Fear the Wicked (Illusions Series Book 2)(65)
He turned back, his eyes darting between the door and me. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you out any faster, but I really do need to be shutting down for the night. You can look around yourself at other stores, but I’m pretty much certain you’ll have the same issues everywhere. I have some resources that aren’t available to the public. Let me look around for a few days and then you can come back to talk to me. Does that sound good to you?”
Exhaustion withered my shoulders, not to mention the weight of defeat that was crushing me. What the hell was I thinking? That I could rush into a store and walk away with a damn armory in one night? Even in a country as gun crazy as this, it wasn’t a possibility. One week wasn’t a lot of time to wait. I’d done it for Father Timothy when he needed to get me the information on the music director and priest. I could do it again, in that fucking hotel room, biding my time with the bodies of whatever woman was willing to undergo my fury just to get herself off for the night.
It was too bad I sent Erin…or Erica?... off on such bad terms. Her brand of romance would have been perfect to work out the frustration I was feeling.
Letting out a deep sigh teeming with all the negative thoughts and feelings whirling inside me, I thanked the guy and made my way out of the store to step out onto the sidewalk that had been busy when I stepped in earlier that day.
I didn’t know how much damage Jericho had already caused in that small, rural town, and I didn’t know how much more he could cause while I waited for the guns I needed. What I did know is that I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that I could return to that place with anything less than a full truck of guns and the bullets to go with them.
EVE
The four men spoke so quietly that I wasn’t able to overhear them. Well, not the four of them, exactly. The one I assumed was lying on the ground screamed and shouted as he begged for his freedom. While I’d been listening he admitted to the crimes he’d committed against innocent women. It confirmed what I knew that night on the side of the road – the man was a demon and had been after me because, at that time, I was the easiest of victims. It was just one more example of how Elijah was saving me from everything evil that filled this world. Just one more example of his power. Just one more example that proved he was so connected to God that he could face down Satan himself and win.
Holding the door open with the tip of my foot, I was careful to keep my head and face out of view. Every time one of the men scanned their eyes over, I pulled back hoping and praying that none of them saw me. Fifteen minutes had passed already and they were none the wiser that I sat in witness of what they were doing. As long as I stayed quiet as a mouse, Elijah would never know I’d been spying.
My plan would have worked if I’d been stronger, if I’d been more able to view violence without flinching. But it all changed from one moment to the next, and I feared I’d be caught for my stupidity.
Poking my head back out, I watched in fascinated wonder as Elijah and Richard brought down one of the large crosses at the back of the church. I would have sworn that thing was too heavy for two men to handle, but then I remembered the story in the Bible of our Savior’s death. He’d been made to carry it on his own all the way to the hill even with the injuries from his earlier beating. My eyes closed and a tear leaked out at the thought of how cruel men could be to each other. Even when we had God’s son among us, we were too blind to see it. We hurt him and killed him, left him in pain and watched silently while they gave him the wound that ended him. And when all that was said and done, when they’d destroyed someone so beautiful, those people walked back to their normal lives to do their chores, tend to their homes or have dinner. Nothing had changed since we learned the truth of our greatest sin. People were still so horrible and terrifying that I couldn’t even go outside without worry that a man like the one being held on the ground won’t find me and steal my purity.
For that, I didn’t cry to know that they were hurting him and making him suffer, but that still didn’t mean I was brave enough to stand and witness how they’d chosen to destroy his evil.
Once the cross was brought down, they dragged the man over and laid him beside it. Richard wrapped one large hand around the man’s arm, holding it in place as the sheriff took a hammer and nail and banged it through the flesh and bones to attach his wrist to the cross.
I gasped, unable to handle the sight of the blood, unable to hear the piercing scream that echoed off the ceiling and walls of the sanctuary. I was that one tiny sound that drew Elijah’s attention toward the door, that almost gave my position away to the men who hadn’t yet seen me.
Holding out a hand, he told Richard to stop for a moment. Still looking over, he shifted his position to get a better look at the door. I backed away but was too afraid to close the door fully. Even that small movement would alert them to the fact that they weren’t alone in the large sanctuary.
“Did either of you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Richard answered, his voice gruff and breathless.
Elijah didn’t answer immediately, but his approaching footsteps let me know he wasn’t going to drop the matter and get back to what they were doing.
“Stay there for a second. I swore I heard something.”
Left with no choice, I let the door close, the quiet click of the knob setting into place sounding behind me as I ran down the hallway, turned one corner and then another, pushing myself as fast as I possibly could toward the bedroom. I made it inside, shut the door as quietly as I could and jumped in bed. Kicking my shoes off, I let them fall to the floor, not caring where they landed as I pulled the blanket over my head. I was tucked away, warm and secure by the time that door opened again.