Page 22 of The Hand that Frays

I nearly gasp at the idea. Knowing that Neo dealt with the same thing that these children had cinches my heart.

“Your mother…” I swallow, unable to finish my question.

“My mother slipped cleaners into my food. When that didn’t make me ill, she’d give me medicines in high doses. She wanted to take care of me but also wanted me incapacitated.”

If she weren’t already dead, I’d fucking kill her myself.

“So we know they were poisoned, and surely they didn’t do it to themselves. We find out who it was and right the wrong.”

Neo weighs my words. “It’ll be much more work than I expected, stupid wife.”

His hand wraps around my throat, flexing a bit as he watches my eyes flash with arousal.

“I don’t mind hard work. After all, I’m married to the Butcher of Crows Hollow. That in itself is a job, is it not?”

A rare smile curls his sinful lips as he grabs my sides, causing me to squeal and wiggle on his hardening dick beneath me. “Are you saying it’s difficult to be with me, love?”

The term melts my insides, and I lean forward and hover my lips close to his.

“Never, husband.”

His hands grip my hips, and I grind on his length.

“That’s what I thought,” he gets out.

His hands rise, curling some of my fallen hair around my ears as he tugs my face back to look at me.

“This could get very bloody,” he tells me.

As if he’s forgotten how I spread myself in a pool of his victim’s blood back in the asylum. How I fucked myself with her blood as he watched me from the couch.

How I rode his hand over a man’s dead body only a week ago.

I smile. “God, I hope so,” I tell him.

His lips crash to mine in an onslaught of tongue flicks and panted breaths.

“Tell me you’ll cover me in red and fuck me raw when this is over,” I whisper, ragged breathing fanning over his lips as I press my forehead into his.

“Stupid girl, I’ll string her up and bleed her dry as I usethis cunt like my personal playground. Only if you’re my good girl, though.”

“How do you want me to behave?” I whimper out as he covers my pussy with his hand and squeezes.

“You be my stupid girl and listen to everything I tell you. Then you’ll reap all the rewards the Butcher offers.”

I moan as my head falls back, and my body arches into Neo’s tight grasp on my cunt.

“Fuck, you’re going to look so goddamned good in her blood.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

LYLA

With my multiple screens set up, I search the internet for anything I can find on Anne Hatt’s trial. There’s so much to sift through, so I put certain things about her and the prosecution on one screen and articles about the kids and husband on the other. It’s easier to go through with it organized, and it’s not long before I find one on Carl Hatt that I find intriguing.

“What is it?” Neo asks, looking up from where he’s sharpening our blades.

“I don’t know. It’s a profile of Carl from before the trial, a description of who Carl Hatt is, and there’s not much information that the media could find on him. He’s an investment banker, has no record, and stays under the radar. The crazy thing is it says he has no friends who could be interviewed for this article and that he’s rarely seen outside of work.”

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