Page 99 of Dark, Forbidden, & Taboo

That’s what she taught all four years.

Trying to ingrain our heads aboutherreligious beliefs, how they came about, and why they’re so important, but it never interested me.

I wasn’t the nuisance she treated me as.

I was a bored, teenage boy with better shit to think about, and it made her angry.

Sister Emma Agnes must have felt less than decent at her job, because when I finally severed her last nerve, she would keep me after school and cane my bare ass with her long, wooden ruler.

And now I finally have the chance to pay her back in the best way I know how.

She clearly loves her niece; it was obvious in the way she barked at me when I invited her out for dinner.

She doesn’t want to embarrass her by wearing her holy getup out in public.

The thing is, I’m not interested in little kids. Never have been, but this is an opportunity that I can’t give up.

Her Holiness seems to have forgotten all about how she treated me, but I’m going to make damn sure that she knows exactly what she’s turned me into.

___

“Hey.”

I glance up from my client’s back and look at Rya who’s standing uncomfortably in the doorway.

“What’s up, Ry?” I ask her curiously.

“You’ve got someone out front that wants to talk to you.”

“Who?”

She looks down for a moment before she mouthsher, and I roll my eyes.

“I think now would be a good time to take a break,” I tell my client as I set my tattoo gun down and get to my feet. Peeling off my latex gloves, I roll my shoulders and smile at the middle-aged man that’s clearly going through a mid-life crisis based on the design he’s getting. “Take as long as you need; I don’t have anyone after you.”

He nods in thanks as he reaches for his jacket and fishes out a pack of smokes and his cell phone.

“Send her in,” I tell Ry as soon as my client leaves the room. I take a few steps toward the black massage bed that sits along the wall, directly across from the door, and wait.

It only takes a minute or so before she’s standing in the doorway, giving me a look that I grew far too familiar with in high school.

“Shame you don’t have your ruler,” I remark evenly.

“Excuse me?” she barks as she closes the door behind her.

“Nothing,” I say with a smile. “What can I do for you today,Aunt Celeste?”

Her body stiffens at the way I say her name, but she takes a deep breath to relax herself then puts her hands on her hips.

I remember that look far too well.

It was the same one she gave me the first time I got detention, and the same one she gave me when I hobbled out of school with angry tears in my eyes.

“You’re not allowed on my property,” she says sternly. “If you come to my home, Iwillcall the police.”

I shrug. “Okay.”

She falters slightly at how quickly I adhere to her request, but then she narrows her eyes at me.

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