The Devil's Game (Rhodes to Hell Book 1)

by K. B. Saint

  I open the first door I come to and I’m met with just a closet. I leave the door open and turn around, straining my eyes to find another door not leading to fucking blankets. The next one opens and I poke my head out into the hallway it reveals. I see nothing but more hall when I look left but when I look to my right I see Preston staring right at me, a grin on his face.

  “Passed your first test, little brat.”

  I frown.

  “Oh don’t act like you don’t like it when I call you brat,” he tells me pushing off of the wall. “You and I both know you get brattier when I don’t call you it enough.”

  “I have a name,” I tell him, walking out into the hallway with him. The cool air on my legs reminds me I’m not fully dressed and when I look down at my bare legs I realize I’m damn near naked save for my underwear and t-shirt. “... and where are my clothes?”

  “I figured sleeping with clothes on was just as uncomfortable for you as it is for me. I have your clothes, follow me brat,” he says the name like one would say a term of endearment and hearing sound so soft towards me is confusing as hell to my brain.

  He leads me to another room and when he pushes the door open I see the four suitcases he brought, but I don’t see my little backpack I put all of my clothes in. “My bag isn’t here.”

  “Sure it is,” he tells me walking over to one of the big suitcases and pushing it on its side. “Come here.”

  I do as he says and come to him and after his prompting for me to open the bag I do. I see my little backpack along with even more clothes for me and I frown, pushing my dark hair over my shoulder and out of my way. I look up at him and ask, “You packed all of this for me?”

  “I had it packed for you, yes,” he clarifies.

  “But you told me to pack,” I say, picking up my black bag. “I rushed all around my closet trying to get anything packed.”

  “I know.”

  “You’re an ass.” I laugh, setting my bag back down and fishing my toothbrush from the front pocket.

  “I know,” he tells me again and when I look up at him he’s grinning. “Go brush your teeth in there and I’ll get your clothes ready for what we have on the agenda for today.”

  I almost protest him picking my clothes, but I’m still a little off feeling and I just don’t have it in me to get spanked right now. I’m far too horny for anything kinky. I grab my toothbrush before going into the bathroom Preston pointed out. I pee before brushing my teeth and when I come back out there’s an outfit laid on the back of a chair and the bag is zipped up once again and standing upright neatly.

  Preston takes my toothbrush and hurries me to dress. I don’t drag my feet as much today because in all honesty I don’t think I’ve ever felt so rested and I’m kind of curious what the hell we’re about to be doing all day. I don’t even care if Preston watches me from the edge of the couch arm the whole time I dress. His eyes are on me, but he doesn’t make me feel weird like most of the men in my life always have. It’s very different from anything I’ve ever experienced, but welcomed nonetheless.

  Once I’m dressed, Preston tells me to follow him and when we get to the kitchen I realize all of the heavy curtains in this house have fooled me into thinking it was still night time. The clock on the microwave tells me otherwise.

  “Oh my god, I slept so long,” I say, whipping around to face Preston.

  “I know,” he says, looking at me as he tosses a water bottle at me. “You think I don’t know you don’t sleep?”

  I catch the water with both of my hands but his words freeze me in my place. “Uhh ... no I didn’t know anyone knew or cared.”

  “Which is another issue, brat. You think no one cares about you. Still.”

  “You just met me, why would you care about me?”

  “If I didn’t care about you I wouldn’t have allowed you to join my family. Don’t you understand?”

  I stare at him for a few seconds, not knowing how to respond in the slightest. Naturally, I just ask another question. “But why?”

  “There are some people in life who are brought to you and you just know they’ll do great things with you and for you. There doesn’t have to be an answer to why you want them to be in your life, you just do,” he tells me.

  My heart starts pounding so hard I feel it in my ears and throat. I would rather be doing literally anything else than talking about this because ...

  I just don’t trust people.

