Seducing Virtue (Wicked Trinity Book 3)

by Courtney Lane

  Things had changed because she cried out that she was a virgin to prevent her punishment and a show I was sore about missing. Watching the harbingers tear her apart, and killing them for it later to place myself even more as the hero over my brother was in my plans.

  “Why?” I leaned on the only free wall space and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Because she claims she’s a virgin?” I snorted, shaking my head. “She’s lying.” I knew the truth, she might not have been lying, but it didn’t explain what Gregory claimed he did to her. I’d figure out what the deal was when Shiloh backed off. And if she was a virgin, my plans would have to change, and I’d be the one to make sure she wasn’t before we both left Rebirth.

  Shiloh gazed down at his hand, the same one that was knuckles deep inside Keaton. “I don’t think she was.”

  “Because you shoved your fingers up her pussy and discovered it was tight? Word of advice, not every woman is as loose as the whores you fuck here. Keaton is playing us. She’s smart at times; other times, she’s reckless. Do I need to remind you that she tried to run—twice?”

  “Actually…” He flopped down in the swivel chair, shaking his head. “Her failed escape proves that she’s lost clarity, and wouldn’t be able to manipulate us.”

  “I know the nature of women a little better than you do.” I glared at the cameras, in particular, the feed of Keaton pacing inside her room. “I wasn’t a sheltered momma’s boy who let my father pick out the women I courted. I know her type, and I know she’s lying.”

  In the way he stared at the camera feed of her, I could tell he didn’t buy the lies I was selling him. I’d have to change his ideas…fast. “I’ll beat the truth out of her.”

  He reached out, touching the screen as he zoomed into her face like some sort of crazed stalker admiring his obsession.

  Keaton was scared, it was written all over her pretty little face.

  “She isn’t all I thought she would be.” Shiloh’s voice grew quiet. “She’s more fragile than expected. We’re missing information on her—someone had to have taken it from her file. I’ve never seen a woman so revolted by anything having to do with sex like she is in a very long time.”

  A smirk tightened my lips. “Maybe she didn’t like having your cock shoved down her throat as a ‘Welcome to Rebirth’ present.”

  He swiveled around balling his fist. A fire of anger was lit in his eyes like it never had been before.

  This wasn’t good. Instead of Keaton becoming a distraction, she became something more to Shiloh; his strength and a potential powerful pawn that could’ve fucked me over. “You mean like you shoved your cock down her throat at the dinner? I don’t recall it being on the list of things to do to her.” The envy heightened the green in his eyes.

  I turned up the derision in my smile. “She opened her mouth for me. I didn’t even have to force her, so don’t come at me like I’m the bad guy here. And if I remember right, after failing to make her eat dinner from the floor, you were going to let those mindless harbingers screw her in front of everyone. That wasn’t on the agenda, either. You’re questioning my methods after all I’ve done for you? All I’ve done to make this place what it is so you can get off on your power trips?”

  He stared at me, not blinking or moving. “Should I continue to trust you, Noah? As of late, you’ve given me plenty of reasons to distrust you.”

  I turned up my joker-like smile. “You know, Shiloh, sometimes it takes someone who’s willing to do the extreme and not be a pussy like you always were, and always will be. Unlike you, if I had to prove a point, I would’ve let the harbingers fill every fucking fantasy they had on her body—virgin or not.”

  Shiloh cringed, and it baffled me as to why.

  I switched gears, loosening up my posture. “What the fuck is this, Reven? This girl comes here and you’re acting a little over the top with the role I gave you. Going off script? Acting like a weak-willed pussy behind the scenes? What has she done to you?”

  He leaned forward, draping his hands over the wide gap in his legs. “My assumption was correct, wasn’t it? You have feelings for Keaton. It’s the single reason I can uncover for why my desire for her would have any effect on you.”

  “And as I told you at the table, no. I don’t want her.” I slammed my hand into my hair, grabbing a good lock of it before letting go. “I fucked Jayme like I didn’t care, didn’t I?”

  “No, you fucked her like you were feeding on Keaton’s…jealousy.”

