Page 83 of His Favorite Color is Blood
A smile pulled at Misha’s mouth. “Will I what?”
Grim hid his face in Misha’sneck. “Marry me.”
There was a hand on his nape, petting him as if he was a kitten, and Misha wrapped his legs around Grim’s hips.
“I will.”
The yell of Grim’s cell phone ripped him out of his slumber. He sat up, frantically looking around the dark room. What time was it?
He reached for the phone and grabbed it without thinking. “Yes?” he muttered, trying not to be annoyed as he squeezed his eyes shut to release the muscles around them and feel less sand under his eyelids.
“I expect to see you in an hour. The coordinates are in the text message.” Zero’s modified voice pushed Grim out of sleep and right into a nightmare.
His eyes darted to Misha, who stirred underneath the covers next to him. His heart started thudding when he met his lover’s eyes in the dark.
“We will be there.”
Chapter 26
Misha
The prospect of meetingZero eye to eye was making Misha sweat like a pig going to slaughter. He would do it though. He wouldn’t run. He had Grim on his side, and he was not giving the fucking bastard the satisfaction of seeing Misha cower in fear. He held on to Grim’s forearm as they drove out of town and followed the monotone voice of the navigation system in Grim’s cell phone, which broke the eerie silence in the car once in a while. Tension was jolting off both him and Grim without either of them saying a thing.
Before they left the clubhouse, Grim had contacted Tooth and Priest about where they were going, but with the narrow time window Zero gave them, there was no way they could wait for the Coffin Nails to show up right away. Not at three in the morning.
The coordinates led them to an area outside of Detroit. Fenced parks grew along the narrow asphalt road so overgrown with vegetation that it seemed most hadn’t been tended to for a long time. Grim slowed down as they approached their destination, directed by the navigation’s lifeless instructions. Misha’s heart skipped a beat when he noticed a break in the thick line of tall evergreens. There was a gate there, old-world style, with stone columns on each side, but it was open wide despite the rust visible in the glow of their headlights.
Grim glanced at Misha briefly, but he said nothing as they entered the darkness, leaving the safety of the public road. It was almost like driving through the woods with thick shadows enveloping the trees and bushes that had creeped onto the driveway since the last full-time occupant of this address left. It wasso dark that once the road faced a clearing, the sky ahead seemed like the bright blue skies over Grim’s house in the woods.
The car rushed into a field of grass with just a few trees spotting the flat grounds around a gothic structure. From afar, it looked like a castle Misha imagined could be a setting forJane Eyre. There was light coming from the open doors at the front of the vast building, and in the background of the bright sky, a single tower stared at Misha with the moonlit eyes of its windows. A sinking feeling curled in his stomach as Grim drove into the empty yard and stopped the car in front of the stairs that led to the main entrance.
The gravel crunching underneath the wheels recalled the rasp of the saw against Misha’s bone, and he shuddered, rubbing his face in an attempt to keep as calm as possible. Grim didn’t have any conventional weapons on him, but hewasprepared, though as much as Misha trusted him, he’d known Zero for long enough to know the extent of his madness. This evening could end in ways he didn’t even want to envision.
As they approached the heavy doors, a big bald man emerged from inside the building and gave them the kind of stoic nod that made all the hairs on Misha’s arms bristle. The man searched Grim and even gave Misha a quick pat down that made him want to hold on to Grim and never let go.
They went inside, with Grim pushing the wheelchair up a stone ramp, followed by the bodyguard who shut the heavy doors behind them.
Misha squeezed his hands on the wheels as he rolled inside a grand entrance hall. With tall windows letting in a lot of light even at night, he looked around the naked walls, stripped of most of the flowery wallpaper and even plaster. There was a reception space ahead of him and long corridors topped by arched ceilings spreading to both sides. He stirred when the bright light of the guard’s flashlight hit his back and confronted Misha with a bastardized version of himself stretching over the floor: hunched and small on a pair of giant, elongated wheels.
“This way,” said the guard, and instead of walking into one of the large walkways, he directed the stream of light at an inconspicuous doorway behind the reception area. “You go first,” he added, and Misha shuddered at the metallic clang that he immediately recognized as the gun safety mechanism.
“Shall we?” asked Grim, patting Misha’s back.
Misha needed to be brave tonight. If not for himself, then for Dennis. The moment Zero’s voice penetrated every pore of his skin, he knew this meetingwouldn’t be easy. He wasn’t even sure if theyhada plan of taking Zero down, but Grim claimed it would be taken care of. Misha had to cling to every bit of hope fate threw at him.
“Finally! My dear guests,” Zero said, and his words resonated in the empty room as an echo that whispered with a split second’s lateness. “We get to meet and exchange gifts.”
It was some kind of ballroom, judging by its size, but the sight of fat metal bars blocking all the huge windows gave Misha a shiver. They were trapped. There was an armed man behind their back, Grim was defenseless, unless he intended to kill Zero with toothpicks. His hand itched to hold Grim’s, but even as his stomach turned and his fingers shook, he knew he shouldn’t be obstructing Grim’s movements. Grim was his only chance to get out of here alive and save Dennis.
They approached Zero, who turned on his heel to face them, handsome as he’d always been in his pristine cream-colored suit. The soft smile ghosting across his lips awoke memories Misha had tried to bury for such a long time, and yet, being confronted with it again called back images of bright red on pale expensive fabrics and the graceful smile on Zero’s face as he brutally rammed his cock inside Misha. It was as if the screams and fear weren’t enough. The pervert needed to be covered in blood every time he came. And with that ageless face of his, it seemed like all the creepy legends could be true, and the two of them were about to face a ghoul straight from a nightmare.
Misha felt sick. His throat was blocked, his stomach curled into a knot, sweat was soaking into his T-shirt, and even his hands were stiff, weak. It was difficult to roll the wheelchair forward, and it was only when Grim pushed it from behind that Misha could exhale his relief. A second goon emerged from the shadows with a chunky flashlight in hand. He approached a simple wooden chair and placed it on the seat before switching it on.
Misha’s heart became a black hole as he followed the ray of white light, which brought out a whole palette of purples and browns on Dennis’s naked body. He stood on another chair, shivering like a dying puppy, and a noose hung loosely around his neck from one of the thick beams underneath the ceiling. His lips were covered with duct tape, but he still let out a little sob every now and then.
Zero looked back at him, seeming completely at ease with two muscled goons in charge of his safety, though with both the bodyguards giving the vibe ofspec-op soldiers, Misha could understand why. The cold steel of assault rifles was enough of a warning for him.
“You’re Zero, I presume,” said Grim, and Zero’s eyes darted toward him for the first time.
