11. Sin
Chapter 11
Sin
27 Weeks
W e are getting closer, knowing she is still in Louisiana, because of her playlist. They may have blocked their coordinates with a very impressive server and spyware that even Joe hasn’t been able to decipher yet, but they can’t hide that it’s in Louisiana. He just says it’s more sophisticated than anything he has ever come across and that’s probably a bone they are throwing at us.
We have looked at every stockyard, ranch, and plot of land surrounding New Orleans. She isn’t here. It took her this long to let me talk to her once. Savvy was lying on the phone. Not about our son’s name, but about being okay. I could hear it in her voice and the songs she has been adding to the playlist. She is giving up. Or she wants them to believe she is giving up. Either way, she is in a darker place than she has ever been and that in itself worries me the most as, “Never Let Me Go,” by Florence + The Machine, fills the library.
I’ve been able to log in to her YouTube Music account when she isn’t on it, usually two a.m. is the only time it’s not being used. I have been adding songs to show her how much I miss her, hoping it gives her the strength to not give up on me. I get notifications when songs are added so I can listen to them and know what she is feeling in the moment. It’s all I have to hold onto at this point. I don’t want to think about what is happening to make her add these songs, but it keeps me going until I can help her heal.
My phone dings, notifying me she added another song. I click on the notification, bringing up her playlist and hit play. The voice of Ron Pope & the District starts flowing through the library singing “A Drop in The Ocean.” This is where I spend most of my time now to be closer to Savvy. I instantly stop and drop my head, not able to look at my computer any longer. I know she is hurting now, and I can’t fucking help her.
This is the song she would play when she needed to cry and let it out when her ghosts would pop up in her mind to haunt her. She said it reminded her that it could always be worse. She loves this song as much as I do because of the emotions we both felt the first time hearing it and seeing that Stefan still had some humanity in him. We used to talk about it all the time and still disagree about how his humanity came back when Elena talked to him. I said he didn’t truly turn them back on until later, but he may have had a glimpse of his humanity then. Savvy thinks they turned back on when Elena told him she loved him. Savvy believes in the power of love more than anything on this earth, healing the most broken of souls.I just hope my love is enough to heal whatever has been broken again. She had finally gotten to a point where she believed she was worthy of my love. I will be the sin she needs to bring her back to life as soon as I kill whoever the motherfuckers are that broke her again.
Nick comes out of the secret door with Joe and Jasper on his heels. They all stop and look at me.
“There are two guys down there. We got as much out of them as we could. You can go do whatever you want with them. Don’t forget your dad and step mommy will be here for dinner to talk.” Jasper reminds me. They just got back from their honeymoon. I still can’t believe they went to Mexico for a week after getting married in Vegas. It’s almost as if Sylvia isn’t worried in the slightest about her daughter anymore, which makes me think she started using again. She started taking product when Lottie died and had to go to three different rehabs before she kicked it. I’m hoping she is just a selfish bitch like she has always been.
“I’ll go down in a bit. Savvy is adding songs again and it’s getting worse. I feel like I’m losing her.” I tell them as “Say Something,” by A Great Big World comes to an end and “Ghost,” by ZZ Ward fills the silence. “See what I mean? The songs she is adding are letting me know she isn’t in a good headspace. She keeps adding songs about ghosts, dying, being alone and in the darkness. I wish I could just understand what they mean.” I attempted to explain.
“If I had a clue how women think I wouldn’t be on the couch again. Jill has been worse the past week, like I did something wrong, but I can’t think of a single thing I did to piss her off.” Joe replies, looking frustrated and exhausted.
“Maybe it’s not how she is feeling but something she is trying to get through to you. Ghosts, we have Bash and Lottie, who else is dead that she could be referring to?” Jasper brings up a good point. Maybe I’m looking at this wrong.
“I’m gonna head down. Come and get me when they get here if I’m not done by then.” I get up from the bar, put my earbuds in and turn on Savvy’s playlist. I skip to a couple of songs I added, letting the music get in my head as I take the stairs a bit slower than usual as I try to figure out what Savvy is trying to tell me.
When I get down to the caves, I see the two men hanging on the makeshift webs, just how I like them. They are trying to talk or scream, I don’t know, but I can’t hear them. I bought some noise cancelling earbuds so that all I can hear when I torture them are the sounds of the songs my angel wants me to hear, and a few I added to help get me enraged. The lyrics and beat of, “What I Live For.” by Rob Baily & The Hustle Standard, fill my head. I take in a deep breath and let it out as I run my hand along the table of instruments the boys left out for me. I decide on what form of torture I feel like handing out today, picking my weapon of choice with a smile, as I grab a jar of moths off the table and a pair of tweezers. I unscrew the lid and take one out with the tweezers, careful not to let the others out. I walk over to victim number one and grab a handful of his hair to keep him still as I place the moth into his ear, letting it go before covering the hole so it can make its way down and get stuck. He thrashes for a moment before I let his head go and watch as he opens his mouth, probably screaming. The terror in his eyes tells me all I need to know. Savvy told me that she once got a moth in her ear on a camping trip, and she almost killed herself before one of the moms got her on the ground and poured oil in her ear to kill the moth. She said she had cuts in her ear from her own fingernails trying to dig it out, and a concussion from slamming the side of her head in the ground. She described it sounding like it was screaming inside her ear and she could feel and hear its wings try to flap as they scraped her eardrum. Savvy said it was the most excruciating thirty minutes of her life and it felt like hours.
