Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
I start crying. Because fuck, I’m beyond overwhelmed. “You knew about them,” I say, sobbing at her. “The bodies.”
She nods sadly and hugs me. “I knew about them,” she confirms. “But please don’t ask me about it. When he comes back, he’ll tell you himself.”
I cry harder. Because shit, he’s going to come back, and then he’s going to murder me just like he murdered those people in that room.
And Maud’s going to help him stretch my body out and clean off my bones until I’m pearly white.
I’m going to become a part of his creepy serial killer shrine.
I don’t understand what’s happening. My brain’s a mushy mess. Whatever Maud dosed me with really fucked me up and I’m having trouble coming back to myself. She sits with me though and seems like she’s trying to be soothing and calming, but it’s not helping.
She shoved a freaking needle in my arm.
“We knew you’d go in there eventually,” she admits once I’ve calmed down enough to sit up. My head’s still fuzzy like someone jammed cotton in my skull, but the room’s not spinning anymore and I’m starting to be able to think. “I told him to get rid of it. I told him it was time to move on. But he said he couldn’t.”
“I don’t understand,” I admit, rubbing my face with both hands. “Why is he keeping skeletons in a locked wing of the house?”
The door opens. Maud moves away from the bed as Arsen comes into the room. I push myself back from him, flinching away, and I can tell Maud’s concerned. He stands at the far end of the room staring at me. His face is caught between anger and disappointment.
Maud goes to him. “Don’t punish her,” she says sharply. “It wasn’t her fault.”
“She disobeyed me.”
“Won’t be the last time she does, either.” Maud glances back at me and the worry in her face makes my adrenaline start pumping. Does she think Arsen’s about to hurt me?
“You disobeyed me too.” He glares at her then. “I told you to stay out of those rooms.”
“I heard the commotion and thought you needed help.”
“You drugged my wife.”
Maud crosses her arms defiantly. “And I’d do it again. That girl was losing her mind.”
“Don’t you ever do that again. Do you hear me?”
“It was for her own good.”
“I don’t care. Don’t you ever do that again. Do you understand?”
Maud looks annoyed but she nods her head. She leaves the room, the door clicking softly shut behind her.
Which leaves me alone with my psycho serial killer husband.
He looks like himself still. That’s the worst part. Arsen’s still handsome. Beautiful really. He’s in a dark suit and his hair’s pushed back in that perfect lazy wave.
I know how those lips feel against mine and what it’s like to laugh in his arms. I know how his dick tastes in my mouth and what it’s like to moan his name as I come.
He’s still him. Even if he’s also deranged.
“You killed them,” I say.
He nods once. “I killed them,” he agrees.
“I don’t understand. Why do you have skeletons in your house? Why is there so much blood?”
He doesn’t move. His stare is disconcerting and terrifying. It’s taking all my self-control not to break down in tears right now.
What happened to the man from yesterday? Arsen’s still that guy. Only now I realize he’s been hiding something heinous from me all this time.
He did try to warn you, idiot.
But does that make it any better?
“You should have listened,” he says and steps toward the bed.
“Stop. Don’t come closer.”
“I told you not to go in there. I told you not to.”
“You have a room full of corpses. Your housekeeper drugged me.”
His jaw works. “I’ve spoken to her about that already.”
“Didn’t really seem enough to me.”
“Lena, I asked you to do one thing. When you got those lock picks and learned how to use them, I didn’t punish you. I trusted you instead. And now look at us.”
“Maud drugged me!”
“You were digging your nails into my neck,” he says with a snarl and yanks down his collar. Red scratches and welts cover his throat. “She thought she was helping.”
“Your housekeeper just walks around with a sedative?”
“Maud’s more than she seems. She worked as a poisoner for my father for a very long time before retiring to this position.”
My mouth drops open. “Poisoner? Are you fucking insane?”
It never even occurred to me that poison could be a career path. But then I also never thought keeping the skeletons of my murdered enemies was a good idea either, so here we are.
“She’s very good with compounds.”
“Great, so you trusted a woman that kills people for a living with freaking needles.”
Seems like a lot could have gone wrong and I’m maybe a little bit lucky I woke up.
“You never should’ve been in there to begin with,” he snarls, coming closer.