Taming Seraphine

SERAPHINE

Leroi glowers at my gun, his face a mask of fury. I walk toward the door, hoping there are enough bullets to get rid of the threat.

“Seraphine,” he hisses. “Stay away from the door.”

“Who is she?” I ask.

“Nobody,” he growls.

“Leroi, let me in,” the woman whines. “We have to talk.”

“Stay.” He holds out his palm, like I’m his dog.

I stop in the middle of the living room, my breaths shallowing. When he motions for me to stand out of the way, my jaw tenses. The only reason I’m obeying him is because he’s going to help me find Gabriel. Stepping aside, I make a promise to myself to stay calm, at least until he’s helped me get what I want.

“Take your finger off the camera lens,” Leroi says, already sounding tired of her.

A moment later, he glances down at his phone, and some of the tension in his shoulders eases. His features are less murderous when he turns to me and asks, “She’s alone. Can I bring her inside?”

My lips part with a protest, so he adds, “I could warn her against returning in the hallway, but she could have someone hiding in the stairwell. Let me drag her in.”

I nod.

“Go into your room. I don’t want anyone knowing about you until it’s safe.”

“You still haven’t answered my question,” I say. “Who is she?”

“Seraphine,” he growls. “Go to your room.”

A muscle in my jaw ticks. He talks to me as though I’m not capable of slitting his throat and watching him soak the sheets with his blood. It takes every effort to remind myself that I need him… for now. After he’s helped me find Gabriel and track down Mom’s rapists, I won’t let him be so commanding.

Leroi continues glaring until my fingers itch with the desire to carve out both his eyes with a rusty blade. Since he’s so stubborn, I’ll have to obey his orders. I walk back to my room, open the door, and step inside, but I don’t close it. Instead, I hold the pistol and peer through the crack.

He moves with surprising speed. Within a few short breaths, he’s opening the door, yanking her inside, slamming her against the wall, and snarling, “I told you never to come here.”

Rosalind and I are completely different. She’s a gorgeous, tall brunette with loose waves. She reminds me a little of Monica, the elegant therapist. The only difference is their makeup. That therapist wears hers light and natural, but Rosalind has deep red lipstick and smokey eyes. Compared to them, I look like a pasty little kid.

From the way she’s holding his shoulders instead of clawing at his face, I can tell they’re lovers. That, and the short red dress that displays miles of slender legs.

I swallow hard, my throat tightening. Is this his type? Tall, slender brunettes who show all their skin? I shrink against the door, my fingers tightening around the gun.

“Yes,” Rosalind says, her voice husky. “Just like that.”

She arches her back, pushing her ample breasts toward Leroi. One of her legs rises to hook around his hamstrings. My breath catches, and the pulse between my thighs pounds so hard that its vibrations reach my toenails.

Is this how Leroi likes to have sex?

His hand tightens around her neck. “What the fuck was so important that you would risk getting shot?”

Her features drop. “Wait—what?”

Leroi raises his gun to her temple. “First, I told you never to come here uninvited.” She whimpers as the gun slides down her cheek. “Then I told you never to return.” He runs the gun over her bottom lip, pulling it down, marking the barrel with her red lipstick. “And now I’m thinking the only way to make you listen is with a bullet.”

Her eyes widen, and her inflated chest rises and falls with panicked breaths. “Don’t shoot. I just came to say…”

“What?” he snarls.

Adrenaline courses through my veins, and all sensation rushes low in my belly. This side of Leroi is thrilling. He’s far more exciting like this than when he’s nagging me about cleaning my room. I grip the edge of the door and grind my clit into its wooden surface. Seeing Leroi in this light excites me in a way I never imagined.

Rosalind’s lips tremble, and my breaths quicken. I want him to make her open her mouth for the gun. I want to see her take its barrel down her throat before he pulls the trigger and paints the wall red with her blood.

“P-please,” she rasps. “You can’t hurt me. I’m pregnant.”

My jaw drops.

Leroi’s laugh is harsh. “Bullshit.”

“It’s true.” Mascara-streaked tears spill down her cheeks, making her look like a clown. “I took the test yesterday and another one this morning to make sure.”

Rosalind is an ugly crier, but I’m more concerned about this baby. If Leroi is about to become a father, he’ll drop everything to take care of the mother of his child. He isn’t like Dad or the other men I killed during my five years of captivity. If Leroi could show compassion for a stranger he found in a basement, then he would burn down the world to protect the woman carrying his baby.

My heart sinks into my stomach like an anchor, bringing up a throat full of bile. He won’t have time to help me.

“If what you say is true, then go back to one of the other men you’ve been screwing because the child you’re expecting isn’t mine.”

“It’s yours. There hasn’t been anyone else.”

“In that case, you should consult a priest.”

She hiccups. “What?”

“I had a vasectomy,” he snarls. “We used a condom and you have an implant under your skin.”

My chest fills with triumph, and I suck in a sharp breath. Leroi needs to end this stalker before she escalates.

Rosalind’s mouth opens and closes like a fish. “But⁠—”

“Get the hell out of my apartment,” he snarls. “Don’t come back unless you want the next time to be your last.”

Her gaze shifts over his shoulder, and we lock eyes. When she holds my gaze for a second too long, I bare my teeth. She sees Leroi as her property, the same way Dad acted like I owed him something for doting on me under false pretenses.

Leroi turns around to see what Rosalind is looking at, and I shut the door before he can notice that I’ve disobeyed another of his orders.

Pressing my ear to the gap in the wood, I eavesdrop on the rest of the conversation.

Rosalind’s voice is thick with tears when she says, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know how else you’d listen when you blocked me⁠—”

“Next time I see you anywhere near this building, your head will take a bullet,” Leroi says, his voice cold.

Rosalind fills the apartment with desperate sobs. I crack open the door half an inch to witness him throwing her out into the hallway. He slams the door and turns the lock, then picks up the phone.

“Carl,” he says into the receiver. “A dark-haired woman in a red dress is leaving the building. Make sure she never returns.”

The other person says something before Leroi hangs up.

I step out of my room, hoping he was talking to one of the clean-up crew. “Who’s Carl?”

His features sharpen. “I told you to stay in your room.”

“But she’s gone.”

His gaze drops to my hand. “I also told you there would be consequences if you lied to me about having more weapons.”

I glance down at the gun. “You said knives.”

Leroi bares his teeth. “Do you remember accepting the consequences of disobedience and being a brat?”

Blood drains from my face and gathers between my thighs, making my core tingle. Even my pulse dials up several notches. I sway on my feet, dizzy with excitement.

I didn’t think we’d get to use the toys so soon.