Part 13 (1/2)
”Do you know the proper way to kill a goat, Danny?”
Lou, Merrick, and Danny all hiked their brows at the question. Cain wasn't known for small talk in these situations.
”Lou, how about providing some incentive for him to answer the question.”
Lou delivered a punch to Danny's left kidney that dropped him to his knees. The pained air escaping from her cousin's lungs caused Cain to turn around and give him her full attention.
”What's the answer?”
”How the f.u.c.k should I know?” he wheezed. ”And why should I give a f.u.c.k?”
”That was always your problem, Danny.” Cain put her hands flat on the table and just stared at him. ”You grew up never wanting to learn anything. Your aunt Therese married well, and my father was supposed to provide you a gun and a wad of cash for being a wiseguy. That's what your daddy told you when he was sober enough, isn't it?”
”My father raised me to be a man. He didn't have to pretend like Dalton did.” Danny let out another long stream of air when Lou kicked his other kidney. No matter what, he wasn't going to scream like he had the first time he found himself at the end of Cain's ire.
”You think having a pair between your legs makes you a man?” Cain took a pair of leather gloves from her back pocket and started to put them on. ”Or because you're strong enough to make a woman do your bidding proves you're superior?”
”You'll never measure up to me, admit it. You need these a.s.sholes to hold me down to show how strong you are.”
”Help the man up, Lou,” she said.
Danny ma.s.saged his side when he got to his feet and glared at Cain. All of them could see he was getting angry.
”Just you and me, so show me. Show me what kind of man you are.”
He lunged for her, obviously hoping to knock her down with his momentum, but she moved at the last second, sending Danny's head through the gla.s.s of the dirty window behind her. When he turned, blood was already running down his cheek. Her fist halted his next lunge when he got close enough. The blow to his nose made Danny double over and spit out a sudden spurt of blood.
When his head whipped back from the kick she delivered, she could hear the gurgle in his throat as he landed on his back. ”Give up already?” She stood over him, careful to stay away from the spray coming from his mouth when Danny started coughing. ”You should try a little harder, since we'll be here until you beg me to kill you.”
”f.u.c.k you.”
The insult only made her laugh. ”Given any more thought to my question?” Cain waved Lou over and pointed to her cousin.
During the sleepless nights after Marie's murder, she had spent the time thinking of how she was going to kill Danny. Many thought revenge didn't squelch the pain. Cain, though, was more concerned with responsibility than with revenge. Danny would pay with his life for what he had done.
As the head of her family, she was responsible for seeing that he did. She couldn't erase the pain of loss, but she could take some comfort in knowing Danny was burning in h.e.l.l and she had stamped his one-way ticket. Yet she hoped she wasn't becoming the type of person Emma had accused her of being four years earlier.
”Playtime's over. For you anyway,” she said.
Behind her Merrick grabbed the length of rope hanging from the ceiling with a loop at one end.
While the guards had been out earlier picking Danny up, Cain had added one new fixture to the house. She had screwed a bra.s.s ring into one of the support beams over the doorway; it was so new it looked almost out of place. Pointing at it, she said, ”My grandfather told me how his father had various methods for slaughtering different animals on their farm in Ireland.”
”I thought Dalton always bragged about how you come from a long line of bootleggers?” After he asked the question, Danny winced as Lou locked his hands in the cuffs again.
”A man can't live on whiskey. You need a good stew to help you keep drinking.”
”What in the h.e.l.l does that have to do with me?” asked Danny.
Tying one end around Danny's ankles, Lou gave the rope a good tug pitching Danny forward, slamming his chest and face into the floor. Lou kept pulling until Danny was hanging upside down from the ceiling. With his head even with Cain's waist, he could see perfectly what she was taking out of her pocket. The old switchblade had belonged to Dalton and had been one of the last gifts he'd given her before his death.
”What does that have to do with you?” she repeated his question. ”Plenty.” The tip of her blade rested at the opening of Danny's s.h.i.+rt. ”You're nothing but an animal, cousin, so that's how I'm going to deal with you.”
Beads of sweat broke out on his brow when the sound of tearing fabric filled the silence. ”Think about what you're doing, Cain. I'm your family.”
She stopped her hand just before she plunged the knife into Danny's heart for what he'd said. Instead, she moved to the hem of his pants, not caring that she cut into his hip when she got to the bottom.
”You stopped being my family after what you tried in my house, with my wife.” The boxers he was wearing fell to the top of the pile on the floor.
”s.h.i.+t, if you wanted some action you didn't have to go through all this to get me here. We're family, but if you want a piece of me, just ask.”
If Danny wanted to jibe anymore, the attempt died when she sliced off his right nipple, instantly eradicating his promise to not scream.
”Somehow I don't think you would've accepted my invitation once you see what I have in mind.” She sat back on the edge of the table and watched as rivulets of blood made their way from Danny's chest to his face.
”What'd you do that for?” Danny sobbed.
”Call it foreplay.” She felt calm as she put the knife down and accepted a belt from Merrick. ”We could waste each other's time with me asking why you lost your mind and killed Marie, and you denying it, so we're going to skip that.”
”That's what this is about? h.e.l.l, you should be thanking me for getting rid of that anchor.”
The slap of leather against his mouth opened a new cut on his lip, shutting Danny up once again. She hit him next over the open hole in his chest, wrenching another scream.
”You grew up around Marie. She was never an anchor to anyone who counted. That definition fits your family perfectly, so shut the f.u.c.k up.” She swung again, hitting his chest and making sure the belt hit right on his wound again. ”After all, we haven't finished our talk about the goat.” She noticed his tears mixing in with blood when she picked up the knife again.
”If you're going to kill me, then go ahead.”
”I'm going to kill you, Danny, but it'll be anything but fast. You know me better than that.” She c.o.c.ked her head to one side and continued to glare at him. ”My grandfather told me when you kill a goat, to keep the meat from tasting gamey, you have to bleed it. You cut slowly.” Belying her statement, she quickly sliced away his left nipple.
”You f.u.c.ker,” Danny screamed. He was crying and trying to pull himself up, almost as if to not provide her with such an easy target. Just as quickly he dropped back down when she slashed him again with the belt.
She hit him until he begged her to stop. She quit when her arm got tired. By that time Danny looked like someone had painted his body with red, cruel stripes, some of which were bleeding. The sun was starting to set, and the light in the room was fading as quickly as Danny.
”Please, Cain, no more.” He could see the pool of blood on the floor under him, signaling he didn't have much longer to live. ”I'm sorry for what I did.”
”Granddad told me the last step was to slit the animal's throat and let it bleed out,” she said, as if he hadn't spoken.
”Anything but that, please. I don't want to die.”
”It's all right, Danny. I'm not going to do that to you.” She watched as he laughed as if in relief through his tears. ”No, I've got something else in mind.” She picked up the knife and moved closer. ”It's only fitting after what you did to Marie and the others before her. All those innocent girls your depraved little mind left scarred to satisfy your sick needs. Those women deserve justice just as much as my sister.”
”Please, Cain. I'll do whatever you want. Just don't hurt me anymore.”
She was surprised he had that much energy to scream when the blade came to rest on his s.c.r.o.t.u.m. Without hesitation she cut all the way down, and Danny watched what had been a source of pride drop on the floor like a discarded turkey neck.
The fact that he was screaming made it easy for Merrick to slip it into his mouth right before Cain slit his throat.
Hayden studied his mother's face as if it were his first time to see it. ”Are you going to answer my question truthfully, or do we just dance around the issue?”
”I don't want to do this, Hayden.”