Pay the Price, page 22
Reproachful hazel eyes glared at him with the touch, but she did not draw away. She continued to waver on the edge of uncertainty.
Mary came around the corner of the nurse’s station and briefly glanced in their direction. They must have created an odd tableau because Mary stopped on her heels and pulled her glasses from her face. She approached them warily, clipboard clasped at her chest. “Stella,” she said lightly. “What’s the matter, hon?”
Stella did not respond. There was no indication she even heard Mary’s question. This made Mary round on Edwin.
“What’s going on?” she spat angrily.
A loaded question, indeed. Edwin blinked in surprise as he saw the ghostlike forms of Gaines and Shelley hovering momentarily behind Mary. What was going on?
Duke was a monster, there was no question about that. He kidnapped two adults in broad daylight and killed Harrison Pierce out of some twisted form of jealousy. The police never found Pierce’s body despite almost a year of searching around Duke’s property. For months he raped Alessa Meinken while wearing her dead fiancé’s skin. Nobody in their right mind could fathom something so gruesome. It had been enough to turn Edwin’s stomach over when they found the remains of Pierce’s face on the table Alessa had been forced to eat at.
Edwin knew from conversations with her doctors after she was rescued that Alessa had been beaten repeatedly. Duke had caused internal injuries that even surgery could not properly heal. Her bones could not be reset in some places because they had been broken so many times without recovery. She only held onto life long enough to bring her daughter into the world. And having that physical tie to the devil who tore her life apart had been too much for her. It was too much pain for one person to endure, Edwin had realized much later.
And now the manifestation of that horrendous coupling stood before him in all the sadistic glory of her father. Stella had desecrated Avery Winslow, a quadriplegic, when he was in his most vulnerable, powerless state. He was a patient in a correctional hospital, yet his own mutism created the perfect storm for Stella to torture him without notice or reprimand. She had willingly cut and burned him as he lay helpless beneath her. What had Mary told him when he first arrived-Stella had been the only one assigned to his case for weeks? The man had no one to protect him or intervene and in a twisted way, that was Edwin’s own fault. He was the one who shot a man in the back as he ran away. Did it matter that Duke was a criminal when Edwin shot him? Did that justify Edwin’s actions?
What would his actions be now? Alessa had suffered in more ways than one for months as Duke ravaged her body and decimated her psyche. Now Duke was experiencing the same, with Fate assigning his executioner as his own flesh and blood, the daughter he had never known he lost. There was no way Stella’s face had not served as its own kind of torture. Her mother’s features must have been inscrutable as she sliced Duke from his neck down for days on end. Had that damaged Duke’s mind the same way as he had done to Alessa when he raped her with another man’s skin on his face?
Perspiration broke out on his forehead as Edwin agonized over what to do. If Gaines were here, he would surely tell Edwin to report Stella immediately and have her arrested on the spot. His protective instincts would override any other possible decision, forever determined to capture all the monsters in existence. He would point out that Stella was only just getting started and would likely continue to torture a helpless man before moving on to other victims. Gaines would not hesitate, Edwin was certain.
Shelley, the only devil equal to Gaines’ angel, would surely argue the opposite. Bastards like Avery Winslow deserved to be broken, beaten, and pissed on. Knowing Shelley, he would have offered to be the first to provide the punishment. An eye for an eye was still a viable argument in criminal laws around the United States. Edwin was justified in his desire to see Duke face true retribution. Having around the clock care in a hospital the taxpayers provided was not nearly harsh enough for what the asshole deserved. Shelley would have advocated for Edwin to walk away as if nothing had changed. Edwin was just as sure of this as he was of Gaines’ opinion.
Edwin swallowed slowly, sneaking a glance in Stella’s direction. Her whole body was tense, waiting for Edwin’s reaction. He did not think she was so much as breathing at the moment.
Shrugging, he turned his attention back to Mary. “Someone has to pay the price,” Edwin said.
THE END
Samantha Gail is a former probation officer who worked with sex offenders for several years. When she is not writing, she is reading, singing, and watching Marvel movies. She currently resides in Ohio with her three children and three furbabies.
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Samantha Gail, Pay the Price
