Page 24 of The Puppetmaster

I roll my eyes, even though I know he can’t see me. “What’s up?”

My question is met with silence, but I can hear him taking a deep breath. It is followed by a subtle groan as he appears to gather the right words to convey his news.

“I’m just gonna make this quick and painful for you, brother,” he says eventually. “I’m getting married.”

This time, my eyes almost roll out of my head. It’s a good thing that I’m sitting down.

For fuck’s sake, not him, too.

My response isn’t what most people would be expecting under the circumstances, but I know that Nate can take it because he knows what I think of this imbecility.

“I see. To that girl?”

“To Malia, yes. You’ve met her; don’t act like you don’t know her name,” he reprimands me. “And for once try not to be an asshole about this, because believe it or not, I’d like you to be my best man.”

I can’t suppress an annoyed growl, despite my best effort.

“Nate, you know what I think of this. Are you sure—”

“Yes, I am,” he interrupts. “Don’t worry. I don’t expect a big speech or anything. Just… be there for me, okay?”

I bring the coffee mug up to my lips, the warm liquid counteracting the chilly breeze. I feel the beginning of a tension headache forming at my temples as I consider my brother’s words. “When is it?”

“You’ll have some time to prepare, mentally, that is. We’re not getting married before next March,” he tells me. “We want a spring wedding.”

We.I don’t think my brother ever thought about what kind of wedding he wanted to have, let alone what time of year.

But he is awenow. A slushy blend of hormones, creating a two-headed monster that acts as one. It’s pathetic.

And it’s definitely something I will never fall victim to.

Never.

Chapter 15

Alena

This is way harder than I thought it would be. I keep checking and double checking the time on my phone, watching the minutes slip by while the page in front of me remains empty.

Almost empty, that is.

His task was as exciting as it was difficult.

“Tell me who you are,” he started out. “I want to know who Alena Prey is, and I want to know what her deepest, darkest fantasy is. I want to know everything, no matter how dirty, how forbidden, how depraved you may think it is. Don’t hold back. And don’t fucking lie.”

He said it was up to me how I would present the task. I could record it on audio, I could write it down, I could shoot a video, even draw a picture—though he added that the last option would be his least favorite. That’s fine with me because I’m no artist, and a drawing would be the worst way for me to reveal anything about myself.

My first instinct was to record myself speaking as if I were sitting across from him having a conversation. It seemed like the logical option, but every time I switched on the red little button on my phone to start recording, my voice just... vanished. I tried to talk, but no words came out. It was like someone was choking me.

So I wrote down some notes to refer to because I thought that would make it easier. But as I started writing, I noticed that the words didn’t come naturally here, either. Everything sounded stiff and rehearsed, like I was reciting something that had been written down and I was not speaking from the heart.

And that’s how I ended up here, at a table outside a small coffee house across the street from The Velvet Rooms. I’ve never seen the brick building that houses the infamous kink club by daylight. There’s no sign, no clues indicating the dark secret hidden inside aside from the blood-red velvet curtains framing the entrance.

I check the time again, and my heart begins to race.

One hour. That’s how much time I have left before I need to hand in my assignment. And since I still need to figure out how exactly to do that, I have even less time than that. He told me to deliver my finished assignment in one of the metallic lockers close to the entrance area of the club. The lockers are hidden behind the first set of doors one has to pass through to enter the establishment, and then, much to my surprise, he handed me a key for that door.

But that’s just where it starts. He told me to use the key to enter The Velvet Rooms on my own before the doors are opened for customers at night. Then he instructed me to turn to the left, head down a corridor that I briefly noticed during a previous visit but didn’t venture down because it’s reserved for staff.

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