Page 236 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

I yearned to see what was happening, what she looked like, but all I could hear was a quiet sigh and a “Yes sir.”

“Rachel, you know I’m not forcing you. I would never. And I know Peter broke your trust and scared you. I will regret that for the rest of my life. You took a chance, and it backfired.”

“It’s not that. It’s just... you asked me what I wanted last week, and I still haven’t come up with a real answer.”

They spoke a little more, but their tones were softer and I couldn’t hear them.

Another long pause. “Would you like some dinner? I can have something brought up.”

“I would like that.”

“I’ll send someone up.” I heard a creak of furniture, and footsteps.

Running off and hiding behind a large table near the end of the hall, I watched as Reuben left the room, shut the door, and head back down the hallway towards the stairs. He had his thumbs tucked into his pockets, and he walked slowly as if he was thinking hard about something. Once he was gone, I hurried to the door and went in.

Rachel was tall and curvy, with dark brown hair and dark skin, maybe Indian or Hispanic of heritage. Her large deep eyes fell onto me as soon as I went inside, and she looked at me with hesitation. Not fear, just... mild confusion maybe.

“Hi,” I said, giving her what I hoped was an encouraging smile. “I’m Alice.”

We made small talkfor a while, and I sat on her bed beside her and showed her my TikTok videos about stars and black holes, and some of the ones I’d made of me teasing Reuben. She laughed when I made funny comments to him and he gave me the side-eye, which was probably one of my favorite expressions he made.

I skipped the ones I’d made of him topping me or chasing me around the house. She probably didn’t want to see those. He got all growly.

“I was wondering,” I said after a while. “How... How was it? Talking to the police?”

“It wasn’t bad.” She sat up and put her hands in her lap. “Do you know Mister Bronson?”

“Um... the name sounds familiar. That’s Reuben’s friend in the police force?”

“Yes. He took my statement. He took his time, he was kind to me, and he didn’t push me for details... well he needed some details but he let me take breaks. You know?”

“Yeah.”

“And his wife took the photos, so I didn’t have to remove my clothing in front of him.”

I was quiet as I mulled that over. Talking to a trusted friend of Sir’s wouldn’t be too bad, and I’d already put in my earlier statement to the police months ago, and they had the photos of my assault.

Well. Assuming they hadn’t “disappeared” due to the corruption that Reuben had mentioned.

“I’m sorry he hurt you,” I whispered.

“I’m sorry he hurt you, too. I was worried about you... he used to talk about you to me. He said you were... never mind. It doesn’t matter.”

“What did he say?”

“...he said... he said you were mentally ill, and that you wouldn’t be okay on your own. He kept saying that one day, you would come back, and we could be sister slaves.”

“Iammentally ill. But I’m not going back to someone who ignored my safeword multiple times and kept me locked in the garage.He’sthe crazy one.”

There was a long, weighted silence where Rachel tried to decide if she was going to talk.

“He likes pain, doesn’t he? He likes to hurt people.”

“Yeah. That’s his thing.”

“He couldn’t... getitto work if I didn’t scream. So I learned not to scream and he couldn’t... you know.”

“Yeah.”

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