Fear the Wicked (Illusions Series Book 2)(64)
James nodded his head in agreement. “How long will it take for him to die? Will it be as quick as Jesus?”
My grin widened. “No. The Son of God died quickly because a soldier pierced his side. Unfortunately, this poor son of a bitch will have to go out a lot slower.”
“What? What the fuck are you talking about? This is insanity! I’m not a fucking demon!” The condemned attempted to sit up, but Richard kicked him in the chest to knock him back down. Even the blow to his ribs didn’t stop him from claiming his innocence. “Listen, Sheriff, just take me to jail, okay? I’ll confess to the rape today and to several more you don’t know about. Hell, I’ll even confess for crimes I didn’t commit if it means you won’t do this! I’ll spend the rest of my fucking life rotting in prison, if that’s what it takes. How the fuck do you believe this crazy son of a bitch? He’s not even a priest!”
James scoffed at the accused and said, “You were right, Father Hayle. All demons do is lie. You’ve been the parish priest in this town for twelve years and this guy thinks I’d believe him? Let’s do what we have to do in order to finish this up. I have more criminals to catch and bring to you. By the time we’re through, there won’t be any crime anywhere near this town and I’ll be hailed a hero.”
I laughed at the thought. Of course it would be his over inflated ego that would drive him to nail a man to a piece of wood and leave him there to die slowly.
As for myself, I had far more important reasons for pulling this off, and within a few months, all would come to fruition. I wouldn’t call my reasoning evil by any means, just a necessary course of action that would lift the veil of secrecy and expose the true evil in this world.
“Richard,” I said, “help me bring one of these crosses down so we can nail this son of a bitch to it. Tomorrow I’ll give a sermon explaining to both the family and the townspeople who attend that the war we’re fighting for the Almighty has finally started.”
JACOB
“Four weeks? Is that the best you can do? Isn’t there another shop around town that can get the weapons faster?”
The older gentleman behind the counter stared over at me with one big yellow eye, his eyebrow rising so far up his head, I worried it would get lost in his receding hairline. His jowls hung loose and swung as he shook his head in disbelief. Leaning over so that his arms folded over themselves on the counter, he lowered his voice and asked, “Son, I know you passed all the background checks I’ve done, and you look relatively normal, but is there is a particular reason you want these weapons? I thought you said they were for hunting.”
Yeah, I thought, like I actually need a semi-automatic for hunting deer. I’ve never hunted a day in my life and even I knew that line of crap was bullshit. You would think the lie would alert him to the fact that these weapons weren’t for what I was claiming, but I went along with it regardless, hoping he didn’t pick up on the anxiety I was feeling.
“They are for hunting. It’s just that the trip is scheduled to take place in a week and a half and I can’t let my friends show me up.” Shrugging a shoulder, I flashed him the practiced smile I’d always used as a priest. “You know how it is out there. Men thinking that they’re better somehow because their gun is bigger.”
His eyebrow pushed higher. Still speaking low, he was half laughing when he answered, “You do know that the size of your gun says nothing about the size of your dick, right?”
I rolled my eyes, but played along. “Yes, I know that. I’m not out there to pull it out and brag that mine is bigger than theirs.”
“Yeah, but much like a man’s cock, it’s not the size that matters but what you do with it. In bed, it’s all about rocking a woman’s body and making her scream, but when it comes to shooting bullets instead of come, it’s all about bringing the animal down as quickly as possible while ensuring it feels as little pain as possible.”
We stared at each other for a few silent seconds before he pushed up from the counter and ran a hand through his thinning hair. Breathing out, he looked up at the large clock on the wall and back at me. “I tell you what, it’s getting late and I need to close the shop for the night, but I can make some calls and see if I can find what you’re looking for at another store in the area. Why don’t you come back in a few days and see what I found?”
I didn’t like the idea of waiting to confront my brother. With half a mind to just drop it and find another store, I also remembered it would mean another background check, which had the potential to alert some authority somewhere that I was up to something. Sadly, the truth was that if Jericho had controlled the parish for this long, the damage was already done. But still, I wasn’t able to just walk away and let him continue whatever game he was playing against the town.
Rushing over there without arming myself would only leave me dead and buried in some shallow grave somewhere, so I had no other option that to do as this man asked and come back to see what he could find for me.
“Do you think the other shops would have what I need?”
Shrugging a shoulder, he moved away from the counter to file away the catalog he’d used to help me select the weapons I would need. “Don’t know. With all the bullshit that’s going on in this country right now, the particular weapons you’re looking for are in hot demand. That’s good for us because we suck up the profits, but it just means that people like you have to be patient for the manufacturers to send out more shipments.”