Page 67 of The King of Hearts (The Raven Group #1)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

HIM

S omething is different. Aunt Rosa has been acting weird all day. Big smiles and there’s a secret in her eyes. Before she left for a couple of hours earlier today, she told me she had a special surprise for me. I don’t like Aunt Rosa’s surprises. She can keep them.

I’m in the library with my mother, sitting at the table she always sits at.

Her nurse, Mrs. Lockwood, is feeding her little bites of pork roast and mashed potatoes, while I’m on the other side of the table picking at my food.

I was hungry when I first came into the room, but then I saw Aunt Rosa out in the hall, and it turned my stomach.

Now I just want to throw up the little bit of food I ate.

Mrs. Lockwood wipes my mother’s chin when a little bit of mashed potatoes dribbles out of her mouth.

Sometimes the nurse will let me feed my mother, and I feel so special when I do.

I feel like a big man taking care of his mother.

I didn’t ask her if I could today though.

My hands are too jittery because of the way Aunt Rosa is acting.

It’s getting dark outside, which means Mrs. Lockwood will be putting my mother to bed soon, and she’ll go to sleep in the room next to it. Mrs. Myers and the rest of the staff will go to their rooms as well. Then the house will go quiet.

I want to crawl into my mother’s bed tonight, to feel her arms wrapped around me. I used to feel safe when I did that, but I haven’t since the night Aunt Rosa caught me in her room. I haven’t been back since then.

Mrs. Lockwood sets the fork down on my mother’s empty plate, and I know what that means.

I want to beg the nurse not to take her away.

I want to beg her to stay and not leave me alone.

Since Aunt Rosa came to live with us a few years ago, she became my caretaker, so it’s up to her to put me to bed.

The staff doesn’t know what my aunt does to me once she has me in my room.

“Come say good night to your mother, dear,” Mrs. Lockwood says.

My shoulders are slumped as I get up from my seat and go to my mother’s chair. Mrs. Lockwood has turned it away from the table, so I lean over and kiss her warm cheek. “I love you, Mother. Good night.”

I almost can’t get the words out because my throat feels tight, like there’s something inside it.

“Are you okay?” Mrs. Lockwood asks. “You didn’t eat much of your food.”

I’m not okay. I feel sick to my stomach, and I wish Aunt Rosa would die. I don’t think anyone would say it’s ‘okay’ to feel that way.

I nod and say, “Yes. I snuck a snack earlier from the kitchen, so I’m not very hungry.”

She smiles, and it makes her eyes crinkle at the corners. “Typical boy.” She grabs the bars on the back of my mother’s chair and turns her to face the doorway. “I’ll let your aunt know that you’re finished eating.”

She leaves with my mother, and it only takes Aunt Rosa a couple of minutes before she’s coming into the room.

“Are you ready for bed, precious?” she asks. Her voice sounds sweet, and if I didn’t know what kind of person she is, I’d think she was nice. She likes to pretend she’s nice, but she really isn’t. What she does to me and what she makes me do to her, isn’t nice at all.

I nod, but keep quiet. I don’t think I could make any words come out past the lump that’s still in my throat. She holds her hand out, and a shiver of dread slides down my back when she licks her lips.

“Come on then,” she says when I don’t immediately take her hand. “I’ve got your surprise up in your room. You’re going to love it.”

I take her hand and we leave the library.

I’m taller than I used to be when she first came to live with us.

My head reaches her shoulders now. As we go up the stairs, I wonder if I’m strong enough to push her down them, and if I did, if it would break her neck.

My mind is filled with what she would look like with a broken neck, so I don’t realize we’ve made it to my room until she’s pushing the door open.

It’s dark inside. I’ve never been scared of the darkness before, but this kind feels different.

Aunt waits until the door is closed before she flips on the light switch. It’s so bright that it takes a minute for my eyes to adjust. When they do, they lock onto my bed and the person lying on top of it.

My stomach cramps so hard that I almost crumble over from the pain. I must look like a ghost because all of the color drains from my face.

It’s a little girl. Younger than me by a lot of years.

Her hair is long and blonde, spread out on the pillow, and she has a blindfold on.

She looks so tiny lying on my big bed. Her hands are over her head with her wrists tied to the headboard.

Her legs are spread open and tied the same way.

And she’s completely naked. I look away from her, not wanting to see her nakedness.

I feel disgusted, even getting the glimpse that I did.

“Isn’t she beautiful, baby boy?” Aunt Rosa asks.

“We’re borrowing her for the night so you can practice what I’ve shown you.

But we have to be careful. You can’t be too rough with her.

Theo took her from Grant without telling him, so we can’t leave any evidence that she’s been used.

Theo says Grant’s very possessive of her. ”

I don’t know who Grant or Theo are, but it sounds like they’re just as bad as Aunt Rosa.

I turn away from the bed and look at my Aunt. I don’t have to tip my head back as far, since I’m nearly as tall as her.

“Let her go!” I demand. I don’t know where it comes from, but there’s a strength in my voice I’ve never used before.

“Let her go?” She looks at me like I’ve just said something stupid. “But you haven’t even fucked her yet. We’re not letting her go.”

I ball my hands into fists and press them against my thighs. “I don’t want her, Aunt. Let her go,” I repeat.

I knew it was coming, so my knees are locked in place when the back of her hand lands across my cheek. I still stumble back a step. It’s been a while since Aunt has hit me. It doesn’t hurt as much as I remember. Maybe because I’m older and bigger now.

