Page 28 of Iblis' Affliction
He would have regretted making that deal, but Talha had many enemies. After seeing what Slater had done to his former master, he hoped that no one else would ever have Slater, as he had no desire to share Behçet’s fate.I have to learn how to deal with him or put him down.
Shaking his head, he cast thoughts about Slater out of his mind, and steered them to his business affairs. He made a mental note to visit Ejder in the hospital, before seeing his police informant to ensure he got rid of all the evidence left after the shootout.
His fingertips creased. Turning the water off, he snatched a towel, wrapped it around his hips, and wandered back to the bedroom.
His calm evaporated as soon as his gaze landed on Slater who sat on his bed in the exact position as the evening before. With a black throwing knife, he was slicing an apple, sending piece after piece into his mouth.
“Breakfast, Master?” The innocent look on his face made Talha’s teeth grind. Cutting another piece off the apple, Slater stretched out his hand and offered it to Talha.
“What do you think you are doing?” Talha felt like an idiot. The mental turmoil settled in his chest as Slater peered back at him. He could kick Slater out or beat him bloody, but he had a haunting feeling that Slater had a hidden agenda. More than that, Talha wasn’t sure he would win a physical confrontation. Behçet had been a strong man, a good fighter, yet Slater didn’t have a single bruise on his body. Using a weapon to threaten him sounded like a horrible idea. Raised in Mardin, Talha learned that a weapon should only be drawn if you intended to use it. Talha followed that rule, not wanting the reputation of a barking dog that never bites. If Slater didn’t respect his words, why should he respect his actions? What good would empty threats be if he needed Slater to work for him? Instead of hitting the man or threatening him, he said, “If you are trying to piss me off, you are doing very well.”
“Hmm…” Slater’s face stretched in a toothy smile. He opened his mouth and put in the piece of apple that Talha hadn’t taken.
Is it a sick game? Is he testing me?
“Didn’t we talk about it yesterday?”
“We did. Master must have forgotten. Slater stays here from today.”
Talha grimaced. Suppressing a groan, he scratched his cheek.If Slater stays in my house we will end up killing each other. If I wake up tomorrow and he is in my room, I will fucking put him down…In and out, counting till fifteen on every inhale, he took a few deep breaths, willing himself to calm down.
A vice of tension releasing his throat, he drifted to the closet and fished out some underwear.
“No, Slater doesn’t.” He rolled his eyes, realizing that he was starting to talk about Slater in the third person.I barely know him, yet he’s already fucking with my mind.Dropping the towel to the floor, he put the black cotton trunks on, then added, “I have no time for this sick game of yours. Gather your things, you are moving out.”
Disregarding the ripper’s presence, he grabbed the black pants.
A chilling low voice reached his ears from behind. “No. Slater stays here.”
“Listen…” Pushing a calming breath out, Talha stuffed the pants back into the closet, faced the younger man, then said as clear as he could, “I don’t know what duties you carried out before, but with me, it will be simple. I pay you money—you kill for me. If I need you—I call for you. The rest of the time, you pretend you don’t exist. Understand? I don’t need you to protect me twenty-four seven. I don’t need you in my house and my fucking bedroom.”
“Master is joking again, huh?” Slater’s voice trembled with something deep and dark. “Master is funny. That wasn’t the deal. Slater stays.”
Talha shrugged. The more time he spent with Slater, the more he doubted that someone like him could be the bloodiest ripper of Anatolia. “I’m not even sure you are who you say you are. For all I know, you’re just a psycho who butchered Behçet. More than that, you haven’t proved yourself useful to me, yet you are already this close…” Talha used his index finger and thumb to make his point. “...to exhausting my patience. I have no reason to tolerate this… whatever this is. It’s my house, my rules, my fucking bedroom. Yet, you have no respect for any of this.”
SHHHHcame without a warning. The black knife ripped through the air, sinking deep into the carved wood of the closet a mere inch away from Talha’s face. Talha’s heart dropped as his eyes followed the trajectory of the knife. In disbelief, he gripped the handle, then tugged it out of the wood.
“Never doubt me, Master.” An unconcealed warning vibrated in Slater’s voice, and Talha faced his ripper.
That’s it...
“I have lots of patience. I always give people a chance.” Talha’s jaw hurt with pressure as he pushed the words through gritted teeth. “I can be forgiving; I can be generous. However, I am going to say this once. If you ever do something like that again, make sure you don’t miss because there will not be the third time.”
“Slater never misses. A fly, Master,” Slater hissed.
Slowly, as if in a dream, Talha unglued his gaze from the reaper and dragged it to the knife. A fat, green fly jerked its legs in the air, stubbed through the guts with a long, thin throwing knife. He faced the door, but Slater had already disappeared.
THE FOLLOWING DAYS, THE FALLOUTof the war swept over Talha, distracting him from thinking about Slater. Ejder’s shoulder was healing well, but Talha still insisted on him staying in the hospital for at least a week. The ripper seemed to have gotten the message, as he didn’t show up again, but the haunting feeling of someone watching his every move never left Talha. It turned the night he invited a woman over into a complete disaster. No matter how many times he searched his room for signs of intrusion, he had never been able to catch Slater, only the faint smell of cloves and wood. But with every passing day, he grew more and more tolerant of the never ending feel of Slater’s presence.
The shoot-out in the mosque stirred up Istanbul’s criminal world. Left without their leader, the Asani Cartel wallowed in blood as Behçet’s young, sadistic brother tried to prove his right to inherit the family domain.
Standing in the middle of the cool, dim hall of his mansion, Talha held a fat paper envelope in his hand.
“Slater?” he called out. The sound of his voice, smacking against the marble walls shattered into a dozen fractions. “I know you are here.”
Separating from the impenetrable shadow behind the marble sculpture of Venus, Slater took a step forward.
“What is it, Master?” The look he gave Talha brought a frown of concern to his face and raised a question,Did I insult him?The reaper was paler than usual; his eyes feverishly glinted with a silent challenge and something else he couldn’t catalogue.
