Iniquity (Dahlia Saga Book 5)

by Natalie Bennett

  The best I would be able to do is place some pins to make him whole again. It was still less than he even deserved.

  “I’ll be back.”

  Leaving him there, I returned to the car and surveyed the front seat. There was a steady chiming sound coming from somewhere because the door was open.

  I needed to hurry.

  I searched for whichever button would open a trunk, finding it just beneath the steering console. I carefully reached down and pulled the knob. There was light click, then the rear hood lifted. I hurried to the back of the rusted vehicle and instantly found something of use.

  Ian had a store-bag of balled up clothes. They smelled bad--like must and something moldy, but they would work. I grabbed a long-sleeved plaid shirt and used it to wipe off my hands, scrubbing my skin until there was no visible sign of Ian’s blood. The driver’s seat was next. I wiped the cracked leather and faded steering column, ignoring the passenger seat altogether.

  “Get in,” I commanded Hannibal.

  He’d been following me around the entire time. He obediently hopped into backseat once more. I shut him inside then got in the front. I turned the key and the engine cranked right up. Driving wasn’t my best skill, but I knew one peddle made a car move and the other made it stop.

  I raised up and scooted forward, just barely able to reach them and see over the dash. I gently pressed the tip of my shoe on the larger one, causing the engine to rev.

  I studied all the icons and dials, realizing I was still in park. Shifting into drive, I tried again and this time the car moved.

  I was careful, turning the wheel and coasting into the field. The front end dipped as it left pavement for grass, moving over a small ditch. I was almost to the edge where trees started up when a buzzing sound came from within my bag.

  It continued without stopping, letting me know this was a call and not a text message. It could only be a very select few people. Did this mean they’d realized I’d left?

  I swallowed down a feeling of discomfort, tapping the peddle to keep the car chugging along. I angled the wheel, so it went a bit further to the left, making it as obscure as possible. At the very last second, I slammed my foot down on the brake, nearly connecting with the trunk of a tree.

  My cell started buzzing again.

  I had to get home.

  The car would be okay here for now. It was far enough from the road.

  Turning the key in the opposite direction, I left it in the ignition then got out, letting Hannibal free and retrieving my bag. I reached in and grabbed my dolly, removing three of her red pins. I dropped her back inside then rushed into the trees.

  Placing the pins between my lips, I knelt beside Ian and studied his neck. How was I going to do this without making a mess? Gingerly, I took one split piece of flesh and pressed it to another, holding it together with my thumb and index finger while I added a pin. I did the same with the other two, wishing I had time to sew him up.

  I wiped my fingers in some of the greenery growing near the tree, then stood up. My flats moved over uneven terrain as I hurried back towards the Dahlia.

  I managed to slip through the gates again without being stopped.

  I didn’t expect anyone to be around, but Hannibal barked and brought my attention to Dakota. She was sitting on the fountain, a cigarette at her lips. I wondered if she knew how bad those were for her. Oh, well. I could fix her lungs if need be. She turned and looked at me as I hurried by.

  “What were you just doing?”

  I ignored her and continued heading towards the pathway that led home. When Hannibal and I stepped through the front door Ethan was there, in the kitchen. Since our house was open concept, when he turned around, he spotted me right away, a look coming across his face that I couldn’t decipher.

  “She just walked in. I’ll call you back.” He lowered his cell from his ear. “Why didn’t you answer the phone?”

  I opened my mouth to tell him, closing it when I recalled what happened one time before.

  Declan had been upset with me. Maybe this time Ethan would be too. I wasn’t supposed to fix beyond their red room, and I hadn’t even managed to fix Ian correctly. There was no fluff inside his holes and my pins might not hold.

  Shifting my weight from one foot to the other, I clutched the strap of my tote bag and swallowed. I should have sewn him up. Made him better like I did Buddy when he broke Mother.

  “Helena,” Ethan called my name, snapping me out of my daze.

  “I was in the woods.”

  “You shouldn’t go out there alone. We talked about that. What were you doing?”

  It took me a second to remember what he was referring to. A few days after Julian’s wife arrived, I brought home another bird.

  They’d gotten rid of my others and this one had flown into the fence before falling through the trees on the other side of the street. Declan wouldn’t let me keep it, though.

  I glanced down and for the first time, I noticed the mud stains on my pretty lace shoes. I could feel sweat beneath my arms, and though his blood was gone I still felt its stickiness between my dirt clad fingers. I was as filthy on the outside as I felt on the inside.

  “I…need to take a shower. I’m not clean.”

  I hurried by without looking him in the eye. I couldn’t name whichever emotion put this knot in my stomach and added weight on my shoulders, but I didn’t like it.

  Chapter Six

  Declan

  He’d left less than twenty minutes ago and had already called me twice. The added text is what had me concerned enough to end the call I was on and dial him back.

  He answered with a question before I could get a word out. “Have you tried to get hold of Helena?”

  I withheld a sigh, crossing my feet at the ankles. “You were just in front me and saw I was working.”

  “She’s still not home.”

  “We know where she is Ethan.”

  There was a sixty-second pause. “Should I go get her?”

