“First of all, I can fuck whoever I want, however want, whenever I want. You don’t get to dictate who I spread my legs for.
“Second of all, don’t blame him for the way I am. I’ve been this way from the beginning—you’ve just never seen it. You have never known me, Tito.
“You believed the façade just like everyone else did. Just like I believed you would tell me the truth about your sister and not use me for your own benefit.”
“Jinx knew,” he immediately deflected, choosing a topic that would sway the conversation away from what he’d done.
Guilty sonofabitch.
I was hoping he’d trip up and spill what actually went down with that whole situation, because I had yet to get all the details.
He wasn’t the least bit shocked or surprised about Tilly-slash-Tiffany’s involvement in all of this.
That had me wondering just how much he was keeping from me.
“Jinx showed me the pictures and articles you hoarded when she found out who had you. She’s the one who knew you were, uh, different. I chose not to listen.”
I rolled my eyes at his nice way of saying Jinx knew I was fucked in the head. Showing Tito my memorabilia of Romero sounded exactly like something she would do, hoping he’d come get me. As if I’d needed rescuing. I had never been more content in my life. I’d been happy.I had just started to feel like I finally belonged somewhere with a man no one sane would dare climb into bed with.
Fucking Romero and his soulless eyes. I felt him everywhere, and he was nowhere to be seen. His smell, his touch, and the way he tasted in my mouth––how he watched me with his predatory eyes when he was buried between my thighs. The vivid memories were a battering ram to my once stone-walled mentals.
Nothing that happened on Narcoose Bridge made sense, because I knew him just as eerily well as he knew me.
I knew he would never work with David without having a damn good motive. And then there was the issue of delegates turning on delegates while others still went after Romero’s people and vice versa. Toss in that there were outliers on the bridge too, and it left a major question unanswered. Who was the enemy of whom?
Thinking of it all over again brought something Tito had just said to the forefront of my mind. “Where are Jinx and Grady? Were they on that bridge?” I asked suddenly, staring Tito down.
“Where are they?” I repeated when he didn’t respond.
“I’m not sure what happened to Grady. We were never together. Jinx…was taken,” he answered slowly, palming strands of dark curls off his sweaty face.
I narrowed my eyes. “What do you mean, she was taken?”
“The redhead Romero runs with took her.”
“Cobra? He’s alive?!” I couldn’t keep the elation out of my voice.
That meant Arlen could be alive, too.
“I don’t know if he is now…when Jinx and I were running towards you, he was running away. They collided. By the time I turned back to help her, they were gone. He’d been shot at least once or twice.”
“Damn,” I muttered, scrubbing a hand over my face. My head felt like it was going to implode. Thoughts began whipping back and forth like a game of jungle pong.
Arlen could be anywhere, but I refused to believe her heart wasn’t still beating. She was resilient. As for Jinx, I had not the slightest idea why they would take her, and even less faith that she was alive.
This was such a damn clusterfuck.
Looking up at the hazy-orange sky, I stared for a moment before squinting, making sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me—that I really saw what looked like smoke.
There wasn’t any real civilization left near Narcoose Bridge, which meant it had to be from people. The Badlands had no good souls left. It was yet to be determined how dark these ones were.
A snap of my fingers was my only warning to Tito that he needed to move his feet or be left behind. I figured I might as well keep him around. He’d be perfect as a scapegoat.
CHAPTER TWO
Her sobs and screams were damn near inaudible now.
She writhed in pain, unable to clamp her legs closed due to the way I’d tied them open using the bedpost. I thrust inside her one last time, lifting my hand from where I’d knotted it in her hair so I could wrap it around her throat.
She feebly clawed at me and the bed sheets, croaking like a frog as she fought for air I refused to give. Her fear was tangible, drenching all my senses. It was the best kind of aphrodisiac. But this wasn’t about pleasure—not this time.
I continued pumping in and out of her until my muscles were sore and she stopped breathing, the life slowly fading from her brown eyes.
I pulled my knife from between her creamy thighs and cleaned the bloody blade with her habit. I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of David sending me a virgin of all things, a stiff whiny bitch that could have never handled my idea of fucking.
I’m not sure what century he was living in, but those weren’t magical beings. Not that it mattered; I never had any intention of sticking my dick in her. She wasn’t privileged enough to know what I’d feel like buried inside her.
It took a particular pixie-sized, crazy ass blonde to do it for me anymore, one who knew how to fuck like she killed—mercilessly.
Reaching for the glass of water on the nightstand, I poured it over my hands and wiped them off as best I could with a different part of the black fabric.
Just as I tucked my knife away, the door swung open and David himself strolled inside. His face blanched at the scene. I smirked.
The nun he’d sent for Grimm was down on her hands and knees in a puddle of her own piss–being used as his personal footrest. Cobra was smoking a joint and finalizing tonight’s move on the other side of the room. His wounded left arm sat comfortably in a sling.
David swiftly regained his composure and gave me a flat look. “How many of them are you going to kill?”
“As many as you send.”
