I TAKE HER to my parents’. Not wanting to go back to the house of Lords with her because Amelia is probably hanging out there since I have yet to call her since the day she barged into my room there. And I’m not taking Elli home. I place her in my bed and shut the door, heading to my sister’s room.
Her door is cracked open, so I walk right in. She’s sitting on her bed, her back facing me. “Hey, I—”
“Fuck, Sin.” She jumps to her feet, spinning around to face me. “Fucking knock.” She wears a towel wrapped around her body underneath her underarms. Her hair is down and wet. Her eyes quickly shoot to the bathroom door and then quickly return to mine.
I step farther into her room. “What’s going on?” I ask.
“Nothing,” she growls. “But you can’t just barge into my room like that.”
“It was open,” I say defensively. “What were you doing?” My suspicion rises. She’s up to something and she doesn’t want me to know. Which isn’t like her. My sister isn’t the kind to hide things.
“That’s none of your business. Get the hell out of here.” Her hands grip the towel tighter while her eyes narrow on mine.
“I—”
Her bathroom door opens, and her eyes go wide and her head snaps over to watch the man exit. “Hey, babe …” His eyes meet mine and he curses under his breath. “Shit.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I shout at Corbin. “What the fuck is this shit?” I bark. “Get the fuck out of her room.”
“Man, I’m so—”
“Don’t apologize.” She stops him. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Are you serious?” Didn’t do anything wrong? It looks like my best friend is fucking my sister. And that is definitely wrong. “Get the fuck out.” I point at the door I stand in front of then look at her. “When Dad finds out—”
“Dad knows.” She squares her shoulders. “I’m Corbin’s chosen.”
My eyes go from hers to his. She glares at me while my best friend’s eyes soften with… regret? Maybe that’s wishful thinking. How could he not tell me this? He knows how I feel about her being involved with a Lord. It’s unacceptable. My parents have spent their lives hiding her from our world. Why would he agree to this? “No.” I shake my head and spin around.
“Sin?” my sister calls out, but I ignore her, running down the stairs.
I shove my father’s study door open so hard it knocks a hole in the interior wall. His eyes snap up to meet mine and he jumps to his feet. “I’ll call you back.” He hangs up the phone without waiting for a response.
My sister runs in behind me still clinging to her damn towel. “Daddy—”
“You let her be Corbin’s chosen?” I shout. “Have you lost your goddamn mind?”
Corbin enters behind her but thankfully he took a second to pull on some jeans. I ignore him completely. “Sir—”
“Oh!” she interrupts him again. “So we’re just going to pretend that you’re not fucking my best friend? But I can’t fuck yours?” she yells from behind me.
I whirl around on her, and I want to strangle her. He won’t love her. My sister isn’t like other chosens. She was a fucking virgin. Saving herself for marriage. She hasn’t had the life that Elli had. My parents have sheltered her. “He’s just using you for pussy.”
“Sin—”
“Maybe I’m just using him for dick.” She crosses her arms over her chest, interrupting Corbin once more.
“Enough!” my father roars. “Kira, leave us.”
“But, Dad—”
“Now,” he snaps at her.
She turns, her hair whipping her in the face, and I’m surprised that Corbin follows her too even though my father didn’t dismiss him. She slams the door shut behind them.
I turn on him. “A fucking chosen?”
He runs his hands through his hair, taking in a deep breath. “Corbin came to me requesting to be her Lord. He wanted her.”
I snort. “I’m going to fucking kill him,” I growl under my breath.
“We asked your sister. She wanted to be his chosen.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“As Corbin’s chosen, he can protect her.”
“Tell that to Tyson Crawford,” I bark, remembering what he went through his senior year.
He sighs. “What happened to Whitney Minson was unfortunate, but I trust Corbin with your sister. I believe him when he says he’ll do what needs to be done to protect her.”
My ass falls into the chair across from his desk. Jayce has been going on and on about what I missed during the vow ceremony. But Corbin? Not one word. Now I know why he didn’t care to push me to go. He knew all along he’d be fucking my sister in front of the Lords. And that makes sense now as to why I watched Elli get into my sister’s car outside the house of Lords. I thought she had called her to come pick her up, but I kept wondering how my sister got there so fast. Well, Kira was already there with Corbin.
I lift my head to glare at my father. “Do what you have to do to make Elli my chosen.” There has to be something even though the ceremony has happened. I’ve made her mine, but I want everyone to fucking know it. I want the Lords to acknowledge it.
