Page 19 of Of Angels & Absolution

I make it to the landing and almost crumple with relief. But I have to get out of sight of the study area before I’m safe, so I dart between the stacks before I let out the breath I was holding. I sag back against the shelves and close my eyes, clutching my books to my chest. My relief is short lived. Not a minute later, I hear heavy footsteps on the stairs.

My breath catches, and I turn that way, but I can’t see past the high, dark wood shelves lined with dusty, yellowing old resource books. When the approach continues, I duck down and hurry further along the row, trying to keep my footfalls silent on the old carpet. Clogs are not meant for stealth, and all I can do is hope it’s just another library patron and not the boys seeking me out. I slip behind a shelf and slide down, letting my back rest on the smooth wood as I sit huddled with my books in my arms and my knees pulled to my chest.

“Little lamb,” a voice sings out, the edge of threat it carries making a shiver wrack my entire body. I gasp, then bite down on my lip, my heart stopping.

Heath.

“Wait,” says a quiet, masculine voice. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?” asks another.

“I think she went this way.”

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” sings the sadistic first voice. His footsteps are light and quick, and I know I don’t have much time. I scramble up, not caring that my books scatter with heavy thuds on the carpet, and I run.

Gleeful, triumphant laughter echoes through the rows, up into the center of the building, to the ceiling of the tower far above.

I dart behind a bookcase just as footfalls turn into my aisle. I press my back to the shelves, trying to breathe. Thiscannot be happening, not here, with so many people just one floor below.

“Gotcha!” A grinning face appears just inches from mine.

I shriek with surprise and throw myself sideways, using the momentum when I crash into the next shelf to turn my body and propel it forwards. I race down the aisle between the stacks, praying one of the others won’t step into my path. Just when I think I’ll make it around the end of that shelf, Heath’s footsteps quicken behind me. His fingers close around my arm as dive for the end. He drags me back, pushing me against the books.

I gasp out a breath when he leans in, resting a palm on either side of my head, caging me in. His teal eyes are alive as the sea, sparkling and restless and wild. “You know how much I enjoy the chase, little rabbit,” he says, his voice a taunting purr. “Is that why you keep running?”

“Leave me alone,” I warn, my hands curling into fists. All the ways I could incapacitate him flash through my mind—a knee to the groin, an uppercut to the jaw, a chop to the throat. But I’m trying to cross the line from enemy to friend, and that won’t get me there. So I grab his arm, and when he instinctively pulls it in, trying to trap me, I duck under his elbow, twisting away and taking off again.

I’m almost back to the stairs, my mind set on escape, when suddenly, a fist wraps around my French braid, wrenching my head back and dragging me to a stop as a cry falls from my lips.

“Thought you could run from us?” my brother’s voice growls in my ear. “That’s not the agreement we made, was it, little sister?”

“You come when we call,” Angel agrees, appearing at his side.

A heavy tome thuds to the floor at our feet, and I jump, a little cry escaping me.

“Or when the Master commands it,” Heath says, and his grinning face appears in the gap left where the thick book stood between two others. “Then she really cums.”

“You agreed to accept our protection for a cost,” Saint says, ignoring him. “I shouldn’t even be surprised that you’re not holding up your end of the deal. You always were a liar.”

“I’m not,” I cry. “I’m sorry.”

“I did my job the other day,” Angel says, resting an elbow on the shelves and crossing his ankles as he smirks down at me. “After all I did for you, this is how you repay me?”

“This calls for a punishment,” Saint says. “Should we teach her the error of her ways, or let her face the consequences of her actions? Maybe she’ll be more compliant for the Sinners. She seems to think we’re the enemy.”

“Please,” I hiss at my brother when Heath’s face disappears and his quick footsteps make their way along the next row, toward the end, where he’ll circle back to us. “I’m sorry I ran. You can punish me. Just don’t let Heath do it.”

Angel cocks his head. “Who do you want to punish you, Em?”

“Saint,” I whisper, dropping my gaze from Angel’s, my cheeks flushing hot at the memory of what he did to me in my room. It was shameful enough there, when only he saw it. I can’t face the humiliation of losing control like that in front of my brother, not to mention what Heath would do, how he’d throw it back in my face and laugh at my torment.

Saint scoffs. “Like I would touch you.”

“You did before,” I whisper at the floor.

“Because the Master commanded it,” he grits out. “You think I wanted to finger my own sister’s dirty cunt after watching you give it to two other men? You disgust me, Mercy.”

My eyes burn and my throat aches, and I can’t answer. He said he’d protect me. That I was still his sister. His hot and coldact is burning me with frostbite. My own shameful desire feels even more dirty now that I know he doesn’t share it. He made me rub his release into me in the confessional, but he didn’t do it himself. He didn’t want to touch me, just wanted to prove that I wanted him, that even his dried, crusty emission would make me wet enough to release my own.

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