By a Thread

…by a THREAD by Jo-Anne Wiley

The girl is barely twenty-two. And taking a shortcut through the barrens of the Arizona desert; on her way home to delve into her mother’s roast of beef. A dinner she will never enjoy. The men force her off the road and Bev is taken into the woods and suffers the indignity of having a stranger touch her about the breasts. She is gang-raped.
Afterward, lying naked in the dirt, the men show Beverly the hook. She sees the blatant look of intent and the realization descends: This is more than a sexual assault.
“Bend over,” the man says.
“Please,” Bev pleads, “I did everything you asked.”
The man fists her hair. “I told you to bend over.”
The steel slithers through. Bev swings head down and is hoisted into the pine boughs, thus earning her the dubious distinction of becoming Victim No.7 in Boyko’s murder book.
Officer Taz Azaria takes a keen interest. Taz recognizes something in the girl’s photograph no man on the Scottsdale police force ever could: Bev is a sister.
Someone is killing lesbians and Taz vows fiery vengeance.
All indications point to the Brothers Zion, a cult of religious zealots who act with impunity, outside the realm of the law. The Brethren occupy a compound in the desert and are led by their spiritual leader who believes polygamy is a girl’s golden pathway to the Lord. Any girl who is bold enough to object condemns herself, alongside her mother, to be Raptured in a heinous religious ceremony.
A girl escapes the tyranny; graduates from school, finds a job, makes a life for herself. Her mother, held responsible for bringing her into the world, is not so lucky.
Can the girl forgive? Forget?
No.
A sinner returns to the Brethren and reeks her own brand of justice.
Includes cult violence, group domination, non-consensual, intimidation, sexual indoctrination, torment and vengeance.