Fear the Wicked (Illusions Series Book 2)(77)

Eve knew better than to be out of my sight, but perhaps she assumed the safety of my bedroom was good enough. My legs were moving in the direction of the hallway while I belted out, “Stay here in case she went somewhere else and comes back. I’ll go check the rectory.”

My feet couldn’t carry me fast enough down the narrow corridors leading to the small, boring room Jacob had slept in for twelve fucking years while convincing himself he was a good man. As I turned one corner, walked down another hall to turn another corner, I thought of my wayward brother and laughed to myself at how easy it had been to oust him from his holy throne so that I could take over the town he’d worked so desperately to lead to a light that didn’t exist.

In truth, I’d always harbored ill feelings toward my brother. I’d regretted that we were twins, believed that, in the womb, he had somehow reached into me to steal the strength away so that he could harbor it to himself. He had been the one to stop our father’s abuse, he had been the one to avoid being used as a human pincushion for those sick fucks who walked around feeding religion to a large parish.

At one time I’d envied my brother, and during the times when we shared women, I’d believed I was the superior brother because I had been the one to take the women first, to steal their purity and watch it drip down my cock as the crimson evidence of my race to their finish line. Jacob never argued who would take them the first time, and I’d believed it was because he understood that I would fight him for that honor, but then as the years passed by and as I watched him transition into the worst kind of monster, I understood that, to him, it had never been about stripping the good little girls of their virginity, it had always been about who would control them in the end.

They may have fucked me with sweet smiles on their bullshit faces, but their eyes had always been locked on my brother, their hearts becoming his as soon as he stepped up to take what remained after I was done with them and transform it into the perfect slave.

It was Jacob who had taught me what to do with Eve, and it was Jacob who I could thank for the perfect woman I’d created from the girl I’d met when she was first brought into the family.

Perhaps I should have thanked him for that one small favor, but I couldn’t find it in myself to forgive him. Still, even with the hatred I held for him and the anger that coated my tongue each time I thought about the unfairness in our young lives, I couldn’t bring myself to kill him. I still harbored something inside me that needed my brother alive, I still loved him despite the way he’d sat with our piece of shit mother and had listened to my cries.

My father would beat me until I couldn’t stand any longer and neither my mother nor my twin could find it within themselves to climb down those steps into the basement to free me from the violence of a madman.

Reaching the bedroom door, I slammed my hand down on the knob, twisting it as I shoved the door in. I’d gotten one foot inside by the time I had a full view of the room to realize Eve wasn’t here as I’d hoped she’d be. Quickly crossing the small space, I peeked inside the bathroom to find it empty as well.

Rage crawled through me, clinging to my bones with desperate fingers begging to ignite into the intolerable heat of pure, undiluted fury.

I was practically racing on my way back to the sanctuary, my eyes sharp and my muscles tight across my body. Richard was standing in the same place, patiently waiting for me to return with the good little girl standing still in front of him.

“Did she come back here?” I asked, practically screaming.

Richard shook his head, his eyes rounding as he came to the same conclusion as me.

Throwing my hands out, I directed him to the back hallways of the parish, while I ran toward the front. “Find her, Richard. I don’t give a shit if you have to tear the walls down until she’s found. If we don’t find her inside the parish, we’ll search outside. Where the fuck could she have gone?”

Richard lumbered off to do as I said while I peeked a head inside the kitchen to find it empty. The offices and bathrooms were empty as well, not a soul to be found in any of the small rooms of the parish.

Within minutes both Richard and I were outside scanning the large yard and the woods beyond, my fury ratcheting higher until all I saw was red.

“What do you want to do? Is it possible she went back to the compound?”

I shook my head, completely irate that she’d wandered off without me. As soon as I found the son of a bitch that led her away, I’d be sure to nail his body to one of my crosses.

“You better hope she’s at the fucking compound. If not, I will kill each and every son of a bitch inside this town until I’ve found my fucking wife!”





JACOB


My foot was planted firmly against the gas pedal of the truck, the tires screeching along the asphalt as we peeled off onto roads that wound their way through the Appalachians. Eve was as compliant as ever, her eyes filled with hopeless adoration for the brother she thought I was. Every so often, Elijah’s name would roll off her lips like a reverent prayer as she wrapped her arms around mine and tried to pull it from the steering will.

I’d expected the man who was walking with her across the field to put up more of a fight, but instead, he’d taken one look at me and nodded his head, wordlessly following me into the woods without complaining that I’d just stuck a fucking gun to his head. I’d recognized him as he led Eve from the building, knew he was one of the assholes who had stood in the room staring at my naked cock while Elijah carried on about how I’d killed a member of their family. Obviously, that shit wasn’t true and I was still in shock for having a woman sitting beside me that for months I’d believed was dead.