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Everything about him was so beautiful. His sun-kissed hair, his flashing gold eyes, his tanned skin, and oh, his six-foot-seven body, packed with powerful muscles. The strength in that adorable body never failed to make her lips dry, and the thought of Helios using such strength to fuck her, maybe fuck her until she started to bleed—

Oh, how she wanted this man.
 

“I got held up,” Helios answered curtly as he carelessly tossed his watch on the table.
 

Gracie pushed herself up to a sitting position and swung her legs off the bed. She had hoped it would attract Helios’ attention, but all he seemed to care about was pouring himself a drink. Temper roused, she stalked towards him, grabbing the glass of whiskey from his hands and throwing it against the wall. As it shattered to pieces, she shouted, “Don’t you disrespect me—”

Her words were cut off with a gasp as Helios yanked her head back by the hair, covering her mouth in a brutally hard kiss. She tried to kiss him back, but the moment she did, he pushed her away, hard enough for her to fall back into the cushions.

“Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do,” he rasped. “We both know you like how I treat you.” And it was true. But what Gracie should never know was how every second he spent in her company sickened him. James’ information had been invaluable, allowing them to pinpoint where Manolito Chavez was currently hiding.

But it was a damn fortress, and the only way they could get someone in without risking MJ’s safety was if one of them was personally invited to do so.

Which was why he was here, about to do the fucking unthinkable.
 

Gracie was on her knees, cooing words of sweet nothings as she worked on the buttons of his pants. She stroked him and he closed his eyes, pretending it was MJ who stroked him. It was the only way he could get an erection. “Let me make you feel good,” she purred.
 

Helios made his move before his pants was completely down, twisting her around on the floor. He sank to his knees and pushed his cock into her butthole, not caring whether she was wet enough to take him in.
 

She cried out, the sound laced with pain and excitement. Her nails dug into the rug as Helios ripped into her with his large and vibrating cock. Tears of pleasure and agony streaked down her face and she gasped, “More.”

Without saying a word, Helios wrapped his hands around her neck.

Gracie froze. “What are you—” She started to choke, and as the fingers around her neck tightened, she started to struggle. Unbelievably, Helios didn’t stop thrusting in her.
He was fucking her while trying to kill her,
Gracie thought, and the thought of it had her gasping for another reason, her pussy flooding with wetness.

Helios’ thrusts were becoming more forceful, but the pressure around her neck didn’t ease.

Her senses swam, and her hands slowly fell from Helios’ choking grip.

As if from afar, she heard Helios roar his release and suddenly she was free. Gracie gasped for breath, but even as she did, her fingers were already snaking down her body, frantically rubbing her clit because almost dying was the most powerful turn on she had ever experienced.

In seconds, she was coming, coming, coming, and her eyes searched for Helios as she did. He was smiling at her. He had almost killed her, and he was smiling at her.

Gracie slowly smiled back.

They fucked three more times before Helios set to leave, Gracie also changing back into her clothes. They had agreed to leave the hotel together, with Gracie inviting him out to dinner for the first time. In their previous encounters, she had only deigned to meet him either at the club or with a hotel rendezvous like tonight. The invitation marked a change in their relationship, and Helios knew he had to take advantage of it right now.

“How’s your business doing?” he asked, adopting a careless tone as he buttoned his jeans.

Gracie walked towards him, turning around so he could zip up the back of her dress. Wrinkling her nose, she said, “Horrible. Some nouveau riche shithead from Russia’s competing with my business here. The bastard’s trying to inch me out, getting the banks to call in my loans—”

“I can help you if you want.”

Gracie stilled. She
had
toyed with the idea of asking Helios Andreadis for a loan. Everyone knew he was loaded, after all. But in the end, she had vetoed the idea herself. She really didn’t know him that well, and she hated to be indebted to any stranger.

But after what happened earlier tonight…

Maybe he wasn’t a stranger at all. Maybe he was a kindred soul.

“What do you have in mind?”

Helios caressed one bare shoulder. “I was thinking…since we had the same tastes…you might be able to help me with something I’ve always wanted.”

Her breath caught at the heated look in his eyes. “What is it?”

“I was thinking…maybe you and I…we could look for someone to play around with. Someone we could do whatever we wanted to, and no one would care what happened to that person.”

He wanted someone they could kill,
Gracie realized. That was one of the few taboos in the club, alongside never revealing the names of other members. Violating any of those rules meant death, which was why she had never spoken of her time there, not even to her father. Thankfully, since he was a member of a similar club back in Sicily, Manolito Chavez had never thought to ask her, either.

What Helios wanted was impossible in the club…but not in her father’s world. She licked her lips. “How much are we talking about?”

“How much do you need to keep your business out of trouble?” Helios returned silkily.

