Page 112 of Dark, Forbidden, & Taboo

When no one answers immediately, I knock again, then kick the fucking door in anger a few seconds later.

“Rya, I told you not?—”

I glance up sharply at the sound of his voice. When his eyes lock on mine, he lets out a laugh and crosses his arms on the windowsill, giving me an amused glance.

“Well, well, well. Are you stalking me,Aunt Celeste?That’s a crime, you know,” he finishes pointedly with a smirk.

“I’m not leaving until you open this door,” I bark up Finley, who shakes his head and disappears from sight.

After what feels like an eternity later, he pulls the door open, places one hand against the door frame, then leans out. I take an inadvertent step back, not wanting this hooligan so close to me, but it only makes his smirk shift into a grin.

“What can I do for you?” he asks before he sucks his teeth.

“Stay away from Ava. She told me all about last night and I’ve had it with your bullshit, Finley Bradshaw?—”

“Yeah, I know. You’ve had enough of my ‘bullshit’ for years, but I never did get a chance to pay you back for how you treated me and made me feel, did I?” he cuts me off evenly.

The smile drops from his lips, his eyes harden, and his jaw becomes square and prominent.

“And you think that abusing a minor makes you some kind of big shot, tough guy?” I snarl at him.

“I didn’t touch her.”

I don’t know what comes over me, but all I see is red. I reach forward and slap him across the face.

If he’s playing a game with me?—

“Oh, that was definitely the wrong move, Your Holiness,” he snarls as he reaches for my wrist and grips in his hand like a fist. “You’ve hit me one too many fucking times in my life.”

Before I have a chance to fight him off, to get my arm out of his grip, Finley Bradshaw gives me a violent jerk into his home and slams the door closed behind us.

Chapter 12

Finley

Ihave to drag her up the fucking stairs for the most part, but when she finally composes herself and gets to her feet, I keep a firm grip on her arm as I push the door open to my home.

“Sister Emma Agnes Tremaine,” I begin slowly as I finally let her arm go and kick the door closed behind us. “I never thought I’d have to see you again, but when you walked into my shop, Iknew that I wouldn’t be able to pass up the opportunity to teachyoua fucking lesson for once.”

She turns quickly to give me a deadly stare, but I can see her lower lip trembling, and I know that she’s afraid of me. With a smirk and a shrug, I turn around and slide the bolts across the door to lock it, then give her my undivided attention.

“The thing is, I didn’t know that you’d bring me something to use. How does it feel,Aunt Celeste?To be beaten into submission my fucking way, and me not even having to lay a finger on you to get it done?”

“If you think there’s some score to settle with me, that’s fine, but you leave my niece out of this,” she warns in a trembling tone.

“Or else, what? You’ll paddle me with a ruler?” I ask, shaking my head. “Tell you what, let’s try it and see how it ends this time.”

I walk by her, my shoulder bumping her on the way, and head to my bedroom. In the closet, I have the exact same ruler that she used on me when she felt that I was “misbehaving.”

It was the one thing I stole on prank day in senior year.. Most of my friends did the usual; hiding frogs in the teachers’ lounge, putting hard liquor in a batch of punch to be served at lunchtime, and some even put stink bombs in the vent.

But this …

I run a hand down my face as I reach into the closet and pull out the two-foot long, six-inch wide, heavy wooden ruler and close my eyes.

I have to force myself not to feel every indignity crash against me like a monsoon trying to knock me off my feet. I have to take deep, steadying breaths to try and not remember how painful it had been to sit after the first, second, and third time she had done it to me.

With this exact same fucking ruler.

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