Page 43 of Son of a Preacher Man
Pretending not to notice, Seth kept his head straight and his hand inside his pants. To do otherwise could put him in the line of fire. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn’t intervene. Any attempt at all would be suicide.
“Are you all right, Jeffrey?” The reverend poked at the bulge between his legs with the handle end of a riding crop.
“I’m fine.”
“No, boy.” He tsked, smacking the crop against his palm. “If looking at a man suck another man’s dick arouses you, you are not fine. What would Amy think if she could see you right now, hmm? She’d be repulsed by you, wouldn’t she?”
Whack.
Jeffrey screamed.
Seth didn’t dare look. He didn’t have to. The reverend always struck where it would hurt the most.
“Just as God is repulsed by you. You’re weak. And sick…still so sick. I’m disappointed in you, boy. We all are.”
As Jeffrey sat there whimpering, Seth heard the snap of the sadist’s fingers. “Bring me Bertha.”
Seth’s eyes snapped up to the collection of leather belts hanging on the wall. There were twelve, and each one of them had a name—Judy, Betty, Mama. But Bertha was the thickest, heaviest one of them all. She wielded the greatest amount of pain and inflicted the most damage.
“No, Daddy. Please, I’ll try harder,” Jeffrey pleaded to no avail.
Squeezing his eyes shut, Seth winced at the sound of the first strike. And the godawful sounds kept coming. Sick to his stomach, he fought the urge to vomit.
Then a hush fell over the room. Thick and pungent, the metallic scent of blood assaulted him. He opened his eyes to see Jeffrey on his knees beside the desk, his bony back an oozing bloody mess.
With tobacco-stained fingers, the reverend unzipped his pants. “You like sucking cock, boy?”
“No.” The word was barely audible.
“What’d you say?”
“No, Daddy.”
Jesus Christ, leave him alone.
But Seth knew that he wouldn’t.
Laughing, he shoved his dick in the boy’s face.
Jeffrey vomited, puke spewing everywhere.
“Get this worthless little fuck out of here,” he bellowed at his minions. Then he looked at the nine of them sitting there, horrified at what they’d just witnessed. “The rest of you can clean up this stinking mess.”
No one spoke a word. Knowing Jeffrey would need to be tended to, they hurried through their task. The six girls went with them to their cabin. Opening the door, Seth expected to find him writhing there in pain. Instead, they found his bunk empty, the mattress bare.
Austin went to his locker. “His stuff’s gone.”
Even his reminder jar was missing.
“Where the fuck is he?” Seth paced the cabin floor. “Where’d they take him?”
“Maybe they put him in the cage,” one of the girls supplied. Isolation was another tactic the reverend liked to employ.
“Or took him to a hospital,” said another.
“Doubt that.” Austin pounded his fist into the locker. “The cops would come and shut this hellhole down if they knew the shit that goes on here.”
“Think they don’t?”