I look to the next guy who is thrashing around as much as he can being tied up the way he is in my human sized web. I chuckle as I repeat the process and put a moth in his ear as well. I watch them in awe as they look like they are going nuts and can’t do anything about it. I think this could actually drive them mad if left long enough. Hmm. Maybe I’ll let them suffer for a bit.
The song stops and I can see them still shaking their heads around like insane people as the next song, “I’m A Believer,” by Smashmouth starts playing and something clicks. I take my earbuds out and smile at the two men having a fit in the tight ropes and decide to let them hang a while. I shove ball gags into their mouths, strapping them on to muffle the dreadful sounds they are making. I take off upstairs and hit Joe with the fake door behind the bar.
“That was fast for you!” Joe chuckles with his eyebrows raised, probably at the look on my face.
“Sorry man, but I think I know who the queen is, and my dad has some explaining to do. Pour me a drink and I’ll fill you in on my theory. MJ helped more than she could possibly imagine, so did Savvy.”
I sit at the head of the dinner table looking at my father, the great Augustine Maxwell Deveraux, wondering how in the hell I missed it all. I raise my glass of bourbon and stand to make a toast after the girls clear desert and bring out drinks for us guys to chat over cigars.
“Why don’t we go to the library, the girls don’t like us having cigars in undesignated areas of the house. It has become my favorite room in the house since Savvy was taken. Sylvia, why don’t you join us? I’m sure you would like to be caught up on the latest news of your daughter.”
She just nods and smiles at my father, “Max, will you take my drink, darling, I need to use the ladies and then I’ll be right there.” She gives my father a kiss on the cheek and heads in the opposite direction. I would love to slap the fucking grins off of their faces.
We enter the library, and all get seated before I begin. The guys know I will wait until Sylvia is here for this. How all of this goes determines if they will get to leave the library or go to the caves. Once she takes her seat, I grab the remote and turn on Savvy’s playlist, letting them hear what I’ve been listening to, apparently wrong, for the last week.
“When did you find out that my mother is still very much alive and why are you hiding the fact that she is the queen?” I ask Sylvia directly. My father stands and looks at me like I’ve grown two heads.
“Son, your mother was killed years ago. I have her ashes for Christ’s sake.” He throws his hands up at me.
“Yeah, those aren’t her ashes, are they Sylvia?” Joe asks as he gets up from his seat motioning me to hang on a second. He leaves the room and I hear him hush shouting at Jill but can’t hear or make out what he is saying. What was she doing outside the library?
Joe comes back in looking even more pissed, putting Jills signature red cell in his back pocket. “Please continue.” He motions with his hands as he sits in the plush brown leather chair to Sylvias left.
“No, they aren’t her ashes.” She looks up at my father as tears fall from her eyes.
“So, the bitch is alive?” my father asks, grabbing Sylvia by the throat. We all stand, not knowing what to do. She is his wife, well not legally if my mother is alive, but still.
I put my hand on my dads’ arm to get him to stop for a second.
“You didn’t know? Seriously?” I ask him.
He lets go of Sylvia, letting her fall back onto the couch while Jasper and Joe make sure she stays put.
“Son, you have to believe that I thought she was dead. I had no idea she was still alive. I ordered the hit on her, and Boudreaux brought me back her ashes. I swear I had no idea.” He pleads with me, and I know he isn’t lying.
“Get your bitch to talk. I already know that Savvy’s dad made a deal with Fiona to be able to keep her, not Sylvia. They were trying to keep her away from Sylvia saying she would put her up to the highest bidder to be rid of her secret child. The only reason Savvy survived after the birth was because she was taken by Fiona and given to her dad. Sylvia never even held her. That is what he was told. He also had a man come and see him that told him to keep his mouth shut about Fiona and say that it was Sylvia instead of Fiona. He told him he would hurt Savvy if he talked. That was the night he had the heart attack. Sylvia has known all along because she gave them Lottie to train when Bash got her pregnant at fucking fifteen.” I back away, letting him deal with his wife.
“Do you know where she is?” He turns to Sylvia, and I can tell he is ready to strangle her.
“No, I swear I don’t know where she is, if I did, I would have already gotten Savvy back.” She cries out as my dad grabs her by the hair, yanking her up. Do you have what I need to make her talk?” he asks, realizing like the rest of us that she is lying. Her acting skills are good, but not good enough .
“Max, no! You can’t do this to me! I’m your covenant!” Sylvia shouts, crying harder now.
“Right this way.” Joe leads the way to the secret door in the bookcase, opening it.
“Hmm, nice, son.” My dad almost smirks at the fake door.
We all usher her down into the cave as she kicks and screams, telling us we are all going die soon enough. We toss her on the ground and Joe holds her down on her stomach for me to zip tie her wrists. Joe released his foot on her back as Jasper grabs her by her hair, picking her up off the ground and slamming her into a wooden chair.