Swiping my shirt off the floor, I pulled it over my head and walked towards him. He gave me a level stare that was meant to show he wasn’t afraid of me. I knew better. He was seconds away from shitting down the back of his fraudulent holy robes.
I smiled, showing teeth this time just to make him a little more uncomfortable.
He cleared his throat and slightly shifted from left to right.
Fear was a drug I administered effortlessly. I didn’t even have to try; it always happened naturally. I wondered if he knew how little time he had left alive before I cut him into individual pieces and gave his head to Cali in a box.
“I’m not going to keep sending you girls if you don’t know how to take care of them,” he stated.
“We’ve only killed four, but who’s counting? None of us give a shit about the bitches you send in here. I have too much to do if we want this all to go smoothly. You said have fun with them…” I paused and stepped to the side so he could get a clear view of the mutilated pussy I’d left on display just for him. “That’s my definition of fun.”
He bought every word I said, sighing and nodding in agreement, refusing to stare at my craftsmanship.
“You’re right. I should have considered that and…your specific taste,” he added dryly, diverting his grey eyes to the floor.
I knew what he was doing. He thought he was testing me, and in his eyes, I was passing with flying colors. He wasn’t intelligent enough to outsmart me. I was twelve steps ahead of him. I’d planned this entire charade out meticulously; there was only one variable unaccounted for.
Cali. She was my unpredictable wild card.
Once she was back by my side, I couldn’t care less if he knew just how mine she was. That was inevitable; the world would know. The few acolytes I could depend on knew already from witnessing her initiation.
But as things stood right then, I didn’t give a shit about her, and had him believing she was the one who had orchestrated the killing off of his delegates by manipulating some of my people.
Of
course, he bought it. He was the one who taught her how to use herself to take advantage of men and women.
With her sinful blue eyes, white-blonde hair, and snow-white skin, she looked like a sweet, innocent porcelain doll. No one who saw her would ever suspect that she was a crazy fucking bitch who loved the feel of blood on her hands.
“What do you want?” I stopped a few feet away from him, not so subtly watching the way his Adam's apple bobbed. It was times like these I wondered how David had risen to the top of The Order. I knew it was passed down to him from his father but the man was a gaping pussy. Giving him the metaphorical keys to the castle was a dumb as shit move.
“I just wanted to ensure everything was coming along for this weekend.”
“I’ve been working at this for day and night. You don’t think I’d be well and fucking prepared?”
He sighed again, nervously smoothing his palms down his robe. I was going to burn him in the motherfucker.
“Was that all?”
“I guess so. I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned and did one last slow sweep of the room, freezing when his gaze landed on Cobra.
“Tell me again why he’s still alive?” he hissed back at me.
Knowing David was talking about him had Cobra looking up with a giant grin on his face, purposely antagonizing the situation.
“You had one simple task, and that was bringing Calista back to me. Please share what you find so amusing about your screw up,” David snapped at him.
I forced my jaw to remain slack when I felt it beginning to clench. I had a primal urge to constantly claim Cali like the Savage I was, and this stupid motherfucker actually believed I was going to hand her over to him.
I couldn’t do shit about it though, not yet. In due time, he would get what was coming to him. I was going to bestow upon him my own version of karma.
Cobra cleared his throat and let out a loose chuckle. “Dave. Can I call you Dave? I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’ll say sorry for fucking up the delivery of your daughter if you tell me why you want her back after she’s been gone so long.”
David looked at the three of us and scoffed. “Why wouldn’t I want her back? I was devastated when she went missing.”
His head snapped to Grimm, who laughed loudly and didn’t bother covering it up.
“We both know that’s not true, David.” He removed his boots from the nun’s back and roughly kicked her away from him. She whimpered and crawled to a run, taking off out of the room with the smell of urine chasing after her.
David had a deep hatred for Grimm.
I didn’t bother trying to understand it because any reasoning behind it would be bullshit. David’s beef was with our father, over a woman of all fucking things.
His hatred didn’t extend to me, though; it never had. Fucking ironic, considering my people killed his for sport.
He and Grimm eyed one another, years of barely restrained hostility thickening the tension that hung in the air.
Cobra cleared his throat to break up their silent duel. “She’s like one of those vintage editions of a Mattel Barbie: perfect and priceless when you’re looking in from the outside of the box, but then you naively open it up and out comes this psychotic blonde in high heels equipped with a meat-cleaver.”
I laughed quietly under my breath. He was definitely high, fucking idiot.
“Did you sleep with her?” David asked. A vein throbbed in his forehead, giving away how pissed he was in spite of how calm he sounded.
Cobra turned his entire body in his chair so he was facing me with an ornery grin.
“Nah, I wanted to. Who wouldn’t? I bet she’s wild in bed. Romero said she wasn’t allowed to be touched.”
David looked directly at me for elaboration, but I refused to give him any.
“I’ll deal with him on my own terms. Now if you don’t need anything…” I left the sentence hanging.
He gave a slight nod of his head and left the room without another word.
