Madness: Part 2 – Chapter 39

I enter the restaurant and see my friends sitting in a booth. I fall into it next to Hannah.

They are already mid-conversation, and I stare at the salt and pepper on the table. My mind is still on Haidyn and what we did last night. He used my laptop against me and then took it with him when he left. He deleted the email he threatened me with, but now what?

I was supposed to be saving myself for marriage, and he just took it. My mother promised my virginity to a Lord. What does that mean for me now? Should I have taken my chances with the Lords at the cathedral? They would have just lined up to fuck me too.

They did tell me to give Haidyn whatever he wanted. So maybe my mother will understand that my assignment is more important than my future husband. I mean, I’m supposed to be high up. Not just because I marry someone who is important but because I am important.

“Earth to Anna?”

I blink, looking up at Hannah, and she’s rubbing her huge belly. They didn’t know I was going out of town. When I woke up this morning, I needed to get out of my house, so I called both of them up because it had been too long since I saw them. “What?” I ask.

She laughs softly. “Where have you been?”

I don’t have an answer to that. Haidyn has kept my mind occupied, so I didn’t think to come up with answers to questions they may ask me. “What do you all know about the Spade brothers?” I decide on.

They both go silent, and Hannah’s smile drops off her face. She leans forward, lowering her voice as if someone is listening to our conversation. Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised. “Stay away from them.”

It just makes me more interested in what she knows. “I don’t know them.” I shrug, playing it off. “I overheard my mother talking about them the other day, and it got me curious,” I lie.

“Do you remember those women who went missing like four years ago?” Margaret asks.

I frown but vaguely remember. “Not really.”

“Not this again.” Hannah rolls her eyes.

“What about them?” I ask.

Margaret looks over at me. “Well, the rumor was that one of the Spade brothers was the one kidnapping and killing them.”

I get a sickening feeling in my gut. “Which one?”

“Adam,” she answers.

I frown. “Who is Adam?” All I know of is Saint, Kashton, and Haidyn.

“They say that’s why he ran.” She takes a sip of her drink, ignoring my previous question.

Hannah picks up her cell to read a text when it beeps, alerting her of an incoming text. “Lords don’t run because they kill someone.” She snorts. “Otherwise, he would have never made it as far as he did in our world.”

“He ran because he fucked up, and the police were on to him,” Margaret argues.

“The Lords are above the law.” Hannah laughs, typing away a response. “Trust me, he didn’t run.” She places her cell down and looks at Margaret. “He was killed by another Lord, and they made up some shit story to cover it up because he was a Spade brother.”

“Maybe his brothers fucked him over, and he’s at Carnage but as a prisoner,” Margaret offers.

“Who is Adam?” I ask again, needing to know who the fuck this missing Spade brother is.

Hannah looks at me. “Adam Price. His sister was Saint’s chosen.”

“Ashtyn?” I question. “She had a brother?” There were four guys in that one picture that the Lords sent me before I started my initiation. I didn’t pay that much attention to it, though. Maybe he’s the fourth guy. I don’t remember finding anything about her having a brother while doing research on Haidyn, but then again, if the Lords took care of him, they could have wiped his existence.

“A twin,” Hannah corrects me.

“I think he killed her too.” Margaret nods. “He was going down for kidnapping and killing all those women, and his sister caught him, so he got rid of her and their mother. That’s why I think Adam is a prisoner at Carnage.” Hannah snorts, thinking Margaret’s theory is absurd. “Because the brothers were obsessed with Ashtyn. Especially Saint. When Adam got rid of her, they took him prisoner.”

I sit back and nibble on my inner cheek. Well, I know their theories are not true because I’ve seen Ashtyn alive and well. Not sure about the Adam part, but he sure as fuck didn’t kill his sister.

“Do you remember Sierra Ronan?” Margaret looks at me.

“The name sounds familiar,” I say, but I can’t place it.

“She was Haidyn’s chosen their senior year. The word was she hated Ashtyn because she was sleeping with both Haidyn and Kashton, and when Haidyn found out, he shared his chosen with another Lord.”

Now I remember where I heard it from—the email the Lords sent me with Haidyn’s information.

