Liam by Cynthia Woolf

and John had just been a little quicker, there wouldn’t have been any witnesses to the death. Just like there hadn’t been for the others. They had a good thing going. John got to rape the women, and Richard got to kill them.
    Usually he did it by strangling them. He loved to watch the life leave their body, feel them struggle and then stop as Morpheus claimed them. Watch as their eyes slowly registered that they were dead. It was intoxicating. Invigorating.
    He hadn’t been able to indulge his passion since the Green woman in Blackwater, Missouri, because John made the mistake of having to have her the hard way: concious. She fought like a she devil and there was no time after he was done to kill her in the manner Richard would have preferred, so he shot her. Then Jake Anderson broke in and nearly caught him. Richard was sure he would have died that day if the man had gotten to him, but his luck held and he escaped.
    Even now, luck was with him. He’d managed to stay out of sight for the one thousand miles he’d followed this particular Anderson brother, even on the train. And now he was within reach of his quarry. Three men to kill this time. All brothers. He’d never done brothers before, that he knew of.
    Oh, he supposed he might have during the war, but that didn’t count. You didn’t really see them die. Except for him. His first man, boy really and it was…unintended. Once he saw him and knew he’d seen Richard kill the woman, well, there was no choice—he had to die. He just hadn’t planned on enjoying the act so much.
    He’d shot him in the chest, but not the heart so the boy didn’t die right away. Richard got to hold him and watch the light leave his eyes. See the blood gurgle from his mouth. It had been most satisfying. Now he was going to have three men to do. How would he manage it? Would he have to kill them all at once or one at a time. One at a time would be more satisfying and probably safer. For the first one anyway. The other two would be alerted by the first death and they would be much harder to kill.
    Men were harder to kill than women to begin with. They were stronger and fought back, if he didn’t surprise them first. Maybe he could use the children to lure the men one by one. No. That would only work once. Think. Richard think .
    For now he needed to follow this brother back to the others. Find out where they lived and how. He had to plan. Taking out the family wasn’t going to be easy, but it should prove very satisfying.
    He almost rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
    ~*~
    When Liam arrived home, his children were asleep, but the rest of the family was up and wanting answers.
    “Well,” said Becky. “How did it go? Did she say yes? Is she going to let you court her?”
    “Let him get his coat off, would ya,” said Jake.
    “Fine,” she pouted. “I’ll get you a cup of coffee while you get comfortable.”
    Liam smiled at his little sister-in-law. Where before she never complained, she’d become quite the tyrant since she got pregnant, or maybe just since they all started living together. He remembered Mary had been much the same way. She’d been cranky as soon as she reached six months and the baby started moving in earnest. About the same place in her pregnancy as Becky was now.
    “Here.” She set a cup of steaming coffee on the table in front of him. “So tell us.”
    “All right,” said Liam. “The evening went fine. We had dinner in their tent and talked a lot. She didn’t want to go out because of her ankle.”
    “So what does her father think?” asked Becky.
    “Um, well,” he ran his hand around the back of his neck. “Her father wasn’t there. He’d been called away at the last minute and so we had dinner alone.”
    Zach cocked an eyebrow. “No chaperone?”
    “We’re both grown adults. We don’t need a chaperone,” growled Liam with a little more force than necessary.
    “When are you going to see her again?” asked Becky, ignoring