Toxic Rage (Rage Series Book 3) Read online

  Toxic Rage

  DE Funk

  Toxic Rage

  DE Funk

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, or to actual events and locales is purely coincidental.

  Toxic Rage

  Copyright © 2022 by DE Funk, LLC

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Editor: Katy Hammond

  Cover design: Patti Rishforth

  www.heartpaperscissors.com

  First Printing, 2022

  Kindle Direct Publishing

  www.kdp.amazon.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.” Luke 8:7

  Dedication

  For Mike

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank my family for believing in me and encouraging me as I wrote this book. Their support means everything to me, and I could not have accomplished it without them. A special thank you to my husband, Chris, who listened to multiple readings of the work. My sister Patti provided the artwork for the book cover. I could not have accomplished anything without the encouragement and prayerful support of my son Ronnie as well as his invaluable medical knowledge. Thank you to my two daughters, Katy and Meri, for listening to my many ideas which often had them quite worried about my mental state.

  My sincere thanks go to my fantastic editor, Linda Gilden, who provided invaluable support on this second book. She has tirelessly worked to get me ready for a much wider audience. I am eternally grateful for all her tutelage.

  Prologue

  Dani hated to see him squirm. He had been running into the walls of his makeshift cage the past few minutes and now was shaking uncontrollably. Dani knew he would vomit next and then fall over and gasp a bit before expelling a final sigh that ushered in his death. She looked at the timer on her phone and made a note in the journal she kept which detailed the dying minutes of her prey. She liked to note how long the process took as well as record the ultimate moment where life ceased to exist. As if on cue her captive fell over, panted briefly before giving a last wheezing sigh and a final twitch of his legs. Dead. He was her sixth victim this week.

  She had a soft spot for the little guys, but they were lab rats after all. Of course, she wasn’t using the creatures in any famous science experiment. No, Dani poisoned her mice. She concocted a lethal potion from her own garden. It’s amazing what a person can do with simple foods like potatoes and rhubarbs. In this case, she used potato leaf tea for the mouse. The animal had been denied water for a day and when the tea was put in the special rodent dropper in the cage, the mouse drank it as if it was, well, water. He was certainly thirsty. Dani didn’t let herself get attached to the mice. They were simply a means to an end. She felt the rodents served their purpose and it was time to take her studies to the next level. She needed to poison some human lab rats.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 Dani

  Chapter 2 Libby

  Chapter 3 Dani

  Chapter 4 Chester

  Chapter 5 Mike

  Chapter 6 Dani

  Chapter 7 Libby

  Chapter 8 Mike

  Chapter 9 Dani

  Chapter 10 Libby

  Chapter 11 Mike

  Chapter 12 Dani

  Chapter 13 Libby

  Chapter 14 Mike

  Chapter 15 Dani

  Chapter 16 Autumn

  Chapter 17 Libby

  Chapter 18 Mike

  Chapter 19 Libby

  Chapter 20 Dani

  Chapter 21 Mike

  Chapter 22 Russell

  Chapter 23 Waylon

  Chapter 24 Mike

  Chapter 25 Libby and Mike

  Chapter 26 Mike

  Chapter 27 Russell

  Chapter 28 Mike

  Chapter 29 Libby

  Chapter 30 Mike and Russell

  Chapter 31 Libby

  Chapter 32 Dani

  Chapter 33 Mike

  Chapter 34 Dani

  Chapter 35 Mike

  Chapter 36 Libby

  Chapter 37 Mike

  Chapter 38 Dani

  Chapter 39 Arnold

  Chapter 40 Libby

  Chapter 41 Dani

  Chapter 42 Libby

  Chapter 43 Russell

  Chapter 44 Dani

  Chapter 45 Libby

  Chapter 46 Russell

  Chapter 47 Mike

  Toxic Rage

  Chapter 1 Dani

  The eerie screeching noise of the metal handcuff slipping around her left wrist registered in her brain before her eyes understood the message. She gasped when she saw the shiny bracelet encircling her arm.

  “What are you doing? I’m not into that kind of thing,” Dani said.

  “It’s not a sex thing. This is your new home, and I don’t want you running away,” replied her captor.

  “You can’t keep me here. Get these things off me.”

  “No can do. You need to get used to them. In time maybe you can earn some freedom but not until I can trust you.”

  Dani shook her arm and noticed the long chain attached to the other handcuff in the set. It made her think of Christmas movies and ghosts, but she knew there would be no happy ending for her. Her heart rate began to accelerate, and she felt a shortness of breath.

  “I don’t want to stay. Let me go,” said Dani. She shook her arm again in anger and frustration.

  “You’re mine now. I’ll never let you go.”

  A shrill bell rang startling her.

  Dani Svenson woke up from her vivid nightmare and reached over to the bedside table to silence the alarm.

  “Will they ever stop?” She asked no one.