“Hooke,” Hannah offers, nodding. “It all went down one night at the house of Lords.”

I was never allowed to go to the house of Lords, but rumors traveled all over Barrington about what went on there. My mother said it was no place for someone like me to hang out. I never really understood what she meant, considering we were part of that world. I just figured she wanted me to stay away from temptation. All they ever said went down at the house of Lords were orgies. Lords passing girls around like joints at a party. What she doesn’t understand is that happens anywhere you go these days. But it wouldn’t have mattered if I was able to go there or not, I wasn’t in the same grade as the Spade brothers.

“Hooke fucked her mouth right there in front of everyone while he sat on the couch,” Margaret adds.

“What ever happened to her?” Hannah wonders.

Margaret shrugs. “No clue.”

I sit back in my seat and let out a huff. That doesn’t really answer anything that I was wondering about, but it does tell me that Ashtyn being alive is not public knowledge, and she has a twin brother who is still MIA.

“Mom?” I call out, entering my childhood home. “Mother?”

“I’m in here, darling,” she answers faintly down the hall. I enter Bill’s office to see her going through some papers on his desk. Her best friend is standing next to her, but I ignore Anne. I came here for a reason. “I’d love to chat, dear, but me and Bill have plans with friends.” She pauses and looks up at me frowning. “When did you get back from your vacation?”

“Why am I not married yet?” I get to the point, ignoring her question.

I forgot I’m supposed to still be away. Which also reminds me that I need to touch base with Wesley. He has a key to my house. Wouldn’t that be humiliating if he walked in, and I was on all fours while Haidyn fucked my ass?

She drops the papers and stands to her full height. “Anna⁠—”

“I want to know.” I interrupt her. I’m not a child anymore. I deserve to know where my life is going that she is planning for me.

Anne clears her throat, and my mom looks at her. It’s as if they’ve had this conversation and her friend warned her, I’d one day have questions.

My mother sighs. “It’s not black and white. It never is with the Lords. When I feel you’re ready, I’ll let you know.”

Her answer pisses me off. I’ve proven to her over the past few years that I can make it in our world. Why keep my future a secret from me? “I had sex,” I tell her. She’s going to find out eventually when I’m handed to my Lord, and he expects me to be a virgin.

“What do you mean you had sex?” she asks slowly.

“Haidyn fucked me⁠—”

She slaps me across the face, cutting me off. My head whips to the side, and I gasp at the sting on my cheek. She’s never hit me before. “Do you understand what you’ve done?” she screeches.

“The Lords told me to do whatever he wants,” I rush out, the tears stinging my eyes from the lingering pain.

“They did?” she asks skeptically.

“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth, rubbing my cheek.

“Interesting. I’ll call Dr. Lennon and have you put on birth control immediately. In the meantime, I’ll have Sally get you the morning after pill.” She picks up my stepfather’s phone on his desk and begins to dial when I speak.

“I’m already on it.”

She eyes me up and down with her hand paused on the phone. “How?”

“He had Gavin put me on the shot.”

“Well…that’s good at least.” She hangs up the phone and runs a hand over her perfectly curled hair. Not really touching it, more of a nervous habit. “I mean it’s not really a concern I guess since he wouldn’t want to knock you up.”

The way she says it makes me want to ask why not, but I don’t want her to think I’m trying to get pregnant, so I word it carefully. “Lords need to reproduce.” I mean, the Spade brothers are out of Barrington. They should have already settled down and had two or three kids by now. But the email the Lords sent me didn’t show him having a Lady. It had said denied. Do they know something that I don’t? If he did kill their fathers, is that his punishment? Not to get to have children?

“They were all going to breed with Ashtyn.” Anne is the one who speaks.

I don’t like the way she says the word breed. “She’s dead,” I challenge. “One of them was her twin brother.” That I just found out at lunch. “So…not all of them. Plus, even if she didn’t have one with her twin, that would end up making them incest down the line. If she had a girl with one and a boy with another, and those two got together when they were supposed to take over,” I blabber, trying to do the math in my head.

