Page 26 of Lady of Darkness
We know what we’re doing.
Luka stops at one of the doors in the hallway, opening it up. Two security guards are looking at the multiple screen setup. My mouth goes dry when I realize what they’re watching.
Harlow is topless, standing next to a tall, thin man. He’s leering down at her, and she smiles as she reaches out and unbuckles his belt. I hear Sterling mutter something under his breath. I can tell by the way her smile doesn’t reach her eyes that she’s faking it. And while I want to chop this prick’s cock off for touching her, I amso proudthat my little monster has become a master manipulator.
Pride fills me, and my chest swells.
“I’d heard rumors about the men in Montenegro,” Harlow purrs on the camera feed. She cups his groin, and he moans. “I’m used to English men, you see.”
“She’s really very skilled,” Luka says, his voice raspy. “Savo is one of our wealthiest clients. When he caught word that we had an actualLady of Darkness…” Luka chuckles, and I grip the metal gun so hard I’m afraid I might bend it. “Milos, why don’t you zoom in a bit?” One of the guards clicks a button, and the camera zooms in on Harlow. She’s smiling demurely, and then she takes her pants off, throwing them to the side as she pushes Savo onto the bed, wearing only a thong. “Tell me… how does it feel to know she’s a whore for any powerful man? That you’re not special?”
The deep, rumbling coming from Sterling continues. The primal, alpha part of me wants to kill everyone in this room, and then put a bullet through Savo’s head while I carry Harlow out on my shoulders like an ape. But the intellectual, highly trained crime lord in me knows this is all an illusion. Harlow would never willingly fuck some random guy unless she needed something from him.
That’s the thing with trust.
You throw caution to the wind, putting your trust in another person, hoping they catch it.
Because when they do… there is nothing more beautiful.
Which means… she trusts us. She must. She wouldn’t willingly put herself in this position unless she knew we were going to incinerate everyone around us.
I saw the remorse written all over her face after she gave us those brownies. All last week, she would look at us expectantly, waiting for our approval. So, yes. To the naked eye, it looks like she’s about to fuck that prick on the screen. But I know, deep down, that she’s doing it for a reason.
She’s doing it because she trusts us to save her.
Which…fuck.
I swallow as emotion claws up my throat.
Our beautiful, intelligent, cunning, gorgeous little monster.
My job now is to play along. If it means getting to her,showingher that we’re here, that she was right to trust us…
I have to get to her.
If that means killing Luka, so be it.
The low-volume updates in my earpiece give me a boost of confidence. Theo and Gideon are already finished taking out the men upstairs. Their grunted updates are all the motivation I need.
Acadia underestimated us.
People always do.
Chuckling deeply, I lower my gun. “She can fuck whoever she wants, however she wants.”
Luka’s brown eyes widen slightly with something akin to surprise. “You’re just going to let your woman fuck another man?”
I smirk. “I don’t own her, Luka. Unlike Acadia, the Lords do not shackle their women.” I look at Sterling, and his green eyes flare. I know from working with him for twelve years that he heard the update in his earpiece, too. “Unlike Acadia, our women fuck us willingly.”
There’s a split second where Luka’s smile falters, but before he can act, Sterling shoots the two security guards in the back of the head and points his gun at Luka.
“You have about ten seconds to take us to her room.”
Luka sneers at us, holding his hands up in surrender. “You just made a deadly mistake, my Lords. Like I said, I have forty men on the roof waiting to kill you.”
Theo and Gideon suddenly shove through the door of the security room. They’re both bloody yet composed, and there’s a gun in each of their hands.
I shake my head and stare at Luka, who’s now white as a sheet. “You obviously know nothing of our capabilities if you think the four of us can’t take down your whole goddamn network, including those fools on the roof. Inminutes,” I hiss. “It wasn’t even all four. It was two.Think about that,” I sneer. “Think about the fact thathalfof my order just took your entire defense down inminutes.And I’ll torch this whole building if I have to.”
