The Sinners of Saint Amos: The Full 3-book Boxset Read online

  Then he uses the belt to keep them in place, tightening the buckle at the back of her neck.

  Apollo comes back to the group, face forlorn. “I broke my camera,” he whines.

  “I’ll buy you a new one,” I say, without looking away from Trinity.

  “Hmm,” Cassius murmurs as he presses himself against Trinity. “Do we have to leave right now, Boss? Couldn’t we have a little fun with her first?”

  “Cut it out,” I snap.

  Astronauts can see his hard-on from the fucking moon. I cock my head toward him, making eye contact with Reuben. “Thought I told you to keep an eye on him?”

  For once, Reuben doesn’t stay quiet. He shrugs. “We were waiting for you.”

  The fuck?

  The last thing I need is Reuben crushing on this chick. She’s already done possibly irreparable damage to our brotherhood—which I’ll make her pay dearly for—but this is a knock we don’t need.

  Apollo comes closer, his broken camera dangling from his hand. He starts studying Trinity like he’s never seen a girl before and then steps back with a grimace. “Can we at least clean her up before we go? She really needs a shower.”

  Trinity widens her eyes at him.

  Was that what I was smelling? My nose wrinkles before I can stop myself.

  “Yeah. Just a quick wash,” Cass murmurs close to my ear.

  When did he come up behind me? He’s got cat’s feet sometimes, the evil shit.

  Trinity shrieks behind the gag and yanks herself free. I wasn’t holding onto her all that tight—where the fuck would she go, anyway? The door’s locked.

  She stumbles, probably not expecting to get free so easily, and goes to her knees with a muffled yelp.

  “Don’t you wanna see what’s under there?” Cass is right against me now, whispering into my ear like the fucking devil himself. Another inch, and his dick will be poking my leg.

  I shove my shoulder back, pushing him away. “That’s not why we’re here.”

  Trinity scrambles up, spinning around to glare at Cass and me. She frowns furiously at us as she works to loosen the belt with her bound hands.

  I’d caught a glimpse of her ass when Miriam was giving her those lashes yesterday afternoon. It took every ounce of self-control I could muster not to get more than a semi. Especially when her sweet howls of pain echoed around me. When I’d taken her to my room after I’d specifically not lit a candle. But it hadn’t been fully dark yet so I’d still gotten a fantastic view of her bruised ass when I’d put on the lotion.

  I’d had just as much difficulty stopping myself from squeezing that ass. From slipping off my clothes and having her bare skin flush with mine.

  “It’s two in the fucking morning,” Cass says. He’s moved closer again. “No one’s gonna come.”

  Before Trinity can loosen the belt, Reuben steps up behind her. He slides an arm around her waist and snags the cuffs, pulling her hands away. She freezes, eyes wide and sparkling with fear. He hooks a finger into the cable ties and shifts his grip so he’s keeping her close with the same arm.

  “We can’t, Cass,” I say in a low voice. “It’s…”

  Wrong.

  Stupid.

  Juvenile.

  Reuben strokes her neck. At least, that’s what I think he’s doing. I lean back a little.

  What the fuck?

  He tugs, and a red rosary slips out from behind Trinity’s vest. He nestles it carefully between her breasts.

  Fuck, that’s his rosary, isn’t it? He does like her.

  This is the last thing we need.

  But who the fuck am I to deny us the things we so desperately need?

  “You have five minutes.”

  Cassius darts past me, slapping Apollo’s shoulder as he passes. “Rube, bring her!”

  Trinity’s eyes are bugging out of her head. She’d been keeping perfectly still while Reuben rearranged her jewelry, like a small fluffy animal trying to camouflage itself from a predator.

  Only one problem.

  There are four of us, and only one of her.

  She can’t hide. She can’t even run.

  She’ll have to endure it. Which could prove to be a dear lesson for her.

  We’ve had many such lessons and they’ve only made us stronger.

  We’d be making her stronger too.

  She catches my eye, and her skin pales.

  Why?

  I guess it’s my smile.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Trinity

  This can’t be happening.

