“Byron, go and find me Acheron,” Damyr ordered. His fists clenched at his sides and he looked like he was one second away from murdering someone. Probably Byron. I wondered why Damry kept the guy around if all he did was wind him up.

“No one ‘finds’ Acheron,” Byron said, tucking his hands into his trouser pockets. He looked far too casual considering the way Damyr was looking at him. “But sure, I’ll see if I can find him. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“Well, that’s not a long list,” Vlad scoffed. He was crouched over the body, his shirt and waistcoat stretching tautly across his broad shoulders. He looked like he’d been on a night out. The last time I’d seen him, he’d been dressed in black combat gear.

“Benjamin,” Damyr said quietly, drawing my attention back to him. “You should go.”

I folded my arms across my chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Benjamin, the more you see, the more you’re at risk.”

“Well, I guess you should have thought about that before you kidnapped me.”

Vlad sniggered before trying to hide it with a cough but when I looked down at him, he was completely focussed on the body.Probably wise.

“Benjamin—”

“Damyr, you can growl my name all you want. I’m not leaving.”

His lips pinched into a tight grimace and his nostrils flared. Damyr was probably used to everyone doing whatever he wanted at the drop of a hat, but I wasn’t going to fall in line. I wasn’t one of his little minions he could bend to his will, no matter how many times he said my name with a growl. Although, I did happen to quite like the sound of it. All deep and throaty. It made goosebumps ripple along my skin.

“Fine,” he eventually said.

“Fine,” I snapped. “Besides, your victim here didn’t die of his wounds.”

“What?” Vlad asked, his chocolate eyes finding mine.

Yeah, I might have had a bit of a smug look on my face as I stared at Damyr. “There’s a slight blue tinge on the lower half of his face and you can just about see the petechiae in his eyes. Those point to asphyxiation. I’m sure if I got a closer look, I could probably tell you that most of the wounds on his body were done postmortem.”

“Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make this look like Lavaeux killed him.” Vlad’s brows were drawn down in a sharp arch as he stood next to Damyr. “This smells like trouble.”

“It seems personal,” I added. Damyr raised a brow in question. “It was clearly delivered to your address, and it came with a bow. You seemed to know who the guy was which suggests you’re being targeted for a reason.”

“Not just a pretty face then,” Damyr’s wife said sweetly. I’d forgotten she was there. Well, tried to. It was hard to ignore the gloriously beautiful, well-dressed supermodel that was married to the guy who’d recently had his tongue down my throat. The wife he’d failed to mention. Still wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the guy was a criminal. Not sure I should be giving him anything really.

“Do you still need to be here, Lucia?” Damyr said through gritted teeth.

“Oh, don’t be like that. It’s starting to get fun,” she replied with a pout.

God, her voice was annoying. There was a false sweetness to it that had me wincing.

Damyr beckoned Vlad closer and whispered something in his ear. It was too low for me to hear what was said, and Vlad’s blank expression gave nothing away.

“Lucia, why don’t you come with me?” Vlad said, his voice as smooth as silk. There was something familiar about the tone he was using and something uncomfortable churned in my gut. Lucia giggled softly and followed Vlad, over to the main entrance and out through the door. Huh. I didn’t think she was going to leave that easily.Weird.

“Tell me what you see,” Damyr said, pointing towards the body.

“You could say ‘please’,” I muttered under my breath and knelt closer to the man in the box.

“Please,” he grumbled, catching me by surprise.

I looked up at him and his tongue darted out to wet his lips. My heart lurched in my chest and desire zipped along my skin. He stared at me for a long, hard moment and held me captive in his sultry gaze. The world could burn down around me, and it wouldn’t distract me. I’d never felt anything this intense, this terrifying.

This goddamnsoul shaking.

“I like the way you look on your knees, Banjamin.” He reached his finger out and traced my bottom lip. This wasn’t the place for this, with a corpse right next to me, but I couldn’t resist, even if I wanted to. This wasn’t like me, I could be impulsive, but not normally likethis. Fuck, I had a sudden urge to rip my clothes off and let Damyr fuck me next to a corpse. Afucking corpse! This was madness. It had to be. It was the only explanation I could come up with for parting my lips and letting Damyr sink two fingers to the back of my throat and hold me there. My mouth open wide, saliva pooling and running over my chin.

Damyr’s nostrils flared as my throat constricted around his fingers. He dragged them back and forth along my tongue and shit, my dick was instantly hard in my pants.