Page 2 of Cinere (Inferno 2)

on me by sneaking shit around when she thinks no one is looking.

I catch the rock in my hand again and cast a thoughtful glance at the house. The only way she’s been getting these is if Darby’s been tossing them down to her, which means I’ll have to teach her a lesson in discipline sooner rather than later.

Fuck, I think with a sigh. I was hoping to avoid that shit until later, but I don’t want her to think she can give her Momma “presents” without me knowing about it.

Nothing a sound spanking can’t fix.

“What do you want?” Joce calls up weakly.

Huh. I had almost forgotten about her already. I guess knowing what I have waiting for me in the face of what I had, is a bit more distracting than I thought it would be.

“I want to bring you up for a day,” I say, crouching back down and grinning into the darkness. “I want us to have a proper day together—as a family. I think Darby deserves that, don’t you?”

She’s quiet now because she thinks there’s a trick somewhere in my offer. There’s not—I’m fresh out of ways to fool Joce and she should know that by now.

“What’s the catch?” she calls up quietly.

“No catch,” I reply immediately with a chuckle. “You know how important it is for a child to be with their mother and father. Well, maybe you don’t because Laura split, but Darby shouldn’t know what you felt like. I think she should know us both, even if for a day. Come on, kid. Don’t you want the chance to be a real mother this time?”

Jocelyn lets out a sigh that echoes off the stone walls surrounding her. I can tell she’s seriously contemplating my offer now. Either that or she’s already thinking of her escape plan, but she should know better.

“Okay,” she finally says softly. “I’ll do it.”

A grin instantly spreads across my face. Nothing is sexier than a woman that’s willing to comply with a simple request. I reach down, grabbing the rope and toss it into the hole.

“Come on up when you’re ready. We’ll be inside, baby girl,” I say before I walk away.

I have to find Darby and get her to take a nap or something because if Jocelyn looks anything like I think she might right now, she’s gonna need a hot shower and a change of clothes before she sees our daughter.

I kiss Darby’s forehead as she snuggles underneath her light pink, plush blanket, and closes her eyes. I had to make a deal with her—if she behaved like the good little girl I know she can be and take her nap now, she’d have a surprise waiting for her when she woke up, but not a moment sooner.

I can hear the backdoor slam shut, which tells me that Joce is finally in the house. I look down at Darby who opens her eyes curiously, but I hold a finger to my lips and grin at her. She giggles, closes her eyes again, and pretends to be asleep. I’ll stay with her a little while longer to make sure she doesn’t ruin her own surprise.

Not that she’ll recognize Jocelyn right away since she never got the chance to know her, but I still want to be the one that physically brings them together.

Whatever happens after that depends on how much of a mother the bitch plans on being.

I run a hand over Darby’s hair and smile. She looks so much like her Momma at this age, that they could pass for twins.

Man, that would have been something, I think with a soft chuckle as I ease myself off the side of the bed where I’ve been sitting. My baby will be asleep in no time now—I can tell by the way her breathing is evening out, so I suppose I should go see what kind of fight Joce has in her these days.

I begin to hum as I gently close the door to Darby’s bedroom. It’ll give the other one a chance to know I’m coming and I think it’s the right thing to do since she never did care for surprises. I never understood why though, because any surprise I ever had for her usually ended with my dick in one of her holes.

She liked it, I know she did. Even after those little miserable brats got inside her head, she would still moan the same way her whore mother did whenever I fucked her.

It’ll feel nice to slide my dick into some pussy again but before that happens, she probably needs to get cleaned up and eat something substantial. I don’t want her dying on me while I’m fucking her because that would cross a line of morality I am not comfortable with.

I walk into the kitchen and smile at her when I see her standing just inside the doorway. She looks so damn dirty and she’s lost quite a bit of weight, but that’s what happens when you try to undermine authority.

“You can come in,” I tell her as I walk toward the refrigerator and open the freezer door. “I won’t be expecting you to make dinner for us tonight, but if you’re still up here tomorrow, then you probably should.”

I pull out a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, then head toward the counter to retrieve a spoon from the drawer next to the sink. I make my way back to the table, kick my feet up, and pull the lid off, digging my spoon in and scooping up some ice cream.

“Damn that’s good,” I say quietly as I lick the spoon before turning my attention back to Jocelyn. “I’d offer you some, but you’re really fucking dirty right now and I don’t feel like grabbing another spoon.”

She wraps her arms around herself and looks down at her bare feet. I watch her shuffle in place a few times before she turns her eyes back to the doorway and I chuckle.

“Go ahead; try to run. You’re not gonna get very far and you know it,” I say, digging my spoon back into the pint. I set it down on the table, drop my feet to the floor, and rest an arm on the polished wood. As I start to drum my fingertips along the tabletop, Jocelyn sighs and turns her attention back to me.


Tags: Yolanda Olson Inferno Dark