The Beasts of Juarez by R.B. Schow (story books to read .txt) 📗

she said goodbye. This was perhaps the most beautiful picture of his soon-to-be ex-wife that he’d ever had. Leopold hadn’t found Alabama just yet, but in a way, the man brought him his family, and that being the case he couldn’t be that bad.

Somewhere inside of him, Leopold Wentworth had a big heart he kept hidden from others. But he’d shown Atlas compassion and generosity, and for that, he had Atlas’s loyalty as well as his respect. This, of course, had him thinking of Kiera and the thing she had said to him just before leaving.

“The only thing more important than freedom is human connection,” she had said, her breath warm upon his ear. “I will miss you, Atlas Hargrove.”

“I will miss you, too,” he said as he wiped his eyes.

And with that, he started thinking about how he could get out of prison, not just for another job, but for the rest of his life.

Chapter Fifty

SYDNEY FOX

Sydney Fox walked into her bedroom, closed the door, and sat on the bed with Santiago’s camera in hand. She had taken the camera from the house when they went back for whatever things of value they could find. Sitting on the bed beside her was her favorite picture of Callie. She cried as she looked at her daughter, and though she had come to loathe Camden for what he’d done, she cried for him as well. Leopold told her the entire truth about Camden and the Secretary of State. He even told her the fate of every single person who orchestrated this vile nightmare. She needed the closure. It helped to know why this occurred, but her family was still broken, the scars too deep to ever properly heal. One day at a time, though.

After linking the camera to the large TV on her dresser, she swallowed hard and pushed PLAY for the fiftieth time. On the TV, she watched herself being violated by that foul, loathsome creature, Santiago Cardenas. Then she watched Atlas break in, shoot the cretin twice, and then cut her free. When she and Atlas dragged Santiago’s bleeding body around the front of the bed, her heart began to race. Moments later, she watched as she cut Santiago’s dick and balls off.

When the Sydney Fox on the TV turned around and walked toward the camera, the Sydney Fox watching her hit pause so that she could study herself. There was a quiet rage in those eyes, a look of cold vengeance. She had slaughtered the man and it felt good. She was a murderer. She was an avenger.

Inside, when she felt that hardened part of her wanting to go soft, to yield to the terror that had festered inside of her, she instead turned to that strong vengeful woman she had become and she embraced her. This was who she had to be for her two daughters now. This was who she had to be to never let something like this happen again.

The men who did this to her, these beasts of Juárez, had awakened in her a ferociousness she had never known before. At first, she hated this new part of her, but then she came to embrace it.

A knock on the bedroom door startled her. She shut off the TV and said, “Come in.”

Maisie walked in, her big eyes wet and red. “I had another nightmare.”

“Do you want to sleep with me again tonight?” Sydney asked.

She nodded her head.

Moments later, Zoey came in, too.

“Would you like to sleep in here as well?”

“Yes, please.”

Smiling, she said, “Turn off the light, then.”

Her daughter turned off the lights, and moments later, Sydney felt that second little body find her, curl into her, cling to her for dear life.

As she lay in bed with her two children tucked safely against her, she reminded herself that she was safe with them, that they were together, and that no one could take them away from her again. With that soft reassurance, she closed her eyes and finally let herself drift off to sleep.

THE END

Join Atlas and the team on their next adventure in The Betrayal of Prague...

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The Betrayal Of Prague: A Look Ahead…

A single, gruesome act of violence…

….in a historic city crawling with the predatory elite.

Have Atlas and the team finally bitten off more than they can chew?

As Leopold’s private investigator zeroes in on Atlas’s missing daughter, a growing network of hunters has dropped