  “I have to be okay with letting her go all the way into town to be surrounded by judgmental fucks, and here you are having an issue with her being across the street with a dog. Don’t you think that’s a little hypocritical?”

  I knew my agitation was carrying through to his side of the phone. We had a goddamn tracker on her cellphone that proved she was legitimately just on the other side of the road. I couldn’t see what the problem was.

  “I’ve called her twice and she didn’t answer.”

  “She’s probably disemboweling a rabbit.” I grinned as soon as I said that, knowing he wouldn’t find it near as amusing.

  “That’s not funny.”

  “I was only half joking.”

  The sink turned on and off. I could picture him clearly, trying to busy himself to keep his nerves in check.

  He hadn’t changed much since high school in that regard. I heard the door open in the background followed by the scrambling of paws on hardwood.

  “The fuck?” he muttered.

  I sat forward in my chair. “What happened?”

  “She just walked in. I’ll call you back.”

  When pure silence suddenly came from his end of the line, I pulled the phone away from my ear. He fucking hung up on me. I glared at the screen. I’d been doing a fine job focusing on my task at hand. So much for that now.

  Did obsession and possession go hand in hand? Was it supposed to make you feel as if you would lose your fucking mind over someone? That’s what those two did, fucked with my head. It was starting to distract me at a time I couldn’t afford to have distractions.

  Uncle Julian had left his pride and joy in our capable hands and expected us to complete a merger. The Dahlia was in a hidden gem of a town, but the secret society that it thrived from was massive and growing bigger every year.

  The process to keep this place both secure and profitable was never-ending, which was why the merger with the Agnelli family would be so beneficial. They were a wealthy batch of si
ck fucks, just like us. My Uncle Porter would be arriving with them in two days.

  That’s what I was supposed to be focusing on, but it was hard to do anything business related when you couldn’t concentrate. I’d never been gladder Mason was the main heir.

  I tugged at my collar and pushed away from the desk. I needed some fresh air. I left the red room wing and took my time getting downstairs.

  I stepped outside, and immediately wished I hadn’t.

  “Dec!” The woman who birthed me stood from where she’d been sitting.

  “Dakota,” I replied, purposely pushing her buttons. She knew I hated when she of all people called me by that nickname, just as she despised me not calling her mom.

  “Your little girl ran by her about fifteen minutes ago.”

  Her narrative was unnecessary considering I already knew that. I wasn’t going to share any of this with Dakota. She already picked at my relationship with Helena enough as it was. Her little girl remark, however, that wasn’t going to fly with me.

  “Do you get some kind of satisfaction by continually insulting someone who doesn’t give two fucks what you think?”

  “I didn’t insult her!”

  “Was that a backhanded compliment then? Because it’s pretty apparent Helena is a woman.”

  “I don’t know why you hate me so much Declan,” she sighed and crossed her arms.

  Oh, here we go. I rubbed my right temple. It took a great deal of my self-control to refrain from crushing her feelings so severely she’d want to go jump off the roof.

  I did respect the fact she carried me to term and didn’t attempt to pry me out with a coat hanger, but that was as far as it went. She’d been a cruel, wicked bitch to me until I was old enough to stop caring if she loved me or not and told my father. He put an end to her bullshit immediately. She’d waited too long to pretend to care, because I surely never would.

  “This wasn’t why I came out here.”

  Deciding I was done for the day, I left her attempting to look concerned about me, and went home.

  I briefly considered calling the whole night off. The only reason I didn’t was because that wouldn’t do any of us good. These evenings were our individual way of relaxing.

  I chose not to bring up Ethan’s continuous phone calls he evaded in my presence or the fact that Helena had more than likely been up to something she shouldn’t have. Ethan had explained what happened after he hung up on me a dozen times, and the fact she came home empty handed didn’t align with how she’d behaved.

  I felt like a jackass for not taking his concern seriously. When she hugged me the second she saw me, I almost let everything go.

  Almost.

  As we stood in the holding room, Ethan and I watching her walk the row of kennels, I was still thinking about it.

  She paused in front of one and glanced back at the two of us.

  “What does this mean?”

  I moved to help her, reading over the chart attached to the kennel she had chosen.

  “Monetary gain in so many words. He cheated on his wife, so she decided to send him here. She’ll get everything of his soon enough. I met her once, she’s a nice lady.”

  She curled her fingers through the mesh fencing and peered closer at the man trembling in the back corner. I recognized him from an event we’d held a year prior. I didn’t remember seeing him the other day. He must have come in recently.

  Poor bastard had brought this upon himself. Pissing off your wife was never a good idea.

  Pissing off your wife that had connections to an opulent torture club was just plain suicidal.

  “Why would he do that?” Helena questioned.

  She seemed so genuinely confused by it, his transgressions pissed me off too, when seconds ago I didn’t give a shit what he did or who.

  “Some people have no concept of loyalty. They want to have many different flavors of cake when they’re only meant to have one.” I glanced at Ethan. “Or in our case, two.”

  She peered up at me with her unnaturally large cobalt eyes and bit her lower lip. My dick responded instantly. She’d never understand how insane she made me from the simplest actions. Being an absolute stunner only made shit more complicated.

