Claw 2 Read online

  CLAW 2

  BY LUCIAN BANE

  © 2016 by Lucian Bane

  All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Lucian Bane or his legal representative.

  To all the readers, fans, and or reader’s clubs. Thank you for supporting my work. I’d also like to ask nicely that you please not Pirate my work. That basically means don’t give it away just because you bought it. If you know of anybody that can’t afford a copy, just send them to my librarywhere I loan out copies for free.

  Also, if you need a different format, please contact me, the author.

  Dedication

  To My Wife. With All My Love.

  Chapter One

  Dante paced the room as he debated whether he should take her to the emergency room to have her checked. If it was life and death, he’d definitely risk it, but he was confident he’d ruled that out. Aside from the trauma of the rape and a broken nose, maybe fractured ribs, she seemed to be resting well.

  All the worst case scenarios flew through his mind as he continued to debate what to do. Namely police somehow figuring out he matched the description given by a half dead Daryl in the emergency room two states away. He was pretty sure the fucker couldn’t talk but what if they questioned Renee? She might tell all, not realizing how it could be used against him. And if Daryl could talk, Dante was pretty sure he’d lie, which meant they’d detain him for questions. And then if they questioned Rin? Fuck, with her brutal honesty, she’d probably tell them he was the healer helping her learn how to orgasm so she could have babies. She’d be considered psychotic at best and they’d all be suspect until proven otherwise. But with his criminal record, he’d be guilty before proven innocent. No way. Just no way. Not because he cared about going to prison over it, but without knowing what would happen to Rin, he wouldn’t risk it. Too many times he’d seen women wall up when it came time to pressing charges and no fucking way was he chancing her somehow ending up back there. He’d rather risk a poorly mended bone than her life. Again.

  Her biggest medical needs were likely not going to be physical anyway. Being brutally raped in the name of God by your own husband was the real trauma. And Dante needed to think how the hell to deal with that when it came time. He had enough book knowledge to know that she would need a lot of therapy for that one. If he thought undoing her religious knots was going to be a mess, this had just complicated it times a thousand.

  The physical stuff would heal. He remembered her nose then. He’d have to reset it soon. Fuck, he didn’t want to but it was either that or it healing crooked. Visions of that monster raping her flashed through his mind and his fists clenched with the surge of fury and bile that always came with. Dane could handle pain, he could handle blood and gore, but not with a woman. Or kids.

  And even though he hadn’t checked her female parts, he knew that would be the worst. He’d let her rest for a couple days and when she gained strength and showed signs of … whatever, then he’d have to ask what happened. And he wanted to do that less than he wanted to reset her nose.

  Dante jerked to the sound of Rin’s light moan. He looked at the time as he hurried and knelt next to the bed right as she jerked and began swinging her arms, crying. “Rin, Rin,” he called. “You’re okay, Rin, it’s Dante.”

  Her jaw opened and shook as her breaths shot out in ragged panic.

  “I’m here, Princess, I got you,” he whispered, taking her shaking hand between his. “Shhhhhh,” he said over and over as the crimp in her brow lessened. “I got you.”

  “D-don’t leave me,” she finally rasped. “Don’t leave me.”

  The panic in her voice hit his chest. “I’m not leaving you. I’m sorry I left you,” he whispered, fighting the fury pushing through his veins. He wanted to kill something, beat something. He should have listened to his gut when he saw that fear in her fucking eyes, this was all on him. “Are you hurting? Do you hurt?”

  She nodded a little and Dante hurried for her meds and water. He knelt next to the bed again and helped lift her head. Her eyes remained sealed shut the entire time she took the medicine, swollen and already turning a dark purple. The large bump on her forehead was the same. Her lips were twice their normal size and lopsided, along with her entire fucking face, full of blue and purple lumps.

  He had to keep her on her side because the skin on her back was covered in bloody gashes from the belt. Every time he saw it or she whimpered, Dante fought the urge to drive back over there and bury that fucking bastard alive with his dick shoved down his throat in fifty pieces.