Anne laughs. “There are ways to control the sex of the children. If the three Spade brothers each knocked her up with girls, then they would be given to high-ranking Lords after graduation. A new line of Spade brothers would be brought into Carnage to take over.” She waves her hand in the air.

“But none of them have kids now.” I dig.

“Of course not. Things changed for them when Ash and her brother, Adam, disappeared on them. Their fathers were killed, and their rules…were bent,” Anne states.

I frown, not knowing what she means by that but not asking any further. I’ve heard enough for one day, and my face now throbs. I want a bottle of wine and bed. I look at my mother who stands silently next to her friend. “You still haven’t answered my question on who I’m supposed to marry.” I circle back around to that. I’m not leaving until I get an answer.

“I don’t know⁠—”

“Bullshit!” I shout.

She goes to slap me again, but a hand wraps around her wrist, stopping her. “Give us the room,” my stepfather demands.

“Bill—”

“Now,” he barks, making her jump. I’ve never seen him raise his voice to her before.

“We need to leave in ten.” With that, she huffs and rushes out with her best friend, slamming the door behind her.

He walks over to his desk that sits in front of the large floor-to-ceiling windows and lights up a cigar. Then he pours two glasses of brandy, offering me one. I shake my head, mumbling, “No thanks.”

He nods and sets it on his desk. “A Lord wakes up every day prepared for it to be his last.”

I frown. “Meaning?”

“Meaning your father had strict instructions left for me when I was gifted your mother.”

I swallow nervously. “What…what were they?” Bill and I get along, but we’ve never been close, and we sure as fuck have never spoken about my future or my father.

“You were to marry a Lord by the name of Winston Garvey.”

Annabelle Garvey…I don’t love it. “When?” I ask, not really sure I want to know. Once you have a date, the clock starts ticking. It makes me think of Haidyn’s hourglass that he always seems to have with him.

“Well, by your father’s orders, over a year ago.”

I frown. “Then why haven’t we been forced to wed?” Maybe the Lord is refusing me. There are cases when those assigned a Lady end up picking someone else.

“He’s not available as of right now.”

“I don’t understand.” Dear God, I hope he’s not seventy years old and married, and they’re just waiting for his wife to die first. I never stopped and took the time to think that he wouldn’t be around my age.

He sighs, taking a puff from his cigar. “I keep in touch with his father…We play golf together.”

I stay silent because I’m not sure why that’s important.

“But he recently got into some trouble and well…” His eyes meet mine. “He’s currently away.”

“By away, you mean backpacking through Europe, right?” I joke, but he doesn’t laugh. He just stares up at me, and I run a hand through my hair. I’m fucking tired, my body sore as fuck, and I don’t know if I should scream or drink myself into a coma. “You said we were supposed to get married a year ago, but you just said he’s currently away. Is he on an assignment?” Lords start doing assignments after they graduate from Barrington, so an assignment makes sense. Some take a long time to complete, depending on what they have to do. Case in point—my current situation in life. Who knows when mine will be completed.

“Think something more permanent,” he answers.

The way he says it makes my stomach drop. I stand, walking to his desk. “You mean he’s at Carnage.”

He says nothing.

“But Carnage is like death row. You don’t get taken to Carnage and then released, so…I just never get married?”

“You don’t need a Lord to be powerful, Anna.” His eyes drop to glance between my legs, and I take a step back from his desk nervously.

“You overheard our fight.” It’s not a question. He knows I’m no longer a virgin. Great!

“Your conversation, yes.”

I snort. That was not a conversation. “She’s stubborn.”

“She wants what’s best for you,” he counters and stands from his desk. “Your mother knows where you belong in our world, and she wants to make sure you’re given every opportunity to get there.”

My eyes widen. “Wait. Are you saying the reason my assignment is Haidyn is because my future Lord is a prisoner there? My mother has something to do with it?” It would make sense. That’s why they want me on the inside, and they haven’t given me much to do when it comes to Haidyn. Maybe he’s just my in to their hell.

He shakes his head. “Your mother doesn’t have power over what you do and don’t do when it comes to initiations or assignments.”

