Page 54 of Where Sinners Repent

Roxy

Each step I take crunches gravel beneath my boots. My ponytail swings as I stride ahead, my determination refusing to waver. Dressed in all black, long sleeves to cover my raw wrists, I’m dressed to kill. Not an ounce of fear remains inside of me. Just hot rage, flooding my veins.

I shove the peeling door out of my way, barely noticing it crash against the wall. There could be one person in here or a hundred. I don’t care.

My eyes laser in on the door Maddy came out of last night.

And that’s where I go.

“Roxy?” Leon calls, but I ignore him.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I go up and up, all the way to the penthouse apartment. I love my best friend. I really do.

But, boy, do I have a bone to pick with her.

A bone in the shape of two deranged fucking twins.

When I woke up this morning, I thought I had dreamt it all. The cross. The toys. The piercings.

My mind was just grasping consciousness while I stretched in the massive bed, when I felt it. The throb of a new piercing. I stared at the bars for a solid minute, with an unhinged jaw and wide eyes. And then I screamed.

Finally, their door comes into view. I don’t pause to knock, shoving the handle down and whipping the thing open. My feet stumble for a second, not really expecting it to be unlocked.

Two pairs of eyes blink at me from the kitchen. Stormy blue ones and wide brown ones.

“What the hell,” Maddy clutches her chest.

Ash leans against a kitchen counter, wearing only grey tracksuit pants, the full glory of the president on full display, tattoos and all.

Maddy sits on a stool at the kitchen island, wearing the shirt he must’ve lost.

She opens her mouth to speak again, but I cut her off.

“When was anyone going to tell me that there are two of them?” I seethe, hands finding my hips.

A line forms between Maddy’s brows.

My glare turns to Ash, who has gone back to whatever sizzles in the pan, holding a spatula, dimples popping in his cheeks.

“What do you mean?” Maddy slips off her chair and walks over to me.

It’s hard to stay angry looking at her with messy blonde hair sticking up every which way and a shirt that swallows her whole.

But no. I am angry.

“Oh, just the demonic twins under your employ,” I bite out. Ash’s head cocks in my direction at my tone, a warning look in his eyes. I swallow, trying to think of what to say or how to word it. “I thought I was... but it was both.”

I’m not making sense. Maddy’s face screws up in obvious confusion.

Ash snorts loudly, throwing his head back, biting his lip. We both turn in his direction, watching him try and fail miserably at holding himself together. His shoulders shake, and finally, his loud laugh slips out.

“I’m sorry,” he wheezes when Maddy glares at him. My face heats up , and I grit my teeth together. “Please don’t tell me you fucked both of them, thinking they were the same person.”

Maddy spins back to me, her mouth gaping.

The look on my face must be answer enough, because Ash falls apart, clutching his stomach.

The corner of Maddy’s lip twitches, and I narrow my eyes on her. “Don’t you dare.”