  I’ve never had anyone stay in my life long enough for how I feel to even matter, and I am damn sure not about to get hurt again by letting Preston’s words fool me into thinking he’ll always want to have me around.

  “You’ll leave too,” I tell him, looking down at the water bottle with a frown. “They always do.”

  He yanks me by my shirt suddenly and pulls me close to his chest. My toes are barely touching the ground and my eyes are wide when he starts talking.

  “See, here is where you’re wrong, little brat,” he says, gripping my shirt tightly, the fabric stretching and expanding the tighter he holds. “You’re mine now, remember? Remember what you felt when I put my brand on your pretty little ass? I made you feel to ensure you’d never forget who your Daddy is. Every time you look at the perfect little skull on your left ass cheek I want you to remember who was first to care for you properly.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  MESSIAH—PRESENT

  She’s been gone a week and I am going fucking crazy not having her here. She left shortly after I got back and even though I’ve been mostly avoiding her, I can’t help but to wonder what the fuck Preston’s been doing to her for the last week. We all know Preston does everything with purpose and taking her away was likely the best bet for the family, but I can’t imagine her needing so long to catch on to everything.

  Unless she’s far more fucked up than all of us. Then being gone this long would make a lot more sense, but it doesn’t seem likely. I don’t want to think about her like I do, but I can’t help it. She may have killed my sister, but I can’t force myself to hate her and I don’t know why. Which is why I’ve just stayed away from her for the most part. Having her gone again, though, has made me realize I’m not sure I want to avoid her anymore.

  “What are you over there thinking about, dummy?” Salem asks as she comes into the kitchen. I grin at her.

  “Shut up,” I say as she jumps on my back.

  “You were thinking about her, weren’t you?”

  Salem has always been intuitive and sometimes—like when we’re on jobs—it’s great. Other times, like now, it’s just annoying. My lack of response tells her what she needs to know and she kisses my cheek.

  “It’s okay to miss her,” she tells me, but Salem doesn’t know her. She doesn’t know Ruby killed my sister. “You know it’s okay to, right?”

  “Not with a past like ours, it’s not okay,” I say, shaking my head.

  “Want to talk about it?” she asks, jumping down.

  “I don’t even know where to start,” I tell her as I turn around to face her. “You and Nic just get here?”

  “Yeah and I think he ran off to the gym, but you can always start with how she hurt you the most,” she offers and I smile at her. Salem always goes for the gut, no holding back. She definitely learned the no holding back from Nicholai.

  “She killed my sister Say, and then lied about the pills not even being hers. She still won’t even own up to the fact the person I came into this earth with is gone forever because of her,” I tell her and notice her eyes pull away from me slightly to the doorway behind me. I turn and see Hollis standing there, listening too.

  “You ever think she wasn’t lying?” Hollis asks when our eyes meet.

  “No,” I tell him before turning back to Salem. “It wouldn’t make sense. She broke her leg and arm that summer and was taking pills the whole time.”

  “What makes no sense is the fact your sister didn’t die of an overdose of percs, Messiah, but you still hold tight to the no
tion it was Ruby who killed her.”

  Salem's eyes are wide and her mouth pops open at Hollis’ words. I frown as I slowly turn back around, “What are you talking about?”

  “I did some digging and your sister died of a heroin overdose, not from anything else. She only had traces of Percocet in her system,” Hollis tells me and my whole world stops.

  “Cede didn’t do heroin,” I tell him, not believing for a second this could actually be the truth. My sister wasn't a junkie.

  “Maybe the fact that she wasn’t is why she died, Messiah. Maybe she thought it was—” Salem starts but I cut her off.

  “No! No, I won’t believe what you’re telling me Hollis,” I say.

  He walks closer to me with the look in his eyes he always gets when I don’t listen to him the first time.

  He stops right in front of me and gets in my face. “Do I ever fucking lie to you, Messiah?” I shake my head slowly. “Then call me a fucking liar again and see how bad I beat your ass.”

