by R. Scarlett
“Maybe you should shut her up with your cock,” Wilson suggested, moving closer, his eyes gleaming in excitement. “Or I can use mine.”
“Hmm. She’d bite it off. This girl has too much recklessness in her still. The hunters didn’t fuck her up enough,” Danny said, gripping my jaw in a tight hold. “They should have sold you to me. I’d fuck you up nice and good.”
I squirmed against him, wanting to break his skull against my knee, but the knife continued to bite into my skin.
“Oh you know way too many things, little Lex, don’t you?” Danny whispered, turning my head to the side so he can nip at my earlobe. He combed at my loose strands, exposing more of my neck. Then he dug the knife in and I hissed in pain. “You snooped around the wrong fucking guys.” Red seeped into my white t-shirt. “I’ll break you and then I’ll give Savage what’s left of you.”
He laughed at my expression.
“But I’ll let Wilson have a turn with you first. Seems fitting, don’t you think? To relive old, cherished memories together before you leave us forever,” he said, patting my cheek like a little child. “Plus, I was in the middle of something before you messed up my night, you see, little Lex. But I’ll be back, have no fear,” he added, whispering the last part as if we were intimate and it made the hairs on my arms rise in disgust.
He let go, exchanging a smile with Wilson and closed the door behind him.
I breathed out shakily and slowly transferred my gaze to the hunter.
“Get on your knees, souleater,” he demanded, his hands going to his belt.
I shook my head.
His brow lowered over his angry eyes. “Do I need to break them first?”
I clenched my jaw, willing myself to not look away from him.
“You know, I think I do remember you,” he said, nodding to himself, edging closer and closer and closer. His hand caught my wrist and yanked me forward.
Perfect. I bit my lip to hide my smile.
“If you remembered me, you would have broken me properly,” I said, my voice even and composed and deadly, batting my lashes at him. “Instead you broke the wrong parts of me.” I dug my nails into his wrist and he cried out as I flung his hand off. “Don’t touch me.”
With a bestial growl, Wilson snatched my ponytail, his free hand encircling my throat. “You fucking whore.”
“Fuck—you—” I heaved, clawing to dislodge the hand crushing my airway. I threw my head forward, slamming into his forehead and he staggered back, hitting the desk. But he didn’t let that stop him. He surged forward, his nails digging into my forearms. I swung my knee into his stomach and he gasped, all the air leaving his lungs.
I wasn’t stopping, I wasn’t giving up.
No one could break me.
Not unless I allowed them to.
I used my elbow to jab his nose, knocking his head back and then raised my knee to his groin.
He went down fast, groaning in pain. I stepped on his hand, listening to the sound of bones crushing under my boot and twisted.
He cried out and I kicked his face, knocking him out cold.
I rushed to the door and didn’t look back, exhaling when Danny was nowhere in sight.
He’d been so sure I would bend to his will.
That I was weak.
That he’d get what he wanted.
He was wrong about me. All of them were.
I wasn’t weak, defenseless Little Lex anymore.
Most of my job consisted of watching others from a distance. Watching young men exchange joints of illegal Bane, a demon drug used to weaken the body, or watching a couple argue in the streets.
My purpose was to be a silent figure in the lower class. A figure to fear, a figure to keep them in line and to stay low. It was only when they stepped too far that I used force.
When I arrived at the Pit to walk Lex home, she wasn’t there, and Jackson said she had left early. As I opened the door to my apartment, I was welcomed by the sound of the shower running.
I had told her I would walk her home and the fact she left pissed me off.
More so that any fucker could have taken advantage of her.
I had taught her how to fight, but I still worried about her.
Too much, it was becoming a bad habit.
No matter what I did, my thoughts always came back to what she wanted, to what she needed.
Somehow in about a month, I’d started putting someone else’s needs before my own and I hadn’t noticed I’d been doing it.
It just happened.
And it made me anxious and agitated. She couldn’t keep staying here.
It was becoming more than what it had started out as. Whatever that had been.
I steeled my features and marched to the bathroom door, tapping it gently. “Lex,” I said, raising my voice so she heard me over the water.
When I tapped it a second time, the door wavered, opening slightly, and I saw her, a towel wrapped around her, sitting on the edge of the bathtub. Her hair was wet, clinging to her cheeks and I gawked at her.
At the bruises lining her cheekbone and her trembling bottom lip.
I didn’t think before I moved into the tiny bathroom and crouched in front of her, taking her face in my hands.
“What happened?” I asked, my voice too thick, too coarse. If I spoke more, I would end up losing it.
Who had hurt her? What bastard would I have to beat back into hell’s shallow ground?
Wetness pooled in her soft blue eyes and tears escaped, rushing down her fingers and resting against my own, like a gateway of protection. That she could cry in front of me and I would protect her from anyone who dared hurt her.
“I went to a party and…he had files on me,” she managed to say, her voice shaky.
My fingers combed back stray curls of darkness and lifted her head higher so she met my gaze. “What? What files, Alexandra? And who?”
“Danny.”
That single name made my beast rage inside of me.
