Page 70 of Gunner
Chapter 29
Kade
As I rejoined Skidin the small clearing deep in the woods, I could hear Skeeter’s muffled cries from behind his gag. Skid had stripped him naked, and when I looked at the pathetic man who hurt my woman, my vision grew hazy. I’d killed in combat, and once I was pretty sure a guy died from a fight I was in with him, but this was the first time that I’d purposely decided to take a man’s life.
I waited for the guilt or hesitation to kick in, but it never did. A comforting detachment filled my chest as I watched him squirm in the dirt, unable to move from his spread-eagle position. Sections of rope were tied around his wrists and ankles, and his sad, little dick hung limp between his legs. His red, teary eyes met mine and he began to plead from behind his gag.
Stepping closer to him, I kicked him as hard as I could in the jaw, and there was satisfaction in the sickening thud and snapping bone. He groaned and his head lulled to the side as I stepped back to Skid.
“How should we do this?” I inquired.
Skid scratched the dull side of a knife blade against his cheek with a far-off look in his eyes as he contemplated his choices. No matter what, I was going to dig that bullet out of his foot so it couldn’t be connected to Sadie’s gun. Mick gave it to her to defend herself, and I planned on giving it back to her when I saw her next.
I was shocked to see her step into the clearing, but witnessing her strength, her grit, made me fall harder for her. When she shot the asshole in the foot, I wanted to throw my hands into the air and cheer, seeing how strong she was in the face of her rapist. Vengeance against their attackers should be given to rape victims.
Rapists didn’t just cause physical pain and trauma. They caused chaos and havoc in the minds of their victims that could last for years after the wounds had healed. They also destroyed a part of someone’s understanding of safety and personal choice. By stripping away a woman’s ability to say no, rapists ingrained themselves into the psyches of their victims, causing pain for years after.
Today, Sadie proved she was no longer a victim. She was a champion over her past.
“I think he deserves exactly what happened to my sister,” Skid decided, and I raised my eyebrows in praise.
Pulling out my knife from the sheath on my belt, we stepped up to Skeeter together, crowding him as we knelt next to his exposed body. He swung his groggy daze between the two of us, and Skid leaned over, dragging the razor-sharp blade along his chest, slicing a gash across his pec that bled profusely. Skeeter yelled behind his gag, and Skid brought his mouth closer to his ear before whispering, “That’s one.”
Fifteen minutes later, Skeeter laid dead at our feet with dozens of gashes carved into his body. His useless dick rested in a pool of dirty blood between his legs. Skid had violated him with a thick branch, leaving the piece of wood in his bloody backside as he died. I’ll admit that was difficult to watch, but if anyone deserved that kind of pain and humiliation, it was Skeeter.
“What do we do with the body?” I asked, and Skid pointed up in the sky.
A large, black bird circled overhead, waiting for us to leave so it could enjoy its feast.
“Vultures can handle the heavy lifting, and the woodland inhabitants will take care of the rest. I’ll check on their progress in a few days. No one will come this far back to investigate.”
We stepped into the woods and stood quiet for a few minutes before the first vulture swooped in, landing near the body. Silently, we watched others land and within a matter of minutes, six large black eaters of death were already tearing into the exposed flesh.
“Effective,” I remarked as we crept away from them.
“I got the idea from Uncle Mick. He always left the guts of whatever game he caught out by the wood line for the vultures. He said that if we take from mother nature, we have to give back. Killing a deer and feeding a vulture balances the scales, to a degree.”
As we traversed through the thick woods toward where we hid the truck on the far side of the property, I began to worry about Sadie. After today, there’s no question what kind of man I was, and I feared she wouldn’t be able to look at me the same, knowing I kidnapped and killed a man for revenge.
Even if it meant she stopped loving me, I would do it again to protect her.
“What do we do about Smokey?” he asked, and I considered all the options.
We used baby wipes to clean the blood from our hands until we could shower and burn our clothes. Double checking that we had everything we brought in, we started walking through the dense trees to where we hid the truck. I glanced at Skid as we approached the truck tucked on a service road in the nature preserve. His eyes were hollow, and his jaw was tense as he helped me pull the camo cover off the truck.
We climbed into the cab, and I turned to him and reasoned, “We don’t do anything. Confronting Smokey and Bullet, even with Callahan’s spy camera, could blow up in our faces. We wait and see what kind of blowback Skeeter’s disappearance causes, and we decide then how to proceed. They can’t exactly start questioning people about the five kilos of cocaine that won’t show up next month,” I reasoned before cranking the truck and driving out of the preserve.
“The club needs to know what they did,” he barked, and I held my hand up, trying to calm him.
“We have to be smart. They’re going to know something’s up when he doesn’t show up with the shipment next month. Until then, we have to act like everything is okay.” I glanced at him as we pulled next to Skeeter’s abandoned truck. “Let’s get this finished.”