  “My sister wasn’t a junkie,” I say more to myself than to anyone else.

  “Maybe not, but it wasn’t Ruby who killed her,” he tells me just before we hear Preston’s voice just outside the kitchen.

  “We’re back,” he announces with a big grin when he sees us finally. “Miss us?”

  Ruby looks at me and then to Hollis and Salem and I know it’s clear to them both we were in a pretty serious conversation before they came in.

  “I missed you,” Salem announces cheerfully, tiptoeing quickly over to Preston, wrapping him in a hug. “Hi, Daddy.”

  She leans back some and looks at Preston in the face and just like every other time he returns from long trips he smiles at her as he hugs her back and then kisses her forehead. “I know you did,” he says, setting her back down.

  “I missed you, too, Ruby,” she says, pulling Ruby into a hug next.

  Ruby is smiling and honestly I haven’t seen a smile like the one on her face ever. She looks genuinely happy and it’s almost foreign on her features.

  “I missed you too, Salem,” she says with a laugh just as Elijah walks in and notices they’re back.

  “What about me?” he asks, serious as ever.

  “What would she miss about you?” I laugh, “Your charming personality?”

  I’m lashing out at him because it’s what we do but when he looks over at me standing by Hollis he doesn’t play back.

  “Actually, I did miss you,” Ruby says, the sass still thick inner voice. I knew he wouldn’t get rid of her attitude. “All of you.”

  She meets my eyes again and she watches me as Hollis makes his way across the room to hug her like Salem did.

  “We missed you too,” he tells her, looking back at me before meeting Preston’s eyes and leaving the kitchen. No doubt heading back to the gym.

  Preston doesn’t pay mind to him leaving abruptly because it's not out of the normal for Hollis to be pissy about something. “Why do you look all pissed?” he asks me.

  “Hollis just told me my sister overdosed on heroin,” I tell him honestly, not wanting to piss him off already by lying today. “Did you know?”

  Ruby’s mouth pops open and her eyes are huge as she looks back and forth at Preston and me.

  “You didn’t?”

  “I didn’t know it was heroin she overdosed on. I thought it …”

  “You thought it was my pills,” Ruby grinds out, venom in her tone for the hurt she must’ve felt when I turned my back on her when Cece died.

  “Ruby I …”

  “Fucking save it,” she spits out, interrupting me before storming out of the kitchen.

  Preston curses under his breath and pins me with his stare but calls out for Elijah. “Go deal with her, Elijah, don’t let what I spent the last week building be torn down by one harsh misjudgment.”

  “Got it,” Elijah says before slipping out of the kitchen silently.

  Salem sneaks out behind Elijah and I’m left with Preston in the kitchen just how he wants me.

  “You’re going to have to deal with this sooner rather than later, so I’ll expect you to have a healthy conversation with her about all of this and how fucking sorry you are for abandoning her like everyone else has done to her. You’re going to fucking beg her to forgive you, Messiah, do you understand me?”

  I nod, knowing nothing I can say will curve the angry daggers he’s shooting at me with his eyes. He shakes his head at me before walking out of the kitchen leaving me with nothing but my own fucked up thoughts.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  RUBY—TEN YEARS AGO

  It’s been weeks since I’ve smiled and actually meant it. Cece has been gone and life has continued. No matter how hard I try to numb even more out of the stupid shit happening to me, it’s still right in my face. I don’t have Cece anymore and I don’t have Messiah. All I have is my grandma, Tasha, and Lucky. None of them truly know me, though, so I feel more alone than I’ve ever felt in my life.

  I’ve dealt with life the best way I can and tonight I’m dealing with life in the form of a house party. I’ve been going to those a lot more lately and as I walk, I can already see Lucky laughing and hear Tasha’s voice as she does her best to get everyone’s attention. They’re with a group of guys and are just standing on the wide sidewalk outside of the house where the party is being held.