  He knelt there, stroking her head, his stomach sick with worry about what kind of pain she might be in. He pulled his phone out and found Blake. He’d wait till Rin was sleeping again and call. He needed leverage on that monster, something, anything.

  Dante finally stood when she was breathing even and deeply. He carefully lowered the sheet and exposed the marks on her back. Fuck. He needed to take pictures. Despite it possibly being used against him, he had to have proof or it would all be hearsay. He wasn’t sure he’d ever use them or need them but it seemed like the thing to do.

  His stomach burned with nausea when he was finally done. Inside the bathroom he sat on the toilet and closed his eyes, wishing he could call Tin Tin. But he rarely called Dante now. He had Dante’s cell as one of the approved numbers on his list but he just wasn’t the kind of dude that did that.

  Dante tried not to be bothered by it but he found himself waiting for his call every week anyway. When Dante had gotten out of prison, Tin Tin called faithfully on Thursdays at seven PM. He realized now it was all part of Tin Tin’s exit plan for Dante, making sure he was adapting to life on the outside. When he saw all was well, the calls became fewer. He missed him. Really bad. His own family had been ripped apart since his prison sentencing and the rift of fifteen years felt like a hundred miles of broken road that would never mend.

  His little brother and his dad … they were gone. There, but gone to him. Not by Dante’s choice. By something. Something he tried understanding years ago when they both quit visiting him in prison. His mom made up bullshit excuses for them at first then he realized that’s all it was. And when he pried, she’d only cry and say I don’t know, I don’t know. I pray. I pray for them.

  “Good,” Dante had told her. “Pray for them.”

  Dante had died in that prison and looking back, he realized the first day of his death was when he lost his brother and dad to bitterness? Anger? He still didn’t know.

  He began to refuse his mom and sisters visits. He couldn’t handle the glimpse of life he would never have back when they came, and it began to feel like a cruel taunt.

  He was being taunted enough in prison, he didn’t need more, not if he was going to survive.

  His mom and sister still wrote him but even that was too hard to bear looking at. Look at what you’ll never have, Dante. Hear all about it.

  Took him ten years before he became the man who could read them, who understood things differently. He had a book of them by then and he didn’t stop reading till he’d devoured every aching word. Once he started, it was like getting new blood in his body. But it was tainted blood. Tainted with so much fucking pain and regret that he’d never be able to recover.

  As he'd read them, he'd noticed that the older his sister got, the less she wrote. He quickly pulled all her letters out and it hit him like a sledge hammer what he was witnessing and he cried like a fucking baby for the first time in years. She’s living and that’s good, it’s natural he tried to tell himself. But his body and mind knew the truth. She was saying goodbye to her big brother who she once adored and looked up to. She was seeing
her own self off into the world because he wasn’t there to.

  Maybe he hadn’t been ready to read those letters. He knew one thing, if it wasn’t for his mother’s love and acceptance through all that shit, he was sure he’d have never come back from all of it. She somehow kept the link to the real world alive for him. Tin Tin showed him that. And it helped Dante heal and eventually see the sacrifice she’d made all those years. He’d ended his own life, not her. And she’d never punished him for that, she just loved him. It was her unconditional love that helped him with his faith in God. If his mother could love him after he’d fucked up so royally, then maybe God could too.

  He called Blake. “Man, I got trouble,” he said.

  “What’s wrong?” Blake asked, his voice low and sharp.

  “I nearly killed her husband,” he whispered.

  A moment of silence was broken by his “holy shit” whisper.

  Dante nodded in silent agreement. “He deserved worse, but I can’t spend the rest of my life in prison. I found him raping her,” he grit. “I managed not to kill him by some miracle and took her out. Now I’m hiding in a hotel and what I need, what I pray you have, is something, anything on this motherfucker. I need leverage, Blake, serious leverage.”

  “Man, look,” he said, sounding eager. “I joined the church.”

