Page 104 of Wicked Sins

I’m too heavy, too clumsy.

Fingers close around my ankle, dragging me back with a low laugh.

“Where are you going, Candy Cane?”

Thump.

My eyes fly open.

What the fuck was that? I put a hand to my heart in case it manages to break out through my damn ribcage.

I try not to think about the strange image that just popped into my head, do my best to ignore the sensation of my feet crushing carpet fibers, and hurry over to the open window.

As I stick my head out, Joah disappears into the study.

Relief should have slowed my heart, but instead, I feel trapped here by the window. Phantom fingertips dance up my spine, and I slowly turn to study the room again. Something had caught my eye on the way over to the window, but what…?

Instead of a flat-screen opposite the bed, there’s a painting.

It’s a forest scene, the colors washed out like there’s a fog. Pale green and beige and just a hint of darker shadows.

There’s a deer in that painting, her head lifted, her ears pricked as if she senses something lurking in the fog banks.

In my mind’s eye, that fog swirls. The deer trembles. Satiny fabric rubs against my back.

I don’t know how long I stand there, barely breathing, as the painting comes to life and plays havoc with my brain. My body is a distant, alien thing. It’s as if I’ve stepped into an alternate reality. My mind is in this one, hallucinating on that painting, but my physical body is somewhere else. Somewhere where ethereal hands are running all over my body. Where fingers pinch and grasp and caress where they shouldn’t.

Downstairs, a door bangs. Someone’s talking, and they sound pissed off.

Joah’s dad.

Joah!

I spin around and throw myself halfway out the window. Below, the ground capers for me. I force myself not to look, not to think about how hungry gravity is.

Joah’s nowhere to be seen.

The window is still open. The shutter bangs as I watch.

Where the hell is he? Did he trip going in and hit his head, or is he so caught up with whatever he’s decided to do to fix the window that he hasn’t realized his father’s home?

Either way, I can’t be in here. Wayne will be furious if he catches me in his room. He’ll be furious if he finds Joah in his study.

It’s a sacred space to him. I don’t even think my mom was allowed in there.

You can stall him.

The thought barely enters my mind before I’m rushing across the room.

Too long, Candy.

You took too fucking long.

Wayne’s already coming up the stairs. I can hear him on the phone.

“…Make sure you’re there the next time they want to fucking question me.”

I freeze. Now I’m well and truly trapped. If I go out of the room, he’ll see me, and he’ll know I was in here. He can’t know. Whatever happens, hecannotknow.

---