Or he woke up from this nightmare.
He didn’t. Instead, he reached down, grabbed the man’s wrinkled shirt again and hauled him to his feet.
“God help me. Don’t hurt me,” Matthew pleaded.
Rev sneered at him. “Did you fuckin’ know my sister was your daughter?”
“It’s… It’s a woman’s duty to bear children. A wife who can’t bear her husband any children is seen as a failure. We didn’t… We… She couldn’t go to anyone else. We had to keep it a secret. We had to keep it in the family.”
Apparently. They took “keeping it in the family” to a whole other level. A sick and twisted one.
“But women will be preserved through the bearing of children—”
“Don’t spout that shit at me. Don’t wanna fuckin’ hear it. You’re all fuckin’ hypocrites. Wanna know why you fucked—”
Matthew winced and cut him off quickly. “It’s also a man’s duty to create a family. Children are a heritage from the Lord—”
“Said I don’t wanna hear that bullshit. Want the truth.”
“Your mother couldn’t get pregnant. She asked me for help…”
Rev’s eyebrows just about launched free of his forehead. “And that’s how you helped her? By knockin’ her up ‘cause her husband couldn’t? What kind of sick motherfucker are you? This whole fuckin’ family’s whacked. Christ!”
“Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain.”
His head was about to explode off his neck. “That’s what you’re worried about? Me takin’ the Lord’s name in vain when you fucked your own sister?”
“No one was supposed to know. Not even your father.”
“Who isn’t my fuckin’ father! More fuckin’ family secrets!” he roared. “Does your wife know you had a child with your own fuckin’ sister, just so she wouldn’t be blamed for being a failure? How she appeared to her congregation was more important than getting pregnant by her own brother?” Maybe getting knocked up by her father hadn’t been a choice but fucking her brother sure the fuck was.
“It wasn’t like that!” Matthew exclaimed.
“Oh, okay, it happened by accident, then. You just accidentally busted a nut in your sister.”
Matthew’s face became dark and stormy. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
“It’s that easy, is it? Spout some bible passage, ask for forgiveness and all your sins are cleansed? This family is fucked. This whole thing is fucked. You’re all fucked!” Rev shouted, his pulse pounding at his temples. He jabbed a finger toward the house. “You let that man touch your niece…” Rev shook his head. “No! Your fuckin’ daughter!”
Matthew blanched. “He didn’t do anything differently than what our father did with Sister Rachel. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him… He was teaching her to—”
Rev slammed his fist into Matthew’s face shutting him the fuck up. The man’s nose exploded under the force of his knuckles, causing blood to spurt and splatter on Rev’s skin and shirt. Before Matthew could fall, Rev grabbed a fistful of his shirt again and yanked him back to his feet, released him and punched him once more, knocking him backward and off his feet. His brother-uncle landed hard on his ass in the grass.
Matthew tried to scramble away, to pull himself out of reach, but Rev was quicker than him. Standing over and straddling him, Rev leaned over to lift Matthew’s torso again by the shirt with his bloody and bruised right hand. His left fist made contact with his jaw, snapping his head to the side.
Matthew’s eyes rolled back, his eyelids fluttered closed and his bleeding mouth gaped open. A second later, he went limp in Rev’s grasp. Rev released him and let him crumple to the ground.
“Fuckin’ motherfucker. If there was a God, he woulda struck you dead by now.” Rev made sure the man was no longer conscious before straightening. His voice felt strained and raw when he continued. “You don’t deserve to breathe the same air as Sarah. You don’t deserve to have the same blood in your veins. I should steal your breath and drain your blood. You aren’t fuckin’ worthy.”
I should kill him. I should kill him. I should kill him.
It would be too risky. The man wasn’t worth going to prison for. Not worth the possibility of him being locked up and leaving Saylor with no one but the club.
Matthew’s death would most likely be questioned and investigated, when the person’s who already laid on his deathbed wouldn’t.
Even so, Rev could make the man hurt and maybe regret his life choices. Rev punted him in the ribs with his boot, hoping he cracked a few while he was at it. “That’s for not protectin’ what was yours. Whether she was your fuckin’ niece or your damn daughter. You did nothin’. Not a goddamn thing to stop it.”
He was wasting his breath. Matthew couldn’t hear shit. But when he came to, he would remember why he was fucking hurting so damn bad and who made it happen.
Rev decided to leave him one more reminder for when he woke up. He sucked a hocker deep from his nasal passages into his mouth and spat the thick wad onto the unconscious man’s face.
He stared down at his brother-uncle, reminding himself the man wasn’t worth doing a life-long prison bid. He twisted his head to see Reilly still standing on the porch where he told her to stay.
She had listened to him. Imagine that.
She was holding onto one of the wood posts and her mouth was moving.
He had no idea what the fuck she was saying. He focused on her, trying to clear his mind, and managed to catch the tail end of whatever she said.
“—should leave.”
No. He wasn’t done there yet.
Before he left, the man in that house, in that bed, needed to die. He was done waiting for nature to take its course. He was done being at this house, in this town, being related to these whacked fuckers.
He needed to scrape all this shit clean. From his memories, from his future.
But the man who left physical scars on his back, the man who caused Saylor’s mental scars… His time had come. Whether he stopped breathing today by force or tomorrow from his illness, it no longer mattered to Rev.
He. Was. Done.
He rushed up the porch, blowing past Reilly, who stood frozen in place, her mouth gaped open.
She had seen everything that happened so far, but he didn’t want her to watch what was about to come next. She didn’t need to be an accomplice or a witness who could be questioned by the pigs if it ever came down to that. He didn’t want any of his fucked-up family’s shit splattered on her.
“Rev!” Reilly screamed, scrambling after him.
Before she could reach the door, he slammed it shut and flipped the deadbolt, locking her outside.
“Rev!” She pounded on the door and jerked on the door handle. “Don’t do anything stupid! He’s not worth it, either! None of them are!”
He ignored her and spotted his mother standing at the end of the narrow hallway in the entrance to the kitchen with her hands wringing her apron.
The same way he wanted to wring her damn neck.