Cado (6 page)

“Pick one what?” I demanded with false bravado, tilting my chin up in defiance even though my mind was still filled with images of other people.

“One of them, to punish now,” he rumbled. I faltered, my mind zeroing in on a middle-aged woman of its own accord. “Good choice.” Suddenly we were in her room, standing behind her as she spoke on the phone.

I gulped as Lucian strode towards her with confidence. In one smooth move he snatched her cell away from her and spun her around. She blinked up at him, startled but not yet afraid. “Who are you?” she snapped.

“I am your just rewards.” Lucian smiled, the sight chilling. “I know what you did, Dorothy. I know.” His eyes blazed brighter and she gazed into them, tears beginning to fall down her face.

“I’m sorry, I—I didn’t—I’m so sorry. I’m sick. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I loved him.”

“A special place in Hell for people who harm animals and children,” I murmured, trying not to see the flashes attached to Dorothy again. She had molested her nephew repeatedly when he’d been a child—he’d committed suicide in his teens. No one but her and him had ever known why, and he wasn’t telling anyone anytime soon.

Lucian met my gaze and grinned. “Precisely. There is a very special place for all of them.” He touched Dorothy, his palms glowing with a bright white light. She jerked away and wailed as if in agony.

A moment later Dorothy dropped to the ground, sobbing. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She continued on her crying jag for another few moments before lurching to her feet and dashing for the bathroom. There she grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed them into her neck. Blood spurted against the mirror as she met her own gaze, mouthing another apology. She then crumpled to the ground, still alive, but not for long.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that even though Lucian hadn’t wielded the scissors, he’d killed Dorothy. “What did you do?”

“The same thing you do…except better. I showed her the truth of her sins. She couldn’t handle it. She wanted her suffering to end, but it won’t. It will never end. Her torment will last an eternity. I’ll make sure of it personally.”

I shook my head slowly. “No, I—” I waved my hands at Dorothy, who I was pretty sure had stopped breathing. “What you did to her was something—”

“Beautiful,” Lucian purred as he stalked closer to me. “I thought you of all people would understand. I can help you do the things you live for. We can punish together.”

Warring emotions had taken root in me. A part of me wanted to know more, to understand what Lucian was really offering. And the other part of me wanted to run away. “No.” It was the only word I could manage. I turned away from him and bolted for the door. He didn’t stop me. Tears stung at the corners of my eyes as I sped down the hall and then down the two flights of stairs that led to the lobby. I wasn’t sure why I was crying. Maybe because I’d never been so confused in all of my life. I didn’t know what had just happened or who Lucian was. I no longer doubted whether or not he was real. Something in me just knew that he was. And that was the biggest problem. Being crazy seemed like it would have been easier to deal with than the truth of what Lucian could do.

I hurried out of the hotel, not even sure which one it was, and tried to find my bearings. I was shaking and my eyes were bleary. I wanted nothing more than to be back in the illusion of safety, which was my apartment. I’d long ago accepted the fact that no one is ever really safe…anywhere. But I could use some illusions to hide behind for the moment at least.

“Hey, Tiffany!” A Pittsburgh Police car pulled up to the curb beside me and rolled slowly along with my pace. “Tiffany!”

I shook my head, not wanting to deal with Officer Moretti along with everything else.
Where the hell did he come from anyways?
“Leave me alone,” I mumbled, wrapping my arms around my middle, stumbling in the opposite direction that the car was pointed. I had no idea where I was going. I just knew I had to get away—from all of it.

A car door creaked open moments before Officer Moretti’s large hand snagged my shoulder, whirling me around to face him. His gaze roamed over me with concern, his dark eyes boring into mine. “Hey, come here.”

“No,” I snapped. I didn’t need or want pity or sympathy from someone like Officer Moretti. If he was so concerned about my well-being, then why hadn’t he even bothered to share his first name with me? Anger flashed through me and I shirked out from his grip, swinging for him with my right hook. It landed directly in his stomach and yet he barely registered the blow. That pissed me off even more. With a more calculated approach, I pulled my body into a relaxed fighting stance, eyeing Moretti for weak spots. I dipped down to swipe his legs out from under him but he bounced back just out of my reach. I growled under my breath.

Moretti raised his hands up in the air. “Hey, hey, hey. I’m not your enemy here. I’m just trying to help. I don’t want to hurt you, Tiffany. Please calm down. You don’t realize that you’re attempting to assault an officer of the law.”

I snorted. “What’s the matter? Afraid I’ll kick your ass?” Where the hell had all my bravado come from? I’d always accepted, because of my size, that surprise and weapons, paired with my training was what I had going for me. I knew I could never hope to stand a chance in one on one combat with most men. Being a realist had kept me alive. So why was I being so stupid all of a sudden? Maybe I was just looking to vent some of my frustrations?

A smile twitched up the corner of Moretti’s sculpted face. “Yeah, not even a little bit.”