“Then why Haidyn? Why Carnage? It has to be connected, right?” Finally, I feel like I’m getting a little bit of information, but it’s only leaving me with more questions.

Bill shrugs. “I can’t tell you that because no one knows why the Lords pick what they do for initiations or assignments. But I will say they always have a purpose.”

HAIDYN

I sit at my desk back at my house. I’ve been fidgety all day, so I went for a ride and worked out. When neither helped my sour mood, I found myself here, where I’ve been for the last three hours.

The papers that Adam gave me about the true identity of Charlotte and all the pictures with Ashtyn that I was given when in Vegas are burning in the fireplace to my left. Saint knows where I live, which means it won’t be long before Kashton shows up at my door as well. I had to destroy them. I don’t want anyone able to find a paper trail that will lead to who she really is.

The hourglass sits in front of me on the wooden surface, the sand running through the center to fill up the bottom. It’s a reminder that time never stops. No matter what you can control, time isn’t one of them.

I have Charlotte pulled up on my monitor. She lies in her bed like every other night, naked. The clock on my screen shows it’s a quarter to five in the morning. She’s been tossing and turning all night. I’m keeping my girl awake.

She’s frustrated and confused. Good. I want her second-guessing everything—even her existence.

I took the one thing she was supposed to be holding on to. Now what? Does she no longer matter? Will her Lord reject her? I want her to think that her future is no longer what she thought it would be.

I’m taking over everything in her life, including her body and mind. I own her. I’ve made her mine, and she will remain that way until I toss her to the side like a used-up whore that no respectable Lord will want. Which, if I have my way, will be years down the road. Why would I hand over something I’ve wanted for so long?

She’s had my name branded on her ass for all but a week, and I’ve already taken over her life. I can tell I’m always on her mind. She even watches over her shoulder as if waiting for me to come out of the shadows, tie her down, and fuck her. Make her my dirty little whore who begs in the sweetest way for me to use her.

I love it. Precious and innocent Annabelle to needy slut Charlotte.

She lets out a moan, rolls over, and gives me her back on the monitor.

My eyes drop to the hourglass to see it’s run out of time, and I flip it over. Then I pick up my cell, open my messages, and send a picture to her phone. Setting it down, I hear hers go off, and she huffs. Rolling over, she picks it up off her nightstand, and the light from the screen shines on her pretty face.

Her breathing picks up, and her nipples go hard when she sees what I sent her.

It’s of her on her hands and knees. The open gag is shoved into her drooling mouth, and I’m behind her with my cock in her bloody cunt. Taking the one thing she had left to offer to our world.

Her face tightens, and she sits up, tossing her phone across the room. She lies back down, grabs a pillow, and places it over her head, letting out a muffled scream.

I smile to myself. Get frustrated, doll face. It just furthers my point that I own you.

My cell rings, and I pick it up to see it’s an UNKNOWN number. I mute my computer and stand, turning to face the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the woods. “Hello?”

“Spade,” the voice says into my ear. “That guy you’re looking for was here in Vegas last night.”

My teeth grind. “Then why are you just now calling me?”

“I didn’t see him. We had an…issue this evening, and I had to check the cameras. The man in the picture you showed us was in the video.”

“Was he involved?” I inquire.

“No. Just a guest walking through. I watched some other surveillance, and he was here for two hours. Played some blackjack and roulette.”

“Alone?”

“Nope. He had a woman with him. But by the looks of her, I’d say he was paying for her time if you know what I mean.”

I do. Well, that doesn’t give me much to go on. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“I’ll forward you the surveillance. Just in case you can place the woman he’s with, but other than that, I don’t have anything to give you.”

I wasn’t going to ask for it, so I’m glad he offered. I know the Mason brothers aren’t going to give more than they think you need. “Thanks, man. I owe you.”

“Yes, you do.” He hangs up, and I return to my screen.

Charlotte is no longer in bed. Instead, she stands in the kitchen with an open bottle of wine and a full glass. She stares down at her cell, looking at the picture of us I sent her as she absentmindedly pets Muffin, who lies sprawled out on the marble counter.

My cell informs me of an incoming email from the Mason brothers. I flip the hourglass over before I open it up.