Page 7 of Cinder
I lower the sledgehammer but rest my hand on top of the handle. “You have my attention, Eugene.”
“I-I can show you.”
I tilt my head. “Not going to happen. Where is she? Is she alive?”
“She’s buried in Shepherd’s Wood.”
I knew she was dead. But hearing him confirm it feels like a kick in my chest. I didn’t know Beth. But I got to know her parents when they approached the Knights for help finding their daughter. Letting them know she’s dead is going to fucking hurt like hell. So I’m sure as fuck not doing it without giving them a body to bury.
“Wherein Shepherd’s Wood,” I demand.
“An old culvert pipe near the bridge.”
I reach inside my leather cut and remove my phone. I dial Beast’s number, and he picks up on the second ring.
“You have a location of the body?” he asks.
I give him the details.
“We’ll check it out,” he says. “You want to finish up there and meet us?”
The thought of seeing Beth discarded in a water culvert fills me with rage. Carina’s shallow grave still haunts me. I don’t need to add Beth’s to a list of things that still haunt me at night. I can inflict great pain. But its only ever on men who have fucked up and betrayed the club or hurt the innocent. Seeing it inflicted on innocence cuts me to the bone.
“Nah, I’m going to stay here.” I pin Eugene with a rageful gaze. “Hang out with Eugene for a few more hours.”
Eugene vomits again because he knows what’s coming next is going to hurt.
And it does.
A lot.
By the time Beast calls me an hour later to tell me they’ve found Beth’s remains, Eugene is begging me to kill him.
But that would be too easy for him.
I toy with him a little longer.
Until my bloodlust is satiated.
Now toothless, thanks to a pair of pliers, Eugene looks at me through his one eye.
“Kill me please,” he begs.
And I do.
With one swing of the sledgehammer.
Just as it starts to rain.
Dropping the sledgehammer, I kick the chair over, and Eugene falls to the soggy ground, the blood from his wounds mingling with the puddles of rainwater.
I walk away.
My job here is done.
It was probably overkill.
But it’s who I am.
