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“It’s my mistake.” Nicole’s voice was smooth and soothing. “I’ll confess to the Lieutenant. I’ll bring her to him right away.”
The man’s face was cold. “Tread carefully.”
“Yes, Pater,” Nicole said. To my relief, the man let go of me. Nicole wasted no time, hurrying me down the hallway.
“You’re going to be the death of me,” she hissed. She wore all black, her makeup lighter than before. She looked younger than I’d first pegged her. “You didn’t say you were a gift from a humble daughter. Remember? There are rules here. They keep us safe.”
I swallowed back my guilt at getting her in trouble and struggled to keep up. “You’re taking me to the Lieutenant?”
She turned a corner, and we stopped in front of a closed door. “Last chance to change your mind.”
I shook my head.
She knocked, and someone called, “Come in.”
Inside was a sitting room, filled with what looked like leftovers from a church yard sale: crucifixes in gold and marble and garish painted plastic, pillows with embroidered Bible verses and cheery little flowers. There was a fireplace in the center with a crackling fire. A man sat before it, examining us. “What have you brought?”
It was the man in black’s voice, just a hint of a Dutch accent in the way he pronouncedbrought. Unmasked, the Lieutenant was different than I’d pictured: older, in his fifties, with a thick blond mustache and full head of wheat-blond hair. The way he sat, spine straight as a rod, reminded me of a soldier or a Boy Scout.
Nicole’s demeanor had changed the moment we stepped into the room, her shoulders tightening, eyes cast to the man’s feet. “A lost girl,” she said, “who wants to learn her place.”
I blinked. The words rolled off her tongue as if rehearsed.
“Mrs. Shay Deroy.” The Lieutenant’s eyes scanned me. “Remind me where you found her?”
“At the Sparrow.”
He nodded. “Very good, Nicole. Keep this up, and it won’t be long now.” His eyes shifted back to me, and he raised an eyebrow. “A married woman a long way from home, found trolling the Sparrow. Whatever are you doing here?”
I swallowed. “I went to college here, years ago.” They would know that from the background check. “And now I’m moving back. A…friend recommended Tongue-Cut Sparrow. I found Nicole there, and she said this was a place for people who wanted something real.”
“And what does your husband think about that?”
“Nothing, because he doesn’t know.”
The fire crackled behind the Lieutenant’s head. “Why do you want something real?”
“Because I’ve done things I deserve to be punished for,” I said.
The Lieutenant watched me closely. “Most new members come for the parties.” I couldn’t tell if he was being serious, so I held my tongue. “It usually takes a lot of teaching before they can admit to what you’re saying.” He gave me a sly look. “What if I said you deserved to be punished simply for being born?”
I gathered my breath. “I’d say I’ve had that thought before.” I was an A+ student. Because of course I was cheating: Don had shown me the right answers years before.
The Lieutenant’s eyes flicked to Nicole. “She almost sounds like a true believer. A little bit like you. You’re willing to vouch?”
She looked at me, warning in her eyes. “Yes.” The word had teeth.
After a moment, the Lieutenant nodded. “Okay, then. Take off your clothes.”
I froze. “What?”
“I need to know I can trust you. And that you mean it. The price to enter is a gift you can’t take back.”
If I took my clothes off, they’d find my recording device.
The Lieutenant’s voice deepened. “Now.”
I slipped off my heels with shaking fingers, then unzipped my dress, letting it pool on the floor. Both Nicole and the Lieutenant watched, expressions greedy in the firelight.
