The Redeemed
exactly what that meant. No longer flustered by the foreign thoughts, she stared down at the gun below her face and saw the slide stop on the side of its barrel, right above the grip.
     
    Miles talked through his teeth, “I got the gun on you and you want to threaten me?” He laughed deep in his throat.
     
    Cars approached. Tires screeched. Maybe the police had arrived. Maybe someone inside the restaurant had called them.
     
    “I think it’s time to teach bitch girl here a lesson.” Miles released her hair.
     
    With her left hand, Sarah grabbed Miles’ gun wrist, shoved the gun a few degrees up and to the left, away from her and Parkman, and dropped her head the opposite way. As her right hand grabbed the top of the gun to jam the slide back, the gun fired.
     

Chapter 10

    When Mike entered the room, Evelyn was right where he’d left her. Only this time, her wrists were bleeding.
     
    “What have you been up to?” he asked.
     
    She grunted, the gag held firmly in place by the duct tape wrapped around her head. She would have to pull out hair to remove the gag.
     
    “You’ve been hurting yourself with those cuffs.” He looked at her sidelong and pointed. “You’ve been a bad girl.” He spread his hands wide. “Where’s the gratitude? I pulled you away from that disgusting, vile life.” He moved to the end of the bed. “No more dealing with pimps. No more random men with their random cocks. Only me until we both die in the explosion.”
     
    Eve bucked on the bed and screamed behind the gag which came out as a deep-throated moan.
     
    “Oh, I forgot to tell you that part.” He pulled the handcuff key out of his pocket and released the cuffs from the metal headboard. “The fastest way to hell is through fire. Once you’re already burning, it doesn’t hurt as much when you fall into the lake of fire. And since I’m Satan’s chosen one, which means I’ll be stoking the flames throughout Hell, I want to get used to burning.”
     
    Evelyn’s eyes widened. She pulled away and curled into a ball. The cuffs dangled from her wrists, but she made no attempt to escape.
     
    “Because you’re my sacrifice, you need to burn with me.” He stepped away from the bed and stopped in the doorway. “It’ll be okay. You’ll enjoy Hell. The explosion will be quick, then boom, there we are. It’ll be like taking an express elevator to Hell.”
     
    Evelyn cried, her shoulders hitching with sobs.
     
    “Oh, come on. It isn’t so bad.” He stomped the floor twice to get her attention. “Come downstairs. We’ll cut a hole in your gag and get you something to eat. But first, I have a surprise for you.”
     
      She stayed on the bed, naked, whimpering.
     
    “Eve, get up and come with me. Do as I say. You know I won’t spare the rod.” She moved, but not fast enough. “If you don’t get up right now, I will hurt you so bad you won’t be able to walk for a week. Do you understand me?”
     
    She nodded subtly. Her body unraveled and she straightened out on the bed.
     
    “We haven’t got time for this. Get up now and come to my side.”
     
    Eve sat up and wiped her face with her hands, the cuffs bumping her cheeks. She got to her feet, wobbled, caught herself, and started around the bed toward him. He waited. When she was two feet in front of him, he slapped her face.
     
    She went down as the slap sucked the life out of her legs. He grabbed a wad of her hair and lifted. She screamed behind the gag, her breasts bobbing as she shuddered under his grasp.
     
    Eve’s pain and suffering delighted him. It reminded him of his youth, his parents, and all the torture he endured under their hands, their rods that weren’t spared. In a curious way, hurting someone else was a form of release.
     
    When he got her up and on her own feet again, he released her hair.
     
    “You haven’t eaten since I brought you here, have you?”
     
    Her glazed bloodshot eyes found him. She was afraid to

Similar Books

Nine Lives

William Dalrymple

Blood and Belonging

Michael Ignatieff

Trusted

Jacquelyn Frank

The Private Club 3

J. S. Cooper, Helen Cooper

His Spanish Bride

Teresa Grant