Page 6 of Deal with the Devil

He laughs a dark, gleeful sound that rattles the very soul inside my body. I’m rewarded with another hit, this one open palmed. It stings, but I don’t feel more blood. “You should be grateful he’s taking other women.” He flips me around, so I’m face down on the floor, and terror unlike anything I’ve ever known in my life bleeds from every pore as I feel his hand move to my ass. Over my little pyjama shorts, he finds the part of my ass and shoves his thumb between my cheeks. I try to crawl away from him. Try to fight or buck him off but it’s no use. None at all ashe continues, “He has particular tastes—a demon you don’t feed with your sweet little pussy. You don’t want him taking other women, you’re going to shoulder the burden of those tastes, and we both know you’re not woman enough for that.”

“Don’t—touch me.”

As though to prove a point, he pulls his hand back and slaps me so hard on my ass cheek, I can’t help but whimper.

Can a slap bruise? I think I’m going to bruise.

This can’t be happening to me.Because of Antonio.

“Tell me you understand.”

“Never. I’ll never go back to him. Not after this.”

“Wrong. So very wrong,” he purrs. And I realize then the mistake I’ve made as he hauls me up and uses me like a punching bag. I take a quick hit to my belly and another to my ribs, all while he holds my hair. I feel as though it’s going to be ripped from my skull as he holds me in place against his violent assault.

This monster enjoys this.

“Stop,” I beg, coughing and tasting what I think is blood. “Please.”

He throws me back to the bed and my body bounces from the force before he’s straddling me again. Softly, he asks, “Are we ready to do what we’re told?”

Crying, broken, I nod.This won’t end until I agree. “Yes.”

“We’ll go over things once more, just in case you forgot in the heat of your lesson.” I cry harder. “You will go back to him. On your hands and knees, you will crawl to him. You will submit. The engagement isn’t off. It’s never been off, and the wedding will continue as planned next summer if he doesn’t choose to push it. You will be the doting fiancée who becomes the supportive wife. This includes supporting him in his need for release, however he wishes to take that release. He is a powerful man, a stressed man. You don’t want him bringing that stress home, turning it on you. So, you will allow him to turn it on others, on lesser women, and you will support him. You will also make amends with your friend. She misses you.” He’s speaking as though he’s reciting a script, and I can’t help but sob harder. “You will be faithful and loving. You will take no other man for as long as you live, which, if you fail to see these simple terms through, will be a very short life.” He leans down until his mask nearly grazes my face as he whispers, “Are the terms understood?”

I give a choppy nod and he pushes up from the bed, standing at the side as he pushes a hand into his pocket. The tiny clink of gold connecting with my nightstand is jarring. But it’s not as jarring as the way he taps his finger on the surface next to my engagement ring. “Don’t make me come back here, Nevaeh.” I can’t stop crying. I can’t even speak as he watches methrough the mask. “You’ll need medical, but you won’t talk to the police. If you do, well,” he chuckles dryly. “I’ll let your mind wander from there. Just know I’m a very capable man, a professional, if you will. I take my work very seriously.” He leans down to finger my face, the touch more like a caress than anything else. I still flinch, but I also note the terrifying fact that he’s wearing gloves. Black latex gloves.

My heart seizes in my chest.

He pulls back, gives a hard tap on the desk again where the glimmer of a diamond catches a hairline shimmer of moonlight, before he’s gone. A ghost in the shadows. A monster in the night.

I roll to the side and vomit.

three

Kane

The doors to the hospital’s emergency department roll open as I near. It’s been two years since what happened to Wrenlee, happened. I’ve not quite gotten over it.

Digging someone you care about from their grave, not sure what you’re going to see when you do, isn’t something a person just gets over. Watching your brother fall to his knees, shredding his fingertips as he screams her name, branding it on the wings of a violent prayer—isn’t something a man lets go of. At least, not me.

That day changed me. I’ve always been protectiveof the people in my life, the ones I really care about. Now, I’m a little overbearing, I can admit. But my family understands it, and they deal with it. Gracefully.

I become more overbearing when one of the guys leaves the girls behind for any reason. Right now, Ian is home with his grandmother. After losing both parents in a fire at a young age, Ian had been raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather had passed only last year, and now his grandma is ready to make the move into something smaller. A community, she says, where she’ll have other people around more.

So, he took the week to tour such communities with her in New York, as the city has always been her home and she’s unwilling to leave.

“Kane.” Dr. Palmer lifts his chin in greeting. “Candace is with a patient right now, but she’ll be out soon.”

“I can wait.” I lean into the large circular desk that sits sprawled in the center of the ER, flashing a flirty smile at one of the other nurses. She’s blonde, but it’s not the kind of sunshine caramel that’s been dominating my mind for the last week.

We’d been at the club in support of a new band the label had signed. Most times when we’re out, we get plays for our attention that can be on the extreme side. It was fun for a while. I took most of the women up ontheir offers, especially after Wrenlee, when I’d been trying to drown visions of her death-gray skin from my mind.

When the sunshine girl had collided with me, begging me to help her, I’d thought it had been a play. I’d thought that until I caught the fear in her eyes. Raw fear. Toxic.

Then when ass-face appeared in his suit, a vicious possessiveness in his eyes, I knew it wasn’t a play. She’d been in trouble, and I’d wanted to help.

Only, as I walked her out to her rusted car with the scent of her like caramel drizzled over roasted marshmallow, sun, and sand caught in my lungs, the memory of her tiny body pressed to mine, I’d wanted to do a whole lot more than help her. I’d wanted to keep her with me. Ensure she was safe and stayed that way. Protect her. Shield her.

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