Without a Prayer by Susan Ashline

Author:Susan Ashline
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Epub3
Publisher: Pegasus Books

Worry was mounting on Main Street in Clayville. Neighbors wondered why the Leonards weren’t home. Frances thought they had gone visiting. As the night wore on, Pamela Murphy got a feeling something wasn’t right. Usually, the Leonards would be returning the same time she was getting home from work, at about eleven o’clock. But at eleven thirty, the house was still empty.

Down the road, Frank and Brenda were confused by the family’s absence. Luke hadn’t come over to get paid for dog sitting. When he didn’t show up after a while, Frank walked the Sunday paper down to Luke’s place and dropped it on the porch. He would never get his key chain back. The newspaper—“It’s still on the chair on the porch,” Frank said, three years later. “Shriveled up a little bit. I walk around the block and I see it there all the time.”

Linda made Chris take off his glasses. He fumbled with them nervously, almost dropping them. Before he could lower his arm all the way, Linda hauled off and punched him in the face. Blood spewed from his nose. But that wasn’t the end—she pummeled him madly, all over the head and chest, sending the blood from his nose flicking against the wall. Debi, who’d gotten out of her chair heaving and panting, walked up to Chris and punched him. Weakened by her recent heart attack, her face flushed as her temper raised, and she balled her fist, squeezed, and whacked. Though frail in appearance, the father was stronger, and he threw much harder punches, offering no protection for his boys—just fear.

Then Joe delivered repeated kicks to Chris’s upper thigh. It sent him hurtling to the floor. Chris lay still and stared at the ceiling tiles, the fluorescent lights shining on him like a flood of interrogation. Joe dropped to the floor and forced Chris’s arms to his sides. Though the boy didn’t struggle, Joe held his arms firmly, allowing any takers to get in their shots free and clear. And they did. The cold floor almost felt good in contrast to the heat the beating was generating, and the blood dripping from Chris’s nose was warm as it slid into his mouth.

Luke stood petrified, unable to help his brother. He must’ve known he was next, watching his mother’s ratty hair beading with sweat at the roots, and his father flailing inexorably, focused on Chris as if wearing blinders. There were his sisters, Sarah and young Grace. And there was Joe, Dan, Dave, Tiffanie, and Linda, everyone having lost common sense and reason.

The oldest Irwin brother, Dan, had not taken a swing. He’d been coming and going, wandering from room to room. At this time, he was not in the small sanctuary.

Joe’s face was purpling as he held down Chris, and his phone was going off. It was his mother texting about the next day’s prayer meeting. Monday was supposed to be the last warm day of the year, and they had a ton of work to do.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.