Page 34 of The Devil After Dark
Cassio let out a sigh. “I won’t tell you that.”
“You can take those stupid demands you rattled off tonight and shove them up your ass,” I said quietly.
“Okay.”
“We are done,” I said firmly.
Cassio’s hand stroked down my hair. “No, Angel. We aren’t.”
“I never want to see you again,” I whispered as tears silently fell down my cheeks.
thirty-seven
CASSIO
I fucked up.I wasn’t about to surrender or give up, but I had definitely fucked up. Liana had completely broken in my arms. Holding her while she broke tore my chest right open. I hadn’t even checked the camera feeds for her home or work in days. Causing pain to others was a trait bred into me—until I hurt her.
Remington and Jason were sitting in the chairs across from me in The Devil After Dark. Remington, the smart man that he is, hadn’t whispered a word about what happened that night. He’d taken one look at me when I walked in after leaving Liana and clearly knew things had gone badly.
I had given Jason the barest of details and he’d laid into me immediately—like I didn’t already know I’d fucked up. He knew everything about me, rarely judging my questionable choices and tastes, and even he thought I’d fucked up. I can’t imagine what he would have to say to me if he knew the entire extent of what happened. Jason had also disabled the tracker I had on her phone—he at least let me keep the camera feeds. MaybeJason thought keeping the cameras was safer than going to Liana’s to remove them. Either way, I had somehow kept myself from checking them. Maybe I didn’t want to see how bad Liana was … or maybe I was more afraid I would see her retaliating in some way. I would give her some space … then I would approach her like a normal and sane person. No more of my own bullshit. She deserved better.
“Cass, it’s time to go,” Jason said from his seat. Jason and Remington had caught three of Delacourt’s men somewhere they shouldn’t be and it was time to go find out what they had been up to. I let my eyes linger on the black of my computer screen, thinking about Liana, then I took all my anger and wrapped it up into a tight ball in my chest. I’d let it out later.
The Dungeon, as we fondly called it, was underneath the lower levels of The Devil After Dark. In a city as old as this one, there were countless rat holes and tunnels beneath streets and buildings. This particular one was wet and about as terrifying as they come. The three Delacourt gang members were all tied to chairs, their faces varying degrees of bloody and bruised. “Care to tell me why you’ve been lurking around my businesses?” I asked casually as I entered the dank stone cavern.
The one in the middle spat blood into the sheen of water at his feet before glaring at me. I lifted the gun in my hand and looked at it. Then I pointed it at him and shot him between the eyes, blowing his brains against the wall and into the water behind him. The man on his left didn’t even flinch, but the one on his right made a startled sobbing noise. I approached that one, tucking my gun into the back of my waistband and crouching down in front of him. “Tell me,” I said simply. This part—being a completely terrifying crime boss—came too easily for me.
The man was already crying. I grabbed his chair and yanked it sohe was now staring at his companions, one dead and one sitting stone faced in his own chair. I pulled a switchblade from my pocket and pointed it at his stone face friend. “I am going to cut him up to show you exactly how I am going to cut you up if you don’t tell me. Your choice is to die like he does, or tell me and die like your other friend,” I informed him. A new dripping noise found its way to my ear and I dropped my eyes. The bastard had pissed himself.
I moved to his companion and began the unceremonial work of slowly killing him. His screams echoed against the stones as both Remi and Jason just stood silently watching. Either of them were equipped to take over this particular form of interrogation, but I needed to work out some of my own feelings—And I think they both knew it. This poor sap was just getting the brunt of my personal life problems and frustrations. Liana was so fucking perfect and I broke her in a way I hadn’t intended. I wanted hermine. I wanted her ever submissive tome. I wanted to raise her up to be the queen of this underworld beside me all while being my perfect dirty whore behind closed doors.
“Liana!” the man under my knife screamed.
I froze. Had I just imagined that he screamed the name ofmywoman? “What did you say?” I seethed between my teeth.
“Liana,” the man gasped. “Merrick knows who she is and what she is to you.” My magic boiled with my rage at what the man had admitted. I knew Merrick wasn’t stupid enough to not keep an eye on me, but to know he had Liana’s name on his radar in connection to me made me beyond territorial.
“What is he going to do?” Jason asked from the side of the room. Jason knew better than to interrupt, but I saw the water on the floor swirling as my magic seeped from me. Jason was interrupting because I was about to lose complete control.
“He wants her for the games,” the sobbing man who had pissed himself whispered. I lost control. Both men’s bodies snapped as their bones all broke in odd angles. They didn’t even have time to screamas I snapped the life from them and the chairs along with their bodies tumbled into the thin layer of dirty water on the floor.
“Well I was hoping to get a little more information from them first,” Jason said stiffly from his spot near the door.
I kicked my desk chair out of the way as I bent over my desk and slammed my password into the keys of my computer. The screen brightened and a moment later I had every camera feed for Liana on my screen. She was in none of them. I hit a few buttons and they were all rolling back in time. I scanned the feeds. Nothing. An entire day and she wasn’t on the footage. I kept it rolling back. Nothing. Two days. Three days. Four. Then I saw her. Where had she gone four days ago?
I tried to pull up the tracker on her phone. Nothing—because Jason had disabled it. My computer shattered as I flung it against the wall. “Where is she?” I bellowed. Had Merrick already found her?
“Cass,” Jason’s stern tone made me turn. Fire in his eyes met my lethal glare. “What do you need?”
“She’s been gone for four days. Find her.”
thirty-eight
LIANA
Cassio did not showup to my house for an entire glorious week. His chauffeur didn’t show up for my commute either. Maybe he had heard me and would leave me alone. I wanted nothing to do with him. Or at least that was what I was telling myself. There was still a small empty pit in my stomach every time I caught myself thinking he was actually gone. I shoved the feeling away. I wantednothingto do with him. I zipped the zipper on my suitcase and grabbed my purse from the table. I was going to have a nice long weekend without him too. A nice long weekend at the world’s most boring conference, but I was just excited to get away for a few days.
The weekend away had been bliss. I felt rested and although the conference had been as boring as I expected, I made good use out of the fancy hotel room and the room service. I was starting to feel like anormal human being again. My return flight had been delayed and it was after ten by the time the hired car dropped me in front of my building.