  It’s not real.

  This is all just another prank. They’re going to shove me under the showerhead, maybe wet my hair. A little roughhousing. That’s it.

  They wouldn’t dare.

  Would they?

  A shiver chases through me, spilling goosebumps over my skin and hardening my nipples under my thin vest. Reuben tosses me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, knocking the air from my lungs and leaving me momentarily stunned.

  By the time I recover, I’m already in the shower cubicle. The shower’s already on, steam churning into the air.

  Too hot. It’s too fucking hot!

  Someone’s chuckling under their breath. It’s fucking terrifying.

  I wriggle and scream into my gag as loud as I can when Reuben grabs my hips and sets me back on my feet. When I try to run, Zachary catches me with an arm and shoves me back. Cass grabs my cuffs and reels me in like a fish.

  Water hits my hands, then my arms. It’s not as hot as I’d thought, but it’s warmer than I like. I struggle furiously, but that makes the plastic ties cut into my wrists.

  That shit hurts, so I stop.

  I could vault the wall again, but what would that help? I saw Zachary lock the door. The key is in the pocket of his slacks and—

  I peek around at the sound of a belt buckle. Zachary unhooks his belt. His penetrating green eyes catching mine when he looks up.

  This is real. This is happening. They don’t give a fuck about the consequences.

  My knees sag.

  I’d have landed on my ass if Cassius hadn’t caught my elbow and steadied me. “Aw…You done fighting?” he asks. “I was enjoying that.”

  “She knows it will be over sooner if she doesn’t resist,” Zachary says as he steps out of his shoes. He slips his shirt over the top of his head without bothering to undo the buttons.

  There’s a tattoo on his chest.

  A coiling serpent. Fangs bared, ready to strike.

  Oh my fucking God.

  He steps out of his pants, baring white cotton boxers as plain as my own underwear.

  Reuben steps away, turns his back, and slips off his own shirt.

  This isn’t happening.

  I shriek into my gag and try to jerk free from Cassius. Pain slices through my wrists, and a tiny rivulet of blood races down my arm. Water hits it, turning it pink and then invisible in a flash.

  Apollo hangs back. He’s still chuckling, but he seems content to stand back while they…

  Wash me?

  Shame bursts through me. My chest tightens painfully.

  “You’re hurting her,” Reuben says.

  My eyes fly back to him. I’d been watching Apollo, trying to plead with him. He doesn’t seem willing to participate, so it’s worth a shot, right?

  But staring at him means I can’t keep an eye on the other three.

  An arm slips around my chest. Cassius drags me against him and a hard length presses into the small of my back.

  I don’t want to look, but I have to. Else how will I spot my chance at escape?

  Zachary’s still smiling. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him look anything other than dead serious. “Take off the gag. We don’t want to waterboard her.”

  Expert fingers manipulate the buckle at the back of my neck. The belt slips loose before he plucks it away. I spit out my underwear and haul in a sweet breath.

  Relief only lasts a second.

 
Cassius pushes me forward. Water cascades over my head.

  Blinded by the water, with Cassius’s arm still securely around my waist, I don’t stand a chance.

  I can dimly make out Zachary with his dark smudge of a tattoo. He grabs a bar of soap and lathers it in his hands as he moves closer.

  Cassius shoves me forward. My bound hands stick out on instinct, slamming into Zachary’s chest. I puncture him with my nails, but he doesn’t even flinch.

  While I’m still spitting water out of my mouth, he shoves his hands under my vest and starts washing me.

  I gasp, twisting to try and get away from his hands. But they’re everywhere—my stomach, my breasts, my armpits, my back.

  That’s when Reuben steps up to us. He’s easily an inch taller than Zachary, but he doesn’t push him aside. Instead, he grabs the back of my neck and my arm, holding me still for Zachary.

  “Please,” I whisper, forcing myself to look at Zachary.

  When we lock eyes, an electrical current surges through me. There’s no sympathy in his eyes. Not even a trace of pity. He’s enjoying this.

