Danny gave a small sound of frustration. “I don’t make promises lightly, Marx. What do you want?”
What do I want? Forever.
But she wasn’t ready to hear that from me. Not yet. She still thought we were playing a game, and in a way, we were. Wasn’t everything in life just one big game, and dying meant you lost?
“Promise me,” I implored her, holding her gaze steady and serious, “that you won’t trust anyone within the Guild until Blanchet has been dealt with. No one can be trusted, not even your friends.”
That surprised her for some reason. Maybe she thought I was going to ask something else of her? Hmm, curious. But regardless, this was important.
“Sabine and Jude—” she started to defend them, but I shook my head.
“Are Guild. Even mousy Judith, she’s still Guild. And you know better than anyone what that means. The Guild will always hold their loyalty. Can you honestly say that they would choose your safety over their own if given a direct order from a Circle member?” I was right, and she couldn’t deny it. I could see the pained resignation in the furrow of her brow and the tightness of her lips.
“I’m not trying to isolate you, DeLuna,” I continued, knowing how my request might be taken—I could thank years upon years of therapy sessions for that insight. “I’m not aiming to cut you off from your support network so that you have no one to trust except me.”
She gave a small sarcastic laugh. “You’re not?”
“I’m not,” I confirmed, although that would be a convenient outcome, “because when I say trust no one, I mean no one. Myself included.” It damn near killed me to say that, too.
But if I wanted her to stay alive, then I needed her to run as far from the Guild as she could. She needed to disappear and let me handle Blanchet. He had plenty of heirs to take that seat on the Circle, and I was confident one of them would be weak enough to be manipulated.
Danny frowned. She wasn’t taking this order without question, and I never expected her to.
“What about the rest of the Circle?” she asked. “Surely one of them can help me. If they know Blanchet is breaking the rules—”
“Every single seat on the Circle is filled with selfish, greedy, inhumane bastards. When I say you can’t trust anyone within the Guild, they’re the worst of them. They each have their own agendas, and none of them are for world peace. Blanchet is Circle. Who knows who else he’s working with. Consider them all the worst of your enemies, DeLuna.” I hated how true that was. Hated it.
Danny didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she pulled against my hold and crushed her lips to mine. My restraint snapped and I kissed her back, letting my lips tell her how much I was holding back. How out of control everything was starting to feel and how much blood I was about to shed in her name.
Somehow she ended up rolling us to straddle me, and my pulse raced as my hands found her tits. She had fantastic tits, big for her petite frame and with incredibly responsive nipples. I lived for the little whimper she made when I pinched them.
“DeLuna,” I growled between long, drugging kisses, “do you understand?”
She broke off our kisses and gave a long sigh. “I understand,” she whispered with regret. “Trust no one within the Guild until Blanchet stops gunning for my head.”
I quirked a brow. “Promise me, DeLuna. Or I’ll have to hide you away for your own safety.” Visions of her tied up and helpless in my snow-surrounded fortress danced across my mind, and my hard dick twitched with excitement.
She clicked her tongue with an edge of frustration but gave a small nod. It was good enough.
As much as it pained me to do, the moment she fell asleep some hours later—exhausted and thoroughly fucked into unconsciousness—I dressed and left the hotel room. She was more than capable of protecting herself; she’d proven that much. And I had something important to attend to.
Whistling a happy tune, floating on the residue of incredible sex endorphins, I strode through the hotel parking deck to my dodgy white panel van. I could still taste my goddess on my lips as I opened the back of the van and peered down at my captive—bound, gagged, and bleeding in the otherwise vacant van.
“Sorry, Bryan,” I told my guest. “That took longer than anticipated. Are we ready to talk? No? Never mind, we’ll get there.” I shot him a wink, then slammed the door closed again before climbing into the driver’s seat.
I couldn’t think of a better way to end an incredible night than stripping the skin from Bryan’s fingers. Not to make him talk, but to punish him for touching what was mine.
Utter perfection.
9
The bed beside me was cold and empty when I woke some hours after Leon fucked me into unconsciousness. Disappointment settled over me like a cold blanket as I opened my eyes and looked around. Because Leon wasn’t just in the shower, he was gone. Just like I knew he would be.
Blood splattered the wallpaper in several places, and there was a sizable stain on the carpet where Bryan had lain after Leon knocked him out, but I was alone. Hell, the safety chain was even on the door—I’d need Leon to teach me that one.
“Ouch,” I groaned as I sat up. Every inch of my body ached, and my head pounded so hard I could hear my own heartbeat. “Fucking hell.”
Gritting my teeth, I dragged my beat up ass out of bed and through to the bathroom where Leon had left my medical kit. Oh yeah, I looked worse than I felt, and that was saying a lot. My neck was the worst of it, with dark purple bruising surrounding the angry red welt of the garotte wire. Then there were the fingerprints higher up, closer to my chin. I didn’t mind those so much.
Carefully, I dabbed bruise balm onto my various marks, rubbing it into the discoloration and assessing everything that’d happened in the last twelve hours.
Of all of it, including Bryan the executioner and Leon’s stern warnings to trust no one, the thing bothering me the most was the necklace. The mysterious Guild key that Hermes had given me. How did Kai get it? And why? Did he know it was a Guild symbol?
Ugh, now I was thinking about Kai again. It sure as hell didn’t help that my pussy was still swollen and sore from all the sex with Leon last night… Every part of my body was way too fucking sensitive for intrusive thoughts about him.
Once I had all my wounds touched up as well as I could manage, I put on a thick layer of makeup to hide the bruises on my face—thanks, Bryan, you asshole—then packed my bags back up.
My phone pinged with a new message before I left the hotel room, and I smiled when I saw who’d sent it.
6279: Stay safe, mon cœur. I’ll come back to you soon.
I swallowed hard, trying desperately to smack some sense into the butterflies who just lost their goddamn minds inside my belly at the endearment Leon had used. It was no use, they were too far gone.
3982: Is that a promise or a threat, Bunny?
6279: Both. Don’t forget you’re mine now.
That message was quickly followed by a picture message that took me a minute to decipher. When I worked it out, though, I gave a sharp gasp. That motherfucker…
3982: Are those Bryan’s fingers all cut off?! I thought you had killed him!! What the fuck, Marx?!