She sniffled. “He had files. Files on me…files on Dolores—” Her voice broke and she squeezed her eyes shut but that didn’t prevent more tears from falling.
I frowned, fury boiling inside me, but I pushed it down as best as I could. She needed comfort right now, not a violent, destructive beast.
“Did he do this to you? Did Danny touch you?” I seethed, breathing through my nose as I made sure to keep my grip light on her.
She shook her head. “He threatened me…but he had another friend in the room. A friend that I recognized.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, anger piercing my dark soul. Hatred flared like a white-hot flame. The fucking bastard.
“Recognized?”
She licked her dry mouth and kept her head low, avoiding eye contact. “He was the man who took me to the hunters. A demon selling demons to hunters.”
My hands shook, and I watched tears paint her cheeks. I didn’t need to be a souleater to feel her pain raw and thick in the bathroom, clogging my throat.
“Tell me about Dolores,” I whispered to take her mind off of it, trying to calm both of us down, to keep us balanced.
She bit her lip to hold back a cry. “She’s always been too kind for her own good.” She laughed softly at a memory. “She’s half blind and used to tell me she could see people’s true nature because of it. That she had a special eye. A gift.” She tightened the towel around her, sniffling. “She took care of me after Tensley rescued me from the hunters a few months ago. She liked to comb my hair at night when my self-deprecating thoughts were weighing me down too much to move. I was in a really dark place for a long while after what happened, Beau. Sometimes, I think I still am. I never really got out of it.”
My chest tightened at how raw her voice sounded and the image of her laying on that rotting apartment building floor, too depressed and damaged to move.
Alexandra Harvey was possibly the strongest person I had ever met.
She squeezed her eyes shut again and shook her head.
“I don’t want to be weak. I don’t want to be useless.”
I shushed her, my fingers stroking upward and into her wet hair. I pressed my thumb to a tear just below her lashes and her eyes fluttered open.
The tear absorbed into her pale skin and she stared back at me.
“You’re not weak, Alexandra,” I whispered and kissed her cheekbone, allowing my lips to settle there. For once, I was thankful for being an incubi, to heal bruises and wounds. But… they couldn’t heal the kind of wounds that hurt the most, the ones that kept you up at night. I’d been a fool for thinking her weak when I’d first seen her at the Pit. Alexandra was many things, but weak was not one of them. “You are a tigress. A warrior. A survivor.”
I was the weak one in this moment, unable to remove my mouth from her soft skin, telling myself it was just to mend the bruises, the cuts.
It was when I felt her fingers trace my shoulders, my muscles flexing under them that I paused and shut my eyes.
I had been in hell once.
Like her.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever gotten out. What I did know, however, was that I’d recently discovered a new kind of hell. One where I imagined Alexandra waking up next to me in the mornings, tempting me, luring me in.
I couldn’t though.
I couldn’t repeat the past. I couldn’t allow myself to reach for another heart only to destroy it.
Instead, I held her, and she buried her head into my shoulder.
I would not fall again.
Tonight, I would hold her.
Tomorrow, I would confront Danny.
The pit was silent as I entered its depths. I’d woken up early and left a note for Lex to use whatever she needed in the apartment. I’d barely slept as we both shared the same bed, the thought of her sleeping so close had had my senses on high alert the whole night. I’d healed most of her bruises and held her through the night as she silently cried, trapped reliving nightmares of her past. Eventually, she’d drifted off to sleep but my own mind had continued to think of Danny, unable to let it go.
My jaw clenched, and I walked through the empty second floor, focused on the door at the end of the hallway.
Danny’s office.
I didn’t bother knocking, I walked into his office to find him behind his desk, papers scattered across its surface. The office was old-fashioned—oak wood desk, wood shelving behind him filled with books and files
Danny glanced up, his right eye sporting an ugly black bruise. His stare turned to a glare and he sat back.
I didn’t waste a moment and moved around the table, gripping him by his collar and plowing my fist into his cheekbone.
A crack echoed in his office and he collapsed against his desk, panting. “If you ever touch Lex again,” I began.
He glared up at me. “I barely touched her. Plus, she was snooping on my property, I had every right to teach her a lesson.” Then he grinned. “However, my friend had fun with her last night.”
“Stay away from Lex,” I said, my words directly to the point, ignoring the throbbing ache in my knuckles.
Danny flashed a white smile, blood staining his teeth. “And if I don’t?”
Fury curled inside my gut and I stepped forward so he had to bend his neck backward to meet my gaze. “I’ll make sure you don’t breathe again.”
Danny’s smile morphed into a glower and he stood, buttoning his suit jacket. He walked around and sat on the edge of his desk, pointing a finger at me. “Are you threatening me? In my own fucking establishment?”
I squared my jaw. “You don’t own the Pit. Whoever does can easily replace you.”
His finger waved and he curled it into his fist, knocking it on the desk. He tsked. “You may hold the surname and the Scorpios blood in your veins but you, Beau Knight, have no power over me at the Pit.”
“She said you’re selling demons to hunters.”