  Is it my fear or my humiliation that gets him hard?

  “You had your chance,” he says. “You could have been out of here this morning already.”

  I open my mouth to tell him I’ll leave, but then Cassius turns off the shower. There’s a moment’s crystallized silence, broken only by the plink of a water drop hitting the wet tiles.

  Zachary tilts his head a little, daring me to speak. When I say nothing, he slides a hand over my breast and squeezes.

  Hard.

  I suppress a gasp, and will my eyes to stay on his.

  Begging did nothing. Neither did threatening to rat on them. But maybe showing them I still have a backbone will make them think twice about taking this too far.

  Zachary’s eyes narrow.

  He doesn’t like that I’m defying him.

  Another hand grazes up the back of my vest, tracing my spine. I break out in goosebumps, my nipples going hard again.

  Terror dulls into something else.

  He was right—the less I struggle, the faster this will go.

  My breath hitches when the hand sliding down my back slips behind my underwear. Soaked from the shower, everything clings to me. I grimace when Cassius tugs down my wet underwear to my knees.

  Hot breath tickles my ear. “Who’d have thought you’d be such a dirty girl?” Cassius asks. “You should be thanking us, you know? Working so hard to get you clean.”

  Reuben releases me. Maybe it’s because I’m standing still now. Maybe it’s because he knows—like I do—that there’s no chance of me escaping again. “We can protect you,” he says, making absolutely zero fucking sense.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Cassius snaps. He moves back a little, and his voice changes direction. “Why don’t you go stand there by Apollo?”

  I shiver at the sudden loss of heat. Without the shower on, the air is cooling rapidly. Reuben steps back, but he doesn’t leave.

  Zachary starts washing me again. The sensation of his soapy hands gliding over my skin makes my insides squirm.

  It should be in fear, in revulsion, in anger.

  But something else is blooming inside me. Something hot and tingly. It builds deep between my legs like a well that’s slowly filling up with rainwater.

  Zachary must sense something, because his smile fades. “She’s clean enough.” His eyes flicker away from mine. “Let’s rinse her.”

  Cassius does as Zachary commands.

  I flinch when hot water hits my back and then gasp when Cassius’s hand slides down my tender ass and slips between my legs.

  I lift onto my toes.

  Now the only sound is the thumping water.

  He cups my pussy.

  Like an animal catching scent of its prey, Zachary’s nostrils flare. His gaze skims down my body, settling on the hand between my legs.

  His voice is low and so, so deep. “Cass…don’t.”

  Cassius turns off the water, but he keeps his hand where it is. “I want to know if you’re wet for us,” he murmurs into my ear.

  My eyes flutter as I try to stand even taller. My legs start shaking. I worm my fingers up Zachary’s chest. Grabbing onto his shoulder, I tighten my grip until he looks at me.

  I blink furiously, lick my lips, and mouth, “Please,” at him.

  That was the wrong thing to say.

  “Well?” he murmurs, his breath stirring against my wet skin. His voracious eyes flicker up to Cassius. “Is she?”

  Cassius groans like he’s in pain. There’s the unmistakable sound of wet fabric sliding against skin. His warm, hard cock presses against my thigh.

  I whimper and dig my nails into Zachary’s shoulder muscles. “Don’t.” The word comes out like a bullet. “Don’t do this.”

  The hand between my leg clenches. I gasp and stagger forward until I’m flush with Zachary’s hot, dry skin. The move should have dislodged Cassius’s hand, but he moves with me.

  Now I’m sandwiched between him and Zachary.

  I’ve been appealing to the wrong person. He’s obviously in charge, but it’s as if he’s been derailed.

  Or maybe he’s okay with this.

  The thought makes me sick to my stomach.

  So why are there electric tingles skating over my skin?

  Is it because I’ve never had a hard body pressed against mine, never mind two? Because I’ve never looked up into eyes as intensely hungry as Zachary’s? Or had a man touch me the way Cassius is touching me now?

  In a normal situation, I’d have dated any of these guys in a heartbeat.

