“Beth, do you repent your sins?”
“ Yes, Pastor Saul
.”
“Then kneel before your peers and take your punishment.”
Beth got to her knees. Her father stood behind her carrying a leather strap.
“REPENT” he screamed and the strap struck out hitting the girl on her back.
The church members yelled back. “Repent.”
Three more times the leather struck her on her back before her father allowed her to resume her seat. Razer was unaware of Shade and Evie entering the room standing behind the couch watching. Clumsily, Razer removed the tape and put in the next tape. Razer watched the next six tapes, each with Beth getting strapped for little or no reason. Razer noticed no other members of the congregation volunteered to repent their sins, yet each sat mindlessly as Beth took beating after beating. The room began to fill as member after member came to get dinner, becoming engrossed at the tapes playing.
Cash stood shakily behind the couch as one particular tape began. He remembered it well. In fact, he still had nightmares because of it. He had done two tours with the seals and no single sight had affected him as much as the tape brought back to life.
It wasn’t a regular church meeting, instead it seemed as if they were in a smaller church and the parishioners were standing around chanting. Razer didn’t know what they were doing or saying. They were dancing in place and chanting in a language he had never heard before. A large bearded man went behind the podium and pulled out a snake. Beth who had been stepping slowly back and forth between her parents was pushed forward as the snake was held out.
Beth did not speak, but continued moving, holding out her frail arms. The snake slid up her forearm, pale and obviously frightened, she couldn’t have been nine years old. A look of pain and a whimper escaped her as the snake reared back and struck her in the upper arm.
“Praise god.” The man pried the snake’s teeth from her arm, she fell to the floor crying as the parishioners circled around the whimpering child.” Suddenly the tape ended as if the machine taping it had fallen to the floor.
“I remember that day. I tried to get to her and knocked the machine taping it over.”
“What the hell was that?” Jewell said in shock.
“Snake handling. Her bastard of a father would take us into the mountains once a year to a sister church. Every year I watched the same scene. Didn’t Beth tell you when you saw the scars on her arms?”
“No.” Disgust was eating at Razer that he hadn’t tried to get to know Beth.
“Did they take her to the hospital? Why didn’t someone call social services?” Bliss questioned.
“No they never took her to the hospital. The proof of faith is when she doesn’t die. So no medical treatment, no one reported it to social services, and the Sheriff back then was a member of the congregation. The congregation prayed over her all night. Her little body was wracked with pain till morning. It was the last time I ever prayed.”
“The next year they went, they didn’t make her do it again did they?” Viper asked.
“As far as I know from what my grandmother told me, yes. A couple of times it was a close call, but she survived. The members took it as a sign of their faith, but I would say it was more likely she built up immunity to the venom. I wouldn’t know, I left town the next day and enlisted in the Navy. I never went back to that church.”
Razer went to the next box and picked a tape from a couple years later. Beth would be about eleven, he thought. It was more of the same, except the beating became worse. Razer noticed one deviation, she begged God’s forgiveness, never her stern faced father no matter how many times the leather struck her back.
The next tape had Lily’s first appearance. The small underweight child was brought forward as they explained the charity they had to give a child in desperate need a home. No mention was made of where she came from. Several tapes were gone through before the minister ordered Lily forward for a misdemeanor for punishment. When she would have stepped forward, Beth pulled her back explaining it was her fault Lily had committed what had been deemed as sin. The pastor thwarted in his desire for new prey and took it out on a blank faced Beth. This continued on until a tape when the pastor ordered Lily forward and when Beth would have stepped forward, was denied.
“You will sit Beth, Lily will take the punishment for letting you influence her and then I will punish you for your part in it. It is time that Lily should learn not to let you force her from the path of righteousness.”
The strange part was that Lily didn’t look frightened. A look of peace came over her and she clasped her hands in front of her. Her silky black hair falling forward as she repented in a strong voice. When the leather struck her, she didn’t flinch or move, her voice the same monotone as before.
“I am going to throw up,” Natasha warned.
Shade walked forward and jerked the tape out of the VCR, throwing it at the television, busting it with sparks flying and not one member chastising him.
“Did that shit continue until the bastard got killed?” Razer asked Cash
“No, by then the new sheriff was in town and from what my grandmother wrote me, he had heard of what was going on, but no one would talk. Beth and Lily were home schooled, so he couldn’t get the girls alone to talk to them. The next day after that, Beth disappeared for an afternoon. The parents searched for her and found her at the restaurant across from the Sheriff sitting eating a sundae. Granny wrote she was frightened for Beth that following Sunday, but the new Sherriff showed up before church and had a talk with Pastor Saul. After that the Sheriff was there every church meeting, rain or shine. The girls both entered school the next school year also.”
“The sheriff probably threatened them with social services,” Bliss guessed.
Cash gave an evil grin. “Bet he threatened to kill him if he touched them again.”
“She won’t forgive me not after what I did. I humiliated her in front of everyone, just like he did. She was hurt and I ignored her just as those people stood around and didn’t do a damn thing.” His hands clenched into fists. “She begged me to talk to her in private…” Razer couldn’t continue.
The women’s smothered sobs could be heard in the silence of the room. The men moved to stand by their brother who stood staring sightlessly at a broken television, with no hope in his heart that he would get the girl and did what they always did, support their brother and come up with a plan of action. Because this mission was a rescue long overdo.