I bounced up on the balls of my feet and for the first time realized I was still wearing the same outfit as I had been at Club Elite.
Holy Shit! I’m standing out in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh with practically no clothes on!
It was like the admission of that fact to my brain suddenly forced it to register how cold I was. My body went from shaking just a bit to doing it uncontrollably. My teeth vibrated so violently that I bit my tongue until I tasted blood. “Take me—home—please.” I didn’t care anymore about my pride or how I must have looked. I just wanted to get the hell out of there and back home. I’d worry about how pissed Bert would be at me later.

Officer Moretti wasn’t such a bad guy. Sure, he had a bit of a prejudice against strippers but a lot of people did. Even after the scene I made in the middle of the street, the second I had asked for help, he’d given it to me right away. He’d picked me up, swaddled me in a blanket, and set off for my apartment. Once at my building he’d carried me into my place and deposited me neatly on my beat up couch. I hadn’t said a word to him the entire trip.

“You need me to get you anything?”

I shook my head, staring straight ahead. I just wanted to be left alone to regroup. It had been years since I’d felt on the verge of snapping. Not since—not since—
A foggy image of Lucian standing in front of me, a smirk tipping up his lips, slammed into me. “How many times is it now? Ten—twenty? Or perhaps hundreds of times?” Anger rolled off of him in waves. “You won’t escape me.”

“You won’t win,” I rasped, cutting into my arm with a blade. I watched as my blood spattered on the floor. “Next time will be different. Next time I’ll know you for who you really are.”

I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, not sure what I’d just seen. Some kind of waking nightmare brought on by the incident at the hotel? I pushed it aside, ignoring the chills of dread that raced up my spine.

Moretti dropped down in front of me, placing his warm hands on my knees. “Do you want me to call anyone?” His limpid pools swirled with concern. I flicked my gaze away and shook my head again. “Tiffany,” he rumbled. “Please tell me what’s going on with you. It seems like you could be in some kind of trouble.”

An image of Lucian flashed in my mind and a brittle laugh escaped from me. Oh, I was in some serious trouble all right, just not the kind Moretti could ever imagine. “I’m fine now.” I so wasn’t but I just wanted him to leave. “You can go.” I stood, letting the blanket he’d kept around me fall to the ground. Kicking off my shoes I moved towards my bedroom. “Lock the door on your way out.”

Moretti was in front of me, blocking my way in a flash. I came eye to eye with his shiny badge. I stared numbly at my distorted reflection. “You don’t get to just dismiss me.”

“Funny. I’m pretty sure I just did.” I sidestepped him to continue on to my bedroom. All I wanted to do was to curl up in bed and go to sleep for a little while. Things always looked better when—

I stopped short, choking back a scream. My knees buckled and I clutched at the doorframe for support. Killing someone myself was one thing. Finding a surprise body in my bed was more than a little jarring.

“Fuck,” Moretti said as soon as I felt him come up behind me, his warmth suffusing into my back. “Tiffany, don’t touch anything,” he commanded before wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me back into my living room.

My mind was reeling. I didn’t know what to think of the gift Lucian had left me. There was no doubt in my mind it was from him. Who else would have left Dorothy’s body right in the middle of my bed? Her vacant stare directed at the door as if waiting for me. Was it because I’d left him at the hotel? Had he felt rejected because of it and now he was threatening me? The thing was—I didn’t feel threatened. Shocked, grossed out, pissed off even, but not threatened. Maybe I was just being a huge idiot but Dorothy’s body felt like a message somehow. One that I couldn’t decipher—but a message all the same.

“Tiffany,” Moretti said in a manner that made me think that he’d been trying to get my attention while my thoughts had been elsewhere. “Tiffany, do you know the woman on your bed?”

“What?” I bit my lower lip and pictured her sobbing on her knees in the hotel room just before she’d taken her own life. I could tell him that I’d met her once in passing and knew her name. I could make up a lie about the rest. But…but did I really know her at all? “No, I don’t know her.” My chest tightened with dread. The decision to lie about Dorothy suddenly felt like one of those moments…the kind that would change everything.

Moretti nodded and picked up the discarded blanket from the floor, wrapping it around me again. “I’m going to call this in. Don’t go anywhere.”

Yeah, like where the hell would I go?

“Why did you run from me?” Lucian’s silky voice spun and twisted through my mind, pulling me into a dream-like state. His hands slid down my body, trailed by kisses that set my skin on fire. He pulled away abruptly causing me to feel bereft without the heat of his touch.

“Lucian,” I rasped, reaching for him blindly. At first I couldn’t open my eyes, and then when I did, everything seemed blurry and out of focus…except Lucian. His piercing gaze blazed an eerie blue as he hovered over me. My eyes trailed down to his bare chest, the first time I’d seen him out of a suit. His body was perfectly sculpted, lithe and yet muscular—muscular and yet not bulky. I was almost afraid to look anywhere else, as if his perfection would physically hurt me somehow. Lucian being so close to me, his luminescent skin exposed, nearly suffocated. His raw masculinity, his sexual presence seemed to fill up all the space around us—saturating me with desire…need.