Page 24 of Entombed In Sin

“You never have to thank me, Little Viper. I’ll always take care of you.”

9

THATCHER

Ipull up to a dark house with a truck parked in the driveway.

A glance at the tires, all sliced, tells me I’m in the right place. The deep rumble of my truck’s engine dies as I cut it. Reaching over, I grab the small backpack I’ve stuffed with some clean clothes sitting in the passenger seat before climbing out. The bag gets slung over my shoulder as I straighten. Though I’m anxious to hurry inside, I take my time scanning the road and dark tree line. It would be poor form getting caught now that we’ve settled down.

When I’m sure there’s no one out and about, I shove my hands into my jean pockets and stroll toward the front door. It opens before I get there. My brother greets me with a curt nod. If I couldn’t feel the absolute firework show between us, I would’ve thought he was annoyed. I smirk at him as he steps aside to let me come in.

“Have fun?” I ask him.

“A blast.”

My shoulders shake lightly as I laugh at his heavily masked excitement. Of course, he had fun. Before I move too much further into the house, I stop and turn to him.

“Did she open up to you at all about what the pastor said to her, by any chance?” I ask him.

It’s been gnawing at me all day. I know Sagan’s right, that we’ve created an environment where Beatrixcan’tcome to us and talk about her feelings. That doesn’t make me want to hear them any less. Communication is the most important aspect of our lives. There can’t be any secrets between us. Emotions need to be expressed and dealt with before they drive one of us to extremes—which could end with the police on our heels.

Sagan shakes his head once. “No.”

“Damn it,” I glare past him, around the room as I check out the setting of my sister’s first kill.

“She’ll either come around,” my brother says with a shrug, “or she’ll learn about another rule. Knox learned the same way.”

True. These games, the punishments, it's how we taught Knox to be a perfect killer. Each rule is important but simplylistingthem isn’t enough. They need to be learned through trial and error. A person will remember their mistakes when the punishment is severe enough. It’s why we play our demented games: to drill in the importance of what and why we do things. It’s why we allowed Knox to punish Beatrix in the first place. She had to learn what she did wrong so she’ll never invade another’s privacy again.

You’d think, though, that while she was peeping on Knox as he got punished, she would’ve learned that communication is amustbetween us. That was, after all, the rule Knox had broken and was being punished for. If she doesn’t speak up soon, she’ll regret it.

“Patience, brother. I think tonight we’ve earned her trust back, but it's fragile,” Sagan says slowly. “She’ll come around once she knows we won’t bite her head off.”

I want everything from my little sister. Her trust, her body, her soul—it should all be mine. To get it all, I’ll need to find roomto give her some grace. IsupposeI can give her a little more time to find the strength to seek us out to let us know about the pastor and how he’d wronged her.

With a sharp nod, I push the thoughts of punishments away. Our sister took a big step tonight, and I want to share the moment with her.

I don’t need to be told where to go to find Beatrix or the body. I can see where Sagan’s shoes have tracked bloody prints along the floor. I follow them into the back of the house, past the first body in the kitchen, into a large casual family room where a strange scene halts me in my tracks. There, laying in the middle of the room, is a corpse, but it’s the woman curled around it, sleeping soundly, that stuns me.

Naked, covered in blood and with a hint of a smile on her face, Beatrix looks like a succubus that’s risen from hell. My gaze travels over her body as my dick swiftly grows hard. A swell of ghostly pride gathers in my chest, mixing with my own as Sagan stops beside me.

“She was incredible,” he says.

Judging by the state of the scene, and of her, I have no doubt about it. It takes guts to do this, and she hadn’t withered at the opportunity to strip the soul from the sack of meat she’s wrapped herself around.

“You were right about her all along.” I look over at Sagan, whose smug smile flickers to life then dies.

“When am I ever wrong?” he asks.

I roll my eyes and amusement flutters between the two of us as he catches sight of it.

“We need to wake her up,” I mutter. “Then get her showered and out of here.”

Sagan nods. “That’s why you’re here. I don’t want her falling asleep on the back of my bike.”

“Have you checked the garage for gas cans?”

We’ll have to burn the bodies with the house rather than take them with us back to Bright Starr. There’s too much of Sagan and Beatrix’s DNA all over the place to consider letting the bodies rot where they lie. My brother knows what to do in order to make sure not a lick of evidence will remain.

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