Infernal: Bite The Bullet (16 page)

So this was Dante. I wasn’t sure what I’d
expected. In my imagination he was a faceless killer, but this man was
model-gorgeous, and all the more frightening for it.

I stood, rooted by shock, as another man I didn’t
recognise stepped over the threshold and closed the door on the dead body. The
new addition to my hallway was at least six foot five of packed muscle, with a
military skull-trim and acne-scarred, scowling features that reminded me of my
neighbour’s Bull Mastiff.

My gaze settled on the gun Konstantyn had left
behind, tantalisingly close, yet oh so far. My heart rose in my throat,
accelerating at the thought of making the lunge. The fingers on my right hand
twitched, but fear made me stall. There was a dead boy on my doorstep. Going
for the weapon would be tantamount to suicide.

“That is the right choice, Neva,” Dante said, like
he’d plucked the thoughts from my mind. He stepped forward to palm the gun, and
it disappeared, along with my hopes, somewhere inside his suit.

“You bastard,” I spat. “Get the hell out of my
house.”

Dante shook his head disapprovingly and his smile
was tight. “Is that any way to greet a friend who’s crossed half the world,
just to find you?”

“You’re no friend of mine.”

“No, perhaps
friend
is not the correct term.”
His lopsided smile turned on a dime to lip-curling anger. “Tell me, where is
Lazarus?” His demanding eyes left me as he scanned the room.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” I said,
backing away from him until my spine hit the wall.

“Oh but I think you do. Konstantyn Lazarenko.
Where is he?”

“I don’t know anyone by that name.”

“You are a terrible liar,” Dante said. He
signalled to the other man with his eyes and the heavy took to searching my
tiny apartment.

“You murdered my brother, Daniel Raines,” I said.

“And you insult my intelligence,” Dante replied,
casually sweeping raindrops from his shoulders. “Why would I kill Daniel, when
he was so much more valuable to me alive? Your brother ran from me, Neva.
Nobody runs from me.” He sneered, and all I could think was that Konstantyn had
run from him too.

“I know what you are,” I said, despising the
tremor in my voice as I delivered the threat. I was poking the snake, sure, but
what did I stand to gain by being stoical, when Konstantyn had made my odds so
clear? “I know what you’ve done.”

“Is that so?” Dante leaned in close enough that I
caught a waft of his expensive-smelling, woodsy aftershave. “So reckless, young
lady. Perhaps, had you the least idea of what I really am, you might guard your
words more carefully. You still have living family, for now. Never forget
that.”

“Are you threatening my mother?”

“If it comes to that.” He gave a nonchalant shrug.
“With your brother dead, I find myself in need of a new insurance policy, to be
certain of your full and enthusiastic cooperation.”

“Like the way Daniel
cooperated
with your
abuse and torture? I supposed you threatened him with my life.”

“That wasn’t necessary. Daniel consented to
becoming my property.”

“Your property? My God, you do know slavery was
abolished in the eighteen hundreds, right?”

“Ah, but are we not all slaves, to one thing or
another?” he said, “Be it money, or love, or loyalty.” His eyes lit with
meaning on each word, as though I should understand his inferences. “Free-will
is an illusion, Miss Raines. We each enslave ourselves to that which we cannot
live without. No law can change the essence of human need.” He leaned in close
again, until I felt his breath shiver against my cheek. “What is it you need,
Neva?”

“My brother’s killers, brought to justice.”

Dante’s drooping eyelid twitched. “You disappoint
me. I told you, I did not kill Daniel. But somebody did help him run. Do you
know who that is? Whisper the name in my ear and I’ll see your justice done.”

“Screw you.”

He tutted. “The sooner you acknowledge your
masters, the sooner you learn how best to serve them.” He bared his straight
white teeth at me, leaving me in no doubt he considered himself my master.

“And the sooner you acknowledge that you’re
nothing but a pathetic serial killer with a fucked-up, cancer-eaten brain, the
better we’ll all sleep at night.”

His eye twitch went into overdrive. “This one runs
her mouth, Alexei,” he said, looking to his hulking companion.

Alexei
. Konstantyn had mentioned that name.
Had he been the masked abuser in the photographs, the one with the serpent
tattoo? Adrenaline was smothering my ability to think clearly.

