Alone (Bone Secrets, #4)(92)

“You ladies need to change your clothing,” Leo ordered. “There’re some lovely white dresses in that box.” He gestured to a cardboard box in the corner of the shed. “You.” He pointed at Trinity, who shuddered. “There’s black hair dye in there, too. I want your hair black. Now.”

“What?” Trinity gasped.

“Hair. Black. Now.” Leo stared at her. “Get moving.”

He was re-creating the tableau. Panic immobilized Victoria at Isabel’s side. The white dresses. Three of them with long black hair.

That was how he planned to kill them.

“Where is Seth?” she asked.

Annoyance crossed Leo’s face. “He’s busy. Change your clothes. Now.” He didn’t move.

She glanced at Jason. The teen looked miserable.

“Don’t look at him. It’s about time he learned to grow a spine. I was younger than him when I figured it out.” He slapped the teen on the back. “Time for you to grow up and face your roots, son.” He pointed at Victoria. “This is what we call shameless. She’s the type of woman who lives only for herself. She doesn’t care about anyone around her. She can’t please a man in marriage. She tries to pretend to be a man.”

“What utter bullshit,” Victoria spat.

Rage crossed Leo’s face. “You can’t speak to me like that.”

“I believe I just did.” This prick had pushed all her buttons. “What are you going to do about it? Make me drink some poison and pose in the woods to make yourself feel powerful?”

Leo stepped inside the shed, his shotgun still at his side. Victoria stood up to meet him. She’d rather go down with a fight than cower in a white dress.

“Dad.” Jason put a hand on his arm. Leo slapped it off and continued toward Victoria, his face irate. Jason stepped back hesitantly, and then abruptly turned and silently leaped out of the shed and ran. Leo took two more steps toward Victoria.

“Put on the dress. Dye her hair. You’ve got ten minutes.” He held her gaze. His pupils dilated in the dark cabin, and his stare drifted down to her mouth. A slow smile stretched his lips.

He’s aroused. She wanted to puke.

He glanced at the unconscious woman on the mattress. “She’s not much to look at, is she? You had no idea you came from such garbage, did you?”

Leo sent the note about my mother?

“She’s not garbage,” Victoria said quietly.

“You needed to be taken down a notch, going around with your snooty airs. You’re nothing special.”

Victoria blinked. “I’m what I make of myself, not who I’m born of. What makes you think she’s actually my mother?”

He threw back his head and laughed. “You really do know nothing. Of course she’s your mother, little sister. Dad would never let me forget it.”

Sister? Dad? Victoria felt like she was falling, everything spinning in slow motion around her, but her feet were firmly on the floor as she stared Leo in the face. Her inner sense of self cracked and shifted. Who was Leo?

Leo grinned at her. “Yes, we share a father. But not that whore for a mother.” He prodded at Isabel’s head with his shotgun. “He got her pregnant then gave you away. There were lots of adoptions going on back then. It was easy to slip you in. Dad always knew where you were, what you were doing, and got off on shoving your success down my throat.”

Leo was her half brother.

She had a killer’s blood in her veins.

Not if she had anything to say about it. She shook her head at him.

“Oh, yes. It’s true. Dad said your adoptive parents were thrilled to get a baby girl. I don’t remember any of it. I was only six or so. But I recall all the young women who came and went. Some stayed at the church for months, having nowhere to sleep. Some stayed only a few days. Dad never let me talk to them. He said they were all whores.”

He used the word “whore” to a child?

“‘Whore’ is used in the Bible, you know. Perfectly acceptable.” Leo smirked.

“So is ‘thou shall not kill,’” Victoria stated.


Seth blinked, trying to clear his vision.

No. This isn’t happening.

He’d barely swallowed any of the liquid Leo had forced into his mouth. He blinked again and the porch boards came into focus. There was no way he’d taken enough to be having any symptoms.

You don’t know how concentrated he’d made it.

He couldn’t have swallowed more than half a teaspoon. He shook his head, fighting the mild fuzziness that’d tried to nest in his brain. More likely he was noticing symptoms from his blood circulation being cut off at his wrists and waist. He wiggled in the chair, trying to make room for the blood to move back where it should be.

What was Leo going to do to Tori? Drag her up here with the shotgun and threaten to blow a hole in her stomach if he didn’t drink? What would he do? Would Leo really kill her? And if he didn’t drink, what was keeping Leo from putting a shotgun blast in his head? He was screwed either way.

The fog tried to overtake his head again. Part of him wanted to give in, to simply close his eyes and fall to sleep. But he had to fight. Before Leo came back he had to figure out what to do.

Footsteps sounded behind him. Too light for Abbadelli. He twisted his head. Jason! The boy fell to his knees and attacked the knots in the ropes.