  When I get to them, Lucky hugs me tightly and Tasha leans in to kiss my cheek, never stopping her conversation with one of the boys from around here. I don’t know him personally but I recognize him for some reason, so I just assume I’ve seen him at parties just like this one. Not that I’d remember.

  I let them know I’m heading inside to get a drink and Lucky comes with me. She’s never liked the boys around the way and some days I wonder if she’s even straight. I know she’ll never come out if she is gay, thanks to her religious family, but it would make a lot more sense as to why she’s never been attracted to any guys before.

  “How are you, Rue?”

  “Oh you know,” I laugh, “Just numbing the pain more and more each day.”

  “Ignoring your pain isn’t funny, Ruby,” she says loudly as we get closer to the loud music playing.

  “Run This Town” by Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West is playing loudly over the speakers and I sway to the beat as we make our way to where all of the beer and liquor is set up in the kitchen.

  “I was just kidding, Lucky,” I say like it’s the easiest lie to tell but she falls for it. She always does, only seeing things for their face value and never digging deeper than what anyone tells her. I could never live a life where I don’t dig into everything for a better understanding. I have far too many questions to just sit around believing everything everyone tells me.

  “Okay, let’s get drunk then and run this town tonight,” she laughs, doing her best impersonation of Rihanna.

  I laugh and shake my head but grab a whole bottle off the table with drowning my sorrows in this bottle being the exact plan. We get completely shitty during party and about halfway through the night Lucky has to go home. Tasha leaves with the guy from earlier and I contemplate finding a guy to fuck and leave but quickly decide against it, and decide to find another party instead.

  I’m not sure where I end up, but I know I drink more and everything is so hazy. I somehow manage to get back to Grandma’s house and as I walk up the steps I think nothing of the fact the door is slightly open already. I push the door open and it slams against the wall hard and I curse at myself for probably waking my grandma up. I close the door as gently as I can and stumble closer to the hall, listening to see if she's getting up to get onto me again for coming in too late and worrying her all night.

  I don’t hear anything and I stumble a little more towards the hall before looking up and finally seeing her. In my drunken state I’m not sure if I’m seeing things properly as I stare at her with my mouth open and eyes strained in the darkness surrounding us both. I flip the light switch on the wall and a sob catches w
hen I see my sweet grandma dead on the floor with a bullet in her skull. Her blonde hair is drenched in dark red blood and there’s blood all over the carpet and walls on either side of her leaving her face is barely recognizable.

  My hands fly to my mouth but I can’t stop the vomit pouring from my lips and it keeps coming until every ounce of liquor is purged from my body. I’m crying and wiping my mouth as I run to the phone on the wall in the kitchen and quickly call the police. Once they confirm the address I pack a small bag and leave through the back before they get here and throw me into foster care like they tried to do before she took me in.

  I go the back way to Lucky’s house and when I tap on her window she comes to it pretty quickly. The dry tears on my face are enough for her to just push the window up and let me inside. She doesn’t say anything as I undress myself and throw on the t-shirt she’s holding out for me. She doesn’t say anything until we’re both lying in her bed and she’s wrapped around my shaking frame.

  “Ruby, what happened?”

  I don’t answer her and she lets it go, knowing I’m not going to tell her. Everyone will find out soon enough and when the shoe drops I’m not sure I want to be around to see the aftermath. I don’t sleep at all and I leave the same way I came before she ever wakes up. I know I have nowhere to go, but I also know Lucky’s mom will never let me stay with them. She won’t even allow me to stay the night anymore so I go to the only place I can think of.

  Tasha’s house.

  She answers the door when I knock and scrunches her face up when she sees my appearance. “Girl, what happened?”

  “Long story, can I come in?” I ask, looking back behind her into the house.

  She looks back behind her and looks unsure before finally sighing and nodding. “Yeah, come on.”

  I follow her inside and close the door before heading to her bedroom with her. I can hear her siblings playing on the other side of the house, but when I get to her room I find the same guy from the night before.