My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 41

I wanted the woods to pulse. I wanted the ground to feel like it was breathing.

I opened a side menu of tools, items we kept in the heavy, locked crates in the estate's sub-basement. I dragged an icon for restraints to the clearing. I added tools scattered through the trees.

I sat back, my breathing a little heavier than before. I closed the file and locked it with my thumbprint.

Everything was ready.

All I needed now were the right prey to fill the dark.

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I left my car at the front, tossed the keys to one of the soldiers and walked into the mansion. It was late, the kind of hour where the house usually felt dead.

But as I passed the hallway toward the stairs, a sharp clink echoed from the kitchen. It sounded like a plate hitting the counter too hard.

I changed my direction. I reached the wide archway of the kitchen and stopped, leaning my shoulder against the cold doorframe.

Gianna was there.

She looked nothing like the girl in the office. She was wearing a t-shirt so big it swallowed her whole, the hem reaching her mid-thigh. Her hair was a messy nest on top of her head. She was standing by the stove. She was humming a low, sweet tune that I didn't recognize.

Then I looked down.

Her feet were wrapped in thick, white medical tape. She was standing on her tiptoes, trying to keep her weight off her heels.

I stayed there and watched. She didn't see me. She flipped a grilled cheese sandwich in the pan, the smell of butter and toasted bread filling the air.

For someone who had spent the entire day acting like she didn’t need anyone’s help, she looked oddly small right now. She looked like a kid sneaking a snack in the middle of the night.

She lifted the sandwich onto a plate and carried it over to the large marble island. She pulled a stool out, her movements were awkward as if every step was a battle. She sat down, let out a long, tired breath, and picked up the sandwich.

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