  It had been a several months since she was locked up in an abandoned shed in the middle of nowhere. Russell Thomas had charmed her with his good looks and smooth talking. He wooed her right into visiting the cabin he had been working on, saying it was just for her. When he got her inside, he slipped the metal around Dani’s arm leaving her other free to tend to his needs. He kept her hostage until she was discovered by Libby O’Malley. Thankfully the behaviorist had figured out who was behind the string of missing girls and tracked him to that awful shed. When Libby crashed through the only door to the place she was greeted by a crazy woman and a dead body. Turned out, the body wasn’t dead, only comatose.

  Dani had figured out a way to feed Russell some cyanide laced cherry pie. The treat caused her captor to pass out. It was supposed to kill him. Dani had stumbled upon the poisonous recipe of using the pits from cherries to taint her pastries when she was researching female murderers. She never intended to use the procedure but had stumbled upon it while researching information for a criminal justice course she was taking. She had every intention of attending the police academy but that all changed when she met Russell. Ironically, the information saved her life.

  Dani vowed she would never let a man have that kind of power over her again and if she could help others in the same position she wouldn’t hesitate. The way she saw it, Russell got what he deserved. He was currently sitting in a jail cell waiting on the decision that would determine if he lived or died. She hoped he got the death penalty. South Carolina is a death penalty state and convicted inmates can choose the electric chair or the firing squad. She hoped he chose the electric chair. He needed to suffer for
all the girls he murdered before he met Dani.

  Dani completed her morning ritual including a shower and two cups of dark roasted coffee. She glanced at the phone and noticed the time. Better hit the road so she wouldn’t be late for her job. The one at the bakery.

  Chapter 2 Libby

  Dr. Libby O’Malley pulled away from the Bag and Brew after collecting her favorite cup of coffee. She liked to treat herself to an extra-large mocha java on the mornings she left home early to drive to The Bluffton

  Regional Youth Center, called The Brick by locals. It was home to juveniles sentenced to prison for a variety of crimes. Some of the inmates were in for very serious transgressions and were headed to adult incarceration the day they turned eighteen. It was Libby’s job to hold therapy sessions with them and possibly provide them with alternative ways to handle the crime and pressures so many of them faced. Over the years she had worked with killers, rapists, thieves, and even arsonists. There was never a dull day at The Brick.

  Libby sipped her beverage knowing she needed to finish it before arriving at the institution only because she always stopped to have another cup of coffee with the guards. Not that the coffee was particularly good but more for the camaraderie she wanted to share with the officers. They were each a fountain of wealth in the things they noticed about the kids, and in turn, the details they shared with her. They also looked out for her which she appreciated. She was amid criminals, after all, and it never hurt to have extra eyes watching over things.

  There were times in her career when she didn’t realize she was in danger and could’ve used those eyes watching over her. One incident that sticks in her mind the most had nothing to do with any juveniles currently housed at The Brick. Years ago, when she was a teacher, she took some assignments to the home of a student of hers who had been suspended for fighting. While she was there, she only enraged the “father figure” living in the small trailer, he ended up abusing her and chaining her in an abandoned shed. Her student followed her and helped her escape.

  Ironically, and unbeknownst to anyone, her student was a budding serial killer. He slaughtered his first victim when he was just thirteen. Stabbing the person multiple times and realizing he enjoyed the power the weapon gave him. Knives would become his new best friend. Libby wasn’t aware of his crime at the time, she was merely appreciative of the boy’s assistance in freeing her. But it was only a matter of days before her young hero was arrested and sent to prison for murder. However, it was not for the murder of his first victim, instead he was arrested for slaying the man who abducted Libby and was an abusive tormentor to him.

  Russell was sent to juvenile detention where Libby would visit him frequently. That is until she learned what she refers to as, her dark secret. She and the adolescent, Russell Thomas, were cousins. Russell’s biological father was her uncle. That man was the infamous Trailer Park Killer and met his own fate on the executioner’s table years before Russell even knew the guy’s name.

  The investigation into Russell’s crime revealed the young boy was the victim of untold horrors of sexual and physical abuse. Everyone could understand how he simply “lost it” in a fit of rage and killed the man. He was such a polite and likeable young man, anyone who met him during his incarceration liked him and hoped he could make a fresh start once he was released. Libby was the only one who had misgivings about Russell and did not want any kind of relationship with Russell once he was paroled. Before the big day arrived, she visited him one last time and encouraged him to move away but he had no plans of leaving. Nope, the likeable young man had everyone fooled. Once he was out, he picked up where he left off and killed over ten young women. Now he was back in prison and this time he wasn’t fooling anyone. No one liked him and prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. She thought they’d get it. She hoped they would.

  Get your head out of those dark clouds and focus on the kids you’re getting ready to meet, Libby said to herself as she finished up her coffee. She turned her car onto the oyster shell drive of the beautiful mansion that looked like something from the Old South. It was The Brick. Years ago, it was a working indigo plantation before making a long journey to the place it is today, a juvenile correctional center.

  Libby parked and grabbed her brand new, extra-large black bag. It was big enough to hold many case files as well as the things a girl usually hides in her purse. She closed the car door and then promptly had to open it again to retrieve her keys.

