The Sect (34 page)

A quiet moan escaped my throat as I was brought back into the now. My fingers were between my thighs, manipulating my clit until I came. I would’ve normally felt embarrassed by my own pleasure, but instead, I felt relieved.

“Did you think I wouldn’t see this?”

I startled out of bed, the echo of the voice inside my bedroom turned me cold. “Reven, I—”

“Don’t speak.” He stood from his position on the chair, stomping to the foot of my bed.

I crossed my arms, seeking modesty in my nudeness.

“Have you forgotten about the cameras in your need to lie to me? Noah brought this scene to my attention. You were so deep in the throes of your orgasm you didn’t realize I was here. Who was in your thoughts, Keaton? Did an innocent man die? Was he the pawn for the real person you were providing your true affections to? The one who pulled you to pleasure yourself tonight?”

“I know what you think you saw,” I spoke quickly despite the fact that Noah being the reason Reven saw, much less came to my room, left me awestruck. “There is no camera in my brain. I only thought about you and last night.”

“Liar!” His shout echoed off the walls as he reached across the bed and grabbed me up by the hair. His eyes were wild with fury. I’d offended him and I didn’t understand why. He should’ve been the type to easily believe everything was about him.

Noah stood at the doorway. “Reven, is there an issue?”

My head was jerked and I was dragged down the hall. The carpet burned and scraped my skin. I tried to struggle and crawl to keep up with the pace, but it was of no use. I was thrown across the desk in Reven’s room and held down.

“Don’t move,” Reven warned me. I was spun around forced to face Noah. His erection intruded into my opening painfully. I screamed, only to have him reach across and cover my mouth. He pumped inside me, tearing me apart. His hands fisted my hair, forcing my neck to crane—forcing me to stare at Noah. Reven’s violent movements tore me down from the peak I reached last night. I felt like I was reliving the night of my graduation.
My breasts pressed against the hood of the car while the monster behind me violently violated me.
Everything that was cured and faded away came back with an excruciating force. My body was once again a tool that disgusted me.

I tried not to look at Noah, but I couldn’t help it. Through my clouds of tears, I could see his coldness. But I knew enough about the man to know what was behind them. His fists balled and his features narrowed; it bothered him more than a little.

My pained cries were hard to keep quiet, only serving as fuel to Reven’s anger as he continued to slam inside me, bringing me back to a place I’d almost crawled out of it.

“It seems she needs something in her mouth to quiet her,” Reven said, through panting breaths his brutal strokes forced me to jerk with every painful thrust.

Noah hesitated, compelling Reven to stop his tormenting assault.
 

“Is there an issue?” Reven asked.

Noah said nothing as he slowly walked toward me. “Honesty, I don’t know why I have to prove myself. You know I don’t feel a damn thing for her. I can’t feel for anyone. I couldn’t help it if Mrs. Sherman wanted me, instead of a throwaway, to do those things to Keaton.”

“It’s not just about
Mrs. Sherman
,” Reven explained, speaking her name as if it was a lie, “and you’re blindingly aware of that. You’re consistently gentle and empathetic when it comes to this one.” Reven zipped up his pants and rounded the table. “You know you are. I have eyes around here to watch you specifically, Noah. They tell me things. Things I should’ve been told by you, and you know what those things are.”

“And?” Noah shoved his hands down the pockets of his pants, broadening his shoulders in a defensive stance. “Taking a wild guess that the woman who is head over heels sick in love with you told you those things. Are you really going to believe her over me?” He glared at Reven in a way inappropriate for a man addressing his superior. The anger bubbled over and was shown in the way he firmed the features of his face. “I’ve been very patient with you, Reven, in appealing to your constant bad habit of doubting me—as you always have.” His chin slipped to his chest, his eyes lifted, staring at Reven with a look that was terrifying. “Let’s just say you’ve pushed things too fucking far to state a point, don’t you think?” His question didn’t ring as one; it was a warning.
 

Somehow, Noah’s scarily cold defiance didn’t seem to affect Reven in a way I would’ve assumed it would. “Are we still adhering to the policy, Noah?” Reven asked, his confidence falling away to a boyish tone.

“Big day tomorrow.” Noah’s eyes narrowed at Reven’s before he turned around and headed out the door.

Reven stared at the door and an expression flooded his face that hit me at the core; the man was…worried. “Return to your room,” he told me quickly without directly regarding me. “He was correct. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, desiring to scrub every single part of my body. I’d become so desensitized to Reven in my mind that what he’d done barely affected me mentally. It wasn’t him who altered me; I felt like I had betrayed Noah somehow.
 

Curiosity halted me because of the seriousness of the entire ordeal. I swept my tears away, tentatively walking toward the exit as the throbbing pain between my thighs slowed my movement. “W-what’s going to happen to me tomorrow?”

“You will be given the first half of the day to do as you choose. After which, you will do something in my name. The result will lead to your freedom.”

“W-what?” I straightened my posture, attempting to work through the impossible in my mind.

“Your freedom, Keaton. You’ve completed the program as well as a person like you could. You will be released after your final phase.” He walked out, leaving me alone with my startlingly bleak thoughts.

In my bedroom, I immediately headed to the shower and scrubbed layers off my skin. I scrubbed until I bled. I scrubbed as my mind was torn between the agony of being violated by a man I hated and preoccupation with a puzzle I couldn’t begin to figure out.
 