“We’ll want to gag her, I think. Shame. She looks
like a screamer. Are you a screamer?” Dante’s long fingers closed around my
face in a vise-grip, strangling the cry that rose on the surge of my panic.

Instinct had me fighting him off. I clawed at his
wrists and jerked my knee up towards his groin.

His evasive move was pure military precision. One
moment I was free, the next he had me pinned back against his chest, his
forearm braced in a choke-hold against my throat.

It was like a horrible re-enactment of my dance
with Konstantyn, only this time it wasn’t passion, but pure, distilled terror
coursing through my veins.

“Restrain, her, would you, my friend?” he said,
his voice eerily calm. “I’d hate to lose my temper with this one. She has such
a fragile neck.”

Wide-eyed, with my breath coming harsh against the
strangling pressure of his arm, I strained to see the man approaching me from
behind. I felt my hands wrenched to the base of my spine, and some fabric
knotted tight around my wrists. Then he jerked my yoga pants down to my knees.

Oh God
no
. I prayed it was just
their way to stop me kicking out, because the alternative was truly horrifying.
Next I knew, the backs of my knees were kicked out from behind me and I fell
into an awkward kneeling position.

“That’s better. Look at her, Alexei,” Dante said.
He stroked my cheek with his cool fingertips, sending shudders of revulsion
relaying up and down my spine. “She is a peach. This skin...” The pad of his
thumb circled my cheekbone and he wet his lips, looking me over like I was a
canvas for his perversions. “Strong, and so photogenic, just as her mother was,
once.”

I frowned. Surely he’d said brother, mother. But my
mind flashed back to her attacking him at Daniel’s funeral. Was it possible
she’d actually known him? That it had been something more that a mental
breakdown?
No
. My mother was criminally insane, and demons didn’t exist,
only evil men like this bastard, Dante.

“I’ve waited a long time to possess you,” Dante
purred, “I’ve been more than patient. But now the time has come.”

“Take your hands off me. I’m not your fucking
property,” I hissed.

“Indeed, but when Daniel ran from me, he left me
with considerable unpaid debts, and as his next of kin, unfortunately, it does
fall to you to make good on them.”

“What debts?” I spat.

He took to toying with a curl of my hair and the
contact made me feel physically sick. “How do you suppose your precious brother
paid the rent on that big apartment you two shared? Do you really think dancing
in music videos pays that kind of money?” He coiled the strand around his index
finger. “Daniel got himself into trouble, Neva, gambling on a future that was
nothing but a fantasy. He developed a taste for drugs too, just like your
mother.”

“You’re lying!”

“I’m not, and you know it,” he said, circling a
fingertip over my heart. “I did your brother a favour. He signed a contract
with me, to pay off his debt, and until such time as that debt was paid, Daniel
Raines was my personal, branded property, to do with as I chose. Now what am I
to do?”

“I’ll pay off his debt,” I whispered.

Amusement played on his lips. “Oh I know you
will.”

My upper lip curled off my teeth. “I mean the
money. I’ll pay back what he owed.”

“How exactly do you propose doing that? I’ve seen
your bank balance, Miss Raines.”

Jesus, was there anything this man didn’t know
about me and my family? I felt contaminated by his knowledge.

“I’ll earn whatever he owes,” I said. “I’ll pay it
back in instalments.”

“Do I look like a banker to you? A pawn-broker
perhaps?” He motioned his hands down the slick tailoring of his suit.

I raked him with my disgust. “Yeah actually, you
kinda do.”

Only the subtle thinning of his lips betrayed that
my snark had lit his fuse. His eyes remained cold, deadly as a great white.
“Your money doesn’t interest me. Perhaps you have another currency you’d care
to lay on the table?”

“Fuck you.”

He laughed, deep and satisfied. “Yes. Much more
what I had in mind. Has Konstantyn fucked you yet?” He squeezed my jaw until
tears sprang in my eyes.

I pursed my lips and forced defiance into my
stare.

He drew the gun from inside his suit and aimed it
right between my eyes. I felt the cold muzzle imprinting my forehead. I tried
to swallow against my closed throat and a bead of perspiration trickled down my
spine.