  “What?” Dante hissed. “How, it’s in fucking Arizona”

  “Noooo, dude, that’s their main branch or whatever the shit they call it. They’ve got em all over the US like sick little pockets of cum blisters.”

  “Why do you say sick?”

  “I don’t know man, all these places chill my balls. At first I thought I’d never find shit through the thousands of glowing smiles and then I happened to meet the janitor!”

  “The janitor?”

  “He’s a hired hand and he’s not exactly, let’s say, sold on the Kool-Aid, he’s just the one cleaning up the parties. His exact words. Like I said, ball chilling.”

  “So what did you learn?”

  “Nothing, but if there’s something there to learn, and I’m so sure there has to be, the ole jan would know. Oh, and by the way. Before the church was The End Time Brothers, they were The End Time Believers,” Blake whispered.

  “Why the change?”

  “Not sure yet, but it’s hard to ignore the gender insertion. More like End Time Cocksuckers,” Blake said.

  “That’s good work, Blake,” Dante whispered. “Keep digging carefully. Whatever you can find, all of it. Facts, rumors, anything, I’ll take whatever the shit I can get.”

  “You got it man. So … how is she?”

  Dante paused, rubbing his forehead. “Just shy of needing an emergency room.”

  “Oh fucksand,” he whispered. “But you can’t take her to a hospital man—”

  “I know, trust me. When can you get me answers? I’m going to Letter-Quick the joint and tell Tin Tin to call me.”

  “He called me,” Blake hurried.

  “He did? When?”

  “Last night. He said he tried your cell and didn’t reach you. I told him about your job.”

  Dante paced in the bathroom. “What did he say?”

  “A lot of suspicious grunts,” Blake said.

  That wasn’t unusual. That’s how Tin Tin expressed himself; that and very few words carefully filtered through his brilliant mind. “Did he say anything?”

  “Just to be sure and tell you he called. So you can be sure I am.”

  “Okay, call me the second you find anything out. Anything at all. I just raised your pay to a grand by the way.”

  Blake whistled then finished with gleeful laughter. “I don’t need it but I really need it!”

  “I know you do. And since I have it to give, and I don’t need you, I need you.”

  “Got you man!” he shrilled. “I’m hells bells MacGyver all over these cock-trotting cum-blisters.”

  “Thank you,” Dante whispered, too relieved to enjoy his usual hilarious wordsmithing. “Call me in the morning.”

  They hung up and Dante opened the bathroom door and peeked out to check on Rin before looking at his cell’s caller ID. Fuck, sure enough, the prison’s number was there. He looked at the time and tried to recall what he’d been doing. Then he saw Renee’s number before his and it hit him. He was busy taking that bastard apart when he’d called.

  Dante settled down at the small table and got busy. His first search was The End Time Believers.

  Chapter Two

  Rin fought to escape Daryl but her legs wouldn’t move. She screamed out silent cries as he ripped her body in half with his brutal thrusts. When she was going to die, she bolted in panic to darkness. Darkness and the sudden voice of … Dante. Oh God, Dante, thank God. Thank you God! “Don’t leave me,” she whispered, trying to reach for him. “I can’t see,” she said, panic grabbing her.

  His strong hands gripped her trembling one and she held on for dear life. “Your eyes are swollen shut, Rin. Try to be still. You’re safe, I got you.”

  She fought to calm down. She was safe, she was … “Where am I?”

  “At a hotel room two states away. Well hidden.”

  “Don’t let him find me,” she whispered. He had ways. Fear gripped her and she gasped, “Where is he?”

  “If he’s not in a hospital, he’s unconscious on the floor where I left him.”

  “Dante,” she whispered, fearful of what he’d done.

  “I didn’t kill the motherfucker,” he grit. “But I wanted to. But I did break a lot of his bones.”

  She trembled everywhere as a rush of feelings hit her. Guilt, fear, pain, nausea, relief. They seemed to cycle quickly through her mind, each wanting her devotion and undivided attention. Her need to examine the whys returned as it always did when she woke from the nightmare. Why had he done this to her? What had she done to warrant such treatment?