I didn’t sleep that night. I felt too much repugnance for my own body to be settled. I clutched the pillow, burying my face into it and cried.

D
URING
THE
next morning, Marcia told me she was prepared to cook anything I desired. She said it was the staff’s last night here and we would have to fend for ourselves with the meals left frozen in the basement for a while.
 

When I didn’t give her an answer, she prepared the breakfast that held sentimental value to me. With her things in hand, she stared at me.

I slowly lifted my head to regard her.

“If you see, Harley,” she said, her lips firm, holding to her dramatic frown, “tell her it was nothing it was cracked up to be.”

“How are you able to leave?” I asked.

“There is a bus that brings the crazy people here and takes some of them back to the airport when they leave,” she replied. “This time it’s coming for the staff of the house. The staff—all of us were homeless. That part wasn’t a lie.”

“But another was?”

“Good luck to you, Keaton.” With a nod, she headed off.

Bus. They were given bus service? Instead of ejecting from my seat and running out of the door as fast as I could, I stared down at the plate she left for me. Though it looked delicious, I couldn’t do much but poke at it with a fork while shoving away the constant stream of tears that spilled down my cheeks.

“Earth to, Keaton.”

Sniffing deeply, I snapped out of my daze and stared at Nadine, who stood on the other side of the table regarding me. “What do you want?” I croaked.

She sauntered around the table and sat on the edge. She reached up and fingered my tears away. “It’s about what you want. I’m supposed to make sure it happens.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s not a trick, Keaton,” she assured me with a wry smile. “It’s serious. Anything you want to do today and anyone with whom you want to spend your time with is all your choice. It won’t have any effect on what happens tonight. You will still go through the final phase to gain your freedom.”

“Can I leave with, Marcia?”

“No,” she snorted, her Cheshire grin irritating me. “You wouldn’t get far enough to step one foot on a bus out of here. You never would have.”

“I don’t understand what this final phase is.”

“You will tonight,” she said with a frown. “I can’t tell you. You have to experience it.”

“Did you go through the final phase?”

She slipped off the table, shaking her head. “I’m still here aren’t I? Obviously, the answer is no.”

“Am…I really being allowed to leave?” I posed the question wistfully.
 

“You will be free, Keaton. So…what’s it going to be?”

I dropped my fork, staring at my plate. I should’ve felt ecstatic to be finally free of the place, but something inside me churned painfully. Why a final phase before I could go? Why did she balk at me when I mentioned anything about the buses?
 

I could barely see the reunion of my parents in my mind. Reuniting with them and discussing the horrors I experienced here when I was released was so far off, I couldn’t believe it would really happen. I wasn’t indoctrinated nor did I happily accept my fate or feel gratitude for all that I had experienced. It was all pointless and painful.
 

Why would they have released me knowing all of this? I looked at Nadine, but I knew she wasn’t the one to give me answers, nor was Jayme. “I want to see Noah.”

She blinked and staggered as though I’d hit her.

“You said anything,” I reiterated, puzzled by her reaction.

“I did,” she said in almost a whisper. “If you’re ready, I’ll take you to him.”

On the walk to Noah’s home, I noticed the scenery. The leaves had changed colors and were blocking the sky with their beautiful green hues. The buds of flowers were on the brink of opening. The pollen floating in the air made me realize what I’d already known; I had miscounted the days.
 

Nadine had the keycard to Noah’s home and allowed me inside without stepping past the threshold. I took off my shoes as the door latched behind me, searching around the expansive house. Several unmarked boxes were in the foyer. When I poked at some of them, I could tell they were full.

I ascended the stairs and went straight to his bedroom as if I was pulled there. He wasn’t in the bedroom; instead, he was in the room across the way.
 

It looked like a small sparring room with the tufted leather material lining three of the walls. Noah was shirtless while facing a rack of various knives, guns, and devices I didn’t have a name for. His body was tense, easily showing the sculpted definition of his back, a beautiful roadmap of his near perfect body. His fists were balled. His knuckles were bruised as though he fought with someone or something last night.

As he flexed his back, the skeletal masks came alive with movement and seemed to be mocking me. “Your choices make me wonder about your education, Keaton,” he stated gruffly. “You are being monumentally fucking dumb right now.”

I stepped forward timidly. “She said I could see anyone without it being an issue.”

“And you came here of all places?” He wouldn’t turn around; he continued to stare at the opposing wall. “Why the hell are you here, Keaton?”

I thought I knew my reasons—I needed answers—but now my purpose seemed misplaced. I stared at the wall, having visions of taking a gun and ending my suffering by unleashing it onto others. I wondered how far I’d get before I was killed. I clasped my hands to either side of my head, trying to shove out the disgusting, violent thoughts. “I-I don’t know.”

He turned quickly, walking toward me with a hurried pace. He grabbed me, slamming me against the only wall without a leather surface. His face neared mine, and his nose pressed against my cheek as he inhaled. “I can smell his stink all over you. It’s reminding me of what I don’t want to fucking remember, Keaton. Of him inside you…touching you—forcing himself on you and making me a man who couldn’t do what he promised he would do.” His fists met the wall on either side of my body with an abrupt punch. The crackling sound alerted me. When I looked down, I noticed that he’d pushed his hands almost completely through the drywall. “You think it was so fucking easy, don’t you? Why are you here? To make things worse?”