  “Do you want to fuck lots of other people too?”

  “Did you just say fuck?” Ethan asked, turning a laugh into a cough from behind us.

  “I say fuck all the time now. And it’s one of my favorite things to do,” she replied matter-of-factly. “That doesn’t answer my question, though.”

  My cake analogy was obviously not needed. I was a little taken aback by the bluntness in her tone. She truly had come out of that timid shell of hers over these past few months. I reached down and cupped her chin, tracing the outline of her amazingly plump lips.

  “I have everything I need right here in this room.” I chose my words carefully so Ethan wouldn’t feel excluded. From the small grin on his face, he wouldn’t have no matter how I replied. Helena gave me her version of a smile and rose up on the tip of her toes to kiss me.

  “I can help this one,” she said once she drew back.

  “How awake is he?” Ethan asked, coming closer so he could take a better look inside the kennel.

  “There isn’t anything listed on his chart, so I wager he’s pretty fucking awake.”

  “Does she want this recorded?”

  “No. She only requested something non-incriminating to prove we’d taken care of it.”

  “Stand over here, baby-girl.” He placed his hands on Helena’s shoulders and guided her out of the way.

  “Alright…” I trailed off to double-check his name on the chart. “Grayson, it’s your time to shine. Our beautiful girl is going to take care of that problem you have.”

  I let his chart go and lifted the combination lock, dialing the numbers into place.

  “Declan,” the man plead. “Listen, you know me.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” Ethan drawled, going to retrieve a catch pole.

  “My wife. She’s a crazy bitch. She--.”

  “There’s no fun in life without some crazy,” I replied. “And, your wife is a rich bitch. One who paid good money to make sure she never had to see your face again. I heard she’s already fucking the neighbor.”

  I pulled open the kennel door, watching him closely as he stood from his crouching position.

  “Want me to get em?” Ethan asked.

  I moved aside and gestured in a way that said, “Be my guest.”

  “Let’s not make this too difficult, okay?” He moved towards Grayson with the red and silver pole extended. When Gray attempted to smack it away, Ethan jammed the end of it into his stomach. He coughed and hunched over, giving Ethan the perfect opportunity to slip the catch-ring over his head and tighten it. Grayson struggled, grabbing at the pole with both hands when Ethan started backing out of the kennel.

  Everyone else in the room watched on, some in silence, others hysterically crying or wailing obscenities.

  I let Ethan walk ahead of me, reaching back for Helena’s hand before following behind him. By the time we got to our red room, Grayson was down on the floor being dragged. You’d think if you were going to die you would want to do so with some dignity.

  Not Grayson.

  “Flip our light,” I said to Helena once we were all inside the room.

  I went to help Ethan tie Grayson down. He continued to struggle the entire way through. He’d already been stripped down to nothing but his draws, making the whole spectacle almost comical. I waved for Helena to approach once we had him buckled into the chair. She came and stood on the other side of the table, opposite of us. Her head was slightly bowed, face partially obscured by her long golden hair.

  “You know how this goes,” Ethan encouraged when she didn’t immediately speak or move to do anything.

  “Declan. Ethan…” She looked up with a look on her face I hadn’t ever seen before. It was almost like…worry?

  “What is it?” Ethan asked sl
owly.

  “We need to take off his cap,” she replied. “This.” She demonstrated when neither of us said anything, taking her index finger and running it along the upper portion of Grayson’s scalp.

  Ethan and I shared a discreet glance. She may have gotten better at speaking up, but it was impossible for her to hide things from us. Me especially. She’d been about to say something, and it didn’t have shit to do with removing the top of Grayson’s head.

  I didn’t believe in coincidences.

  This had to be directly related to whatever she’d been doing in the fucking woods.

  If she felt concerned enough to bring it up, then the chances that I was right in assuming she’d done something she shouldn’t of were more than likely correct. But what? It wasn’t like she’d run off and murder someone. Again.

  “What does she mean remove my cap?” Grayson asked, reminding me he was still tied down in our chair. Ethan placed a hand over his mouth to shut him up, purposely nudging me as he did. “Is there a reason why you want to do that?”

  Helena straightened as if she were about to give a grand presentation. “He cheated on his wife. That was a bad decision. We make choices with our brains. Let me fix his.”

  Grayson started to protest louder; the sound muffled beneath Ethan’s palm. That was certainly one way to solve a cheater’s dilemma. I suppose I could see where she was going with that.

  I didn’t ever point out the logistics or obvious factors when Helena came up with a solution. Ethan and I had figured out a while ago that she genuinely believed she was helping people. I wouldn’t be the one to take that from her, she needed this.

  “I have to fix it,” she mumbled, causing Ethan and I to share another look.

  “If this is what you want, that’s what we’ll do,” I said.

  She nodded, and we got to work.

  I grabbed the aprons we kept in a storage cabinet. We normally didn’t bother with them, but this had the potential to get extremely messy.

  While I did that Ethan grabbed a cotton gag and forced it into Grayson’s mouth. This would shut him up and keep him from biting his tongue off.