Page 37 of Heartless Heathens

“Did I do something wrong? Did I upset him?” she asked Sonny, her voice so sweet and innocent it could only be an act.

“No Pet, you did good. The truth can be a nasty thing to process sometimes.” He caressed her chin between his fingers before stepping further into the belltower.

“Is there anything in here you want?” he asked her and she rushed to the bookshelf and began to pick a pile out before putting it in Sonny’s arms.

She pulled the blanket off her bed to reveal an old school iPad and Sonny furrowed his eyebrows.

“Let me see that,” he said and she handed it to him without question.

He slipped it under his arm, before slipping his hand to her low back. “Romina, go join Felix downstairs.” He nudged her forward and she nodded before heading down the steps.

“What the fuck?” I asked him.

“You think she’s his daughter?” he asked and I considered the possibility.

“Either that or she’s his secret little sex toy. No one on campus recognized her?” I answered with my own question.

“They think she’s some sort of ghost. But the theoriesareendless,” He said as he walked through the attic examining her things. “If she’s his sex toy, I’ll find out.”

“How could someone live up here for years?” I was mostly just thinking but with Sonny it was easy to think out loud, we almost always had the same train of thought anyway.

“If it’s all you know,” he lamented, running his fingers through the layer of dust that coated all of her things.

There wasn’t much up here. There was a spiral staircase that led to the very top of the bell tower where the bell hung high. But aside from that there was nothing. Sonny looked disappointed, like his ticket out of here had just gone up in flames before his very eyes.

“What’s that smell?” I asked, following the stench towards a dark corner.

Sonny beat me to it, his frame bent over a metal bucket and the closer I got the worse it smelled. He made a retching sound walking away from it with a disgusted and angry look on his face.

“He’s a fucking monster.” I said, backing away from it, yet knowing damn well I was going to be the one dealing with it.

“He’s going to pay for this.” He said through clenched teeth.

Inconceivable.

I paced the hall outside of my bedroom like a madman, unsure of the last time I felt so out of control.

Not since her.

In just a matter of days these heathens had come in here and turned everything that I’d worked to build upside down. Arlan Black thought he’d get one over on me before God sent his soul to hell but he was wrong. I’d be the victor yet.

Despite him sending these debauched heathens to disrupt my plans.

Even if they’d taken away the one thing that was truly mine.

I had hoped that wretched girl would have at least starved to death up in that tower to make things simple for me, but no. They found her before she had a chance to waste away to bones and dust. Parading her in front of me like they knew everything.

They knew nothing.

And the girl was too stupid to talk, too stupid to tell the truth.

I’d made sure of it.

“CLAÜDE,” That arrogant Santorini’s voice called out from beneath my balcony again.

I pushed through the doors of my room and looked down at him to see him once again draggin the girl by the arm. This time both of the Escura brothers on his side.

“What is the meaning of this Santorini? I have already instructed you to remove this vagabond from my premises.” I dismissed him with my hand. “I will call the police if you bring her to me again.”