Page 67 of Sinning for Santa

Again.

What will my parents say?

Words arespoken, but I hardly hear them before Devon is leading me from the room and back up the stairs. I think I can still hear him talking, probably to me, but everything is muffled, as my brain goes back to ten year old me at Sunday School. Back when I tried to help, but it only made things worse. Back when even the scariest of grown ups looked at me like I was the monster, and not them.

Them.

“Jaxcen?”

The deep rumble of Devon’s voice shakes me out of my memory, and I blink a few times to find myself already up in his suite, sitting on his sofa as he cups my cheeks, his expression pinched with concern.

“Where’d you go?”

“I…” I snap my mouth closed because I can’t tell him. I can never tell anyone if I want them to look at me the same.

My parents know of course. As does my sister.

And Eddie.

He knows everything.

No one else can know.

“What’s going on inside that head of yours?” Devon asks, and I wonder if he’s not the perfect person to tell all my darkest secrets too.

Monsters would understand monsters, wouldn’t they?

“So many fucked up things,” I whisper, and his lips kick up.

“I’d love to hear them.”

Sighing, I try to shake my head, but his hands are still framing my face, so it doesn’t budge until he finally releases me, sitting back with his own sigh.

“I have so many questions,” I say instead.

“I’m sure you do.” He smirks.

“What are the chances you’ll answer them?”

“Slim, but you knew that already.”

Huffing, I roll my eyes. “I just need something. I don’t understand what’s happening here. Why you brought me here? What’s going to happen to me, and I just wish you’d stop talking in riddles and give me the truth.”

For once,the playful guy that usually lurks on the surface slips away, and in its place is a serious version. Not the deadly version I’ve met a few times already, but just serious. No bullshitting.

“You can ask me five.”

My brows shoot high at his declaration, and my spine straightens with hope.

Finally, I can get some answers.

“I’ll answer one.”

My shoulders slump.

Damn him.

I swear he likes messing with my emotions. He just takes them and dangles them over a pit of vipers, every damn time.

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