His eyes soften. “Easton. Nicholas was adamant that he never wanted her to be a chosen. He did not want her connected to the Lords in any way.”
“He’s dead,” I growl, making him stiffen. “Has been since she was twelve. I think things have changed.”
He rubs his temples.
I stand to my feet. “Did you know that she’s been raped? For years?” His jaw clenches. “James was grooming her. She was a child, for fuck’s sake,” I snap.
He walks over to his safe and punches in the code before opening it up and grabbing a box. Then he comes over and places it in my lap. “Dad,” I growl. “Are you fucking listening to me?”
“Open it.”
I rip off the lid and look down, my breath catching at the box full of pictures. I pick one up. It’s of Elli lying facedown on a wooden table. She’s got to be around eighteen. Maybe seventeen. Her arms tied behind her back, her ankles also tied, and her legs brought up and secured to her arms—hog-tied. She’s crying, tape over her mouth. I throw it to the floor and pick up another. She’s naked in a room kneeling. The picture taken from behind showing marks across her back and neck. I toss it and grab another. She wears a collar with a leash, nothing more. Strapped to a black X with a blindfold over her eyes. “Where did you get these?” I ask barely over a whisper.
“Who do you think put the hit on James?”
My head snaps up to look at him wide-eyed. “I … I don’t understand. You knew what he was doing to her? All those years?” I’m not sure at what age he started raping her. But I do know that he lived in the same house as her for over five years. A lot can happen during that time.
He shakes his head. “No. I had my suspicions. But could never prove it. And the Lords, well, they don’t care about how women are treated.” He sighs. It’s why he and my mom have tried so hard to shelter my sister. “But I got these in the mail one day. Anonymously. I made copies and sent those to a founding family member with the request to have him terminated.” He fists his hands. “Nicholas would have burned the world down if he had been alive. He wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt her. And I promised I’d take care of her. I failed him.” He hangs his head.
I look at another. She can’t be more than sixteen. She’s facedown, ass up in the air and there’s blood running down her bruised legs. The picture of her innocence taken tells me everything I need to know about how long it had been going on.
I look at my father. “Did you request me to have the assignment?”
“No. It was either someone wanting you to fail and get killed in the process. Or a joke that you were to kill him since I requested it.”
“And his phone?” I ask.
He cocks his head.
“The assignment had me remove a finger and deliver his cell. There was something on it that the Lords wanted.”
“No.” He sits down.
I run a hand down my face. “I went through it. He had pictures of her. They started from when she was as young as thirteen.” When he married her mother. They weren’t all sexual. There were some of her in bed sleeping. In others, she was wearing a bathing suit and swimming in their pool. The older she got, the more X-rated they became. In some, she was looking at the camera, and in others, she had no clue.
“Maybe they knew he had evidence on his phone,” my father offers as an explanation.
“I deleted them,” I announce.
“You what?” he barks. “Easton, you can’t tamper with what they want.”
“I wasn’t going to hand a phone over with inappropriate pictures of her on it. She was underage in some of them.” I shake my head. No way in hell would I allow the world to have those. Who knows what the Lords would have done with them.
He stays silent but I can tell he’s angry with me now. I grab another picture out of the box, unable to stop myself, and my chest tightens. She’s crying, blood running from her busted lip and a handprint on her cheek.
How did he do this to her, and I not see it? I mean, it wasn’t like I saw her on a day-to-day basis. Once I started at Barrington, my life revolved around the Lords. I lived at the house of Lords. Was always serving them. You don’t get much freedom and downtime until you’re a senior and are officially initiated in. But still, how did people not notice marks on her? Her mother? My sister? Did he keep her caged in a private location somewhere that no one could see what he was doing to her? I close the box and stand.
“Have you tampered with her birth control?”
I come to a stop and turn to face him but don’t answer.
His jaw clenches. “Whatever you’ve done, reverse it. If you’ve replaced her pills, put the correct ones back. If you’ve given her something to counteract the shot, stop it.”
I look away, my hands running through my hair. When I look back at him, I see disappointment in his eyes. “So you don’t care if Corbin knocks up Kira, but you care if I get the woman I love pregnant. Got it.” I know my friend, and he’s not wearing a condom when he fucks my sister. And who knows if she’s being smart.
His face softens a second before he masks it. “Why do you think Linc married Laura?”
My brows pull together. “You know about that?”
