“Good girl, now.” The black panties that once covered my ass snap off the side of my hip as the material rips in his hands. “Fucking scream it.”
“I’mstillnotgivingup, darling,” I mutter as we walk down the stairs hand in hand, his thumb continuously brushing over the spot that’ll soon possess something I used to dream about.
Feeling like a giddy schoolgirl, I want to scream it from the rooftops, and I can’t wait to tell my mom. Hell, tell everyone and yell it into the night.
Until Saint opens the door to the meeting room, and I’m met with an arctic atmosphere.
“Right on time,” Malcolm says, staring down at the computer screen Dawson and Regina are sitting at.
I glance at my phone subtly to check the time, making sure it wasn’t a sarcastic dig, but we seem to be only a couple minutes late. We would have been later, if Saint hadn’t done this thing with his tongue and fingers that had me coming so hard I almost passed out, and I think I might be dehydrated.
“What?” Saint asks, letting go of my hand to stalk around the desk. His eyes immediately shoot up to mine from the screen.
I slowly make my way round, wondering what everyone’s looking at, and when I see it, a lead weight drops in my stomach. The little bit of happiness I was just gifted shatters before my eyes.
Snapshots of Conrad and my sister litter Dawson’s screen; the time stamps span over the past couple of days. He’s hidden himself, all dark clothing as he dips his chin into the hood, hat covering his eyes. My sister, on the other hand, is walking around brazenly, both at a place I would never have imagined.
Our university.
“How did you find them?” I manage to ask, my voice rough, mind burning at her once again tainting something else.
She ruins fucking everything.
I clench my jaw to contain the outburst, concealing the wretched laugh that wants to break free at the betrayal rearing its ugly head.
It’s Regina that answers me. “It was a lucky guess; someone drove past the Archives. The car slowed like it was going to stop by the ruins. I used the feeds to pick up the registration hitting off different street cameras. They parked in the university, managed to capture their journey before.”
The school’s closed for the winter break. No one will be near the grounds to check on them. And it wouldn’t surprise me if the Omnia had a hand in how the university runs.
Saint’s hand slides into mine, pulling me flush with his front, one arm banding across my chest to hold me tight. “When is the road being cleared?” he asks his dad.
Malcolm pulls out his phone. “Got another couple hours yet. They’re making progress.”
Saint grunts his response, and the room falls silent. All I can hear is the blood rushing in my ears like waves.
Fucking Louisa.
I curse at myself. Why the hell is this affecting me the way it is? I’ve had so many talks with myself that she’s not going to change, that her speech to me outside the gate was just a performance.
She ran right back into the arms of the Omnia, because that’s all she knows.
Family really means nothing to her. She might have given me Saint, but the fact she’s sneaking around in the shadows with my rapist, that she’s now fully aware of…
My eyes close when I feel the burn behind them. I’m sick of letting out tears for people who don’t deserve them.
“What do you want to do?” Dawson asks. I’m not exactly sure who he directed the question at. When I open my eyes, my gaze lands with Jenna’s. Something unspoken passes between us.
He’s her abuser as much as he’s mine. He took from both of us.
She’s still healing, and she knows this opportunity is there if she wants it, and she also knows that this is something that I need to do for the both of us.
I won’t even take a second thought to do it for us, for all of them who suffered at his hands.
She reads the volatile thoughts in my mind, giving me a subtle nod.
My voice is potent with the darkness that falls over me like veil. “Saint and I will take them.”
38
