Kobe by Christopher S McLoughlin Read Free Book Online Page B

Earl belted out. His grotesque stomach hung out from underneath his sweat stained shirt. It shook as he laughed.
                  "It should be ten times as hard to make you pretty, ya wart covered hog!" Mike balled up his fists tight.
                  "Shut yer mouths." Lester smacked both the goons with his cane. "Get'er outta the bag."
                  A brown haired girl tumbled from the burlap prison. Her white dress was stained with dried blood, mud, and God knows what else.
                  Lester picked up the bag and shook out the German Shepherd's severed head. The star of Hunter and Judd's little comedy show moments earlier.
    * * * * *
                  The dirty rag in her mouth tasted like engine oil, and made her cheeks seethe white foam. The cheap rope that tied her wrists together rubbed through the skin down to her third layer of flesh.
                  The little girl had hope. It was a curse she was born with. A bright smile, pretty green eyes, and a full batch of hope. As her kidnappers argued the best way to set her on fire, a ladybug landed on her bottom lip.
                  She closed her eyes tight. In that instant, before she blew her new friend into the folds of the wind, she wished to be free.
    * * * * *
                  "Should we get your dad?" Hunter asked.
                  "Ain't got time." Judd got up on his knees. "Distract 'em."
                  "What the fuck're you doin' Judd?" Hunter grabbed his pudgy friend by the arm. "You ain't never even been in a fight."
                  "How old you think that girl is, Hunter? Twelve? Thirteen?" Judd yanked his arm back. "I bet we get a closer look, and we may even know her from school." he pulled a switchblade from his back pocket. "I'm gonna take at least one out. I'll backtrack to the trail."
                  "They'll see ya man, ain't no way they ain't gonna see you."
                  Judd smiled, "that's where you come in."
                  Hunter glared at his friend, "what do you mean, 'where I come in'?"
                  "Get their attention," Judd shrugged, "tell them cocksuckers everything you been wantin' to say to 'em for years. Ain't like they can get to you all the way up here."
                  "You're one crazy mother-fucker Judd."
                  "Maybe," Judd smiled, "when I get to the edge, start throwin' bottles and makin' noise." Judd ran back through Playboy Tunnel.
    * * * * *
                  Her green eyes looked like church windows, broken apart in stained glass segments by tears. The strong one, Mike, picked her up without so much as a grunt. She tried her best to kick her captor but he held her legs to the trunk of the tree like an iron vice.
                  Earl, the fat pig of a man, wrapped a thick chain around her waist, attaching the young brunette to the tree. She could hear him salivate over her, a sick twisted sound; moisture escaping as he slapped his lips together.
                  She puked into the rag.
                  The old man, Lester, was the worst of the three. He was the bastard that lured her in. The innocence of it all, the way he drove up so nonchalantly in his red pickup truck.
                  'Your mother's at the shop, little girl, ' he said, 'she asked me to come get ya while we was workin' on yer car.'
                  Lester wasn't a stranger. He gave her a piece of candy every time she went into the mechanic's shop, smiled at her like a grandfather would.
                  Not anymore.
                  He peered his bright icy eyes deep into her soul. "What yer doin' is for the Lord," he said, "I know this seems like it don’t make sense, but ain’t for you, darlin’, it’s for somethin' bigger." Lester pulled a green