If it weren’t for a pesky caseworker who persisted in speaking to me after Mom died, I wouldn’t be here at all. Ironically, they start to follow up on their backlog cases when someone dies. Until then, I was another name in a dusty file they decided wasn’t worth saving. But, without that interfering bitch, I’d never have met my Clemmie. I had no idea about her existence until I arrived, and she took my breath away. She still has it. After all this time, I’m still holding it in, and I can’t fucking breathe.
“If you don’t know why you’re here by now, then you’re not the person I thought you could grow to be,” Dad says. “I shouldn’t have to spell it out.”
“Say it,” I spit.
I have to hear it.
I’ve had my suspicions, but I needed him to say it.
“I need someone to take over,” he says. “I need someone to look after this place when I’m gone. I thought my flesh and blood would understand better than anyone else. You’re just like me, son.”
“I’m nothing like you,” I hiss.
He’s a few inches shorter than me, and although he’s gained a few extra pounds as he’s aged, he’s in good shape. There’s also something intimidating in how he carries himself like he expects the world to bow down at his feet. In his world, everyone already does.
His eyes twinkle like we’re sharing a secret. “We’re more alike than you think.”
“Bullshit!” I shake my head. “We are nothing alike.”
“I see you, August,” he says eerily.
His stare sends a cold shiver down my spine. For a second, it feels like I’m looking into a mirror at who I’ll be in thirty years. I don’t want his sick and twisted way of life. I want something better. I want to travel, get an honest job, come home to find Clemmie waiting, and fall asleep with her in my arms, happy that no one would ever hurt her again. He would never understand. How could he when he’s used her as his pet for years, just like she is using hers?
I turn my back on him and storm away.
I want to shatter his fucking nose, but I can’t do anything until I see Clemmie again. Dad is the only one who knows all the secrets hiding in the mansion. If there’s a secret tunnel system, there could be another dungeon that I don’t know about.
The crisp night breeze hits me as I step outside. My body buzzes from adrenaline, and I need a way to release it. I put the key in the ignition of the beat-up truck I bought at the junkyard earlier with the wages I saved. It’s our escape vehicle. I speed away, heading for the nearest bar and closest fight.
I don’t know where Dad is keeping Clemmie or what she’ll be going through, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s my fault. He found out where she’d taken me, and now she’s facing the consequences. Maybe my father and I are alike. Both of us like punishment, and when I get my revenge on him, I’ll take great fucking pleasure in delivering it.
CHAPTER14
Clemmie
There’sa sound in the distance.
“Daddy?” I call into the dark.
Nothing.
“Daddy? Is that you?”
How long have I been here?
Two days? Maybe three?
Besides Daddy bringing meals and removing the corpse, he hasn’t spent any time with me. He doesn’t speak or look in my direction when he visits. It’s not the first time I’ve broken his rules, but this is different. I’m not sure whether my pet was the first person Daddy killed, but he blamed me for it.
I’ve never felt like a prisoner before, despite the chains and sex dungeon, but I’m starting to. I crave the freedom to feel the soil against my feet and the breeze running through my hair, but most of all... I crave August.
I miss him and our nights in the pool house. Thinking about him makes my pussy tingle and my dirty panties dampen. Will things be different when we see each other again after what happened between us? I hope so. The more time I spend here, the longer I have to consider his offer.
Being around August makes me feel alive, really fucking alive. The kind of alive I only thought I could feel when drawing a blade over someone’s artery and watching their blood run until their heart stopped beating. I used to believe that collecting souls made me who I am, but he’s changed that. He makes me feel whole. He’s my other half, the better side of me.
I hope he’s waiting.
My heart skips a beat at a crash on the other side of the door.