Page 60 of The Circus

That queasiness enters my stomach again, and I swallow down my bile, refusing to answer. They only told me I had to let him sleep with me, not that I had to attend a dinner date and be even more humiliated in the process first. So when I say nothing, his eyes narrow, and his moist lips quiver.

He slams his fist on the table, knife sticking up threateningly and clenched in his meaty fist, spittle flying from his mouth. “Speak. Or are you a dumb bitch like the last one, too?”

Last one…?

The woman behind him grows darker, her fury mingling with my own. She loathes him. And suddenly, an idea occurs to me that never has before. I have nothing to lose by sharing this secret with him, because who the fuck cares if he believes me or not? As long as he gets what he paid for, I’m in the clear, and my father will be safe.

A nervous smile has my lips trembling and my heart racing as I sit up straighter. “Were you ever married?”

His chewing slows, his eyes narrowing. He doesn’t speak, and I don’t give him a chance to.

“She died, didn’t she?”

“How dare you speak?—”

My lip curls back in a sneer, and I lean across the table, emboldened because…because I know that Teddy keeps his promises, and I know he will never let anyone touch me.

“Shehatesyou,” I seethe with venom. His mouth pops open, revealing wet crumbs of food still clinging to his tongue. “You feel her all the time, don’t you? That chill that hasn’t gone away since she died. She hated you in life, and she hates you in death, and she knows. She knows you’re a pervert.”

“You little cunt?—”

“Ah, ah, ah,” comes a deep, dark voice, filled to overflowing with malice, the tone one I recognize, because the voices in his head have taken over.

And I’m about to witness himreallyhunt.

I have to bury my smile, difficult as it is, as the man whirls in his seat and gasps. It’s not his dead wife he sees, but Teddy emerging from the darkness of the doorway. The lights overhead flicker noisily before we are doused in orange-hued darkness, the only remaining light that of the fireplace.

His grin is dangerous, and the reason I am shaking now is far different than the reason just moments ago.

“I’m the only one allowed to degrade my little ghost,” he says smoothly, flipping a knife seemingly out of thin air, the silver glinting ominously.

“Who the hell are you? How’d you get in here? Anders! Anders, call the police?—”

But Teddy is on him faster than I can blink, the knife pressed to his quivering throat, choking off his pleas. The madness in Teddy’s eyes has my body going rigid and utterly cold, the sneer on his lips and the way he’s devoutly focused on his task something otherworldly. If demons exist, they do in him, and their master has let them out to play.

“I make it a sport to slice up sick fucks who hurt little girls,” Teddy hisses, spilling a secret to me that I catch and bury close to my heart. “You’ll never touch her, or anyone else, ever again.”

The man protests, but Teddy grips what little hair remains on the back of his skull and forces the man to face me. Knife still pressed to his throat, his watering eyes go wide with shock as they find mine, but I’m not looking at the man who paid for me.

No. I’m looking at the man who is about to kill for me.

And I’m entranced.

He smiles like the devil.

“You wanna watch, baby?”

Sick fascination swirls into me and floods my veins. I’ve seen the dead in all forms—decrepit, rotting, and as close to normalas can be. But to watch the soul leave a body? It’s always been a curiosity of mine, and so I nod shakily.

“You can’t do this, you can’t?—”

“I already sent your porn stash to every professor, student, even fucking janitor at your school. The news has the tapes, too. No one will miss you, Dr. Williams.”

He goes pale as the ghosts I’m fond of, and my smile grows, something about this level of justice giving me hope that someday, Teddy and I will take it for ourselves.

“Your wife is waiting for you,” I whisper, my voice hoarse with nerves. Teddy’s eyes widen in what I can only describe as lust, his entire body tightening and poised to spring across the table and fuck me over the corpse he creates. The idea alone has my underwear soaked. “She can’t wait to drag you to hell where you belong.”

Teddy chuckles, the sound dark and foreboding as it bounces off the walls. He pats the man’s shoulder. “See why I refuse to share her? She’s…exquisite.”

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