“Have a seat, son.” He gestures to the chair I stood from. I fall back into it. “I was best friends with her dad before he even got with Laura. They fell in love immediately. She was his chosen. They got married before they even graduated from Barrington. They wanted to start a family as soon as possible. Laura had a rough pregnancy. Bedridden, very sick. She went into labor six weeks early. Me and your mother were there when they wheeled her back for an emergency C-section. Elli wasn’t breathing. Laura was bleeding. She ended up having a hysterectomy.”
“What does this have to do with Lincoln?” I demand, wanting him to get to the point.
“Linc wants an heir. An Asher heir.”
I frown. “But you just said Laura can’t have more kids. Even if she could, she’s not an Asher…” I trail off, finally understanding. “No.” I shake my head. “Elli wouldn’t…”
“Do you think he’d ask her to have his child?” he snaps. “He’s inserting himself into that house to get close to Elli. He saw what James did. He’ll do the same. You can’t watch her twenty-four seven, son.”
He’s right, and I don’t like the pit I feel in my stomach that I can’t keep her from harm. That she’ll end up like Whitney Minson all over again, and the Lords will cover it up like she never existed. I’d lose my mind, just like Tyson did. After she died, nothing and no one mattered to him. Hell, he gave up his future, knowing that one day he’ll get his chance at revenge.
My father shakes his head. “Lincoln will wait for his opportunity, and he’ll fuck her. Every chance he gets. Against her will or by manipulation. Whatever it takes. Elli is a good girl and I hate what she’s been through, but she’s been groomed for too long. You can’t reverse that type of psychological damage. You know that firsthand.”
My eyes narrow at that. “So you’re saying I’m using her.” Haven’t I? I’ve pretended to be someone else to get her off. I used her body. That night at the Freak Show, afterward at her house. Fuck, she liked it. So did I. Which one of us is more fucked up? Even now, I don’t want to be soft with her. I want her crawling on her hands and knees to me. Begging me to fuck her. To make her my whore. She’s so pretty when she cries. When she begs. The way her body leans into mine. The way her lips part when she’s begging to breathe.
“I’m saying when he gets the chance, he’ll take it. And if you’ve tampered with her birth control, she’ll be having his child. Not yours.”
My hands fist at that thought. Elli will be my wife and she will have my kids. No one else’s. “He warned me. Told me to take my chosen, and if I didn’t, he’d do things to Elli. He already knew he had plans in place.” How will I keep her from that house? That’s her home. Elli may be willing not to go back but her mother will ask questions.
“There is one more thing.” He sighs. “Amelia…”
“I don’t want to talk about her.” I shake my head.
He flexes his jaw. “Son, it’s not going to go away. Plans have been made…”
“Without my approval,” I argue.
“It’s the way it is. You will do what’s best for your children just like I’m doing what’s best for you and your sister.” I’m well aware he left my mother out of that statement. I know where she stands.
Getting up, I turn and leave his study, ending the conversation. I enter my room to find it empty. Rushing into the adjoining bathroom, I shove the door open, making her yelp in surprise.
“It’s just me,” I say, closing it behind me.
She stands in front of the sink in her dirty, ripped dress. Her knees are scraped along with her arms. She’s covered in dried blood from her hand and due to the roughness of how I fucked her in the woods off the side of the road.
“Let me help you.” I take a step toward her, and she crosses her arms over her chest. I stop and her eyes drop to the floor.
I don’t like this Elli. The timid girl who acts afraid. I want my little demon who slaps me across the face, fights me knowing she can’t beat me. Moving closer slowly, I gently grab the hem of her dress. “Lift your arms,” I whisper.
Lifting her arms above her head, I pull the material off and let it fall to the floor. She stands before me in nothing but her underwear, her heels long forgotten over in the corner. I walk over to the shower and turn it on.
When I turn back to face her, she’s standing there shaking, head down. Her bleach-blond hair matted around her face. There are twigs and leaves in it.
I reach out, grab her hand, and pull her into the shower. Placing her back against the sprayer, I face her and unwrap the duct tape and remove the shirt from her hand. I look at the wound. It’s stopped bleeding. Honestly, it could probably use some stitches.
“I need to clean it,” I tell her, and she nods.
I gently wash it and she stands silently still while I clean the rest of her, along with the brand on her leg and piercings. They’re both healing so nicely. Leaning her head back, she closes her eyes and I wash her hair with my shampoo.
When it’s rinsed clean, she lowers her head, and her bloodshot eyes meet mine. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.