“You ungrateful little shit. I got this girl for you.” Her eyes narrow to little slits. “You have no idea what I had to do to get Theo to let me have her for the night. And now you want to toss her away.”

Her hand comes out again, but this time, I catch her wrist before it touches me.

I squeeze hard enough that her face scrunches in pain.

Seeing that look, not pain from the knife she makes me use on her, but real pain, makes me feel powerful.

It makes me feel like an actual man. Not a man she made me into who inflicts pain, but one who protects.

I want to protect that little girl on the bed.

She’s shocked at my move at first, her eyes wide, but then yanks her hand out of my grip and rubs her sore wrist. She takes a step closer. “You’re going to fuck that little girl. Now get on the bed and do as you’re told.”

My back goes straight, and it makes me a little taller. “No. I won’t touch her, and neither are you.”

“Is that so?”

I nod.

She glares at me, and before this moment, that look would have had me shaking and scared.

Not anymore. Stopping Aunt from hitting me, refusing to do what she told me, and standing up to her has given me a sense of bravery I’ve never had before.

Seeing that girl on the bed, knowing the pain she’ll feel if Aunt gets her way, has given me strength.

Aunt Rosa spins around, and I know exactly what her intentions are.

A red haze covers my vision, and I launch myself at her.

She’s at the foot of the bed when I grab a chunk of her hair.

She screeches to a halt, and I think the surprise of my action freezes her in place because she doesn’t move at first.

But then she does. She reaches back and tries to pry my hands off her, but I have a really good grip in her hair.

“Let me go, you ungrateful little bastard!” she yells. “You’ll pay dearly for disobeying me.”

Her threat doesn’t scare me anymore. I’m so angry that she brought a little girl here for me to hurt, that all I can’t think about is stopping her, stopping her from ever doing anything like this again. From hurting me again.

When she manages to twist around, her hands come for my face.

Two of her nails rake down my cheek, but I don’t feel the pain.

I yank her hair and her head hits the sharp corner of the footboard.

All of her struggles stop, and she goes limp, but I barely notice.

That redness in my vision gets even bolder.

She falls to her stomach, and I go down with her, straddling her waist. My hand is still in her hair, and I use it to lift her head and smash it down on the floor.

There’s a loud crunch. I don’t know how many times I repeat the move.

It must be a lot, because when my vision finally clears, there’s a lot of blood on the floor beneath her.

I sit there on her butt, feeling like I can barely catch my breath, and my heart feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest.

I untangle my fingers from her hair. Some of the blood must have splattered to the back of her head because the strands are sticky, and my hands have blood on them.

I feel absolutely nothing when I look down at my aunt. Her head is twisted to the side, and her face is smashed in, not even close to being recognizable. Without checking, I know she’s dead.

I get up and go to the bathroom. I don’t look at my face as I stand in front of the sink and wash my hands with soap and hot water. After all of the blood is gone, I go back to my bedroom and straight to the bed.

The little girl hasn’t moved. She’s in the same position she was in when I first walked into the room. I take the small blanket at the end of my bed and put it over her naked body, then I touch her shoulder.

“Hey, little girl.”

Still, she doesn’t move or make a sound. Someone must have given her something to make her sleep.

I sit for a minute on the side of the bed, deciding what I should do.

I’m supposed to call the police when something like this happens, but I don’t want to do that.

If the police come, they’ll take me away from my mother.

Aunt Rosa was my legal guardian, but she’s dead now.

I look at my aunt, whose head is peaking out around the end of the bed.

I don’t want to leave my mother. Maybe Mrs. Myers can be my guardian now.

Or even Mrs. Lockwood. But I don’t think that’ll happen if the police know I killed my aunt.

Maybe they’ll lock me up like they do bad people.

I don’t feel like a bad person. I feel like a protector because I killed my aunt so she wouldn’t hurt the little girl.

But I don’t think the police will say the same.

I have to get rid of her body, I decide, and think of different ways I can do that. I settle on the easiest one. Before I can do that though, I need to get the little girl out of the house. She can’t be found here because it’ll bring up questions I can’t answer.

The girl is smaller than me by a lot, so even though I’m young, I manage to carry her downstairs.

My eyes dart around the whole time, worried one of the staff will be out wandering the halls, but none of them are.

I have to set her down to open the front door and then again to close it.

I carry her out through the gate and down the road.

I have to stop every so often because my arms get tired.

It seems like it takes forever before we get to the nearest house from mine, and the girl still hasn’t moved an inch.

The only reason I know she’s alive is because I can hear her breathing.

I set her down on the front porch, and I’m reaching for the doorbell, ready to sprint away, when she lets out a little noise. My gaze jerks down. I decided to leave the blindfold around her eyes just in case she woke up because I didn’t want her to see my face.

She moves a little and moans. “Wha ? —”

“Shh… it’s okay,” I whisper and push a few strands of hair off her face. She’s awake, but I don’t think she’s fully awake. “You’re safe now.”

“W-who’s there?”

She turns her head and lifts her hand. I don’t stop her when she removes the blindfold. A pair of light brown eyes the same color as honey stare up at me.

“What’s your name?” I ask. I don’t know why I want to know, I just do.

Her voice is faint when she replies, and she passes out as soon as the name leaves her mouth.

“Lili.”