“Send someone to collect this body,” I called after him, kicking the door shut with my boot.
“Dude is determined to ride your dick,” Cobra spat, his smile instantly morphing into a scowl. “You think he knows the truth?” He asked before I could say anything about him implying he wanted to fuck Cali.
“No. If he did, we wouldn’t be at this humble abode.” I waved my hand around the room we’d been placed in.
It was nicer than some people’s houses, equipped with a living area, kitchenette, and a bed. We’d been there for two fucking weeks, playing the good alliance to buy some time.
Unbeknownst to David, we would no longer be staying there after that evening. I’d had a few spotters pinpoint Cali’s whereabouts, and I had a plan already set in motion to trap her.
Had things been different, I’d just have her snatched up and brought to my rendezvous point, but I couldn’t risk her doing something stupid in the state she was in, and I couldn’t fucking make a scene to get her myself.
I wasn’t sure who the fuck was playing on both teams, relaying information that was meant to be private, but I would find out.
I had the few people I knew I could rely on working at it without taking so much as a piss break.
It was this person’s fault Cali wasn’t safely by my side.
Instead, she was who the fuck knows where in the world she’d been way too sheltered from. If this person were smart, they’d take themselves out before I discovered their identity.
“Rome,” Grimm repeated my name, pulling me back to the situation at hand.
“Yeah, I got it.” I don’t know what I supposedly had, because my head wasn’t where it needed to be, and they both knew it.
The thing about having a mass amount of people counting on you and putting you on a pedestal was the responsibility that came with it.
But I had those same people’s respect and devout loyalty—why would I give that up?
I’d worked my ass off and done shit that would make the strongest man’s stomach turn itself inside out to get where I was.
Nothing was handed to me.
I was constantly planning, manipulating, and killing to get what I wanted. This was the beginning of the end, and I was going to make sure it turned out exactly as it needed to.
My life wasn’t a movie or piece of fiction. I was and always would be worse than any made up villain. Love wasn’t going to make me turn into fucking Saint Nick. I didn’t want to save this world. It was exactly how it should be. I damn sure didn’t want to start a revolution, I wasn’t a teenage girl, and I couldn’t give two fucks what happened to strangers.
I wasn’t seeking a way to the light, only peaceful eternal darkness. If I somehow didn’t make it out of this alive, I would be happy knowing that whatever was left of me would forever burn in the hell I had created.
“Are we ready for tonight?” I asked them, getting my head back in the game.
“More than ready. This sets everything in motion. It’s been a long time coming; we deserve this. You deserve this. My sister deserves this,” Grimm answered, openly accepting Cali as his blood for the first time.
I looked at the two men who had grown up with me, who had backed every decision I ever made, and who were just as fucked up as I was. We were a family, and Grimm was right.
We fucking deserved this.
CHAPTER THREE
The smoke was coming from a fire right in the middle of an abandoned intersection.
From our vantage point, we could see everything without completely exposing ourselves. Tito grabbed my hand to prevent me from going any closer. I was so transfixed on the scene in front of us, I didn’t pay him any mind.
“What the fuck?” he whispered, summing up my exact sentiments in three words. We stared at the gathering of men—and, I assumed, some women.
They wore black robes and white masks marked with inverted crosses on either side, so I couldn’t tell who was male or female.
Every pair of eyes w
as trained on Romero—including mine. My legs burned to run to him, but I wanted to watch this play out.
Standing directly to his left were a man and woman with thick pieces of rope around their necks. Another man knelt at his feet.
It wasn’t until I followed the burly ropes up and over the metal base of decrepit traffic lights and back down again to where Grimm and Cobra each held an end with gloved hands that I saw Jinx.
I couldn’t say I was relieved to see she was alive because I had no idea what the hell was going on. She was staring at the ground, and her dark hair was curtaining her face.
Romero was speaking, but I wasn’t close enough to hear him. I shifted slightly and strained my ears.
He lifted his right arm, and the setting sun glinted off a metal blade.
I caught the words “punishable” and “death” right before he reached down and grabbed the man in front of him by the hair, pulling his head back before lowering his knife to the man’s forehead.
The crowd seemed to ripple the second he began screaming. You could feel their antsy excitement in the air. Their murmuring grew loud enough for me to hear, but I couldn’t make out the phrase they kept repeating.
“Cali,” Tito whispered, nervously taking a step back, tightening his hold on my hand.
I ignored him and kept my eyes on Romero, watching him work. He was dressed just as he usually was: dark jeans, black boots, dark shirt. He looked just as gorgeous, too; better, actually. My stomach twisted into a gnarled knot.
His inked hand moved left and right, up and down, carving something into the man’s flesh.
His unfortunate canvas could do nothing to stop it; his hands were bound behind his back, and even if he tried to stand up and fight, he knew his death was inevitable.
Blood rolled down his forehead, dripping onto the white robe I belatedly realized he was wearing. He was one of David’s. The other man was Romero’s, and the woman looked like a run of the mill outlier.
Deviants Page 2
