Empty Bodies 3: Deliverance (Empty Bodies Series Book 3) by Zach Bohannon Page B

is way too scared. So, that just leaves me.”
    His hand landed on her arm and his face moved closer to hers. “We’re gonna be right behind you. I promise. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Will leaned in and hugged her, and as she looked back down the hall over his shoulder, Jessica saw Holly glaring at her.
    Will pulled away. “Go get some rest. We’re gonna head out in just a couple of hours.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

    Dylan
    As soon as he finished eating his steak and egg breakfast, Clint slammed his hands on the table and jumped to his feet. It startled Dylan, who almost choked as he was trying to force down more of his slop. He looked up to see the large man looking down to Clint and nodding.
    “Everything’s ready?” Clint asked.
    The oversized man nodded. A grin stretched across Clint’s face.
    Cindy stood and looked down at the two boys sitting next to Dylan.
    “Go to your room!” she demanded.
    The two boys promptly stood up and dashed up the stairs, refraining from speaking, though one of them giggled.
    The woman stomped over to Dylan and grabbed him by the arm, pinching the skin around his bicep. The boy cried out, but she ignored him and dragged him away anyway.
    “Where are you taking me?” Dylan asked.
    “Shut up,” Cindy said.
    Clint and David walked a few paces in front of them, talking to each other. Dylan wasn’t able to make out what they were saying, and he was too focused on the pain in his arm for it to matter.
    When they stepped outside, he immediately put his free hand over his eyes. It had been a couple of days since he’d been out in the sun, and in that short amount of time, his eyes had already forgotten how bright it was. A gentle breeze carried an autumn chill in the air which brushed against the boy’s skin through his clothes.
    For the first time, he saw outside of the home he’d been a prisoner in. He looked across the large yard of overgrown grass to see the old barn that he assumed was the same one he’d spent time in when he’d first arrived there, before he’d been knocked out and dragged over to the house. From the outside, the barn looked like it could crumble at any given moment. Mismatched colored boards patched holes in the structure, and tall discolored grass surrounded it.
    Dylan’s attention returned to where the people were leading him. A table sat in a part of the yard where the unkempt grass became dirt. An old, full-grown tree shaded the area. When the   group moved close enough to the table for Dylan to see what lay on top of it, his eyes widened.
    A woman, appearing to be in her early twenties, lay in the middle of the table. He hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the girl’s in the barn to know if she was one of two that had been in the barn with him. Her hands and feet were bound to the table and her mouth was gagged. Her muffled screaming sent a chill through Dylan, and as they got closer to her, she looked over at the group and her eyes met Dylan’s. The young boy didn’t know a person’s eyes could be so red. There was a pain in them that he would not be able to understand until later in his life. He might, in fact, never understand it. But what he did understand was the fear inside him as he looked at the girl.
    “Go ahead, Horace,” Clint said, looking to the large man.
    Dylan looked to where Horace was walking and he noticed a small shack about twenty-five yards away from where they stood, just outside the looming shadow of the old tree. He noticed that the door on the metal building was moving.
    The boy’s attention turned away from the shack when he heard a commotion coming from the barn. He looked over and saw the doors open. Two men appeared from the inside. One of them was a man with long, stringy hair, wearing a sleeveless plaid shirt that was unbuttoned to reveal his bare chest underneath. He was holding another man by the shirt and Dylan recognized the man instantly.
    It was the preacher.
    The long-haired man brought the