  I couldn’t help but feel smug at the word that cut him like razorblades. He’d already lost what he wanted, and he hadn’t realized it yet. I shrugged at him, ready to end the conversation. “Do you mind? I need to wash the scent of Jayme’s pussy off me.”

  “Emmet told me the cameras were malfunctioning again.” Shiloh’s eyes glazed over as he stared at the cameras. “Especially in Keaton’s room. They were sight blind a few weeks ago. He swore to me that he overheard Keaton moaning amongst other sounds. It appears to me as though someone was in the room with her, doing things to her.”

  “And?” I shrugged for a second time. “You think I was that guy?”

  “I know what I’ve seen lately.”

  “I think you need to get your eyes checked. You have someone in the house who can’t resist new pussy: Radley. You should check on him.” I marched toward the door and paused at the handle. “And one more thing, don’t ever fucking call me on the carpet like that again. You rule them, not me. I know what you’re doing. You know it’s the only time I can’t show how it really works between us. Don’t push it, or I’ll show you how little I appreciate the things you’re doing to piss me off. Do you want me to think this is getting to your head and you’re going to fuck me over? Do you?”

  He glared at me, his jaw clenching so tightly the muscle ticked. “No, Noah. We certainly don’t want that.”

  It was difficult to leave the room. I was entranced by the vision of her on the camera feed. My fingers were stained with her sweet aroma. I ached to drop the act and be with her. It stood in direct opposition with my constant need to connect with my brother.

  My attention remained on the feed of her room. She was mesmerizing. My eyes grew so dry, blinking became painful. I had to know if my curiosity and doubt was unfounded—if my thoughts were simply baseless accusations, or if my paranoid thoughts were well-placed against my brother.

  The door to her room unlatched, and Noah entered. When he addressed her coldly, promising to punish her for her behavior at dinner, I wanted to feel at ease. The guilt seeped in, preventing my concessions. Nothing was right about the situation. I had begun to return to the belief that Keaton never should’ve been placed within the house. She’d fit better in a home of her own, able to take out her revenge as she saw fit. I questioned why I allowed my brother to convince me of otherwise.

  I opened the door, calling for Tobias as he stood watch down the hall.

  “Yes, Reven?”

  Effortless in the switch of personas, I delved into the role I adopted for a number of years. “Do you want back in my favor?”

  “Of course, Mr. Reven.” He bowed briefly in respect. “I’m at your service.”

  “My right hand is falling wayward. He’s going to ask something of you. The nature of whatever he’ll ask of you goes against my principles. He’ll make you believe it is my wish. When he does, you are to do the opposite of what he commands.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “He’ll make a request of you soon,” I explained. “No matter what it is, you are never to touch Keaton’s sacred place. If I tell you to fuck her, it’s to question your loyalty to me. If you remember what you were told, you will be rewarded with the position of my right hand. You are never to soil what’s mine. Keaton is for me and me alone. As all things are. If you or those working underneath you betray my wishes, I’ll have you all castrated for your disobedience and make you bear witness to your cocks burning to ash in a fire.”

  “Yes, Reven. I wi
ll pass your test when the time comes. I’ll show you my faith.”

  B. MICHAELS: I have to see you. Contact me soon.

  After parting ways with Arthur, I sent Keaton a simple text message to persuade her into meeting with me to continue what we left undone. Hours passed without a response.

  In my last ditch effort to entice her, I sent a message containing the address to my home and reiterated that she was welcome at any time, at any hour.

  Nightfall came and went, cusping on the dark pieces of the morning, and I hadn’t yet received a response.

  Defeat covered my mood in a dark storm cloud, drenching me with regret. My fingers, my mouth, and body hungered for her. I deliberated and submitted myself into performing one more desperate act.

  Descending the stairs to a cold and dark house much too encompassing for one person, I pointed my direction toward the cellar.

  On the sensor pad, I punched in a key-code to open the door to the basement. As I slogged down the stairs, a prayer chant of one of my guests, Mrs. Sherman, infiltrated my ears. In the next cell all was silent. In the final cell, Nadine paced manically inside her prison. The caged creature had begun to draw toward the welcoming embrace of insanity sooner than expected.

