Chapter 14 Judgment
JUDGMENT
JACOB
“This is worse than the basement at Sigma House.” Kole shoves open the steel door, and I step through it.
“LA’s a big city.” I unbutton my cuff and start rolling up my sleeve. “Never a shortage of trash that needs to be taken out.”
He nods, scanning the room until he sets his sights on the unconscious man dangling from meat hooks in the center. “And I thought Dec had a reputation for torture.”
“I have a reputation for getting the job done.” I roll up my other sleeve, watching the man’s feet sway.
His bloody, raw toes drag on the concrete.
“I get why Declan’s trying to get you on our side now.”
I hum, not responding. I’m well aware of what Declan wants from me as he slowly tears at the seams of Sigma House, rebuilding it in whatever fucked-up vision he’s created. I just don’t know that I care to be a part of it. Especially with certain players still on the board.
There’s a reason I left Bristal, along with turning down the opportunity to run the helm of Sigma Sin at a national level years ago.
At a certain point, it’s nothing but messy political games where everyone suffers the consequences.
I came close once under the mentorship of Gideon Lancaster and learned my lesson.
Sigma Sin simultaneously gave me everything and took it away, and since then, I’ve maintained the air of being indifferent and kept my distance.
I’ve completed tasks for the House as needed, and they’ve let me live my life.
Until now, when the past is knocking.
Declan might enjoy his role leading the fraternity on campus, but someone needs to claim the presidential seat of the Council.
His sights are on me since he knows we share a similar vision, and I’ve continued to put off making a final decision.
Which is why Kole is here this summer. A final attempt to sway me.
He’s gotten as far as convincing me to return for a semester of teaching at Briar, but they’ll want more.
Breathing in the stale, metallic warehouse air, I try to imagine leaving LA permanently.
I’ve been content living in my own little slice of Sigma hell at the edge of the country.
Nothing interested me more than this, until Patience Lancaster fell into my lap.
Now the thought of her leaving at the end of the program puts me on edge, and it has nothing to do with my original plans.
It’s been two weeks since we were alone in my office, and I still can’t erase that look in her eyes as she fell apart. Maybe I should have bent her over right then and ripped into her until she screamed and begged. Maybe then I would have worked her out of my system.
But she was so delicate—so vulnerable. I couldn’t help but take my time.
I want to savor every second with that girl.
How could someone so sharp, brilliant, and beautiful be born from the blood of Gideon Lancaster? It doesn’t make sense.
Grabbing a torch off the table at the edge of the room, I approach Bellamy Grant. His dark hair is nearly black since it’s soaked in sweat, and there are welts all over his naked body.
Bellamy is the perfect example of how easy it is for great men to fall when they get too greedy.
Bellamy could have done anything with his impressive rise through the ranks of Sigma House.
Instead, he chose to destroy a fellow brother’s business to fund his new start-up, thinking the House wouldn’t find out what he did.
There are very few things Sigma House doesn’t condone, but even the devil has lines. And when a member does something that will so blatantly smear the name of the House, they’re dealt with.
“Ready to wake up?” I light the torch and lift it to Bellamy’s bare chest.
It takes less than a few seconds for his skin to start bubbling. He screams, flailing as he attempts to pull back, but he can’t with how he dangles on meat hooks from the ceiling. When he loses another layer of skin, I pull the torch back. I have no intention of making this easy or quick.
Kole’s gaze moves to the rattling chains hooked to the ceiling. “Effective setup. We need to make a few adjustments to the basement back at the fraternity.”
The shadows that sweep his eyes promise violence and give me a hint at who Kole is.
While I know Declan well through my previous dealings with his father, I don’t know Kole beyond the fact that he passed his seven initial trials faster than anyone before him and that he’s a clinically diagnosed psychopath with a hell of a sadistic streak.
Diagnoses aside, I suppose I’m no better than Kole if the man I’ve strung up like meat is any indication.
Finally, Bellamy opens his one eye that can. “Please. I’m sorry.”
I breathe out a laugh. “We both know we’re well past the point of apologies. All I need is one name, and this ends.”
“I don’t know.” Lighting the torch again, Bellamy starts screaming. “I don’t know, I swear.”
“Not good enough.” I lift the torch to his side, searing a line along his ribs as he flails so hard he’s going to rip himself off the hooks.
When I pull back, sweat, tears, and snot stain his face.
“Paul.” His voice shakes. “Paul Donovan.”
“You’re lying to me now?”
“I’m not—”
His argument cuts off in a scream as I sear the hair off his chest. There was a time when the smell of burning flesh bothered me.
When the sight of blood made my stomach turn.
I learned that after enough exposure, anything can be trained out of a person.
It’s why Patience’s ability to get under my skin unnerves me the way it does.
“It was Paul.”
“Paul has been in prison for months.” My teeth clench.
Bellamy’s eyes widen, and it’s the first sign of truth. He didn’t know about Paul Donovan’s downfall when Declan overturned his father, Teal’s father, and the rest of the sitting Sigma House Council.
