25. Gideon

GIDEON

H e fidgeted around in his chair for a bit before answering me, I knew the bastard was stalling for time but his had run out along with my fucking patience.

"Don't have all day here Sanders, either talk or let's end this."

"Do you understand that these people would kill me if they found out I talked to you?"

"Do you understand that I'll kill you if you don't? At least with them you might get to live another day, who knows? If you're that afraid of them, of their retribution you might even have time to make a run for it. With me you won't make it out of this room with your life, now start talking."

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything you do but start with my wife; why the fuck were they visiting her since early childhood? What did they have planned for her?" The fear poured off of him in waves, he started sweating profusely as his legs shook even harder. I braced myself for whatever he was going to say next, I'd pretty much drawn my own conclusions so far, but there were just some things that weren't adding up for me and I needed answers.

"You have to understand I was in a very bad place when this all started." He looked around as though seeking understanding, no one so much as blinked.

"Get on with it."

"Yes, but I need you to understand that I would never have gotten involved with these people otherwise. I mean I'd just lost my beautiful wife and I..."

"Cut the crap Sanders, the night your wife died you were fucking a cocktail waitress at the bar you frequented with your buddies. Now tell me what the fuck I want to know before my patience grows thin."

"How did you...?"

"Never mind how I know, I know plenty. What I don't know and you're going to tell me, is what the fuck you planned to do with my wife."

"What's in it for me?"

"Breath."

He swallowed hard then the fuck; yeah I'm glad you're finally getting it asshole.

"They were going to buy her." His shaking got so hard the chair rattled against the concrete floor.

"I know that much." He started that fidgeting shit again, although I knew that much already hearing him say it out loud still bothered the fuck out of me. He was talking about my wife, a human being that he was going to sell like cattle. It wasn't lost on me that he'd said 'they were going to buy her' as opposed to 'I was selling her. He could try to absolve himself of guilt all he wanted he was still a fucking monster.

"Spit it out Sanders, what was the purpose of you selling your own flesh and blood?"

"For a sacrifice." I stumbled back at his words, I don't know what I'd expected, but that wasn't it. Realistically I knew that I'd saved her that she was home in our home safe and protected but my heart went somewhere else. I pulled my phone and walked away even as my men murmured among each other. I felt the shift in the room, I'm sure Sanders did too.

"Hi sweetheart what're you doing?" I had to clear my throat of the fucking horror. Stay solid Gideon she must never know of anything that went on here today. At least she'd been spared this, she never knew what they had in store for her, so don't give anything away, nice and smooth.

"I'm watching Steel magnolias with your mom." She sniffled or at least it sounded like it.

"Hey are you crying?" My heart started pounding in my chest and I started charting a map in my head of the fastest route home.

"It's just so sad." I closed my eyes as my pulse calmed down a little.

"Baby if it's making you cry just turn it off."

"No-no it's okay I'm fine I promise."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, when are you coming home I miss you." Straight to the fucking gut.

I looked at her piece of shit sperm donor as I answered her. "I'll be home soon sweet Blossom, soon as I finish here. Give me a kiss." We exchanged smooches, I love you and goodbyes, and I could give a fuck that six grown men were in the room with me right now. Sanders didn't count, fucking insect.

"Carry on." I walked back over to him. I noticed that my men were no longer on the wall but getting closer. Emotions were running high; you could cut the tension in the room with a knife.

"What? That's it."

"That's it? That's it you fucking bastard?" It was only as Gage was pulling me away that I realized I was choking the fuck out of him. He fell to the floor retching and clutching at his throat.

"Get up you piece a shit."

"Easy boss easy."

"I'm cool brother, just give me a minute." I walked it off, I had a feeling I was going to be pissed a hell of a lot more by the time this fucker was through telling his tale. Sick fucks .

"What do you mean as a sacrifice, what kind of sacrifice, sacrifice for what?" I was back in control but barely. The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach just kept growing the more I stood there looking down at him, knowing what he'd done to her.

"I don't know how they do it okay I just know they promised me that if I sacrificed her life I'd get my wife back. All I had to do was wait until she turned eighteen and keep her pure."

"And you believed that shit?" What the fuck?

"I already said my head wasn't straight back then." He kept eyeing me as if he expected me to come after him again which I very well might if he didn't start making some fucking sense.

