Page 53 of Serpentine
I move closer to the bed.
“I’m good. I got too drunk, but it won’t become… I won’t get like I was before.”
“I’ll take your word for it, Brother.”
“Now, get out. I have to puke again, and I don’t need a fucking audience.”
I chuckle as I make my way out of the room and back to the basement.
My smile is broad as I barrel down the stairs. “He’s fine. A little worse for the fucking wear, I’ll give you that, but he’s alr—” My words die as I reach the bedroom.
Aella turns in my swivel chair, face red, eyes lit with fear.
My screens are on and loaded, and she’s gotten past my password encryption and been snooping.
While I was speaking with Miles, she was going through my fucking life. My entire life is on that hard drive, and she’d just strolled right into it like it was hers to rifle through.
“It’s not what… Okay, that’s what it looks like. Please, let me explain.”
I cross my arms over my chest, instantly letting a wall come back down around my heart and soul because she’d been fucking playing me the entire time.
I don’t know how she’d done it, got past my defenses, bodily and otherwise, but she’s fucking good. I’ll give her that.
“Looks like to me there’s nothing to explain. You’ve been working us over well, Bambi. It was almost as if you meant it all, too, as if you wanted us both. But you’ve been working for Daddy this entire time, right?”
“What?” she squeaks, standing. My rolling chair slides back and hits the desk. “How can you say that? You know I’d never…”
I shake my head. “I don’t know you at all, Aella.”
Hurt ripples across her face, and I roll my eyes at it.
Man, she’s good.
“You almost had me fooled. I thought… You know what? It doesn’t matter what I thought. You played me, and I was a fucking moron. I’m thankful I caught you before you could do too much damage.”
I move for her, but she tries to run for the stairs.
I turn just in time to catch her by the back of her head, tightly gripping her hair. I yank her backward, my lips finding her ear.
“It’s too bad, you know? You fucked with the wrong brother. The one who turns lethal on a dime. Had Miles caught you, you might’ve escaped unscathed…”
“I wasn’t stealing anything,” she cries, tears falling down her cheeks. I remind myself they’re not real. “I just wanted answers,” she adds.
“Mm, and do you think you deserve them? Because I damn sure don’t.”
“Please, don’t hurt me,” she begs, and it reminds me of the night I first met her.
A dark monster in my head thrashes against the locked cage, but I think it’s time to open it.
To let him feel the breeze on his face as he feeds.
“Now, I think I deserve some answers. You might even enjoy how I extract them. Too bad I have something to do right now for Miles.”
I move her toward the spanking bench, forcing her over it. Grabbing the gun I keep on the table next to the bench, I slam it on the surface. “Don’t get any ideas, or you’ll see how quick of a shot I am.”
She nods, tears staining her beautiful cheeks.
“Now, I’m just going to leave you here to simmer and think about what you’ve done while I go find a whore’s name. When I get back, though. You and I are going to have a little fun.”