  “One of these days I’ll get used to not having to insert my key in an ignition.” Libby gave the remote two squeezes and locked the vehicle. She liked to hear the horn beep twice. Silly habit, she knew. Like talking to herself.

  Libby was dressed in designer jeans and wore an untucked blouse. Not to be sloppy, it was designed to be worn as such. The top was in a soft shade of lavender which was a nice accent to her shoulder length blond hair. She wore her hair pulled back in a business-like ponytail. She never liked to dress to call attention to her looks when she went to The Brick. She didn’t realize her natural beauty showed through no matter how she dressed. Her slip-on canvas shoes made no noise as she arrived at the front desk and swiped her badge to gain admittance to the office area. The buzz of the door caused the office administrator to look up from her computer.

  “Morning, Doc. I have been waiting for you to get here. Guess who came in last night?” said the administrator, an energetic woman sporting a pixie cut currently spiked straight out from her head.

  “Morning, Heather. No clue who might have been brought in. Do I get a hint or are you going to tell me?” said Libby.

  “One word. Fire.”

  “Oh no. Autumn’s back?”

  “Give the woman a gold star,” said Heather. “Got it right on the first try. Yeah, she got caught lighting up a neighbor’s garage.”

  Autumn Wells is a fourteen-year-old girl who originally came to The Brick for setting her house on fire and in turn, killing her mother. A smooth-talking lawyer her dad hired for her, saw to it that Autumn experienced minimal time behind bars. One of the stipulations, however, was for her to undergo extensive therapy sessions. Libby was the court ordered therapist and she thought Autumn was beyond her fire-starting days. Guess she was wrong.

  “Got any of the details in her file for me?”

  “Silly question. Of course I do.” Heather patted a file on the corner of her desk. Libby reached over and picked it up and then quickly scanned the first page.

  “Don’t know why I asked that. Says here it was an abandoned garage located in the woods away from the main house. No one was hurt except for some rodents and a feral cat. Poor animals.”

  “Yeah, wrong place and time for those critters. With her record Autumn was sent straight to us. Can you stay a little late and chat with her? Warden is asking, not me,” Heather said.

  “Sure. Mike always takes care of carpool duties on my days out here. We learned a long time ago that my hours here were subject to changing at the last minute.”

  “I’ll let Warden Gripes know. He’ll be glad you can.”

  “Anything else?”

  “It has actually been quiet here with the kids lately. Makes me wonder if a storm’s brewing though.”

  “Hope not. I’ll head to the room then. See ya’ later.”

  “Keep your head up.” That was Heather’s signature expression, reminding Libby to be alert around the inmates. Libby appreciated the thought.

  Libby left the office area and headed to the canteen. She entered the room and saw Spook, her favorite guard, sitting at table cradling a paper cup of coffee.

  “Morning Spook. Guys,” Libby glanced at all the guards in the room as she greeted them. “Everyone doing well today?”

  A murmur of yeses went around the room.

  “How you doing, Doc?” asked Spook. The big guard earned his nickname as a kid when he was nothing more than a scrawny and pale adolescent. His classmates started calling him Spook and the name stuck. Now no one dares pick on the six foot
two-hundred-pound guard. He looked intimidating but he had a soft spot for most of the kids at The Brick. They didn’t know it though.

  “I’m well. Been busy and I hear I’ll be seeing Autumn Wells again.”

  “Yeah. She’s over in the girl’s hall. I’ll bring her to you when you give the word.”

  “Thanks. That’ll be in a few hours. I need to meet with my groups first. How are things on the floors with them all?” asked Libby.

  “Been okay lately for some reason. But that just makes me nervous. Like I wonder what they got up their sleeve for us, you know what I mean?” said Spook.

  “Is there a full moon coming?”

  “Probably and we all know that can mean trouble. Never have figured out the relationship between full moons and delinquent kids.”

  “Tons of literature on it if you ever want to read about it,” said Libby.

  “No offense, but that’d bore the tar out of me,” said Spook.

  Libby laughed and then said her goodbyes as she left and made her way to her therapy room.

  She enjoyed meeting with the incarcerated youth in this room. It was oddly cheery considering it was in the middle of The Brick. If walls could talk these could tell some eerie, sad, and even crazy stories. Like the time the fourteen-year-old kid told the group about killing his elderly grandpa with the old man’s own cane. The boy wanted some money to go hang out with his friends and get a burger, but he’d been in trouble at school and his grades were poor so his grandpa said he thought the boy should study instead of loafing with his friends. That didn’t sit too well with the kid. He grabbed the man’s cane and proceeded to beat him to death. Instead of the other delinquents in the room being upset about the senseless murder, they all thought the old man got what he deserved. Libby had her work cut out with that crowd. Many of them have since moved on to adult prisons. The fourteen-year-old killer is now days away from his eighteenth birthday and his present will be a ride in the back of a prison van transporting him to Columbia where he will serve out his life sentence.