Page 2 of Midnight Torment

Nicklas stared at the mess I’d left. “I don’t think there is anyone left to kill since you’ve been busy. You doing okay?”

The answer to that was no, but the only people I would be discussing that with were Xavier and Ash. They were currently with Megan, and I had no intention of distracting either of them until I got home.

I barely took the time to grab anything other than my wallet and passport when I got back to the Vendetta Brotherhood’s estate. My ticket was waiting for me at the airport, and although it took me three flights to get home instead of one, I was still on English soil fourteen hours sooner.

I had left one of our anonymous cars at the airport, so I was on the road and heading straight for Megan when I emerged from the airport. The road disappeared around me as my foot pressed heavily on the accelerator.

While on the plane, I had had time to consider the Dante problem, reconsider it, kill him a thousand different ways, and then drive myself slowly insane. How had he noticed Megan when no one else had?

The entrance to Xavier’s home came into view and my heart thudded in my ears, an image of everyone lying dead inside. My mouth dried and my palms were sweaty as I swung into the drive.

His security patrols were at the gate and waved at me since I had helped pick them with Xavier. The gravel crunched under the wheels of my car, the lush gardens welcoming me on either side. But nothing else mattered except getting to the woman inside that house.

Dante was a crazed killer who was involved in the sick and twisted world of the skin trade. He traded in souls and cared little about the lives he ruined. I was a monster, but he was something worse. He was a demon who had clawed his way up from the depths of Hell to pollute this world. He had no soul and no conscience, which were what made the monsters of the world like me able to find love in a barren existence. I didn’t deserve Megan but that didn’t mean I was going to do the right thing and stand aside again to allow her to find a man worthy of her. I had done that once and nearly died every single day imagining him in her life.

I hauled the handbrake on and abandoned my car before taking the stone steps two at a time up to the house. Voices echoed from the conservatory, and I followed the noise to find Cassandra chatting to Lucrezia. Catarina sat typing on her phone.

I forced every muscle in my body to relax so no one would realise the emotions coursing through me.

“What’s going on here?” I braced myself on the doorframe with my hands in my pockets.

“They were painting their nails earlier,” Xavier said, walking up the corridor from the kitchen. “I narrowly avoided having pink nails with polka dots.”

My eyebrow rose at the image of him with full make-up and nails done. “I’m sure you would have pulled it off.”

Xavier barked out a laugh. “Yeah, I could use Cassandra’s stilettos since she can’t wear them at the moment.”

“Your penis made me fat and I can’t wear my shoes,” Cassandra lamented, and Xavier’s lips twitched at the familiar complaint.

I didn’t want to point out that his penis didn’t manage pregnancy all by himself. I fought the urge to storm through the house, searching it until I found Megan.

“Ash is fielding another call about Matteus,” Xavier said, rolling his eyes. “And I think Megan went to her room to take a call from work.”

He knew the real reason I hadn’t sat down with everyone, and let me know without raising the suspicion of the other women in the house, since they were constantly prying into everyone’s relationships. Unless the other Council members hired a spiritual medium, they would have a problem contacting Matteus since his ashes were in the vault at Blackwood Manor.

“I’m going to hit the shower since I’ve been travelling for nearly a day. I’ll catch you up with everything I’ve learnt when I feel more human.”

Megan’s room overlooked the back of the house. She tended to be a light sleeper and the sounds of vehicles in the drive woke her. She stood with a halo of sunlight surrounding her from the window as she chatted to her secretary about her appointments. Her golden hair was in a riot of curls since she wasn’t in work and she hadn’t tamed it.

“Honestly, Kerri. I can’t fit him in at short notice. I don’t care who this new client is, I prefer to look over their file first before I agree to take them on.” She fell silent for a moment or two. “I know he’s my boss, but he can’t demand that I take a new client without my normal checks.”

I was already on high alert since the incident in Cuba, but now all my instincts were screaming in my head. I prowled across the floor, my hand removing the phone from Megan’s. She turned huge blue eyes to me, her mouth opening in shock.

“Kerri, this is Jordan Berkeley. Megan is taking an extended leave of absence. I’ll speak to James myself,” I said.

“This is highly irregular,” she sputtered down the phoneline.

“It is, but then so is everything right now. Have a nice day.” I hung up without waiting for a reply. James was the other founding member of Benson and Parsons. I doubted he would argue with me considering he’d had dealings with the Council in the past.

Megan’s gaze dropped to her phone in my hand. “That was a business call.”

I didn’t reply, merely engulfing her in a hug, my chin finding its natural position on top of her head. Her arms slowly snaked around my waist and her body moulding into mine.

“Is everything okay?” she whispered against my chest.

Yes and no.

I could finally breathe again because she was here and alive, her heat soaking into me in reassurance. The flip side of that coin was that I was about to wage war because someone had dared to look at what was mine.

---