Uncovering You 6: Deliverance Read Online Free PDF Page B

to a flickering flame. If I show weakness, it puts me at a disadvantage.
    So, I’ll be strong and face my fears. I’ll face our mutual past, and I’ll lay it all out in the open, whenever the need arises, with as much ease as he. Sure, it might be nothing more than an act, at first. But, acting like something is real for long enough has the curious ability to actually make said thing real, in your own mind, anyway. It’s about what a type of training, a type of mental conditioning that works on yourself.
    His lips make a firm line on his face. “Yes”, he says. “I would imagine you did.” His eyes flare. I see a new challenge in them. “I watched you every day, you know. I saw you fall. Would you like to know something, Lilly? Something sick, twisted, and perverse?”
    The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I dislike the way his voice shifted when he asked the question. It’s a reminder of Stonehart.
    But I square my shoulders and face him defiantly. “What?” I say.
    “The time you slipped… the time you did not make it to the chair soon enough?” he says.
    “You actually had forty seconds left.”
    My eyes widen. I feel faint. I have to stick my hand out against the wall to prevent myself from falling.
    “You . . . lied!” I whisper.
    Jeremy moves around the counter with the fluidity of a snake. His eyes are black, as they fix on me.
    “Yes”, he says. “You see, Lilly, I am not perfect. Even though I strive to make myself seem as such, particularly in your eyes, beneath the surface lies a very fallible man. I sin and I have weaknesses. My life is not the pure existence I make it seem.”
    He stops a foot away from me. The air between us crackles with a strange mix of hostility, apprehension, and always, that lingering sexual tension.
    “Do you resent me for it?” he asks. His voice is low and scratched like sandpaper.
    “For shocking me?” I begin.
    “No,” he cuts me off. “For lying to you, Lilly. Do you resent me for telling a lie?”
    I look at him, and try to consider the question. My mind focuses solely on the memory of the excruciating pain I felt that morning on the floor. At the horrible current pulsing through me. At the awful knowledge that that morning, I had failed.
    Except, I had not. I did make it to the chair on time. It’s just that Stonehart, watching through the cameras hidden in the ceiling, decided that he would have some fun with me.
    “Well?” he presses. An urgency creeps into his voice. “Answer the question, Lilly.”
    “I…” I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
    “That’s not good enough, dammit!” he curses. I jump as his fist hits the wall.
    “Jeremy,” I say, my voice small. “You’re frightening me.”
    His eyes narrow. “Good,” he snarls. “That’s good. You deserve to be frightened of me. I deserve to be frightening to you. It’s no less than the end result of all the things I’ve done, isn’t it? It’s actually a natural extension of them all. Isn’t it, Lilly? Isn’t it, my dear Lilly-flower?”
    “I don’t know,” I whisper. In truth, he’s terrifying me. I want nothing more than to sink to the floor and cower like a little girl. Right now, Jeremy is making me feel small, powerless, and insignificant.
    “You do know, Lilly,” he says. “Don’t lie to me. Look at me! Tell me what you see when you look into my eyes. Tell me what you see reflected in my pupils when they stare at you. Tell me, goddammit!”
    His hand flies out and he grabs me by the neck. The back of my head hits the wall. He begins to squeeze.
    My breaths shorten. Nothing I could have done would have prepared me from this. Nothing about Jeremy’s demeanor would have hinted that he’d be capable of this. Not this morning.
    “You’re hurting me,” I whisper.
    His grip on my neck doesn’t let up. Instead, he steps in front of me, and looms tall like the statue of some vindictive God.
    “Answer”, he whispers with supreme intensity, “the fucking