Alice wrapped the sheet around herself, as Samuel got off the bed and moved into the bathroom without a word. He closed the door and a moment later she heard the sound of running water. She reached for a cigarette as she pondered their latest ‘session’.
Alice nothinged her encounters with Samuel. She neither hated nor loved them, dreaded nor looked forward to them. The way she looked at it, it could be a lot worse, and Samuel was sort of…good to her. He had no kinks that she knew of, and certainly none that he tried to foist upon her. He never asked her, or pressured her to do anything degrading, or anything she didn’t want to. He just wanted to have sex with someone that wasn’t his wife. He had even gotten Mariam to agree to it, though she never joined them.
Alice knew she was being used for sex and that it had likely been the reason Samuel had taken her in in her early teens. Where he was a father to Bobby and Hugo, there had never been anything parental about their relationship. He was detached and distant with her at best and always had been.
Samuel never spoke to her during the act, never even made eye contact, but it allowed her to be where she wanted—the inner circle. As a paramour of Samuel’s, she was privy to just as much as Hugo and Bobby, and far more than Mariam. She was a woman in a man’s world; she did what she had to do, to get by. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a tiny part of her that was jealous of Hugo and Bobby. They had a family, but she was always on the outskirts, outside looking in. Just as Samuel didn’t treat her as one of his children, they didn’t treat her as a sibling, despite being together for over a decade.
As she finished her cigarette and redonned her clothes, Alice felt listless. Bored. Killing brought her little joy anymore. It didn’t excite her or disgust her. It was as bland as making a coffee. Sex was much the same. She lived for cruelty, but she had to be careful not to draw attention to the family, and even that high faded quickly. The only thing she truly cared about was power and status; she and Samuel had that in common.
Perhaps not the only thing. Since they had met as teenagers, Alice had been what could only be described, even by herself, as obsessed with Hugo Ford. He was the only person in the world who ever said no to her. He was the only person ever to deny her advances and he was the only person who didn’t seem in awe of her skill as a killer. Much as she nothinged her arrangement with Samuel, he seemed to nothing her. It drove her crazy.
Hugo was handsome, as talented a killer as she was, though he didn’t have her taste for torture. They would be the perfect match, perhaps even a match that could overthrow Samuel, if Hugo would just give in. But he wouldn’t even give her time of day.
“You should go. Hugo will be here soon, and he and I need to have a chat.”
She hadn’t realised that Samuel was already out of the shower. She stood up from the bed and quickly left the room. Finally, she felt a trill of excitement. Today, she would have another chance to torment Hugo.