus. I’d forgotten that he had come face-to-face with Parker’s charred remains and that he’s in no hurry to experience that again.

“You stay inside,” I tell him, squeezing his shoulder. “I’ll take care of it.”

Not wanting to waste a good fire, I end up leaving Timber inside with the driver and bring Percy out to watch his wife and Tonic die in one of the most excruciating ways possible. Their wails are audible even with their mouths gagged and the eye speculums ensure that Percy has to watch their final moments.

Percy might not give a damn about Tonic, but that motherfucker has to pay for setting up Me’ansome and I know damn well he’s not high enough on anyone’s totem pole to be of use to us.

Once they’ve expired, I add more wood to the fire and toss in extra pieces of Duraflame to keep it burning hot enough to get rid of most of their remains. My bandana barely helps with the smell of the bodies, so I know it’s the best time to start questioning Percy.

Turning back to him, I remove the speculums before his gag and the man just starts crying.

When he starts begging for an easy death, I hold a finger up and grin when he quickly stops talking.

“While I appreciate that you’re smart enough to understand you aren’t walking away from this,” I say, in what I’ve found to be a tone that others find comforting. “You have to understand that there’s a price to be paid for an easy death.”

“Anything,” he rasps out the word.

“Who do you have covering for you in the government?” I ask the question that’s been bugging our own contacts.

“It’s on my drive,” he says, his voice weakening.

The minute we got them secured earlier, we used Percy’s finger to login to his laptop and gave remote access to Diesel. A quick look at my phone, tells me he hasn’t found anything yet.

“My guy would have told me if there was anything …”

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