  But normal isn’t what got me to Saint Amos.

  In this room, normal isn’t a part of anyone’s vocabulary.

  We’re all fucked in the head. I should be repelled by these men, but their presence is like a magnet to my leaden heart.

  The wickedness of this sick, twisted moment feels so fucking right.

  My eyelids grow heavy. I lean in, fully expecting Zachary to close the distance and kiss me.

  A hand slithers over my ass and wedges between Cassius and me.

  And then squeezes.

  I yelp with pain. My eyes fly open.

  Grim desire gleams in Zachary’s eyes, now so dark green they could be black. His lips part as if he wants to say something.

  Someone rattles the bathroom door.

  I jump. Everyone spins to face the door.

  Another rattle, this one harder than the last.

  Then quiet.

  Behind me, another drop of water plinks onto the tiles.

  “Time to go,” Zachary says.

  “Yeah, no shit.” Cassius withdraws, leaving me stranded on the tiles.

  I start shivering. Reuben happens to glance at me as he slips his shirt over his head. He moves up beside me and drapes the towel I brought with me over my shoulders.

  “How we gonna leave without someone seeing?” Apollo asks, hugging himself as he looks from me to Zachary.

  “One at a time.” Zachary looks back at me, and then his eyes move to Reuben.

  “Bring her.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Zac

  My mind’s reeling. I don’t know who rattled the door, but thank fuck they did. Shit was about to get out of hand, and in a big way.

  I was so close to losing control, I can still taste mint in my mouth. That would always happen back then when I lost myself in the moment.

  We all found ways to deal with the shit we went through. I absorbed everything like a sponge. But there was no one to squeeze me out. That shit stayed inside me and festered into something dark and perverse.

  I thought I had a handle on it.

  Fuck, I think we all thought that until this girl arrived, all pure and innocent and shit.

  Like dropping a mouse into a pit of hungry vipers.

  “What are you waiting for?” I click my fingers. “Bring her.”

  Reuben blinks like he’s coming o
ut of a trance. Then he scoops up Trinity and throws her over his shoulder.

  I take my keys out of my pocket and toss them to Apollo. “Make sure the coast is clear.”

  He nods and hustles outside with his broken camera under his arm, leaving the door to swing closed behind him. I happen to look at Cass, and we lock eyes for a moment. I don’t expect guilt or remorse. Most of us aren’t capable of expressing those emotions anymore. What I don’t expect is the brief flash of uncertainty.

  I give Apollo a few seconds to check the hallway, and then beckon the guys after me as I make for the door.

  We don’t encounter anyone else on our way to the exit. Whoever had tried to enter the bathroom had disappeared. Maybe one of the younger guys had wet their bed or something. That kind of shit happens a lot around here.

  Apollo’s waiting for us at the door leading to the northern grounds. Soon as I give him a nod, he runs to the crypt.

  I wait a few seconds, and then slap Reuben on the shoulder not currently occupied by the bound and gagged girl we’d almost fucked in the showers.

  Trinity lifts her head anyway and glares amber daggers at me.

  Fuck, but she’s beautiful, even with Reuben’s belt between her teeth. Probably especially because she’s fucking gagged.

  In class she’d been meek and submissive—the perfect prey. But she showed me her teeth tonight, if only for a moment. It had roused the animal in all of us. Self-control, morals, revenge—for a few minutes nothing existed except our new toy.

  Will I ever get to play with her again?

  I grab her chin and brush her skin with my thumb.

  Not a chance. It’s too easy to lose control around her. Too easy to make a mistake. We haven’t gotten this far for someone like her to fuck this all up.

  Reuben breaks that brief contact as he steps forward and breaks into a trot. Cass and I stay behind, waiting for him to get clear.

  “Ever wonder what’ll happen when Rube gets mad?” Cassius murmurs as he squeezes into the doorway beside me. “I mean like really, really mad?”

  “Like when he comes face to face with his Ghost?”

  Of course I’ve wondered. That imaginary scene of chaotic violence has been the focus of some of my best jerk-off sessions.