Page 7 of Never Die for a Sinner
“Get out.”
My mouth falls open; the words caught in my throat. I can’t look him in the eyes because doing so is like staring into the sun.
“I-it’s Monday—”
“I don’t give a fuck if it’s Christmas. Get. Out.”
My feet are frozen to the floor and I’m unable to move. I stammer through an apology, but Levi doesn’t care, grabbing me by the upper arm and dragging me from the room. He grabs my cart, next, shoving it out the door, and locks the room up tight behind him.
When he’s done, he steps up in front of me, so close that I have no choice but to meet his gaze when he backs me into the wall.
His hand comes up to grip my chin and force my gaze to his. His eyes are all-consuming—deadly—and my heart bottoms out at the feral depravity in his gaze. “The next time I see you in that room,” he murmurs darkly. “I’ll spank your ass.” He leans forward, his lips only inches from my ear, and a shiver ghosts through me when his breath brushes over my bare skin. “And I’ll make sure you like it.”
And with that, he storms off down the hall, taking the bag of stained sheets with him while I try to remember how to breathe.
Night had swallowed Cross Estate whole.
I wake to the creak of footsteps on the wooden floor just outside my door—slow, deliberate, too measured to be accidental. Each step thrums in time with my pulse, a rhythm of dread counting down to something I can’t yet name.
One . . . two . . . three . . .
He’s come every night for the past three weeks. No one else knows. Not his family, not the staff. Only me.
He slips in under the cover of darkness like a ghost that never truly left. Always the same hour—two in the morning—when the house is asleep and even the walls seem to breathe softer.
Sometimes he opens my door. Just a crack. Just enough to watch me as I pretend to sleep. Then he closes it without a sound.
Other nights, he disappears into the room across the hall—his old room, still untouched—staying only long enough to remind me he’s real.
But tonight is different.
Tonight, the footsteps don’t stop at his door.
They keep going.
Past mine.
Past the others.
Toward the very end of the hall, where the air grows colder and the silence feels like it’s holding its breath.
And somehow, without even seeing him, I know someone is going to die at Cross Estate tonight.
THUD
I jump awake to the sound of footsteps outside my bedroom door, followed by soft giggles.
“You’re bad,” a woman says, and it takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to realize where I am.
My heart pounds in my chest, chasing away the remnants of the dream.
It’s always the same, but tonight it felt more lifelike.
“Are you going to be bad for me?”
I pause at the brooding voice, listening to the sound of people outside my door.
Oh great. Levi must be meeting someone from his fan club.
