Page 51 of The Devil's Viking

“Yes. Once.” Her eyes were dark and haunted. “It was about five weeks after I got there, and I was really exhausted this one day, just totally wiped out. All I wanted was to watch TV and eat Pringles and veg out, you know? Things that I’d done in my old life and which I’d never thought about as luxuries, but after weeks of five a.m. wake-up calls, and endless chores, and having Gideon summon me to his bed for the Ritual, I missed normal. By then I was sorry that I’d come to the Garden, it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be. It was – well, it was a sex cult with Gideon on top scaring everyone, his asshole Guardians allowed to beat the women until we just shut up, and us women-servants doing all the work.”

“So anyway, this one day I gave Guardian Daniel some attitude. Nothing outrageous, but I said no when he demanded that I scrub his floor with a toothbrush. Right away, he backhanded me across the room, then he went and got Gideon, who kicked me down to the basement.” She swallowed hard. “Lily was down there.”

“We talked, between me being waterboarded in freezing cold water and left naked in a cage, and her being strung up with rope by her throat, then taken down and beaten. She told me that she’d flirted with some guy in town, and Gideon had been so enraged that he’d kept her down there ever since. I figured out then that as soon as Lily was shoved out, then I was brought in. I’d been on the fringes of the Garden for about two months, anyway, in that I knew Gideon and I thought he was – was my boyfriend.”

She sighed and muttered, “So stupid.” Then she continued:

“I’d met some of the men who I later realized were Guardians, and some of the women too. It had all been really casual –like meeting for a picnic or at a restaurant – and I felt like I was part of the group. You know? Like I was totally accepted and loved for who I was, even if who I was was a strung-out drug addict, always looking for her next fix.”

“You were?” Scars asked her, surprised atthispiece of information. “Gideon knew that?”

“Sure. He met me on a street corner buying drugs.” Iris shrugged. “He picks people who are in trouble and alone, since it makes them vulnerable to the cult teachings. He takes his time, too –he worked on me for weeks, slowly drawing me in, getting to know my secrets and my history, making me feel safe. So as soon as Lily displeased him, she was kicked out and I was brought in.”

“As her replacement,” Viking said quietly. “Yeah.”

“So what happened to Lily?” Wolf asked, already knowing that the answer was ‘nothing good’. “You said that she… she went away?”

“She died, and it was because of me,” Iris said succinctly. “It was my fault.”

“What?” Viking was appalled. “Baby, there’s no way that you –”

Iris spoke over him. “After I’d been in the basement for about five days, Gideon came down and asked me if I had learned my lesson. I cried and begged and said that I’d be the best woman-servant that he’d ever had, if he could just please make it stop and take me back. He stared at me for a long time, then he agreed to let me come back upstairs. I was so pathetically grateful, I got on my knees and I kissed his fucking feet, thanking him and blubbering. Then he asked me again if I was sure that I wanted to be his servant, and I said yes. That’s when he – he gave Guardian Michael the signal.”

“The signal to… to hurt Lily?” Wolf said.

“Yes. Guardian Michael put her neck in a noose and hoisted her up, way off the ground, and let her hang there. Gideon made me – made me watch. I had to kneel stark naked on that cement floor and watch until it was all over, until she’d stopped kicking and clawing at the rope and twisting around in circles.” Iris shook her head, trying to force the horrible images away. “And as soon as Lily was quiet and still, Gideon sent the Guardians away and made me – I had to – I was already on my knees –”

“Stop,” Wolf barked. “You don’t need to say it. We get it, sweetheart.”

“And then I was taken upstairs and given new clothes and everyone acted like I’d never been gone. Like there had never been a woman named Lily.” Iris looked at Wolf. “I can tell you that Gideon murdered Lily – I saw it with my own eyes. I found out later that there were others who’d disappeared, both womenandGuardians. So it seems to me that if Gideon’s able to kill people and nobody on the outside knows anything about it, nobody’s even asking questions, isthiswhat the cop is helping him with?”

“I don’t know,” Wolf said slowly. “But it’s one hell of a great place for Ice and the twins to start.”

“They need to be careful.” Iris’ eyes were huge with fear. “Wolf, I know that the guys can take care of themselves, but Gideon is a full-blown psychopath and a sadist. He doesn’t just kill people – he loveshurtingthem, drawing out the pain,reallywatching them suffer. If he evensuspectsthat Ice and Drake and Dux are there to get to him, he’ll torture and disappear them before you ever know they’re missing. Especially –”

“Especially if a local cop is looking the other way while he’s peeling off their skin,” Scars finished for her. “Fuck, Wolf.”

“‘Fuck’ is right, man.” Wolf was already on his phone calling Ice. “That’s the word, for fuckin’ sure.”

Chapter Sixteen

Zachariah and Michael sat in a white van, watching all the doors: Blue Dragon Ink, Satan’s Bar, The Garage. There was a constant stream of huge guys going in and out, all wearing black leather cuts. The logo on their backs read ‘The Road Devils’, and so it was pretty obvious that the Guardians were in the right place.

It wasalsoobvious that these MC guys were not the types that they wanted to tangle with, so any chance of walking straight through them to retrieve Iris was a fantasy. They’d have to find a less conspicuous, less direct way of getting her back. Assuming she was actually here, of course. It was possible that she’d already moved on.

But this was all they had to go on, and so they’d exhaust it as a lead before admitting to their Master that his woman-servant was in the wind. Neither one of them wanted to have to makethatphone call, that was damn sure.

Michael idly watched a beautiful blonde woman walk out of the tattoo place with an absolute monster of a man. He squinted: it looked like the man was badly scarred on his face and his hands, which only solidified Michael’s belief that this MC was, in fact, a criminal enterprise full of men that it was better to stay away from.

He turned to Guardian Zachariah and examined the way that the grey in his thinning hair caught the dying winter sunlight. Zachariah’s cold black eyes were fixed on the blonde woman and scarred beast, and once again Michael felt nothing but resentment and frustration thatthisold manwas somehow Master Gideon’s favorite. It was incomprehensible when Michael was here, and willing, and young. He adored the Master and would never – not in a million years – question him, or hesitate to carry out his will. He’d do a much better job than Zachariah, hands-down and any day.

He just needed to prove it.

“Hey,” Zachariah said suddenly. “Look at this.”

Michael snapped his gaze back across the parking lot and he almost died when he saw Iris –that fucking traitorous bitch harlot– standing outside the bar. She was shaking a mat and looking completely happy and relaxed.

She has no right to look like this.

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