I couldn’t move. All I could think of was the
pizza boy’s wide, dead eyes, the still photograph of Daniel, and all the
others. I wanted to live, more than I wanted to fight. I wanted to live, even
if it was only long enough to see this bastard die.

“Answer me now,” he said coldly.

“No,” I replied.

It wasn’t a lie. It hadn’t been fucking. What
Konstantyn and I shared was something else, and I’d take that bullet in my
brain before I’d let this murdering psycho defile my last good memory in this
world.

I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for his verdict.

“So, he hasn’t fucked you,” he said finally. “Such
a gentleman, my boy Lazarus is.” He laughed, stroking the muzzle of the loaded
gun along the seam of my lips. “But you want him to, don’t you? Filthy little
slut. I can smell it on you.” He wrinkled his nose. “You’re a lying, conniving
little bitch, just like your crazy mother, aren’t you?”

“My mother has nothing to do with this,” I said
through cracked lips.

“Wrong again, Miss Raines. Your degenerate mother
sold you to Gilles before you were even born, for a few pathetic grams of her
precious white powder.”

He was lying, had to be. For all her flaws, I knew
my mother loved us. She’d never have sold her own child for drugs. Would she?

“She tried to run, just like your brother. She
thought she was safe, but we’ve always known where you were, we’ve always been
watching, waiting, and now it’s time. I’m calling in your family’s debts. All
of them. You’ve always been marked for me, Neva, from the moment of your
conception. Your blood will smell good on my skin,” he said, breathing close to
my ear. He squeezed a handful of my ass and licked up my face, and I failed to
stifle the whimper of terror that escaped my lips. “I will plant my hot seed in
your belly, just as I did to your mother. Together we will create new life, and
complete the circle once more.”

“You’re sick in the head, you know that,” I said
shakily. “You need help.”

“Your body and Konstantyn’s are all I need to
transcend this ailing vessel.”

I wondered what the hell he meant by that, but
then he stroked the cool metal of the gun down my cheek, wedging it beneath my
jaw, and fear overwhelmed all logical thought.

“Are you sorry now, you came sniffing around my
club? Tell me,” he said, “who was it told you about Infernal?”

He didn’t know about Gracie, I realised. He was
looking for the leak in his organisation. Gracie had risked her life to carry
my brother from his prison, and again by giving me that card. Dante didn’t know
it was her, at least not yet. If he did, she’d already be dead. Well, fuck him.
I’d die before I ratted on the only friend Daniel had during his ordeal. I
narrowed my eyes at him and pursed my lips defiantly.

“And now you’ve lost your tongue again,” Dante
smirked. “Never mind. It will be my pleasure to help you find it. Alexei, give
me your blade.”

Alexei grinned and I saw steel flash in his hand.

The blood drained from my face.

“You took your time finding her,” a familiar voice
drawled, and my heart flip-flopped into an erratic gallop.

It was Konstantyn. He’d come back.

I risked a glance in the direction of those words,
and saw Konstantyn standing in my doorway, his clothes soaked through from the
rain, his expression unreadable as ever.

Oh God, he’d come back.

Fear spiked, eclipsing any relief at seeing his face.
Fear for him, as much as for myself.

A bottle of vodka dangled from his left hand. Was
it possible he hadn’t left me after all, and that he’d only gone out to get
alcohol?

No, my mind protested, he’d taken all of his
things. And why wouldn’t he look at me?

Alexei stepped up, the blade gripped in one fist
and a gun in the other.

Panic knotted in my gut, and I struggled to pull
free, to warn Konstantyn.

Dante simply waved the gunman off. “That won’t be
necessary Alexei.” He removed his hand from my ass, and patted my cheek like a
child dismissed, then strode across the room, arms held out wide to Konstantyn
with a grim smile. “My old friend, Lazarus, back from the dead once more,” he
said.

“I never died,” he said tightly, “and neither did
you, it seems. You said the doctors gave you six months.”

Dante’s smile fell and his bad eye twitched. “Yet
it has been a year since I saw you last. You see? I told you those pompous
physicians know nothing.” He slapped Konstantyn’s upper arm. “But I have no
more need of them. Not now I have you back, and the girl too.”

“You wanted me back that bad? Well,
congratulations, here I am.”