Lorne wheezes as he laughs. “Not us. Your dad and my mother. A fucking marriage of convenience. A merger that will give us all the power in the syndicate. That’s why I originally began watching you. I wanted to understand what kind of competition you’d be for a seat at the table. But I soon realized you were as much a threat as a fucking bug I could crush under my feet.”
His words are like a slap in the face. My blood chills and my hands shake. Lorne is just like Peter. “You’re all the same. A bunch of users.”
Lorne approaches me. I retreat until my back hits the wall and I have no more room to distance myself from him.
He glides his nose along my neck before his hot breath meets my ear. “That’s how it started. I didn’t say that’s how it ended. You’re so fucking good, Noelle. So fucking good. In a world like mine, purity is non-existent, but there you were, pure as the driven snow. I stopped viewing you as an acquisition and began to see you as a partner. The ying to our yang. The light to our darkness. The virtue to our sin. When I saw how Declan reacted to you, I realized you were the one.”
“React to me? He tried to strangle me to death.”
Lorne smirks. “Only because he wants you more than he wants God.”
“People don’t want God, Lorne. God isn’t an object. People need him.”
Lorne’s fingers brush against my sore neck. “All right, I’ll play the word manipulation game. Declan needs you more than he needs God.”
An ear-shattering scream permeates the room. “What’s that?”
“Declan.”
“Aren’t you going to help him?” I yell. “He sounds like he’s in pain.”
“He is. He likes it.”
I place the palms of my hand on his chest and push with all my strength. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
He steps back and shrugs. “Everything and nothing.”
I open the door, but his hands slap on the wood above my head, caging me in with his body. “Where do you think you’re going, Snow?”
“I’m going to help him.”
“He’s being helped.”
I whirl and narrow my eyes at him, frustrated at his words and how messed up everything is. “He sounds like he’s on the brink of death, and you’re sitting here all glib.”
“You don’t have the full story, and you’re not ready for it.”
“You don’t get to tell me what I am or am not ready for, Lorne. You’re not my fucking keeper.”
My knee connects with his balls, forcing him to stumble back. I open the door and run toward Declan’s tortuous screams.
Chapter 22
Caspian
I like to torture people. I get hard at the sight of blood. But I fucking hate doing this. Neither Lorne nor Declan gets the toll this shit takes on me. I had to fucking leave him here and take a shower because my head was so messed up, and I was afraid I’d do the kind of damage I couldn’t take back.
Crimson falls from Declan’s hands, holes puncturing the center of his palms from nails placed there to hold him on the cross.
“O Lord Jesus Christ, redeemer and savior, forgive my sins, just as you forgave Peter’s denial and those who crucified you. Count not my transgressions but rather my tears of repentance. Remember not my iniquities but my sorrow for the offenses I have committed against you. I long to be true to your word and pray that you will love me and come to make your dwelling place within me. I promise to give you praise and glory in love and service all the days of my life.”
The fucking nutter has been praying the whole time. He’s getting the shit kicked out of him, screaming in pain, but he keeps repeating that stupid prayer. What he’s doing is fucked up, but my hard cock on display is as messed up. The number of times I’ve beaten his stupid ass and fucked him while he lay on his stomach, beaten and bloody, is too many to count. Just like he needs this, I have to fuck after. Sometimes Lorne will suck my cock as I do this, but that doesn’t happen tonight, so it will be me pounding into Declan’s ass.
“Please,” Declan begs when I stop flogging him. “More. I need more. I’m still thinking about her.”
“Fuck this, man. You’d rather fuck yourself up over fucking her.” Rage fuels me as I pull my arm back and strike him as hard as possible. “We could be balls deep in perfection instead. I’m here beating your ass, and for what? Because you can’t shake what your cunt aunt said to you over ten years ago? I knew you should have been the one to kill her. It should have been you who took that bitch’s last breath.”