Page 76 of Brutal Prince

“Cattus, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

She stalled as my words fell from my sodden mouth. I moved towards her, hungry to take her one more time. “There’s nothing to apologize for. You’re right. I’m a horrible person. I can’t believe I…” she wiped the tears from her eyes.

She shirked from my touch when I tried to comfort her. “I’m sorry. Please, Cattus. Come back to me. Tomorrow. I’ll call you,” as the door slowly closed on me, leaving me alone in an empty apartment haunted by ghosts.

I went to the floor to ceiling window that looked over the city, the East river weaving in and out as far as the eyes could see. It was high summer where the days were longer and the nights shorter and not completely dark yet. I caught the red flame of her hair jogging across the road to a silver car belonging to Cody Harrington. Yeah, I wasn’t born yesterday. Cody is as much of killer as I am; we just have different motivations.

The curvy figure of Annalise Fontaine jumped out of the car to hug my Cattus who promptly disappeared inside the sedan. Not before she glanced down the road and then up to my ninth floor apartment. I followed her gaze, but all I could see were cars parked on the side of the road and it was too dark inside the cars to see much.

I felt a drag at my chest as the silver sedan pulled away from my sight. Admittedly, I was the first to corrupt my little Cattus and now I would give my left arm to own her. She wasn’t a great beauty like girls in my harem, but she possessed a deep sadness and vulnerability that urged me to protect and perhaps if it’s possible make her happy.

This was a strange sensation that’s almost foreign to my make up that I could only assume had something to do the cord created when we first met. I was fourteen, she was twelve. She, the only daughter of a KVU janitor. She was so pretty with big soulful curious eyes. Those same eyes now hold fragments of contempt and bitterness caused by me. Yet she still gazed at me as if I was king now as she did then.

Medusa.

I entered the Gorgon into the search engine on my phone wondering why Cattus happened to choose that particular mythological character to hurl at me.

Medusa was known to be raped by Poseidon in the goddess Athena’s temple. Athena then punished her for desecrating the sacred space by cursing medusa with a head full of snakes and a gaze…

I laughed aloud. “A gaze that turned men to stone. She represents a dangerous threat meant to deter other…huh interesting,” pausing to take it in. “A dangerous threat to deter other dangerous threats. An image of evil to repel evil.”

Something stirred in the pit of my stomach. “Evil to repel evil.”

My cell beeped pulling me out of my daze. Vanderbilt’s name flashed across the screen. Did you watch the ball game?

That was his code-phrase to indicate that he wanted to talk After Dark business, which meant I had to use my secret cell hidden the safe. It was okay to talk on the cell, but any kind of texting or messaging can be recovered even after I’d deleted it. There were far too many heavy hitters involved in the After Dark Club for me to slip up.

Stepping into my office, I slid the false wall across in the closet and unlocked the safe. “What’s up?” I asked as soon as he answered.

“I’m in the process of chasing up debt,” he told me.

“Benson, you need to get laid,” I said crassly, glancing at the time on my Rolex. “I understand the dedication to the job, but it’s almost nine PM.”

“I’m almost done and I’m at home.”

“Whose debt? Ours or clients?”

“Clients taking too long to pay.”

“How many?”

“Three. I can’t complete the transaction with the students until the clients pay what they owe.”

“Okay give me their pseudonyms.” This was what the entire After Dark Club was based on. Codenames and pseudonyms. Vanderbilt worked with the pseudonyms, having no idea who the people were behind the names, while I had the list of their real names. Often clients would change their names, but we always needed confirmation that they were members of the Snake and Chalice Society. An individual cannot even get a foot in the door, let alone a deed done, unless he’s a member of the S and C.

He rattled off three names and committed them to memory while grabbing the USB stick, which held the registry of names.

When I stepped back out of my closet, I startled at the commanding presence of someone leaning against the doorframe of my office.

“I regret the day I gave you a spare key,” I said, slipping the USB stick up my sleeve while discreetly sliding the false wall across. How did a man as large as he move so quietly?

“You found Narnia yet?” he snipped. His comment bit me in the throat. It’s the second time in two weeks I’d been caught in the act inside my secret space. I’m getting careless. Normally, I put the chain on the front door before I step inside my closet. Even with a key neither he nor Vic could get in with it chained.

“What do you want?”

“I was hoping to catch you in the act with Gretta, but instead I catch you in the act of.. what exactly were you doing in there?” pointing his big finger at my closet.

“Looking for something.”

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