Page 78 of Lovely Deceit

The line inches closer and closer. The further I move up, the antsier I get. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do or say to him. I’d rather this be done privately, but Vincent promised I’d be witness to it.

Satisfaction thrums through my veins. The words all of these assholes called out to me at my last Pledge Trial scroll through my head like a never-ending newsfeed.

They both make pretty little dead girls.

Mocking me about my panic attack and the fact that I cried out for the people who were supposed to be helping me.

I’m happy with this retribution. It felt like those guys took their Pound of Flesh from me that day, egging on my fear, throwing me into a moment in time that will always be the worst moment of my life.

And he did nothing.

Now, here, Leo is getting his. He’s finally realizing what it means to be someone who isn’t him.

The man in front of me is tall and wide, so when he stalks up to Leo, I can’t see a thing. I wait where I am, fingertips buzzing.

The man strides away a few seconds later, and I take a step forward before faltering. My gaze connects with Leo’s for a split second until it inspects him. Blood runs over rippled muscle on his naked chest. Raw bruising disfigures his face. For the moment, his eyes are still open and staring at me in the same way they were before.

Guilt slams into me like a metal-studded mace. His nostrils flare, his shoulders heave, yet he makes no noise. No sound at all.

He wasn’t getting out of this easy. He was just making sure people didn’t hear how much it was bothering him.

When I peer to my right, there’s a fucked-up tray of instruments. Varying degrees of knives, long blades and short blades, along with a rubber hammer and what looks like a meat tenderizer.

The picture in front of me is sadistic and cruel.

Alaric nudges me forward.

Leo’s dark hair falls over his forehead where sweat has mixed with blood and discolored skin. He grins, showing off red-stained teeth. “And you, Little Miss Astor? You want your Pound of Flesh?”

Even in this, he’s taunting me. He’s the one standing with slices through his flesh, but he hasn’t been taken down a peg at all.

I walk right up to him. The closer I get, the more I can tell that his eyes are shuttered. I reach out, my fingertips grazing one of his cuts that looks like people have been touching again and again, smearing blood over his skin near the wound. “You keep disappointing me, Leo.” Leaning forward, I say, “If you don’t already know,Idid this to you. This is payback for lying and misleading me. For pretending to care when you only love yourself.”

When I step back, his dark brown eyes are shiny, his shoulders hunched over. And then I leave him there, leaving everyone else to get their piece of Leonardo Jarvis.

36

Leo

Some of the Knights are just sadistic fucks who would take their pound of flesh no matter if I wronged them or not. Those who didn’t mind getting their hands dirty stuck their fingers in my already open wounds, prying at the muscle underneath. Others used the docile instruments to inflict the pain so they could remove themselves from the action—after all, it wasn’t them that hurt me, it was the blade.

The sight of Eden’s face in my mind kept me from vocalizing the burning pain searing through my body as the Knights did what they do best—take and steal and then pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

After she took her literal pound, my heart shattered. My mind worked to untangle the web. I don’t know how she got me in this situation, but the difference between her and most everyone else in that line is she actually felt bad. I saw it when she first locked eyes with me. The horror was written all over her face.

Alaric approaches, pushing her point home. “It’s time to man up. If you like her, fight for her. Don’t let your head get in your way.”

Oliver follows. I swallow as he steps up, eyeing the tray of torture instruments. “It’d be so easy to use one of these to hurt you, and you’d deserve it for making Eden’s life more difficult than it already is, especially since you should know better since you went through something similar. I’ve done my research, Leo, so next time you try to throw your father’s death in someone’s face like you did Eden’s, make sure you aren’t being a hypocrite.”

He eyes me, and I have to say, it makes me give him more credit than I ever have before.

He walks away, and I turn my head to see the three of them disappear into the shadows. They don’t wait and watch, either for their own amusement or so I can gather strength from them. They just leave.

The rest of the Knights go by in a blur. Once the whole ceremony completes, no one comes by to help me put my shirt back on or dress my wounds. They wait at the front to lock up, and when I step into the daylight with blood running down my torso, I know where I’m headed. This has been a long time coming, and I’m not going to let the moment escape me.

She said she did this—that she was the reason—then she can deal with the aftermath, too.

I don’t even bother with Jarvis Hall because there’s no way they’re there. There’s only one place they would be. Luckily, Oliver’s rental is only a mile down the road.

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