My dad rolls up his sleeves as we tie her to the chair. He comes up to her and slaps her before grabbing her face and meeting it with his. “I loved you for as long as I can remember, and you never changed. You used the fact that you had to give up one daughter just to lose your other to make me feel sorry for you. Was it all a lie? Did you ever love me? Was this all just part of your game with Vivian? How could you give up your own daughter?” Spit hits her face as he yells at her. She just sits there, attempting to give him an evil smile as he squeezes her cheeks together. He finally releases her when she cackles loudly, mocking him.
“You are all idiots. Does your son even know he is a Saint? Do any of them know about their birth right? You and their fathers have made them weak instead of giving them their legacy. You and I both know it. Savvy will be a Saints whore soon enough if she isn’t already. Just like Charlotte was, and just like me. We all have our secrets and lies. Why don’t you start to fess up yours and I’ll think about telling you mine.” She spits out, venom laced in her voice as she laughs again. She looks fucking crazy.
“What is this Saint bullshit? Why am I just learning about this, all of us?” I finally ask the question that has been burning in my brain since I saw MJ. She is going to try and come back next week if she can. She is shopping for her wedding dress and Savvy told her about the bridal store she liked here. Apparently, Alec is all too happy for her to have the dress from the store she wants. From what she said about him, he doesn’t sound like a bad guy. Or so he has shown her so far.
“Yeah, we are all Saints, we kept you boys out of it, wanting a better life for you. We had a loophole and took it for you. It’s time to pay the piper now though boys and you are going to have some catching up to do. I’ll explain later. Right now, leave me with my wife to see what I can get. You boys go get some rest unless you feel like finishing whatever you had going down here with the two in your web. You can make her watch what will happen if she doesn't talk” He states flatly, eyeing Sylvia like he is going to have some fun tonight.
“I’ve got to take care of something, I’ll be back down in a few minutes.” Joe says as he walks towards the courtyard end of the caves, pulling out Jills phone.
“Jill problems?” I look to Jasper. He just shakes his head throwing his arms up.
“Usually is.” He chuckles as he moves over toward the two insects in my web of torture. They are still flailing around shaking their heads back and forth as they try to scream through the gags.
“What the fuck did you do to them?” Dad asks, looking at them with a questioning yet intrigued look.
“I put a moth in each of their ears. Who knew?” I laugh as I grab the bottle of oil off of the table and walk over towards them.
I grab the first one by the hair again and hope he can hear me, “This will make it stop. I will make it stop if you promise to tell me what I want to know.” I hold the bottle of olive oil up in front of both of them. They both start nodding their heads frantically.
“Just know that I will put one in both ears if I don’t think you are telling the truth.” I shout as I pour the oil in the first guys ear and within thirty seconds he stops thrashing and looks at me like he wants to hug me for making it stop. I move over to the other guy and hold him still by his hair as well repeating the process with the same results .
Joe comes back down with a screaming Jill and a pissed off Cami, Mia, and Abby trailing in behind them.
“Jesus Christ, what the fuck are you all doing. Jill didn’t do anything wrong.” Abby stomps her foot.
“Really Abby, look at her phone, read the messages. She is the fucking queens little rat. Has been the whole time. Also has a boyfriend and is supposed to seduce Sin.” Joe looks at Jill like she just ripped his heart out of his chest and stomped on it. He is also pissed. Not a good combo for her.
“What the fuck do you mean?” Cami moves towards Jill like she might kill her. Jasper holds her back.
Charlie rushes in with the baby monitor. “Sup guys.” He stops when he sees everything going on, cocking his head to the side as if confused.
“This cunt has been fucking us over all along. So, help me Goddess, I will kill you if anything happens to Savvy!” Cami shouts trying to get out of Jaspers’ grip. She is still recovering from having a baby and her hormones are not to be messed with.
Abby has tears in her eyes looking at the girl that was once her best friend, “How could you do this to Joe!? Savvy!? All of us!?”
“Oh, save me the dramatics. I was doing my duty. If any of you had any idea what game is actually being played here, you would all feel so stupid. All this over fucking Savannah! Wake up! She isn’t that fucking special! Fuck you all! I hope that bitch suffers every last second of her miserable life, which won’t be much longer! She is going to die before you finally get your heads out of your asses!” She thrashes in Joes arms, and I can see him break a little more with every word she breathes. Joe looks over to Jasper, nodding. As soon as Jasper lets go of Cami, she charges her, first busting her nose, then her lip. She keeps hitting her over and over, beating her ass pretty good. Joe holds Jills arms so she can only take it and not hurt Cami, not that Jill could, Cami has a nice hook. Once Cami has had enough, I wait for her to be done and ask Charlie to take her back upstairs with Abby and Mia who also look like they could kill Jill .
“I guess I could just let your friends kick your ass until you tell us where Savvy is.” I let her know Joe isn’t in charge, I am.
Jill looks up at me with blood running down her face and smiles wide, blood showing on her teeth, “Max is fucking your wife as we speak, and I’m sure she is loving it. I know I did. Bring it on. Max will kill you all!”