  Dispensing the air from my lungs in exhaustion, I retrieved a metal chair from the corner and set it in front of her small prison. My pride was swallowed, running down my throat like a jagged spike wrapped in barbed wire. “Nothing I do works as it should,” I spoke into the space, leaving my statement unexplained.

  The knowledge of Noah’s brief visit to D.C. as a brazenly unplanned act to return Keaton to his control would never reach Nadine’s ears. The will to divulge the extent of all the things I’d done for Keaton was nonexistent.

  “I’m battling with my anxiety,” I confessed. Agonizing months were spent watching her be with Noah while waiting for the right time to show myself to her, only to have a taste of what I wanted and to have it stolen from me. “I can’t wait much longer.”

  My moral ineptitude was my downfall. My upbringing twisted my thoughts into believing all the wrong things were right, and the right things were wrong. It set me up to fail when I had a chance to begin my life in the world outside the community. Had I known things beforehand, had I understood before, I would’ve approached the situation differently. I wouldn’t have let my brother coax me into numerous ill-advised decisions.

  “Did you know?” As I posed the question, I attempted to come to terms with what I had done to Keaton at Rebirth. I had no idea it would be looked at in such a negative manner until I was shown and told otherwise. I despised my upbringing for distorting my view of the world and deeming me inept to live in it. My opprobrious past conduct toward Keaton ate away at my confidence.

  “Did Noah hide the knowledge of Gregory raping Keaton from me?” I deliberated out loud. “Did he know and keep it from me?”

  Nadine’s sigh of agitation filled the expanse. “Did you come here to whine? —because I swear to God I will hang myself in this goddamn cage before you get a chance to.”

  “No.” I maintained my gentleness toward Nadine only because I truly did need something from her. Completely lost and in uncharted territory, my pride was swallowed down in an act of pure hopelessness. A solution couldn’t be formulated from my own thoughts, and if there was one to be had, it wasn’t immediately apparent to me. My ordered steps, to make amends for what I had done, were a series of misguided strides. Gregory and I shared the same brand in Keaton’s view. I needed and wanted out of the ill-fitting confines. “I want your advice.”

  Nadine’s scintillating blue eyes came into focus as she marched into the light with her arms folded about her chest. Her matted dark hair barely moved as she lunged forward to tightly grasp the metal bars encaging her. “My time as an adviser to you on all things female had an expiration date. It expired when you were supposed to fucking die. I’m done giving you my help. Done giving you my fucking advice. It’s not my fault you were a fucking idiot. And to answer your question, yes, I knew she was raped. Your brother told me.” A misplaced and agitating smile contorted her moisture-deprived lips.

  The invisible cloak shrouded me in darkness and seduced me into becoming the man I had been for many years at Rebirth: Magnus Oliver. Standing upright, I kicked the chair back from underneath me. My eyelids partially shielded my vision, displaying the void suddenly consuming my mind. “Do you like your accommodations?” My voice teetered into territory I had long abandoned: moody and wrathful.

  “It’s a five-fucking-star hotel down here.” She flung her hands up and gave me a taunting smile. “Wherever Noah is, he’s going to find out about what you’re doing and that you’re still alive. Heaven fucking help you when he finds out. This time, maybe he’ll shoot to kill.” Misplaced confidence fueled her behavior and wrapped her in the foggy denial of her circumstances.

  “So you do like your accommodations?” I scanned her husband in the adjacent cell, huddled in a shadowed corner. “I wonder if he agrees with your sentiment.”

  Panic flickered in Nadine’s azure eyes. “Don’t you dare touch him, you asshole.”

  “Nadine,” I sang with a grin that made her pause. “You brought this on yourselves by trying to kill me and make me take the fall for something you all created.” Venomous words slithered from my mouth, piercing her with my forked tongue. “If that doesn’t solidify how little you deserve from me, you tried to take Keaton away from me more than once. And her friend Sonja? I never knew my brother to be sloppy and order his fans to murder an innocent woman in cold blood. Was that his plan? Or was it yours?”

