Page 97 of The Secrets of a Sin

Her expression tells me she’s reluctant, but she comes over to help anyway. Now, with each girl on one arm, they tug me up until I’m finally sitting up straight. My vision is disoriented from the hasty movement, but I quickly refocus when Annalise smacks the back of my head hard.

Fuck.

My palms twitch with the need to wipe out the blonde and squeeze her neck until her veins pop open. In my head, she would be the first to go. My eyes then catch a flash of red hair as Verity’s form lingers just outside the ruins, and with a quick turn, she darts away unnoticed.

Did she finally realize how fucking crazy this was? Was she going to get help?

“Walk.” Priscilla pulls on Charlotte’s arm and drags her along the concrete. My eyes slowly take in the short black dress that clings to her skin and her tangled mess of hair. Even when she looked distraught, she was the most alluring woman I’ve ever set my eyes on. My stare sweeps down her legs as I notice blood still leaking from her wound and a slight limp as she makes her way towards me. My heart throbbed, knowing she was in pain and fully aware that the fuckers who hurt her were currently touching what belongs to me. I was more miserable and exposed than I have ever felt, watching Charlotte limp over to me because I was helpless. I couldn’t save her, save us, and in the end, would never get the retribution that I sought.

Instead, I’d be buried beside my sister.

They come to a stop directly in front of me, but Charlotte’s eyes won’t peer up from the ground to look at me. It feels like fucking torture knowing she won’t meet my stare, but I could feel her guilt seep through me.

“Look at him.” Priscilla orders while jerking her arm.

Come on, angel, look at me.

Tears fall from her face and drop down at her dirty, bare feet while her body heaves in anguish. Then, with a deep sigh, she looks up.

Our eyes bleed into one another, transferring every ounce of desire and regret we contain into our stare until we’re both fully consumed. The remorse and the desperation she displays feel like a knife to my gut, but I remain calm for her. I only show her the best side of me in this moment because I know it will be my last. I want my devotion for her to last for a lifetime, even in death.

“Please don’t make me do this.” She cries as her eyes plead with Priscilla, but she only grins in return.

“Angel, look at me.” I beg, and her eyes immediately fly to mine. “It’s okay.” I try to soothe her the only way I can, but that only causes her sobbing to intensify. “Even in death, I’m yours.”

She shakes madly and desperately. She tries to free herself from Priscilla, but Annalise quickly steps in and grabs her other arm. “Take the knife now, or I shove it in his neck.” She seethes, and to my surprise, Charlotte takes it. She clutches the handle, and her stare never leaves mine.

Our eyes now silently tell each other this isn’t the end. This couldn’t be. She’d always be mine.

Always.

“Do it!” Priscilla screams in her ear, then on a rabid cry, Charlotte swings the knife and slashes it clean across her face. The blade digs in through her cheek, causing blood to spray out and everyone to go ballistic. Priscilla screams in agony as Annalise tackles Charlotte to the ground. They flail around on the ground violently while Annalise tries to knock the knife out of Charlotte’s hands.

“You fucking cunt!” Annalise snarls. “You ruined her face!”

My arms and feet thrash around, desperate to get her off Charlotte but the feel of a hand on my shoulder halts my movement.

“Get off her, Annalise.” Sister Mary demands over my shoulder as her nails dig into my flesh.

Annalise appears less than reluctant to get off, and with a groan, she does, but not before smacking Charlotte hard across the face. My body tenses with rage, but as a small grin appears across Charlotte’s face, my heart leaps.

Now climbing off Charlotte’s body, she seeks out Priscilla, who’s holding the bottom of her dress against her cheek and looks beyond deadly with a scowl across her face.

“I’m impressed.” Sister Mary praises as Charlotte slowly rises off the ground with blood stained on her dress and the knife still in her grip. “Your devotion to him is appalling, but your strength and defiance are refreshing.”

“Get away from him.” She points the knife in her direction with savage eyes and an obvious thirst for blood.

My insides ignite, and my cock throbs, watching the woman who owns me threaten Phoebe’s killer. Watching her, I know she’d ruin cities for me. But the devious gleam in her eyes tells me she would do much more than that. She’d kill for me.

“I can’t do that, Charlotte.” She responds calmly. “You see, not even you are going to get in the way of our prophecy.”

Jerking hard, I try to get her palm off my shoulder, but she only tightens her grip.

“And if that means I have to kill the both of you, then so be it.”

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a loud voice rings out from the depths of the forest. “Back away from the chair.” A familiar voice blares as Detective Pierce storms out from the darkness with a gun pointed in Sister Mary’s direction.

Her frame freezes behind me, but she doesn’t make a move to back away.

---