Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

LYLA

" T his is such a bad idea," I repeat as I rifle through the file cabinet, looking for the last name Hatt.

Neo looks over from his own file cabinet with a slick grin on his face. "What, you don't enjoy being back in the asylum, stupid girl? I thought you'd feel more at home here."

I purse my lips. "If either of us felt at home here, love, it would be you."

That earns me a snarl, and I grin, revitalized by the banter between him and me.

Another few moments go by, and then Neo lifts a file out. "Got it."

Closing the drawer before me, I sidle up next to him, shining my flashlight down as he opens the file.

There's a photo in the top left corner of it.

"Is that her?" I ask him.

He nods absently. "She's younger here, but yes, that's her."

I replay what he said he witnessed in my head, confused as to why she would be so comfortable watching her parents in such a manner. I can't figure it out for the life of me.

I know people have their kinks, but…

"It says here she was admitted by her mother," he reads.

"Patient presents with sexual deviance that began as a fixation with sexual gratification through hiding and watching parents during intercourse. The patient doesn't deny fixation when questioned and even seems prideful of her fascination. Parents were interviewed, and I found no evidence of the parents' involvement in the obsession. Further brain studies were recommended," Neo reads aloud in a hushed whisper.

"What the fuck?!"

He flicks his eyes over toward me. "There are many people in the world who have a sexual deviance, but this is…"

"You think this is from the poison they'd been feeding her?"

Neo shrugs.

"Well," I start, licking my lips, "when was she released? Why was she released?"

Neo flips toward the end, skimming his finger over the last words before Ada's release.

"Says here the mother came and got her."

"The same person who checked her in suddenly decided the child was fine and came to get her? That makes no sense."

"It does if you look at the date. The counselor was told on January 23 rd, 2019. She was released into her mother's care on January 24 th, 2019. "

"She knew the cops were coming. Which of them told the counselor?"

"Cecily," Neo recounts, closing the file and putting it back. They'll never know we were here unless the lingering presence of Neo Wade leaves a ghost behind to torment the place.

Which I could see happening.

"So they probably leaned on Cecily. She must've told them she told the counselor, and they were worried about how it would look with a daughter in the psych ward when the cops did eventually come."

Neo sighs. "I'm surprised they didn't kill the counselor. Most individuals with their kind of fucked-up mentality would do anything to preserve their lifestyle. Especially when they lose that gratification of caregiving if they're found guilty and locked away."

"Ada, is how old now?" I ask him as we sneak out of the window, which we jimmied open.

He holds me by my hips as he softly places me on the ground.

"She's twenty."

"The question now becomes who's the victim in all of this," I tell him as we skirt the fence line to find the hole we left behind for ourselves.

"I think it's obvious, though you are my stupid girl, aren't you?"

I crawl through the hole after Neo, popping up and dusting myself off with a scowl.

"It's not as cut and dry as you think, Neo."

"Why isn't it?" he asks, turning on me now that we're tucked away inside the tree line of a thickly wooded area.

My breathing hitches at the crazed look in his eyes. " Do you know something I don't? Were you not presented with the same evidence?"

Being on him with this case, as he calls it, doing things his way instead of mine, has been thrilling. He integrates himself to find the actual guilt in the case before striking like a snake toying with its dinner until he smells weakness.

But I've enjoyed most the feral look in his eye while he hunts. The Butcher is alive and well beneath his wicked flesh, and I love watching him reemerge.

He's been letting me shine for years, cleaning my blade after the bloodthirst is quenched and fucking me raw when it's not.

Now it's his time to rekindle his love for vengeance. His time to tamp that steadfast pang to maim. Until it rears its head once again.

"I asked you a fucking question, stupid girl." He backs me into the rough exterior of a tree, and I dig my nails into the craggy bark.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. It's deafening in here." I tap my temple as his hand cloaks my throat, his darkness almost palpable through the thrumming pulse inside.

He squeezes, and the edges of my vision blur as I smile.

"Were you given evidence I was not?"

I shake my head. "No, sir," I whisper.

He growls.

He loves it when I submit to him, even the slightest bit.

"Then what makes you say this case isn't cut and dry?"

"The fact that my gut is twinged with a feeling I can't shake," I get out as he gives me the space to do so, his hand opening to allow me to breathe.

His brows furrow. "And you trust this gut of yours?"

A wicked simper curls my lip upward. "It led me to you, madman. It told me to bend over that couch and open myself to you like a flower. To let you fuck that beautiful cock into me as deep as you could get it. To crawl to you until my knees were bloody."

His face dips toward mine, his forehead pressing into my own. "You know how to reel me back, don't you? You see the deranged, dark side of me, and your pretty fucking words are the lure you pull me back in with."

I lean forward as much as I can against his hold on my neck, trying my damnedest to kiss him. "Please," I beg.

