*
“We fucked up bad.” Evie’s head fell forward onto Shade’s back.
“More like crashed and burned,” Lucky said, stepping out from behind a parked van.
“Back off, Dean. You had no business eavesdropping.”
“I had every right. I handed you that girl on a silver platter, and what did you do? You screwed her over so badly that now, not only don’t I have her, but you don’t have her, and it’s not looking like you ever will,” Lucky ruthlessly threw Beth’s words back in Razer’s face.
“She’ll come around; she’ll forgive me. The girl is incapable of holding a grudge.”
“Did you even make an attempt to get to know her?” Lucky asked in disbelief.
“What does that mean?”
“It means, she is not going to forgive you. You hurt her too badly. She won’t put herself back in that vulnerable position again, with either of you.”
“Come with me.” Lucky left the parking lot without another word, walking toward the church across the street.
“You two go on back to the club.”
Shade nodded as Razer rode across the street to the church.
Shade dropped Evie off at the clubhouse before going inside the factory to take care of the orders which had come in since they had been gone, finding Crash had done a good job keeping everything up to date.
Shade finished those which hadn’t been processed then went to the clubhouse. He grabbed himself a beer before going quietly into the kitchen, coming to an abrupt stop when he saw Razer already back and sitting on the couch watching the TV screen. He had hooked a VCR to it and had a box of tapes sitting on the coffee table in front of him.
Shade’s hand froze as he was about to lift the beer to his mouth, recognizing a much younger Beth on the screen. A tall, thin man with wire-framed glasses stood behind the pulpit.
The preacher gave a blistering sermon that would have put the fear of God into any grown man, much less the tiny girl sitting on the front pew. It was a thing to shrink a grown man’s balls with Hell and damnation used as threats. Beth was sitting quietly and still by a rigidly stern woman who amened constantly in agreement as the long-winded sermon droned on.
Razer fast-forwarded through much of the tape, stopping it when a movement from Beth’s father motioned Beth to stand up in front of the large congregation.
“Now, we come to the part of service where I give everyone a chance to repent their sins and take their punishment to be forgiven of them. My daughter will begin. Beth?”
Beth stared straight ahead as she stood before the congregation.
“I am pleading for forgiveness from my Lord to forgive my tardiness to dinner twice this week. My mother works hard to make the meal, and my father works hard to provide it. I should be more appreciative and show my respect by being on time.”
“Beth, do you repent your sins?”
“Yes, Pastor Saul.”
“Then kneel before your peers and take your punishment.”
Beth got to her knees as 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.
Horrified, Shade set his beer down on the counter, moving closer to the couch Razer was sitting on. When Evie entered the room, Shade motioned for her to be quiet as she came to stand next to him.
Clumsily, Razer removed the tape and put in another one. He fast-forwarded through six more tapes, each with Beth getting strapped for little or no reason. Not a single member among the so-called Christians spoke against his treatment of a young child, nor did they volunteer to repent their own sins. Each merely sat like fucking sheep as Beth took beating after beating. The room began getting crowded as the brothers came to get dinner and ended up becoming engrossed in the tapes being played.
Cash was one of the last ones to come in, standing shakily beside him as one particular tape began. It was different from the rest; instead, it seemed as if they were in a smaller church, and the parishioners were standing around chanting.
Shade’s brows rose as the church members danced in place and chanted in an unrecognizable language.
As 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. She didn’t speak; she simply continued moving, holding out her frail, little arms. The snake slid up her forearm as a no more than nine-year-old Beth whimpered, a look of pain across her face as the snake reared back and struck her in the upper arm.