Page 76 of Sinful

“Hey, man. Sorry I missed your calls earlier. Would’ve been good to see you while you were here, but I’ve had this shitty fucking cold for the last two days. Anyway, when you come back again, I’ll have to show you that archive stuff I mentioned last time we spoke. I’ve found a few more oddities down there, and I think you’ll be interested in seeing them. Anyway, talk soon.”

The second message was also from Jesse.

“It’s me again. Forgot to tell you—I got an email from your dad yesterday. He wanted me to convince you to stop this Covenant shit. Says you won’t listen to him, and he’s really worried about you. I told him you sure as shit won’t listen to me either. Or anyone, for that matter.” He briefly paused to chuckle. “Anyway, stay safe up there, yeah? Seriously. If you get yourself killed… well, I’ll fucking kill you all over again, and I think your dad might too.”

There was a beep, and the third message began to play. When I heard Augustus Trudeau’s voice emanating from the speakers, I almost swerved right into a tree from the shock.

“Sebastian. It’s Augustus here. I hope I am doing this correctly. I wanted to discuss a couple of things with you. But firstly, an update on Rosamund. She is still missing, but one of our seers had a vivid dream last night, showing her return just before the final Tetrad blood moon. This has renewed everyone’sspirits, including my own, and we are praying harder than ever.” There was a brief pause as he coughed. “The second thing is that we are experiencing some inclement weather at the moment. It might be best if you didn’t try to return for your research until it’s over, as I would hate to think of you being washed away or struck by lightning on the hike up here. It is most unfortunate, because I was hoping to see you today, as last night I suddenly recalled—”

The voicemail cut off with a shrill beep, and the next one played. Also Augustus.

“My apologies. I forgot there was a time limit. What I was saying is, last night I suddenly recalled a conversation I had with your mother years ago, and I believe it may be pertinent to your investigation. You may even want to pass this information on to the police. Miranda said that in her early research days, she wrote an ethnography based on a particular neighborhood in New York City that she was residing in at the time. I cannot remember the name of the area, but she said it is notorious for drug-related activities. It got me thinking. Perhaps those who sought to harm her were from that area. They may have found her writings to be offensive, or perhaps too illuminating to the police in terms of their illicit trade. We can discuss it more the next time we see each other, but I wanted to let you know now so you can begin to look into it yourself. Good day, Sebastian.”

I was wide awake now, heart pumping adrenaline through my veins. If Augustus was suddenly throwing out convenient alternative theories about my mother’s murderer, then that likely meant he was starting to fear that I might actually stumble across the truth up in Alderwood. Andthatmeant there was definitely some sort of evidence remaining up there, just as I’d always suspected.

That begged the question: why would he allow me to come back at all, if he was so afraid of me finally uncovering the evidence?

I rubbed my jaw as I turned into the driveway, pondering the question, but nothing logical came to me. Perhaps Rose would be able to shed some light on the matter. It’d certainly sounded like she knew something important while I was whipping her yesterday morning, but she’d fainted before I could get anything else out of her, and then I’d been called back to the city, meaning we hadn’t had a chance to speak about it yet.

My mind flashed back to the encounter, and my cock twitched at the memory of Rose’s response to the first sting of the whip. It was clear that she’d never been beaten before from the naked shock on her face and the desperate wail that escaped her mouth, and I almost felt sorry for her at first.Almost. But then she started saying all that shit about the night my mother died, and I instantly remembered what a liar she was. What a liar she’d always been, since the moment I met her. I whipped her harder then, raining down lash after lash until she was a sobbing, whimpering mess.

I frowned as those frantic sounds of misery echoed in my mind, wondering if I should’ve felt some sympathy for her after all. Wondering if I’d taken it too far. Her back was covered in thick pink welts by the time I was done, but only two lashes had been hard enough to break the skin, and she’d begged me for more, just as I suspected she would when I felt her pussy dripping all over my hand before the punishment even began. But then she suddenly turned delirious, slurring her words and spouting some gibberish about hell before blacking out entirely.

It was… strange. A religious fervor overcoming her, perhaps. That would make sense, given her upbringing. Or maybe I really was just an asshole who’d taken the whipping too far, as per my initial suspicion.

Fuck.

She was really starting to get to me. I wanted to be harsher, crueler. Merciless. Wanted her screaming in pure agony as blood poured from her. But something always stopped me short of hurting her badly. Some treacherous voice in the back of my head, telling me to show her a sliver of compassion. Telling me I should make her want me instead, as that would be the ultimate humiliation for her—the pious, angelic virgin falling for the cruel bastard who’d dragged her down to the depths of hell.

I couldn’t deny that the thought of making her fall for me was tempting, but for now, I wanted to keep things going as they were. After all, just before she fainted yesterday, she was about to admit something huge, so my current scheme was obviously working just fine.

I headed down to the bunker and stepped over to the glass wall. Rose was naked on the bed, sleeping on her stomach. Her back was covered in crisscrossing pink stripes, and the marks that had drawn blood were covered in dark scabs. She was healing fast, with no visible sign of infection. Still, I had to be sure, because I didn’t want her to die on me, so I’d picked up some antibiotics from the hospital pharmacy before I left the city.

I unlocked the door and stepped inside. “I see you’ve redecorated in here,” I said loudly enough to wake her up.

She stirred and sat up, glowering at me in a way that made me want to take her over my knee and spank her ass until it was red-raw.

“What did you say, Master?” she muttered, yanking up the blanket to cover her bare breasts.

I gestured around the room. Since I’d left her in here yesterday, she’d taken it upon herself to cover the stone walls in colorful chalk symbols—intricate patterns and strange runes. She’d also taken all the tiny bones from the portion of roastedchicken I’d left for her and created two charms from it, using what appeared to be strands of her own hair to tie the bones together. They dangled from either side of the blackboard, which had been scrubbed clean, apart from one chalked rune in the center.

“I said I see you’ve redecorated,” I said, smirking down at her. “It looks nice.”

“Thank you, Master.” I could practically see the words she really wanted to say flashing in her eyes.I hate you, you bastard.

“It’s not working, though. Is it?” I said, cocking my head.

“What?”

“All the symbols and charms. Your Entity hasn’t done jack shit to save you despite all of that hard work.”

“That’s not true,” she replied, ever the stubborn little witch. “He saved me from a lot of pain when you took me into that room yesterday.”

“Yeah? How so?”

“For at least half of the time, I went somewhere else in my mind, and I barely felt anything.”

I grinned. “That wasn’t because the Entity was helping you, baby girl,” I said. “It’s actually a very common response to shock or trauma.”

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