Page 40 of Monster
My next kick broke several ribs; there was the sickening snap of bones breaking and I smiled in triumph. I should have done it years earlier. Back when Keeley had told me what he had been doing to her. It was only because she had asked me not to that I hadn't.
God, it felt good.
“Enough.” The Judge’s chuckle filled the air as his hand came down on my arm, drawing me back a step so I had no choice but to lower my foot. I glowered at him, not understanding why he had stopped me. We had gone there to teach my uncle a lesson and that's exactly what I was doing. “We need to do this properly.”
I didn't answer him at first. My eyes returned to my father’s brother where he had fallen at my feet and I scowled. “He deserves it.”
“Yes, he does. But this isn't the way. Haul his ass onto a chair.” The Judge’s words were final but that didn't stop me wanting to argue with them. Keeley was my family. He didn't get to tell me how to dish out the justice she deserved. Justice I should have given her years earlier.
“Why?”
“Because Gio wants answers and I think you might want them as well.” Something in The Judge’s voice made me pause. Did Keeley have secrets that I didn't know? Ones that she hadn't told me?
Could things have been worse there for her than I had ever imagined? For the first time in days any thought of Angela left my head. Angela was weak. She hadn't been able to shake off the shackles of her father and in the end she had run back to him. My cousin wasn't weak.. She had escaped.
But exactly what was it that she had escaped?
Twisting my hand into the collar of my uncle's shirt, I dragged him kicking into the sparsely furnished living room. Tossing him onto the threadbare sofa, I stood over him, my fists clenched at my side.
“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are.” Booze made my uncle braver once he didn't have my boot breaking his ribs. But like any drunk, I knew it wouldn't last.
“Shut the fuck up.”
“I don't know what Keeley has told you but I haven't done a thing. I didn't touch my daughter…”
So, he knew why we were there.
Stepping in front of me, The Judge lowered his voice to a whisper. “We know what you did to her. What we want to know is how far it went.” He took a deep breath and for the first time ever I saw real emotion in the killer's eyes. “Did you rape your daughter?”
* * *
I was still reelingfrom his question when we left my uncle's house twenty minutes later. I had known Keeley my entire life. She was the only member of my family I had ever given the time of day to. I had known when she arrived in the Savage Sons territory and told me her story, that her life growing up had been as hellish as mine, but never in a million years did I think she had been sexually abused.
She hadn't said a word. If she had, then I would have ignored her all those years ago and her father would not have been left breathing. Maybe that was why she hadn't said anything.
“Do you think he's telling the truth?” I asked quietly as I slipped into the dark confines of The Judge’s car. I wished I had taken my bike so I could’ve hit the road and let the cold wind blow away the cobwebs in my brain.
My uncle had of course denied ever touching his daughter inappropriately, but I wasn't sure I believed him.
“What do you think?” The Judge started the engine, not waiting to wipe the blood off his knuckles with the wipes I had found in the glove compartment.
What did I think? I thought my uncle deserved to die and it was taking everything in my power not to go back in there and finish the job. We had worked him over, beaten him senseless, but it didn't feel like enough.
I hated the fact that Keeley might have told the head of The Family more than me. Why would she confide in a man she didn't know when she knew I would do anything to protect her? My hands curled into fists.
The Judge read me easily. “Easy there. We have done what we came to do. Only a suicidal man would contact her again. But I don't think I believe him. Do you?”
“No.” I answered simply. “No, I don’t think I do. I just don't understand why she told Gio and not me.”
In the darkness of the car, The Judge's eyes widened. “Stop making Keeley’s pain about you, Monster. She didn't tell Gio anything; he read her records, he did the math, and he wanted a firm warning to be sent out that Keeley was to be left alone. I think we have sent that warning, don’t you?”
I bristled. “If he touched her…”
“You are going to drive yourself insane with what ifs. Keeley wants the past forgotten. If Gio can respect her wishes, then so can you. Going back in there and killing him...”
Oh, killing him sounded like a good idea.
“...won’t do you any good in the long run. How the hell are you meant to get your woman back if you end up locked up?”
