Page 15 of Beneath the Dirt

“But—” I begin, but he whips around, blowing yet another puff of smoke directly in my face. My lids close and flutter, trying to prevent the smoke from burning them. It works, barely.

“Oh I almost forgot,” he trails off teasingly, eyeing me up and down with a sadistic grin. “Please, for the love of God, bathe when you get home. You look like you’ve been rolling around in the dirt.”

He slips my necklace into his pocket and mumbles something to the men standing there, resembling obedient mastiffs with their towering size. I blink again as I peer at them because they aren’t wearing the black hooded trench coats anymore. They’re in suits. “Your hands are filthy,” he chuckles, breaking my concentration on the men.

I peer down at my hands, almost forgetting how dirty they were from the book Frida gave me. Standing upright, I wrap my hands around my purse strap, wanting now, more than ever, to keep said book safe so fuck-face doesn’t take that too.

“Fine.”

He nods, taking another puff of his cigarette, leading the way out of the main sanctuary as the two men follow.

I wait until they’ve left so I can fish through my bag for my joint case, needing a reprieve, but I open it and it’s empty.Fuck. The one I smoked before I went to Frida’s was the last one I had pre-rolled.

I’m about to head home when I remember that anything my stepdad has ever confiscated from me—with the exception of my necklace he’s decided to hold hostage tonight—he keeps locked in his office. Including the pain pills he caught me with, which were prescribed to me by a doctor; a doctor that Frida was able to get me an appointment with because I needed something to take the edge off the physical pain he’s inflicted on me—but of course, it’s locked.

But I know someone who should have a key, and that’s Harlan.

I head to the door that leads down to the basement. My hand curls around the brass knob, and as it glides in my palm, that chill from earlier remerges, freezing me in place. I wait for the voice to speak to me again, but all I can hear is a moan cut through the air coming from downstairs.

The door flings open faster than I’m able to move it myself, and the coldness wraps itself around me as if to push me to move downstairs.

Curiosity fuels me as I make my descent down the steep old staircase. With every step I take, a creek sounds in response, though no noise can compete with the breathy whimpers or the chant-like hum that accompanies them.

The closer I walk down the pitch-black hall—with the only light coming from the inventory room that Harlan was told to go to—the chanting becomes clearer. Nausea strikes my stomach. The voice is feminine, and the chant… the fucking Lord’s prayer. Gross. Yet, the nausea is quickly replaced as a primitive and unexpected moan overshadows the repetitive prayer.

A flutter forms in my stomach just as one pulses at my center as I step into the small inlet directly across from the open door. My black dress and hair blend in with the recessed space, camouflaging me. Got to love these old churches, even the ones that have been renovated to look modern. They have so many hidden nooks and crannies that are worth exploring… and misbehaving in.

With my hidden vantage point, I stare through the open doorway. Harlan is sitting down, his side facing me, going to town on this girl—who I assume is Tori. She is lying with her back flat on the small table, with her back arched and her legs spread wide. She has a bible in her hands open to a page that she’s reading over and over again, trying to cleanse herself from what my stepbrother is doing to her—and from what she is very clearly enjoying.

Lucky bitch.

Seeing him fucking someone with his tongue in church…is doing something to me. Something unexpected that’s never happened before any time I’ve looked at Harlan. Not only am I becoming unbearably wet. I’m disappointed that it’s not me.Jealouseven. Which is something I haven’t felt before with Harlan. I mean sure, jealous that he is treated better than me in our house, but this kind of jealousy is new. It’s festering in my gut, but the more it twists and turns my core, the more I can’t look away. I remain hypnotized, unable to look away from the attentive, harsh strokes of his tongue. He’s consuming her with such passion… such anger.

So much anger.

I don’t blame him. Living as a Rainey is anger-inducing, and vices are the only way to get through that. For me, it’s escapism through drugs, and for him, shockingly, it’s through eating pussy like he hasn’t had a meal in years… or ever.

As much as I want to stay here and watch his little bible thumper finish in his mouth, I’ve seen enough to aid my self-care session thatI’ll needto have tonight. It’s not my pussy being eaten anyway, so I’m getting bored.

Stepping out of the inlet I’ve been hiding in, I reach for my phone to text him, because, after all, I came down here for him to do me a favor.

My thumbs swipe at the keyboard, my pulse rising as the crescendo of an orgasm echoes around me.

Me: When you’re done eating, be a good big brother and get me my pills from Daddy’s office.

A grin hits my lips as I fire off another text.

Five

Tori tossesthe bible she’s been holding onto for dear life just as she announces she’s coming. She isn’t lying either. I already knew she was getting close, she’s been practically convulsing, thrashing against my mouth. But I can’t focus on that, nor do I care. All I can pay attention to are the footsteps on the other side of the door that I know are Araceli’s. She thinks I didn’t see her—of course I did. That dark corner she thought she hid in failed at providing her with the camouflage she needed. Darkness doesn’t provide her with the shield she thinks it does. It compliments her, highlighting all the parts of her that she is forced to keep hidden but I wish she didn’t, not from me.

I lick up Tori’s orgasm, secretly wishing it were Araceli’s, and skid the chair back just as my phone pings.

What do you want, Araceli?I know her well enough to know that she isn’t trying to small-talk with me, and that she didn’t come down here just to watch me go down on Tori. Just like I know when I get a text from her it’s because she wants something.

Araceli: When you’re done eating, be a good big brother and get me my pills from Daddy’s office.

Knew it. I’m about to text her back when she beats me to it.

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