I grip her face in both of my hands. “Don’t fucking apologize to me, Elli. You have nothing to be sorry for.”
She sniffs, her chest rising. “I … I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Fresh tears fill her eyes.
I tighten my hands on her face, making her whimper. “Listen to me, Ellington.” I wait for the tears to spill free so she can see me clearly before I continue. “Nothing is fucking wrong with you. Not a goddamn thing.”
“But—”
“But nothing,” I snap, interrupting whatever bullshit she was about to say. “You’re perfect.”
She begins to cry harder at my words. I understand how fucked up they are. She’s who she is because of the childhood she had. And I’m the way I am because of the Lords. They fucked us both up in different ways.
“It’s you,” she whispers, her plump lips trembling.
“What is?” I ask, my eyes searching hers.
She licks her lips, dropping her eyes in shame before whispering. “What I’ve always wanted.”
I’ve known how she’s felt about me for a couple of weeks now. Ever since I read her diary that night after I brought her home from the Freak Show. But to hear her say it out loud, I’m unable to put into words how it feels for her to acknowledge that.
I release her face and run my knuckles down her neck to feel her racing pulse. I press my body into hers, my free hand wrapping around her thin waist, holding her to me. “I’m not going anywhere, little demon,” I say, and she sniffs, biting her bottom lip nervously. “I will be whoever you need, whenever you need me.” I can be the guy who holds her when she needs to break, and I can be the guy who chases her into the woods and fucks her ruthlessly.
I’m willing to be her devil as much as she’s willing to be my little demon. I never want her to second-guess my intentions. For some, pain is where they find comfort. Elli is that someone.
With my hand on her neck, I force her eyes to meet mine. I give her a soft kiss on the lips and her hands wrap around my neck, her left leg lifting to hook around my hip. My hand falls to it, gripping her soft skin.
I’m going to show this woman that one man can be everything she needs.
ELLINGTON
MY HANDS REST on the edge of the counter, head down as I stare at the two pills.
I started using drugs when I was sixteen. The day after I lost my virginity to James. I hated that he made me feel so good. I knew it was wrong. But my body had been starving for three years. Craving something I couldn’t have. I cried when he left my room, and I stayed up all night, unable to close my eyes, afraid he’d come back and make me want more.
I tried to convince myself that I wasn’t the problem. That I had sat and listened to so many couples over the years talking to my mother in her sessions that I wasn’t as screwed up as I thought. I mean, some things I couldn’t understand why someone would take pleasure in—like being pissed on. Why? I couldn’t find the appeal of a golden shower, not even after watching videos. But then I realized that what I had experienced with James had felt good, no matter how wrong it was. So maybe what they had done also felt good.
To each their own, ya know. That’s when I told myself I’d try anything at least once.
Grabbing the neck of the wine bottle, I pick up the pills with my other hand and toss them in my mouth. Closing my eyes, I toss back the bottle and swallow them with a big gulp. If I have to get through this day, I’ll be fucked up.
Hanging my head, I suck in a deep breath and open my eyes. I stiffen when they land on a set of blue ones standing behind me. Sin leans up against the doorframe dressed in an all-black three-piece suit with his arms crossed over his chest. Eyes on mine.
I’ve been staying here at his parents’ house for five days now. I thought it would be odd staying here, but it’s felt more like home than my actual home ever did. I get up, he takes me to Barrington. Then when I’m done, we come back here. It’s felt normal. And there’s a pit in my stomach that keeps telling me not to get attached. It won’t last forever. It’s like a dream you don’t want to wake up from.
Wiping my wine-covered lips with the back of my hand, I turn to face him. I know he saw me take them. He’s known I do drugs. He caught me at a party once in high school passed out on a bathroom floor. I woke up the next morning with a text telling me to watch who I get fucked up around. I never did thank him for that.
“Getting the party started early.” The corners of his lips turn up into a smirk.
“Something like that.” I push off the counter and walk over to him and he pushes off the doorframe. His hands going to the waist of my floor-length dress. I chose black silk. I thought it’d be fitting. I’m not celebrating shit. I’m in mourning. “Why don’t you help me out.”
“Anything.” He wraps his arms around me, pulling my body flush with his.
“Fuck me.” I gently kiss the corner of his lip. “I want your cum dripping out of my pussy when I give my toast.”
He pushes me away, spins me around, and slaps my ass. “Bend over and pull up your dress,” he orders, not needing to be told twice.
