Page 16 of Seth
Who the hell is Gustavo DeSilva?Remembering the name, Seth stalked to his studio, turned his PC on, and slumped into the ergonomic chair. Fingers flew over the keyboard as he typed the name.
With his elbowspropped against the desk, Seth sat with his eyes closed, fingers interlaced, and both thumbs pressing on the spot between his brows. He had been sitting like this for at least thirty minutes, wondering how on earth, from all people in Vienna, he’d crossed roads with a drug lord from the S-Syndicate, Gustavo DeSilva. His smartwatch buzzed again, demanding he work out, but he ignored it.
Annoyance dripped into the pool of accumulated distress, threatening to overflow. No wonder the man looked at him with such undisguised amusement. A person who had seen it all must have been truly entertained by his night encounter.
What was a person like him doing on the construction site?But he couldn’t process the thought as the shriek of a doorbell brought his hands down on the desk. He jumped to his feet, surged out of the room and down the stairs. He unlatched the dead-bolt lock and yanked the metal door open.
The wooden chest stood on his porch.
He gave him back.Seth’s mind raced. He had been so sure about Gustavo’s agenda that now he had hard times believing his eyes.Why?
His nerves tightened as he listened to the wind playing in the foliage and the retreating roar of a car. Whoever delivered Justin didn’t stick around.
No one would give up on such leverage.He glanced down at the chest and the beautiful verdigris covering the bronze elements.I don’t understand…This has to be a trap. But if he wanted to fuck me over, he would have done it already, wouldn’t he? No, he wants something else. What? Anyway, I can’t leave Justin here.
He hauled the chest inside surprised by its lightness. Throwing a glance outside, he kicked the door closed, then turned toward the delivery. A fine tremor went through him as he dropped to his knees. Bronze elements tickled his fingertips as he unlatched the chest and lifted the lid.
A sticky pool of disappointment spread through his heart. Seth laughed, realizing he let himself hope again. Air breaking out of his trachea filled his ears with hoarse whizzes.
His cheek twitched, hands tensed around the edges of the chest; metal corners sinking into his palms. The rusty sand was still there but in a lesser amount. If before the sand had filled the chest to the brim, now it barely covered half of it.
With an effort, he let go of the chest and raked his fingers through the sand searching for a note, a hint, or anything else to explain the rules of the game, finding nothing.
Like a sandstorm in a desert, his rage welled up. His muscles tensed, twitched, as he fought the urge to succumb to blind fury and overturn the chest.
His laughter stopped as he lowered the lid.
“You want to get my attention?” he mouthed. “Fine, you have it.”
* * *
What am I doing?Sagging against the driver’s seat, Gustavo fought a grin as he imagined Seth’s frantic ransack through the chest and anger twisting his face. His opinion on Loco kept changing to the point where he didn’t know what to think of him anymore.
The clear emotions flowing over Seth’s face as he’d offered him the sand awoke strange desires in the pit of his core. The pure, vibrant hatred in Seth’s eyes scalded him with a craving to see more to the point where he’d acted recklessly.
The insanity must be contagious.Gustavo was known for his self-control and cold head, yet he’d gotten carried away and nearly exposed himself. Even now, a part of him had intended to return the dead body to Seth just to see what he would do with it, but the mere thought of this game being over ruled out Gustavo’s intention.
He coveted the same adrenaline, the acute intoxication he’d felt on the construction site. The desire to turn the car around and meet Loco again, to look into his eyes and learn his every little secret so no corner of his dark soul would be left undiscovered became excruciating. Burning with acrid curiosity, he wondered how it would feel to meet the beast privately, face to face.
Yet, he didn’t move, remembering his death sentence in Seth’s pupils. Gustavo had no doubt, that if he showed his face now, he would have to fight for his life, and killing Loco was the last thing he wanted. At least for now.
When you want to tame a beast and make him lick your hands, you have to arm yourself with patience.
The heat, coming from the roof, baked his neck; the body in his trunk would start stinking soon. He needed to get it back to the morgue and quickly.
Gustavo blinkedat the sharp blue light streaming from his phone. He squinted; in the dead of night, it was painful to look at the screen. Diego’s message hovered above him, but his dormant mind refused to understand the meaning of it.
“What time is it?” A hoarse voice preceded an arm wrapping around his chest. He side-glanced at Hans’ scrunched-up face framed with curly, straw hair, then back at the phone.
“Three a.m.” He refocused on the message.
‘I’m at The Citadel. You should come over.’
It took Gustavo a moment to remember the name of the BDSM club and connect the dots. He blinked, then sighed.Why on Earth does he need me? At such time too.
“Who is that?”
“Just Diego. Sleep.”
