“Hey, preacher,” I hollered, “remember last night when I guessed you like to prey on defenseless women? It’s something sexual for you, ain’t it? That the only way you can raise the steeple? Be honest now, preacher, God’ll—”

Cody Eli kicked me so hard I clamped my mouth shut for fear of my soul floating out otherwise. A hand grabbed me by the hair, and Randy Jessup took center stage wearing a new eyepatch with a flaming dove from Heaven.

“I would not normally say this, but I’m going to revel in what the Lord has in store for you today. Maybe you’ll quit all that foolish talk and crudeness.” Randy Jessup shook my hair and scalp loose from his fingers. “Cody, make him get dressed and bring him upstairs. Cory’s waiting for us.”

Cody snatched me from the floor and shoved my jeans in my face. I knew he was looking for a reason to hurt me, and I didn’t know if I could take another beating. I took my time slipping each leg into my jeans, but Cody didn’t even give me a chance to zip.

Randy Jessup sat next to the big wooden torture device Christ got crucified to death upon. He’d crossed one leg over the other and flipped the onion skins of his Bible. He didn’t seem to be looking for any particular scripture and put it away when we came into the room. Cory Eli sat in a pew at the front of the church and turned to see us come down the aisle. He stood like he was waiting to see the blushing bride-to-be, then the preacher walked down the steps from the altar.

A bench press stood in the middle of the floor with a towel draped over the end of it. Jugs of water sat on the floor next to it. Cory looked like Rambo, fresh out of ammo with a belt draped over each shoulder. Cody body-slammed me on the floor and bowled me onto the bench. Cory came in while his brother held me down and strapped a belt across my chest and thighs. They were buckled in so tight I could feel the circulation getting cut off to my hands and feet. The preacher stepped into my line of sight, and that flaming dove floated above me.

“Nazis would slit your belly and leave you in the company of a hog. Vietcong like to tap bamboo reeds under your fingernails. Hell of a way to get gangrene. Arabs will take a set of jumper cables to your privates and try to figure out which one was positive and which was negative. But there are no heathens in the house of the Lord.”

Randy Jessup bent to lift one of those jugs from the floor. Cory Eli took the towel and pulled it across my face like they did to that fatass in Full Metal Jacket. The preacher said, “We left here last night and went looking for your brother, but he wasn’t at that bar in Blackwood where Jessa picked you up at. Wasn’t at your trailer when we rolled by there. Even checked your mama’s place.”