  He’d said he’d tested her. Even if that was true, she’d passed. She’d passed the test and he didn’t believe her. She hadn’t … done anything.

  “Relax, Princess.” She jerked to the close voice of Dante and fought down her panic. “Are you hurting?”

  God she was. Everywhere. Her stomach, her back, her face. Her head. Oh God, her butt. It hurt the worst. She wanted to bathe but knew she’d not be able to stand that. Not for a while. But she needed to wash it all off. She always bathed after chastisements. She’d had her share of them but never one that involved sex in the anus. That was considered an abomination. And for him to do that meant …

  “Shhhhh,” Dante said stroking her hair.

  She choked down a sob, trembling as her mind raced to understand. Her husband saw her deeds as abominable … so … his punishment matched it. That’s how he worked, how he thought. The punishment had to match the crime, she knew this. But why did he think she lied? She hadn’t done anything, she’d done as told she’d … she’d let … fear gripped her chest and stomach. Oh God she’d let Dante do those things. Was that the test he’d meant? And he’d acted like Dante had lied ... had he? Did Dante not need to do those things to help her?

  She swallowed, focusing on the pain in her body so the thoughts would leave her alone. Especially the ones that kept pointing to how much she’d liked it. She’d liked all of it. So very much. That was it, that was the abomination, loving the sin, the sin of another man touching her, making her feel alive for the first time. And wanting him. God, she’d wanted it all so badly. She’d managed to hide from those feelings.

  “Medicine,” she whispered.

  “You need more medicine?”

  She nodded, fighting bitter sobs. Much more. But the whole bottle couldn’t take away the pain cutting her spirit. How had she fallen so quickly? So hard? She fought down the brutal bitterness, the remorse that cut her breath right from her soul. Oh God, she’d failed. With all her trying, she’d failed. She’d failed the one she’d wanted to please the most, all her life. She’d failed Him in the worst way ever. As a daughter, and as a wife.
>
  She’d lost everything. The life she was supposed to have but never did. The hope to ever have it. But she especially lost Dante.

  And for that, she was just ready to die. Only now, she was scared to. She didn’t know where her soul would end up if she did.

  ****

  Medicine, water, vitamin fortified soup, and Google search, around the clock for three days straight. Thank God he had all his homeopathic supplies and thank God Rin slept while he researched. And on that front, he learned a whole damn lot of nothing. The Last Day Believers had faced bankruptcy, that was about it. No bad rumors he could find anywhere, except poor money management.

  Blake on the other hand had taken the janitor out for a few beers. He’d only been there a year and didn’t know anything worth knowing except that the janitor before him had been fired. Blake was already running that down and Dante was back to waiting. Waiting on Tin Tin’s call especially. He’d left message at the prison and they were taking their damn time delivering it.

  “I want to shower.”

  Dante’s head snapped up and he stood, staring at a very coherent looking Rin sitting on the edge of the bed. She clutched the covers to her naked body and he made his way to her, careful to keep his pace slow while wanting to explain why she was naked. He wasn’t sure how much of the details she remembered, but by the sound of her voice and the looks of her, she’d just journeyed a long way and had arrived at “holy bad shit” lands.

  And a shower? “It’s kind of early, still, your body—”

  She immediately shook her head. “I don’t care, I have to shower.”

  “Okay,” he hurried, seeing her need to crawl out of her skin. “Just warm water?”

  She nodded after a few seconds, then again more firmly like she’d had to think.

  He studied her lowered face. The swelling was way down and there was just the ugly bruising left. He needed to look at the gashes on her back again. He’d kept them treated with silver salve and a mixture of other numbing and tissue repair ointments. He’d set her nose two days before. Dante had set many broken bones before, but setting hers hurt him more than having his own broken. She’d not cried and hardly made a sound. Almost like she had practice with suffering. That idea made him furious.