Page 3 of Sin and Salvation

But I made it.

I put one bare foot on the opposite side of Granite Avenue, and I knew I’d done it.

Letting out a hoarse laugh, I turned and saw one of Maxime’s armed demons on the phone, scowling at me as he spoke. My phone had buzzed all the way across the road, but now it was silent. I knew Maxime was on the other end of the line, probably cursing my name at that moment.

But he was powerless here. This was not his territory; this belonged to a group of men who made his torments look like child’s play.

The Black Hearts MC.

Cruel, cold, just as terrible as Maxime… but my only hope.

I grinned widely, and held up my hand to wave sarcastically at the goons watching me through the traffic. Then I took my phone out of my pocket, and tossed it into the street.

It cracked, the screen going dead, and a passing bus ran over it, crunching it into a slew of electronic parts and plastic bits.

Maxime would never be able to track me again.

I turned and limped into the shadows and neon of the other side of the city, disappearing into a new, unknown territory.

ChapterTwo

The only reason I knew where to go was because I’d sat through a thousand meetings in Maxime’s office, a quiet shadow in the corner, while he bitched and raved to his associates about ‘that fucking Wrathful bastard’, the Black Hearts’ president.

I’d never been to this side of Concordia, where the glitter and polish of Maxime’s world gave way to darkened streets lit only by neon. Rain fell softly, pattering on my hood as I crept down the street.

On this side, it seemed that business suits were a faux pas. I saw more ripped jeans and leather jackets in the span of ten minutes than I’d ever seen before in my life. The side of Concordia I lived on was ruled almost entirely by the Houses of Greed and Pride; they would never be caught dead in ripped jeans. Only the best for them: fur coats, pearls and diamonds, red-soled heels.

I passed a building where a female from the House of Lust leaned against the doorway at the top of the steps, lit by crimson lights. She smiled at me, running a tongue over her black-painted lips.

“Hey there, sweet thing,” she purred. “You lost?”

Words failed me. I shook my head, walking a little faster and wincing with every step.

Bikes roared by, and I clutched my coat tighter around myself, ignoring the odd cat-call as I wound deeper into Black Hearts territory.

I began to wonder if I’d been completely wrong about where to find them—Concordia was a massive city, and it would take me days to cross it all on foot—until the distant bass of music thumping in the pavement underfoot caught my attention.

It came from an enormous skyscraper, the wordsClub Onyxscrawled in vibrant purple neon above the front doors. An enormous bouncer who reminded me of Maxime’s tank-like guards stood out front, admitting demons one or two at a time, but it was the sheer amount of motorcycles parked around the club that caught my attention.

This was it—Maxime hated the Black Hearts and the club that stole business out from under him. Thanks to listening in, I knew that the bottom level was the club where many of the Black Hearts played, but just as much of it involved their work.

Such as strippers, and laundering money.

The upper levels were residences for many of the club members, and I’d heard that the President himself lived on the uppermost story.

I lurked in the shadows of an alley across the street, my hands shaking as I gripped my coat tight.

Was I really going to walk in there and beg them to take me in? What if they just dragged me straight back to Maxime?

He’d pay an arm and a leg to have me back—even if it meant he was paying his nemeses for the pleasure of doing business.

I chewed my lower lip, staring at the club’s doors and the neon sign until my eyes watered from the brightness of it, and made up my mind.

I’d already thrown my life away so I could find a new one. And the only way I was getting that new life was by walking through those doors.

I squared my shoulders and walked across the road. Well, it was more like a scuttle, followed by furtively jumping in the back of the line.

Two pretty demon women in front of me glanced backwards, raising their eyebrows when they took in my hunched shoulders and general bedraggled appearance.

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