Chapter 20
The week ended up becoming a nightmare for Beth. Her clients seemed to be abnormally demanding and by the weekend she was worn out. As she drove home, she refused to let herself think of Razer and the customary Friday night gathering at his house. When she got home, she showered, but found herself antsy and couldn’t settle down. Determined to get Razer and his activities out of her mind, she texted the girls she had met at the gas station on the way to visit Lily.
She had been surprised when they had first texted her and the conversation was stilted. Several times she had wondered if they were trying to get information out of her about The Last Riders, but when she hadn’t responded to their questions, the conservations had turned to girl talk. The women were as bored with their lives as she was with hers. They had met up a couple of times, going to the movies or out to dinner. Both times Beth had driven to their town. Tonight they were coming to Treepoint and they were going to meet up at the Pink Slipper, a nightclub on the outskirts of town. It was the direct opposite of Mick’s, with regular guys wanting to hook up. Beth had never been there before, but her new friends had wanted to celebrate Sex Piston opening her own beauty salon.
Beth dressed in a black dress with a plunging neckline that complemented her full breasts. The dress came to below her knees, but the silky feel made her feel seductive. She slipped on her black heels and jewelry and was ready to leave. She was almost out the door before she turned back and changed her shoes to dark purple high heels. Now, feeling as if she was going out to have fun instead of a funeral, Beth left to meet her friends.
Beth waited at the door for the girls to show up. A bright green four-door Chevrolet parked and out they came, dressed like biker bitches. With the leather skirts or pants cupping their asses and black t-shirts showing pert breasts, they made Beth feel old and ready to retire.
“Hey girl been waiting long? Would have been here sooner, but T.A. had to stop for a piss.”
“Don’t blame me, you drive like my grandma.” The good-hearted ribbing continued until long after they were seated at a large table.
“Ok, let’s order some drinks and get the party started.” Killyama ordered the waitress to bring drinks, then sat back proceeding to flirt shamelessly with a good-looking blond man at the bar.
“We plan on getting shit-faced and crashing at your place. You cool with that?” Crazy bitch asked.
Beth smiled. “Yes, it’ll be fun. We can have a girl’s night.”
Crazy Bitch just stared at her. “Girl, I didn’t sneak away from my old man for a girl’s night. I plan to find a man who can give me an actual orgasm.”
Beth deflated; she didn’t know how she felt about her house being used as a place for the women’s hook-ups.
“My house isn’t very large.”
“Got a spare bedroom?”
“My sister’s room.”
“She there?”
“No.”
“Then it’s all good. We can take turns using the room.” Beth took a sip of the drink the waitress sat before her. She would hope for the best that the women would strike out, but if they didn’t, she would redo Lily’s room and buy her a new mattress. Beth was beginning to worry that the night wasn’t going to be as worry free as she had hoped.
This was proven a few minutes later when she casually was studying the other patrons of the bar and her eyes met Winter Simmons. Her mother was one of her former clients, she had breast cancer, and after a long fierce battle, she had passed away the year before. Winter was as prim and proper as a Sunday school teacher, which she was, she also was the principal at the local high school. Her table was filled with two members of the PTA. Beth was curious why they would be in a nightclub at this time of night.
Crazy Bitch let out a whoop whoop when a good-looking man asked Killyama to dance. Beth wanted to slide to the floor, but brazened it out, smiling at Winter before turning her attention back to the women at her own table.
“So when is the big opening?”
“Monday. You going to come down and let me do your hair?”
“What’s wrong with my hair?”
“Nothing” her tone belying her words. “I just can make it better. You know sexier, like ours.” Beth stared at their teased and tortured hair. Looking much different than the first time she had met them.
“I am busy next week. I haven’t hired anyone yet to replace Evie. I have several interviews to fit in also. Hopefully one of them will work out and will be able to start immediately.”
Sex Piston shrugged. “You got scissors at your house?”
Beth knew where this was going and tried to nip it in the bud. “No.”
Sex Piston took a large sip of her drink. “That’s okay. I will stop at a convenience store and buy a pair.”
Beth knew when she was beat. “I will call Monday and make an appointment.” A sober Sex Piston working on her hair was better than a drunk Sex Piston.
“That’s my girl.”
Beth watched as one by one, the women were asked to dance. Even Beth was surprised to be asked and was just returning from a rigorous two step when she looked at the doorway and experienced déjà vu. The difference this time was, it was not Razer’s motorcycle club, but the Destructors.
Beth heard Crazy Bitch who was sitting next to her mutter. “This is not going to be good.”
Beth swallowed a large sip of her own drink, for the first time getting a good look at the rough bikers and agreed wholeheartedly.
Chapter 21
Razer was going up to his room alone, the night was early, but he was in no mood to party. Not that the others were in much of a mood either. The members were mainly playing pool or watching a new release on the new television Shade had brought home that afternoon.
His cell phone ringing stopped him mid-step.
“Razer.”
“Razer, this is Mick. You home?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Thought you would want to know we got a couple guys in here that were in The Pink Slipper. Left because some bikers came in and started arguing with their
bitches.”
“Why would I care? We don’t want a turf war over The Pink Slipper. They can have that pussy bar.”
“I didn’t think you would be concerned over turf, thought you might be concerned that your woman was sitting in the middle of it.”
“I don’t… ” Razer started to say before realization dawned on him. “Beth is there?”
“That’s what I am saying. She was there with the bitches and the men rolled in an hour later. Sound familiar?”