Page 52 of His to Keep

“Oh.” I want him too, even though I’m sore and aching and bleeding. “Can I come to hell with you?”

Groaning, he kisses me again, and then we fall into the fire.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Change. It’s coming whether I like it or not, and I’m scared. You’d think I’d be used to it, given how my life has always been affected by change. When I left the city and moved to Little Willow. A new school. Grandpa dying, and Gran changing. And then coming here. A whirlwind life that doesn’t stop spinning and moving.Stillnot stopping.

Maisie is thrown inside the bedroom sometime past midnight. After Callum and I quickly showered and dressed, making sure there was no evidence of what we’d done, we sat away from each other. Him at his desk and me on the bed that I changed and neatly made back up with the corners tucked in. The distance safe, the flames of our desire smothered. Sore and aching, I sat, knowing change was coming. And then it did. It landed on the floor with a frightful, loud bang.

Striding into the room behind Maisie, Father Aaron looks at Callum and me, eyes bloodshot from too much drink. He’s intoxicated, and it makes the hairs on my neck rise. Sitting still, I don’t even blink. Callum does the same, cold glare in place.Nothing happened. We didn’t sin.

“Teach her obedience, or I’ll kill her,” he slurs crossly and nudges Maisie with the tip of his shoe. She whimpers, and he grins manically down at her. “Obey, and you will be blessed. Disobey, and be cursed.”

Backing out, he slams the door and locks it. My shoulders slump that we’re back to locked doors. At least he didn’t notice anything amiss, not that there’d be anything physical to see.

Callum and I share a glance, and I nod, remembering the conversation we had when he held me in his arms after taking me for the second time.

“You have to help her,” I’d said to him. “Like you helped me.”

“She’s not you,” he’d replied, somewhat broodily. “She won’t listen. I can already tell she’s like Orla.”

“We can’t let her end up like Orla. We have to keep her alive,” I insisted, and he sighed, knowing I was right. We had to help her. We couldn’t allow Father Aaron to take another life, not when there was something we could do about it.

Getting up from the chair, he goes over to her and touches her shoulder like he did to me on those few occasions when I was lost in terror. Her head snaps up, and her eyes narrow when they rest on his face.

I squeeze my dress, uneasiness washing over me, knowing what she’s seeing. Does she think he’s beautiful? Attractive? Or does she see the resemblances to Father Aaron that I didn’t? Piecing it all together as I had failed to do.

“Come on, get up.” Holding out his hand, her large eyes drop to it. But instead of reaching for it, she shakes her head, face creasing with fear and anger.

“Get thefuckaway from me, psycho!” Her sudden outburst makes my eyes widen as she shuffles back from him. “What do you want from me?”

Callum’s back straightens defensively. “For you to listen. If you do as he says, things will be easier for you. For one, you won’t die.”

“Callum,” I say, and her eyes swing to me.

“Who are you?” There’s a slight twang to her accent, but I still don’t know where’s she’s from. She’s eyeing my white nightdress, similar to hers.

“I’m Ava. I’m…I’m just like you.”

“I saw you before. Downstairs. You’re one of them like that old bitch, Penny.”

“No.” My head shakes. “I was taken just like you were. And this is Callum, he’s…” Father Aaron’s son? The man I just allowed to take my virginity? “He’s like us, too. He won’t hurt you,” I say instead, avoiding his gaze.

I’m nothing like you,I can imagine him thinking.

“That bastard, John, said I have to obey or die. Is that true?

“Yes. I’ve seen what Father Aaron can do to girls like us.”

“Father Aaron?” She looks at me with confusion. “The priest? He said his name was Matthew.”

“Aaron’s his surname,” Callum clarifies, which even I didn’t know. “Matthew is his first name. Matthew Jonah Aaron, though he prefers if you call him your Lord.”

She gasps, and I wish he wouldn’t have said that. It’s too soon. “Fuck you.” Her bottom lip wobbles, but she stifles it, trying to appear more robust than I think she is. “This is bullshit. He can’t do this!”

“Keep your voice down,” Callum growls at her, which seems far angrier than he ever was with me, and I can’t help frowning at him.

There’s a fire in her eyes as she glares at him fiercely. Challengingly. I swallow down a lump in my throat as the tension crackles between them. “Don’t tell mewhatto do, you masochist asshole.”