My core is aching, and my knees are warbling. A spine-curling shiver makes its way through me as he acts as if he's going to kiss me, and then he pulls back.

"Bad girls don't get what they want," he teases, licking the seam of my lips, only to tighten his hand on my throat.

My body answers with panic flooding it as I thrash against him.

He stays steady, the need to kill floating on the surface of his eyes as he stares at me while I struggle.

There he is.

My Butcher.

"When I let you go, I want you to kneel at my feet. I want that pretty mouth of yours open and ready to take my cock inside it. No more words. No more bullshit. You suck your husband's cock like a good little whore, or I'll leave you in these woods to fucking rot."

His words liven something in me. Lunacy swirls in my mind, and my body only drums harder at the idea that he'd kill me and leave me for the scavengers.

This sick part of me is his creation, and I can't bring myself to hate it.

Even when I should.

He lets go of my throat, and I fight to breathe .

My knees quiver as I drop to them.

The forest floor is wet and cold, but I ignore the feeling against my flushed body as the wetness seeps into the knees of my jeans.

Opening my mouth as I grapple for air through my nose, I look up at my husband.

He steps into me, his hand coming down and grazing my face.

"You'll always be my stupid girl, headstrong. But when you submit to me…" He inhales a shaky breath that wavers even more on his exhale. "When you fall to your knees at my feet like a whore, my whore, it's fucking enchanting; mind-boggling."

His praise and pretty words rake my flesh as if they have sharp nails on the ends of their fingers, and I shake against them.

Letting my face go, he pulls his cock out of his jeans and strokes it in front of my face a few times. With one hand, he leans against the tree at my back; with the other, he strokes his beautiful length as it drips pre-cum from the head.

"You want some of what your husband offers?" he teases.

I nod, licking my lips as my mouth waters at the thought of his musky flavor rolling over my tastebuds.

"Your words!" he snarls down at me.

"I do. I want to taste your cum on my tongue. I want to suck you until it's leaking down my throat because my mouth is so full," I whisper raggedly.

He groans, stroking himself harder.

I lean forward, and he shakes his head. "Ah, ah, ah. Did I say that you could have my cock, stupid girl? "

"No, sir," I whimper, knowing he wants to hear me admit my wrongdoing.

"No, I didn't. You know why?"

His hand gets faster over his cock, tugging harder, working it over like he's going to fuck himself instead of letting me have a drop of his sinful cum.

"Why?" I whisper, watching the show he's giving me.

"Because you haven't asked."

"May I have…" I start, and he growls, backing away from me.

He backs to another tree across a beaten path where people have worn down the scrub.

His cock bobs free as he grabs it once more, furiously tugging as his hips jut forward. "Beg. Fucking beg for this cock!"

"Please, Neo. I want your cock to fill my mouth so bad I can't think. Please, let me suck you. Fill my mouth with your cum."

Even through the darkness veiling us, the shine of the arousal in his eyes is bright.

"Crawl to me."

He hasn't stopped jacking himself, and I'm worried that he's saving none of it for me, so I get on all fours, the cold of the ground seeping through me and giving me a rope to stay rooted in reality with.

He moans, and I crawl faster.

When I'm at his feet once more, he wastes no time fisting his hand in my hair and bending his knees to shove his cock in my mouth.

The head of him slams into the back of my throat, and I gag almost instantly.

The sound fuels him, and he batters the reflex repeatedly to hear me gagging on him like he's the conductor and my throat is his orchestra.

"Good fucking girl. You take my cock so fucking good down your throat."

His praise bathes me in a warm blanket of love that tingles through my veins. I slip him past my gag reflex, letting my throat constrict over him in wavering muscles, twitching as he hisses.

"Always my perfect little slut," he moans.

I whimper against him, overwhelmed by the arousal coursing through my body.

"You're going to make your husband come so hard that you might drown. Are you ready?" he asks, his voice frantic as he feels his orgasm building.

I moan in answer to him, knowing my throat vibrates at the tip of him where he's still sliding deeply down the space as my muscles try like hell to evict him.

"Fuck, stupid girl, here it comes."

I look up at him, catching the moment he lets go of the facade of the Butcher and becomes the Neo I know and love.

His mouth drops open, and his eyes blow wide, and a shout of ecstasy slips free as his cum sluices down my throat and cuts off my air.

The longer he spurts, the more I gag to swallow.

When he pulls out of my throat, tears are trailing down my face, and my pussy is soaking my panties.

The dark veil of his personality returns in abundance as Neo slaps me across the face with his cock, a smear of cum trailing in its wake.

"You're so fucking perfect."

I beam up at him as he crouches before me, his cock still hard and bobbing out of his jeans .

"Take your pants off and get on all fours so I can fuck you."

A shaky breath expels as I see a darkness wavering in his eyes I've not yet witnessed.

This case is doing something to my husband, and I'm not sure I'll survive it.