“It had to be Paul.” Fear swims in Bellamy’s eyes. “I got the message from his phone. He texted.”
“You trusted a text?” Even Kole shakes his head. “It’s no wonder you’re strung up while the man who helped take you down is still out there.”
“I thought it was Paul.”
“I’m sure you did.” Unfortunately for him, that’s not a lie, and it means he’s of no more help to me. “And I believe you.”
“So what now?” Kole asks, turning to me. “We know it’s not Teal’s dad.”
“Trace the text. Someone has a target on Declan.” I set the torch down, dropping into a chair at the edge of the room.
“And in the meantime?” Kole smirks.
I wave a hand to the table in front of us. “We have a little fun.”
Bellamy starts screaming. He expected this to end quickly, but it was never going to. No one betrays the House and gets away with it. We all give our pound of flesh, and in the case of betrayal, we offer them all.
For the House we live. We die.
All of us, in one way or another.
The apartment is quiet as I use the key to step inside. Even if Kole and Violet live here, all I smell is the lotion Patience wears hanging in the air. I feel her through the walls. Sleeping.
Dreaming.
She doesn’t know the apartment Kole rented for the summer is one of mine. Or that it sits directly across the hallway from the apartment I live in.
She doesn’t know that one of the arrangements I made when renting it to Kole this summer was that I would continue to come and go as I please, and he would not ask questions.
When I made that deal with him, it was a contingency in case Patience’s father needed a reminder to stay in line while she is here for the summer.
I didn’t intend to actually use my access so brazenly.
To tap into the cameras and wait for Kole and Violet to be away at night so Patience would be alone.
To watch Patience until she fell asleep, and then to cross the hallway and let myself into her apartment.
I can’t help it.
Curiosity.
Need.
I crawl out of my skin when I’m not around her.
It’s a dangerous game I’m playing. One that doesn’t end well, no matter how I look at it. She’s too young and innocent to be dragged into this mess, even if her father is Gideon Lancaster.
Pausing at Patience’s bedroom door, I listen for any movement. She’s been sleeping for almost an hour, but I have to be sure. Finally trying the handle, I find it unlocked, which pisses me off. Just because Kole wouldn’t bother her doesn’t mean I like anyone having access to this girl.
Stepping into her room, I’m overwhelmed by the scent of her lotion. By the smell of her sweat from the nightmare that almost woke her ten minutes ago. She tossed and turned and cried but managed to finally relax on her back and settle.
I’d like to know what monsters she slays when she sleeps because I doubt they end with her father.
When Patience was in my office, she seemed surprised when I asked for her consent, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about that.
Make no mistake, once she hands herself over to me, she will take what I give her.
But the thought of someone else touching her without permission—hurting her for any reason—has me ready to rip them apart, toenails to eyelids.
Patience’s room is impossibly neat. Her empty suitcase is in the corner, and everything has been put away. I like that she’s at ease in my space, even if I never stay here. I like seeing her things comfortably displayed between walls I own.
She’s sprawled out on the bed with her blonde hair unbound, and for the first time since I met her, I get a look at it loose and wild. It fans over her pillow, creating a halo of golden hair. A stray piece rests on her gentle neck, which is one of the only parts of her that is bare.
Even in her sleep, she’s wearing long sleeves and leggings. Except this top dips lower than what she wears to class, showing off the perfect swell of her cleavage.
Patience is absolute perfection.
An angel laid out before a bad man who is going to do terrible things to her. It’s getting harder to deny. The more I want her, the worse the outcome.
I’m not the only person with their sights set on her father. She is a token that will be played—must be played.
Unless I make her mine.
I stir in that thought.
Swallow it down.
Let it sink in.
I step to the edge of the bed, and she moves.
She’s a heavy sleeper, not waking even when Kole and Violet are noisy in the kitchen. One more example of how trusting she can be for a girl who swears she trusts no one.
I reach for her jaw, stroking my thumb over her smooth skin. She doesn’t trust me, and that’s for the better. She shouldn’t, but she will eventually because I won’t have it any other way.
I graze my thumb over her lower lip, and she moans in her sleep.
Fuck.
With my free hand, I grab for my cock, hard as steel. I’m aching to paint her in cum. Mark her as mine. She deserves so much more than what I’m going to do to her, and if I were a better man, that might be enough to stop me.
I rub my palm over my cock a final time and resist the urge. When I unleash, it will be with her eyes on me. Her pussy squeezing me as she begs for more. She can hate that she wants me, but what’s done is done.
I step back and take a deep breath, tucking my hands into my pockets so I don’t strip the sheet off her.
Sleeping, she has no fight.
No venomous words.
No icy glare.
She’s perfectly soft and pliable. She’s free, even if she’ll never escape her nightmares.
I reach up to my shirt pocket and pull out the flower. Soft petals like her skin. Bright red like her lips. Perfect like that fire that burns inside her.
I place the poppy on the nightstand and brush her jaw a final time before I leave her room.
Sleep tight, beautiful. I’ll see you soon.