Page 27 of Cutthroat

“Go to the office? It’s Sunday,” Eden said as though she didn’t believe him.

Jermaine was General Counsel for Le Bleu Luxury Hotels. Though he was always on call, having to go into the office on a Sunday was something he never had to do.

“Jermaine-”

“I have to go to the office because somehow my VPN was corrupted, and my system was compromised. I gotta go sort some things out,” Jermaine said as he grabbed his keys and ran out the door.

The terror on Jermaine’s face filled Eden with pride. She felt like a proud psycho after unleashing chaos and destruction onto the world.

“Wait until the local news spreads this story and your face is all over the city,” Eden smirked as she watched Jermaine back out the driveway and drive like a bat out of hell.

The hate that radiated through her body felt like a toxin. She had worshipped the ground this man walked on, now the very sight of him made her want to slit his throat. But she couldn’t do that to him. Death would be too easy. She needed him to feel every bit of psychological anguish that she had in store for him.

Envy pulled up behind Eden’s SUV without a care in the world. She had done this routine so often that it was normal for her. As much money as Eden made from traveling, she was too cheap to pay for long term parking at the airport. Instead, she preferred to call a ride share service and leave her car parked at home for free.

“I should key this piece of shit,” Envy thought as she stared at the shiny black SUV.

It didn’t matter to her that she drove a BMW, what mattered was the fact that Eden also drove a BMW and had enough money to purchase a $80,000 SUV just to run errands. Envy walked past the Wagoneer; she nicked the paint as she walked to the front door. She opened the door as if she were the queen of the castle.

“Honey, I’m home-”

“So am I,” Eden said as she raised the baseball bat and knocked Envy out cold.

Eden looked down at her younger sister and felt absolutely nothing. No pang of guilt, no indecisiveness, no emotion. She was no more than an intruder.

“You had the audacity to walk into my house and take your dress off and announce your presence. I don’t feel bad for anything I’m going to do to you tonight. You deserve everything. You backstabbing ass bitch,” Eden seethed as she looked down at her unconscious sister.

Grabbing her by the legs, Eden pulled Envy to the basement door and kicked her body down the seventeen stairs. She watched as she tumbled, rolled, and bumped her head on each non carpeted stair. Envy grunted, but she didn’t move. Taking the steps one at a time, Eden walked slowly toward her younger sister. She wanted to savor every moment of what she had planned.

“Wake your dick hopping ass up!” Eden yelled as she doused Envy with water.

Envy screamed.

The water was so cold that it burned. She tried to free herself. It felt as though shards of icicles were burrowing into her skin. She tried to get up and run but found that she was strapped to a chair. The soundof crunching and rustling under her feet made her stop moving.

“Wha..what’s going on?” Envy panicked.

She couldn’t remember where she was. The bat to the head, the kick down the flight of stairs, and the excruciating burning of her flesh made it hard for her to focus. Yes, she had done a lot of people wrong. But to her recollection, nothing she had done was bad enough to have her tied up in a room lined with plastic.

“Oh my God! Help! Help! Ple-”

“You might as well shut the fuck up! Because no one is coming to save you,”

CHAPTER 13

The voice from behind Envy’s back made her spine stiffen. She didn’t recognize it. The flatness of the voice was cold and unfamiliar.

Her eyes nearly bulged when she saw her sister. Text messages between her and Jermaine played in her head. The last thing she remembered was walking into her sister’s home to sleep with her husband. Somehow, she believed that sharing this knowledge would keep her safe.

“You might want to let me go before Jermaine gets back. I mean he did invite me here,” Envy smirked. Even tied up she was still a bitch.

“Jermaine invited you here. Are you sure? Oh, you mean those text messages that I sent from his number?” Eden asked as she pulled out her phone to show Envy the messages on the text changer app.

Envy’s stomach roiled. She had never seen this version of her sister. She was terrified but she refused to give in to this fearful tactic.

“Yeah, I called you here. He doesn’t know if you’re in Hell or Haiti’s at the moment. But don’t you worry, Jermaine is also getting a dose of my medicineas we speak,” Eden laughed as she turned on the small basement television to the local news.

“Pornographic material containing underage individuals has been discovered on the computer of Jermaine Shelton. Shelton is the General Counsel, meaning he is the attorney for Le Bleu-”

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