Page 23 of Monsters we Crave

Aidoneus stopped and stood so that he was facing both of us. “Exactly what it sounds like. Ezra was using you to get to me.”

Ezra didn’t deny or confirm the accusation, but his entire body tensed in anger.

I wasn’t naïve or foolish enough to take Aidoneus’ words at face value, but it was just the same for the opposite. My whole life seemed to be unraveling at a speed I couldn’t comprehend, and deceit and secrets were at the root of it all.

That didn’t matter right then.

Whatever Ezra may have lied to me about, I didn’t want to see him dead, but I had no idea how to save him from this.

“I…I don’t know what to do.”

Aidoneus tilted his head and looked at me with an inscrutable expression for a brief moment. “You don’t have to do anything. I will handle it all.”

“I don’t want—”

“Wait,” he interjected, beginning to circle Ezra, a sinister smile on his lips. “You know, he always believed you and he had something special. That he could protect you from the world's dangers. From me.” Aidoneus paused, and one of the Enforcers took a silent step back. “Look at her, Ezra. Isn’t she beautiful? Does she look like someone that belongs in the slums?” He gestured towards me, drawing Ezra's gaze in my direction.

I felt exposed under their combined stares, like a deer caught in headlights, wearing nothing but Aidoneus’ suit jacket. It covered everything while leaving no guesses as to what we’d been doing.

“She never sounded like that when you fucked her, did she? Never begged for more or came so hard she drew blood.”

I clenched my fist, guilt gnawing at my gut along with a slow-churning rage.

“He didn’t see anything, Visari,” Aidoneus stated. “I would never allow another man to see you like that.” He reached out and took hold of Ezra’s flaccid cock, gently extending it and brushing his thumb over the tip.

I blinked, taken aback by the act. Ezra’s chest heaved like an enraged bull, but he made no move to stop Aidoneus from doing whatever he intended.

“This itty-bitty cock did nothing for her. I almost feel bad for you.” He held his other hand out and issued an order in his dialect that I couldn’t understand. The enforcer closest to him fluidly removed a gun from his side and handed it to Aidoneus.

The sight of it made my stomach drop. He cocked his head and ran the barrel up and down the length of Ezra’s cock. I could do nothing as all the color drained from his face.

“It sickens me that you put your hands on what was mine, Ezra. You’re absolute fucking scum. A bottom feeder I wouldn’t allow to eat a whore’s ass.”

“She isn’t yours,” Ezra seethed, his skin drenched in sweat.

“No? She's draped in my jacket, resting in my suite, and very soon she'll be wholly mine, in every sense of the word. How does it feel? Knowing you couldn’t protect her from me?”

I wanted to scream at him to stop, but his visceral reaction when I simply mentioned Ezra’s name warned me from pleading on his behalf. Ezra’s eyes met mine, and I could see that his fierce defiance now simmered with raw pain and rage. The secrets he kept from me hurt us both. There was so much we needed to say, and I could feel it in my soul that we wouldn’t get the chance to do so.

I opened my mouth to speak, and the look that came across his face stopped me cold.

“You won't break her spirit, Aidoneus. No matter what you do. She’s stronger than you think.”

Tears sprang to my eyes, and I slowly shook my head. I wasn’t strong, not at all. I wasn’t brave either. The idea that everyone had of me was nothing like who I believed myself to be.

“Your concern is touching.” Aidoneus chuckled coldly and moved so that his back was to me. “I wanted you to have one last memory of her. I think her screaming my name is fitting; shame you won’t be alive to cherish it.”

He raised the gun and pulled the trigger.

The world seemed to stop.

He kept going until he ran out of bullets. Ezra's body fell limp, the light in his eyes fading away. A stifling silence gripped the gardens, the air thick with the finality of death. I felt a scream building up inside me, but before it could escape, it transformed into gut-wrenching sobs.

My knees buckled, and I would have collapsed had Aidoneus not caught me, holding me up with an iron grip.

"Steady now," he murmured, his voice chillingly calm. "No need for dramatics. The night's still young."

He tossed the emptied weapon to the Enforcer who had handed it to him and then, with surprising gentleness, lifted me into his arms. From over his shoulder, my gaze collided with Ezra’s empty eyes, a sight that would forever haunt me.

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