"And what were they getting out of this deal or were they just doing it out of the kindness of their hearts?"

"I can't talk about that." I didn't even bother talking to this fuck. I just pulled my piece and blew his kneecap out. The sound was loud and harsh in the abandoned building, his screams more so.

"Fuuuuck, how am I going to explain this?" That was his first thought after the agony abated a little bit. Total sociopath. The thought of my blossom at the mercy of this man was almost too much for me to bear. How the fuck had she survived?

"What was their part of the deal?" I was past caring now, this asshole was getting closer and closer to death.

"I didn't know, I swear I didn't know when they approached me, I only found out later."

"What?"

"They made a deal with the dark side."

"Come again?"

"They believe that if they sacrifice a virgin on her eighteenth birthday that it will gain them certain powers and wealth."

"What the fuck, is this thirteenth century Europe? What the fuck are you talking about?"

"I'm telling you..."

"Wait wait-wait." I held up my hand. "You're telling me that a United States senator is involved in a cult, in some sort of dark craft? "

"That's what I found out, by that time it was too late I'd already gone too far to turn back. Please you've got to get me some help I'm going to bleed to death here." He clutched at his fucked up knee.

"Just one more thing, what about the kids, the babies and toddlers they've been snatching off the streets of America?"

"Oh, you know about that huh, that's another branch of the organization."

"Come again?"

"I don't know too much about that side of things, I started digging but then I stopped, I only found out that they uh, you know."

"No I don't know why don't you tell me?"

"It's like this some of them are sold into brothels or to individuals all over the world. But I found out that some of them are handpicked and that's when I had to stop. I was getting too close, strange men started showing up in town and I knew it had to be because of my digging only thing is I was doing it secretly so I don't think they ever figured out it was me doing it."

"What do you mean handpicked?"

He took a deep breath and touched his wounded knee gingerly, I didn't even tie it off to stop the flow of blood, let the fuck bleed to death for all I care.

"I mean that some people go shopping for pets and some go shopping for humans and according to their taste it could be man woman or child."

"What the fuck are you saying?"

"I'm saying that if you have the money and you see little Susie or Jimmy riding their tricycle on the sidewalk and you want them, all you need is a picture, the general area or location of the home and someone will acquire them for you for a price. From what I gathered the senator and the doc liked to oversee those special acquisitions themselves if the price was right."

I think I'm going to be sick to my fucking stomach. "Is that it, anything else, do you know times and names, places?"

"A few but my information is old, I stopped like ten years ago."

"I want everything you've got, where is it? "

"Fine, then can I go to the hospital?"

"Sure where is the information?"

"It's at my house but you can't find it. Can I go get this looked at now?"

"Give me a minute, I'm trying to figure out if I should let you live or just sever you limb from limb and feed you to the fucking wolves."

He started laughing like he'd just heard the funniest thing in his life.

"What's so fucking funny?"

"That's rich, that's how I got mixed up with these guys in the first place."

"What the hell are you talking about now?"

"Keith, he introduced me to them, he made some kind of deal and now he can turn into a wolf whenever he wants, it's the freakiest fucking shit you've ever seen."

Okay now I'm in the fucking twilight zone. "Are you kidding me Sanders?" I looked at my men who were all looking at him like they each wanted a piece.

"I wish I was but I have evidence, I videotaped him once when he didn't know. I've been holding it as insurance just in case you know, now with you grabbing that...your wife." He spat the word out and I thought; why don't I just kill the fuck and be done with it?

"Now that you've soiled her I'm not sure what my life is worth."

"I hope they gut you and leave you in the desert somewhere for the wild animals to pick over your carcass. Get your own ass to the hospital. Gage, search this fucker's house; make sure you find everything there is to find on this shit."

"I find out you're holding out on me Sanders I'm coming back and when I leave you won't be breathing. You're only alive because of her, isn't that ironic? I know if I kill you it'll hurt her and I'll never hurt her. Not even to rid the world of a piece a shit like you. But if you ever in your life cross my path again I'll end you."

"Oh and by the way she's happy, she doesn't even talk about you you're nothing but a distant memory. If you survive them, one day when you least expect it, when enough time has passed and she's forgotten that you ever existed I'm going to kill you."

I left the building with my men trailing behind me. "How am I supposed to drive with this fucked up knee?" I didn't even bother to answer fuck him.