  “Noah believes no one is innocent.” Her words grew quiet. “He said we could do what we needed to get Keaton. Her friend was in the way. Adam did what he had to. I can’t believe you’re still trying to point the finger. I mean, really? Somewhere in your subconscious you had to know the things you were doing to Keaton at Rebirth were wrong.”

  “Did Noah?” I countered.

  “Noah is crazy as hell.” She twirled a finger around her matted dark mane. “He gets a pass because he’s incapable of knowing his bad from good. It’s all the same to him. I think you know what you’re doing and what you did back at Rebirth wasn’t right. You did it because you liked it.” Her grin deepened. “It got you off. You feel all guilty now because she doesn’t want you. No one held a fucking gun to your head to make you do the things you did to her.”

  I strolled toward the exit, pausing at her husband’s cell to rile her. “Whether I did things out of fear of Noah or my need to impress him are debatable. I won’t provide you with the answer. Your knowledge is limited to Noah’s side of the story.” I continued my pace, halting at the prison of the person who I knew meant the most to her, because she meant the most to Noah. The one who hadn’t wavered in reciting her prayers.

  She was no longer Mrs. Sherman. All that remained were mere remnants of a woman who was driven mad by the love of a man who never truly wanted her. She was willing to forsake her vow to God to be with him. A woman who encouraged my brother to do what she couldn’t; to penalize her body for the trespasses she’d committed, sullying her past.

  “Mother Abigail,” I crooned.

  She ceased her prayer, remaining in her position on bended knees. “God’s going to make you pay for what you’re doing.”

  After I evolved at Rebirth, she took every opportunity to express her thoughts; she believed I had become the embodiment of evil—my father. Her pious hands were covered in the blood of many. She cloaked her misdeeds under the guise of doing God’s work. The same misguided mission the individuals who manipulated and distorted my view of the world once held.

  “The hypocrisy in this cellar is nearly stifling.” My fingers touched the flat screen, entering a code on the adjacent wall to unlock Sister Abigail’s cell. “I’ve selected you as the temporary toy to torment the banshee.”

  “Don’t you dare touch her,” the banshee warned.

  “I want advice…” M
y tone was cold and quiet in my prompt. My finger hovered over the final digit to unlock Mother Abigail’s cage. “…not threats and insults.”

  “Okay.” Nadine supplicated, waving her hands out before her to solidify her submission to me.

  It was mildly shocking. Her love for Noah held depths I underestimated. A devotion that could’ve been misconstrued as selflessness in hopes of gaining the respect and trust of the man she loved. Had I not known Nadine as I did, I would’ve been convinced of her altruism.

  “I’ll give you advice,” Nadine gave her word. “Just leave her alone.”

  I delayed in my actions on my return to Nadine.

  “I know what Keaton’s problem is.” Nadine fumbled with her fingers and rocked in a nervous manner on her ashen and bare heels. “You don’t get it. You think Noah’s worse because he beat her. But that’s not how her mind works. When he broke her virginity and made love to her for the first time, it screwed with her head. Sex was—is a trigger for her. By raping her—and yes, that’s what you did, because I’m sure in your fucked-up mind you think you didn’t or probably don’t think something like that exists—you made yourself out to be no better than Gregory.”

  I dropped my chin to my chest, and kept my eyes steady on her. “Did my brother experience the same when he was regulated? Is it why it changed him?”

  “Regulated?” Her eyelashes batted rapidly, blurring bright orbs set starkly against her pale skin. “What the hell are you talking about? How would I know? It’s never happened to me.” In the passing seconds of silence, a glimpse of empathy bloomed inside her eyes. Empathy that could only have been shown by someone who could identify with my brother.

  “Nadine? Do you share something in common with my brother? Do you understand because it happened to you?”

  “I don’t know.” Her voice became shrill, her features firmed, plastering the cracks in her persona. “But I bet having it happen to you makes you feel like you’re worthless. Maybe a whole lot of other bad things. Either way, you broke any chance of her feeling something for you when you did that. The abuse, the embarrassment, she could’ve forgiven all that. But when you did what you did…you screwed it all up.”