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But it hadn’t been the first time he had seen so led body, bones broken, blood flowing Nausea welled up inside hih his mind

“Hell no, it ain’t,” Josh grunted, turning around “Hopefully, they’ll have things settled by h”

Sam prayed they settled sooner than that

Chapter Six

It was a cage A cell Bars surrounded hie of reality and caused sweat to dampen his body, his clothes It ran down his face in slow rivulets, despite the air conditioning A cage Bars that were locked He was unable to escape, unable to run from the monster ould slowly destroy them

Saes, the sense of unreality that surrounded hier, and a hell of a lot meaner than he had been then Besides, this was the county jail, not the basement of some bastard’s mansion There s here

He stood and paced over to it, trying to ignore the bars there as well He stared down at the parking lot as he ran his hands through his daet out of here He could feel his throat closing up on hies of his mind

He wiped at his forehead, gri at the cold sweat that wet his hands He could feel it all along his body His back His chest He fought to shake off the fear Dammit, he wasn’t a kid anys just like Sam had told him, and he would release him

But what if the proof didn’t show? That insidious thought rocked his ht God help hier

You ain’t goin’ nowhere, boy The ghost of his nightmares sounded in his brain You had a chance, Sam-boy… I offered it to you, and you didn’t take it Saotten slipped deh the veil that often hid them He didn’t want the pain of those months he and his brothers had been held captive

It’s okay, Sam I killed him I killed hie, determined Blood surrounded them, but none of it marred Cade Sam’s hands were stained with blood His nude body, nearly flayed to the bone, criss-crossed with vicious welts and deep cuts He hurt God he hurt so bad, and there was so much blood

He shook his head It’s over, Sao It’s over Cade’s voice was insistent as he used the tone that the younger brothers knew brooked no refusal

He sed the bile in his throat It was over Years past In a time as dead as the bastard who had tortured theone, the house destroyed, all of it wiped away as though it had never been Wiped fro but their memories

He collapsed on the cell cot, holding his head in his hands as he fought the lash of memories that were as brutal as the whip that had once been used on them He didn’t reged, hallucinogenic hours that they were forced to…

Bile rose in his throat He had screahed Sneering as he forced theht, hard He had destroyed theined Even his death hadn’t stopped the horror