Page 31 of The Devil of London

The bark of laughter he released caused me to jump as he reversed out of my flower-lined driveway.

“I’ve got a lot of shit lined up, brat. Shit, that could go sideways quickly. The La Cosa Nostra has agreed to an alliance with us. Unfortunately, a sacrifice had to be made in order to gain their agreement.”

“What sacrifice?” I questioned, already knowing exactly what it was.

“That’s not your fucking concern,” he snapped, shutting me down. “I want you close to me through summer. My being nice depends on you, darling. The Russians will be here before the end of next week. I have been brokering deals to extend my reach. The Bratva, Chinese triad, Columbian drug cartel, ‘Ndrangheta, MS-13, the Mexican mafia, Japanese Yakuza, and the Turkish mafia will all be here to negotiate deals that’ll lead them all as one large organization. But I’ve also invited others from the Otherworld factions to join us this time.”

“Are you insane?” I asked, already picturing everything that could go wrong when combining mortals with the otherworld syndicates. “I guess I should just be happy you’ve not invited all of them?” When Khaos didn’t comment, I turned toward him. “You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t invite their underlings to join them here, Khaos.”

“You know most of the heads of each branch are from the syndicate of immortals, Aderyn. The leader of the Bratva is a leshy, for fuck’s sake. The leader of the La Costa Nostra is a demon, one who has been most helpful in arranging the Gathering of Lords this year. But between them and their underlings, I’ve decided to keep you close to me until it ends.”

The thought of so many creatures, monsters and beings in one city made my stomach churn. It made sense now why he’d agreed to marry the daughter of the La Costa Nostra. At the end of the day, Khaos was a businessman, and he’d never pretended otherwise. He’d built an empire and was now looking to expand it on a global scale.

“I don’t need your protection. I’m a big girl, and I’ve been taking care of myself for the last fifty years without your help, Khaos.”

“I wasn’t asking if you agreed. You’ll be at my club throughout the gathering. I can either make this easy on you, or hard. The choice is yours.” As he turned off the highway and onto the logging road that twisted up the mountain, I stared at the trees. The higher we climbed, the smaller the trees looked outside my window.

“That wasn’t part of our agreement, Khaos.”

“I’ll remedy it the moment we’re finished at the mill if you insist on it,” he warned.

“You’d sink me to win the monopoly on the syndicate,” I whispered through the emotion choking my words.

“I absolutely would, darling. I’ve spent over four hundred years directing each of these organizations toward this moment. If this goes down right, I’ll be able to force some powerful beings to undo something they did long ago. I won’t allow you or anyone else to interfere in this deal. Too much is riding on this for it to go south.”

“Okay,” I muttered dismissively. Obviously, my needs or my business came last on his list. But I’d worked too damn hard to bring his entire empire down on his head to stop now.

“Okay?” His tone held surprise that I hadn’t argued it further.

“That’s what I said, wasn’t it?”

“Indeed,” he muttered. “One truth, and one lie, Miss Caine.”

Unease flooded my system, and I fidgeted while chewing on my bottom lip as I stared out the window. It was one of the ways he fished for information from me. It also allowed me to be truthful without admitting it outright.

“Fine.”

“Tell me the real reason you burned my establishment down?” he asked softly.

My heart slowed before hammering against my ribs. Forcing my eyes to the passing treetops, I closed my eyes. “I don’t recall why I did it, Khaos. It was too long ago to remember every detail of what occurred on that day.” He had asked me the same question a million times before, and every time, I replied the same. “Ask me something else. Anything else.”

“Why did you murder Katherine?” his question caused my heart rate to spike without warning.

“I didn’t murder her,” I lied as I tore my gaze from the blurring countryside to look at him. His knuckles on the steering wheel were white. Khaos’s body language screamed deadly rage, which meant I had to be careful with how I responded. “She had intended to kill you. So I murdered her before she could hurt you.”Truth.

“Keep your fucking secrets, Aderyn.” His tone was bitter, which caused the air in the vehicle’s cab to drop temperature, drastically. “Murderous bitch,” he seethed.

I was, but not like he assumed. I’d lost control of magic I hadn’t even known I’d held. My mother, if you could even call her such, hadn’t warned me of our ancestry. We’d derived from a powerful line of witches within the Ottoman Empire. My father, who had purchased my mother for a single silver Akçe, had never ceased complaining about her being far too much for such a shrew. She had not been blessed with any of the magic that he’d been promised she’d held. It had also bypassed my sisters, choosing to settle completely on me.

On the day I’d burned down the bawdy house I’d been within, I’d come into my magic. Powerful emotions were a trigger for young witches. I’d gathered every ounce of courage I’d had left and crawled to the bawdy house. Once there, I had asked Nasir to hire me as a whore. He’d been especially cruel during the interview process. I’d been bent over, then fingered myself until the blood from my virginity painted my hand. Nasir had humiliated me when he had demanded I get on my knees and suck him off. I had failed to prove I would be a worthy whore for the clientele his establishment catered to. Once he’d finished telling me to go home and grow up, he’d left me alone inside the room.

My emotions had unfurled into something dark and deadly. I hadn’t realized I’d set fire to his chamber until I’d woken on his bed, dripping sweat from the inferno raging around me. The ignition of magic had rendered me unconscious. I’d sought to flee from the chamber, but fire surrounded me where I’d blacked out on the bed. It had forced me to wrap myself in his blankets, then dash through the chamber toward the hallway. There, Nasir had been outside the room with a woman, discussing something. His eyes had zeroed on me before smoke began billowing out around me.

Naked save for the bedding I’d pulled around me, I’d rushed from the inferno I’d created. Less than a week later, as I’d been burying my siblings, he’d appeared like an angel of death to claim me for my crimes. Not that I didn’t want him to know it had been an accident. Because it was, but he’d broken something inside me that day. His rejection had fractured my soul, which left me clutching the broken remnants together.

“Why won’t you fuck me?” I countered with raw emotion sharpening my question. “I’ve seen you take women to your bed who’ve been passed around until they’re ruined. Yet, with me? I am filthy, unclean, the unwanted whore of the bawdy house. But there were men who wanted to use me. You have let another fuck me while you watched.”

“Enough.”

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