A slow, sour smile appeared on Danny’s lips and he laughed with no joy. “Did she, now? What proof did she provide?” He looked at my expression and his smile grew broader. “None. That’s right. What I find particularly interesting, however, is that I have all the proof I need against her. Proof that she’s been snooping around my property and the Pit. Proof that she’s been harassing customers and with questions, making them uncomfortable enough that they reported it to me. Our little Lex should’ve known I have eyes and ears everywhere around this place.” He cocked a brow at me. “Do you know what’s even better? I have proof that she stole those files from me. Tell me, Beau Knight, official patrol of Scorpios, isn’t that enough to lock that souleater of yours up?”
My frown deepened at that. She hadn’t told me about the stolen files. Anger flared, anger that she had put herself in a situation where I couldn’t protect her.
“Ah,” Danny continued. “I see she hasn’t mentioned that, has she? So who will you believe, Savage? The kid who lied to you and moaned about me selling demons without any proof to back up her claims, or the innocent man who has all the proof?”
I glared at him, ignoring his question. “So you deny her claims? You say you’re innocent.”
“And you choose to believe her,” he rebutted, shrugging nonchalantly. “She’s just a child looking for attention.”
“Shut the—”
“She’s been using you, hasn’t she? She’s been using you because she’s lonely and scared. Probably broke-ass poor. But you have money, don’t you, Beau? And you have power. Tell me, has she been feeding from you?” I only stared at him, eyes drilling holes into his skull. “She has,” he tsked. “And what has she been giving you in return?”
I glared at him, refusing to react to his words. But doubt was creeping inside my mind and I hated it. I wanted to believe her.
I believed her.
“Then fire her,” I snapped, my nails digging into my palms.
Danny flashed his pearly white teeth at me. “And let go of the one thing I can use against you?”
Fucking bastard.
“Let me give you a warning of my own then,” Danny said, stepping closer, but I still towered over him. “I have everything I need to put a hefty case on your little girlfriend, and if you do or say anything against me, Knight, I will press charges. And then you can say goodbye to her sweet ass, are we clear? Step out of line, and she’s done.”
I gritted my teeth, wanting to destroy him and drain the blood from his pathetic body.
But I couldn’t. I knew he wasn’t lying, he would go after her in any way he could. Still, I couldn’t help myself. “I won’t say anything about your side-business, Danny. But be sure of one thing; you look at her, touch her, or so much as speak to her wrong and I will break every fucking bone in your body. Stolen files or not.”
Danny’s dark eyes stared back at me, victory shining in their depths.
“Great doing business with you, Savage,” he said, inclining his head in acknowledgment.
“Fuck you,” I snapped at him coldly and turned, leaving his office before fury got the best of me and I killed the motherfucker on the spot.
His words about Lex burnt in my mind.
She stole those files from me.
LEX
I wiped down the tables, ignoring the loud cheers from the fight below. When I woke up this morning and looked in the mirror, I was happy to see all the bruises were gone. I had won last night. I had fought back and got out, but I was still a bit shaky.
I had thought of telling Beau I wasn’t done looking for Dolores, but I didn’t know how he would react. He didn’t even like me walking by myself; I doubted he’d like me investigating into a missing person. But I knew I was close now. I had the files safely hidden at Beau’s apartment.
Danny had most likely sold her here. I tried to remember where the hunters had kept me, but my memories were all hazy and mixed together. All I could remember was there was a bar, a bar I had been forced to entertain hunters. If I went there, I was putting myself at risk again of getting caught.
Straightenin
g, I moved back to the bar, only to catch Danny’s eye. He sat at one of the front tables by the railing, surrounded by men and Aphrodites. A smoky haze surrounded their table and glasses of unfinished alcohol, some spilled across the table full of coins and bills.
He smiled, tipping his chin at me.
I looked away before I snapped.
Before I walked over and poured a drink on his head.
He was selling demons. He was selling low-class demons for his own benefit.
The sick fucker.
I shook my head, focused on Jackson making a drink for a customer when a hand grasped my arm and pulled me to the side, away from any prying eyes.
“Beau,” I said, looking up at his features, drawn into an ugly scowl of disdain. My eyes immediately went back to his lips pulled into a frown and I remembered how good they felt on my skin the night before. He was dressed in his black jeans and a loose t-shirt, his hands already wrapped in bandages for a fight.
“I’m giving you one chance to tell me what you chose not to tell me last night, Lex. One chance, use it carefully.”
I frowned. “What? What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
“What didn’t you tell me last night?” he asked again, his voice a crack of thunder, making me jump.
“Last night?” I hiked a brow, still confused.
That answer didn’t sit well with him and he moved closer, pressing me farther into the wall. “The files. You stole them for fuck’s sake. Which gives Danny power over you, over us to fuck everything up.”
I paled at his words and my mouth opened, but no words came out.
The files.
Damn it.
Beau’s hand caught my chin, aligning my eyes with his. “I don’t like to be kept in the dark, Alexandra. And I don’t like liars and secrets,” he whispered, my breath hitching at the sharpness of his words. “Lucky you, I have a fight starting right now. But afterward, you and I are going to have a serious talk, am I making myself clear?”
“Beau—”
He let go and pressed past me, walking through the crowd and down the steps, leaving behind him a trail of sparkling irritation.
