Page 87 of Eden's Deliverance

Julian hasn’t lost his ambition, though. I watch as he gently sets the bag on her floor, rummages through it, and pulls out a few items. It’s too dark in here to actually see what they are, but when he hands me a set of handcuffs, I get the impression he’s going to recreate what she did to him.

He signals for me to follow behind him, coming up beside the bed to make our move. She’s in that weird mid-way position between being on her side and rolling onto her stomach, so Julian takes advantage of it.

After ripping off a piece of duct tape and slapping it across her mouth, he jumps up to mount her ass and wrestles her arms behind her back. “The cuffs, now!” he bites at me through closed teeth, but the way she’s barely trying to fight him off gives me pause.

For a second, I think she hasn’t even woken up because she’s laying so still, and the only sounds coming from her are a few throaty groans and huffs from her nostrils as she tries to breathe through the tape.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe shewaswaiting for us. But then why go to sleep and leave herself vulnerable for an attack? That doesn’t seem like her. I would assume she’d want to confront us as usual, not give up her chance to act the brat. Did she give up her fight? She couldn’t have—nobody who doesn’t want to fight would do what she did to Julian.

I hand over the cuffs to him, not particularly interested in taking part in whatever this is. It doesn’t feel right to me, and it’s not the approach I would have wanted to take. This isn’t fun for me, and this isn’t the Scarlett I took pleasure in torturing.

Julian doesn’t take long wrangling her into submission, and now she’s bound, gagged, and…looking right at me.

What the fuck did I do?

He’s the only one who’s put his hands on her, but she won’t stop glaring at me like I’m the goddamn problem. He ties something around her eyes before picking her up and hoisting her over his shoulder, not even bothering to check for Penelope when he opens the door and drags her downstairs.

I don’t know if I should lock her door or leave it open so Penelope thinks Scarlett just went to work in the morning, but I do know it seems like I’m going to be spending the night cleaning up after a madman’s mess if he won’t include me in his plans.

I opt to lock the door from the inside, then climb back down the trellis to meet him around the front of the house. It shouldn’t seem weird for her to be keeping Penelope out of the room—not with all the drama we injected into their relationship.

I still haven’t had time to sit and regret that decision yet, but there will be plenty of opportunities later, I’m sure.

Across the yard, Julian’s carrying her through the trees and straight for my fucking car. He doesn’t bother to ask for permission or take the time to fill me in on whatever idea is bouncing around his head; he just opens the trunk and tosses her inside.

“Kidnapping?! Seriously, you fucking idiot, what are you thinking?” I storm up to him, but he closes the trunk in my face before I can reach her.

Grabbing my arm, he leads me a few feet away from the car—I assume so she can’t hear us arguing—but I shove him off when we’re safely tucked away in the shroud of surrounding forest.

“Look, I get that it might seem crazy, but you have to get on board because I can’t do this alone. Are you not in this anymore? What happened to wanting to make her suffer, make her scream, make her cry?” he asks.

“I did—” I don’t like to talk about my Scarlett shit because he psychoanalyzes me to hell, and I’m not going to let him do it now. “Ido, but you’re acting like an insane person, and you won’t tell me what the fuck is going on. I’m not going to blindly go along with whatever you’re doing. We do this shit together, or we don’t do it at all.”

His head drops with a sigh before he nods lightly. “You’re right, sorry. She does have me fucked up, I know, but the idea just sort of came to me when we were riding over.” He looks back at the car, finally giving me the explanation I deserve. “I just want to have a little fun with her, that’s all. Then, we’ll let her go, but you saw her—she’s not fighting it. Maybe you’re still skeptical, but haven’t you realized she’s accepting us?”

I can acknowledge that something has changed, sure…but I don’t think it’s the green light he assumes it to be. “Just don’t cry to me when she hurts you, because Iwillsay I told you so,” I warn. “So, what’s this big plan of yours? Where do you want to take her?”

The Julian I actually recognize starts to resurface, his conniving smile giving me a sort of comfort to know my friend is still in there. Whether I like it or not,we are stuck in this together. Scarlett rejected me as Skylar, but she came back for us at Eden. If this is the only way I can have her, I’ll take what I can get.

“The basement,” he says. “What better way to break it in than using it to break our girl?”

33

Julian

It still has a ring to it.Our girl.

Our girl, who stood her ground for months while we coaxed her into this lifestyle, never wanting to fully submit to us. When she finally gave in to her darkest desires and put on the mask, she used the first opportunity she had to corner me and show off this new side of herself—the one we shaped her into. Our girl, who carved her color into my chest with such finesse and mastery, I think I fell in love with her dark heart in that moment.

Scarlett is just as much mine as she is Skylar’s, whether that means she’s completely ours…or not at all. I’m not sure yet.

I noticed his hesitation in her room, but he wasn’t there in the Red Room. He hasn’t been there for a lot of my time with her, so I don’t expect him to understand any more about her than what she blatantly tells him.

But me? I know how to read her, and I’ve been training for months to do so. I’ve read every page of her diary, so I know her truths on paper and have compared them to my memories of our nights together. I know which words were genuine and which were only being said to egg me on. I know what makes her tick, I know which fights were real, and I know my rage excites her.

So yes, I did know she expected us to visit tonight.

She knew we would come after her, but not only did she know…shewantedus to. Sure, tonight was absolutely a revenge ploy to get back at us for Penelope. I’m also positive there will be more acts of retribution to follow, but I’ll lie down and let her.

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