Holding her breath, she named an amount that was a lot more than what the banks were demanding from her.

“Done.” His eyes glittered. “And if you find me someone by tomorrow, I’ll double the amount.”

“Tomorrow?” She tried not to let Helios see how the demand flustered her. “That’s too soon—”

Helios’ fingers encircled her neck. “I can’t help it,
cara
. You make me want to kill. So. Badly.” His fingers tightened around her neck. “But I don’t want to risk hurting you. It’s so rare for me to find someone who matches my tastes. I want to keep you forever,
bella mia
, but I need to kill. You will help me with that, won’t you?”

He really was
Thanato.
Death. His name suited him very well indeed. In a fit of reckless desire, she whispered, “Yes.”

The lust glittering in Gracie’s eyes was disgusting, but he knew if he didn’t act on it, Gracie would begin to suspect him. He tore off her gown, making her gasp. She opened her mouth to snap at him, but he took her lips in another ravaging kiss, biting her lip and tongue so that they would both taste blood. She raked her nails over his back and he shuddered, knowing Gracie would mistake his revulsion for desire.

One more night,
Helios thought grimly even as he methodically worked on arousing the woman in his arms. One more night and he would be able to save MJ from the hell she was in.

Chapter Nine

Olga Samaras wanted to run when she saw who her last visitors were for the day. But because she had her pride, she forced herself to stay still in her seat, raising her chin as she said, “You have no business here.”

Helios and the other officers ignored the petulant answer coming from the country’s deputy finance minister, instead crossing the vast office to sit close. At fifty-three, Olga appeared at least a decade younger, her dark hair unmarred by white strands and her face smooth and unlined. No one looking at her deceptively innocent visage would ever guess that under her cloak of public servitude hid a gruesomely sadistic streak, one that had earned her the nickname of
Thanato.

“This will be our last time to visit you,” Yuri murmured.

“That was what you said the last time, too,” Olga said bitterly.

Kellion’s lips twisted as he perched himself on the edge of the minister’s desk. “Even if it was, you are not in any position to complain, are you?”

The implied threat was not lost on her. Somehow, these young men had discovered her greatest-kept secret, and they had used it to their advantage, threatening to expose her if she did not cooperate with them.
 

“I did everything you asked,” she flung back. “I made sure everyone thought you are really Thanato—”

“It’s not enough now, unfortunately,” Andreus slotted in in a hard voice. “Tomorrow, Helios has been invited to a private ball by Manolito Chavez—”

Her eyes widened. “The Sicilian human trafficker?” She shook her head. “That person is even worse than I am. I stay away from children, but that madman—”

Trying to ignore the churning sensation inside his stomach at Olga’s unintended disclosure about Manolito Chavez’s appetite, Helios asked abruptly, “I need you to give it to me straight. Will anyone who is likely to attend the party possibly recognize you and therefore know I am not the real
Thanato
?”

She shook her head. “No one. I told you, I’ve always acted alone—”

“Pardon us if we do not believe you right away since it’s been proven you have a rather flexible meaning of the word ‘alone’.” In the case of one of her most recent victims, Olga had been alone, all right. She had been the lone instigator of the kidnapping and torture of an Irish immigrant to Greece, but she had many men accompanying her on that trip, and all of them had been given the privilege to beat and rape the poor girl.

“He’s different from me,” she insisted. “I never abused any kids. He…did.”

And there
, Helios thought grimly,
was his 32nd reason to kill Manolito Chavez
. Someone who preyed on innocent children was the lowest of low, and Helios knew he could not be responsible for his actions if he was ever left alone with the Sicilian.

“What happens during parties like that? Is there something I should and shouldn’t do so I don’t give myself away?”

“Just know who belongs to whom, and do not touch the claimed ones without permission.”

“What about those unclaimed?”

“They’re for sport. Anyone can have them except for the new ones. Usually, it’s the master who does that and in this case, that would be…” her voice unconsciously lowered. “It would be Manolito Chavez, because I heard him saying he liked breaking a girl apart during her first time…over and over.”

Helios slowly came to his feet. “Do you like doing that, too?” he heard himself ask, thinking all the while that since he had succeeded in killing James Cartwright, perhaps he could kill the bitch sitting across him, too. It made him feel sick, knowing that the woman had gotten away with hurting and killing so many innocent women because of her position in the government.

Olga smirked. “What do you think?”

There wasn’t any answer. She looked up and screamed as Helios lunged for her over the desk. He would have strangled her outright if Kellion and Yuri hadn’t reacted right away, pulling him off the politician.

“Helios, dammit,” Andreus growled. “This isn’t what we agreed on.”

“Look at her,” Helios growled, straining against Yuri and Kellion’s hold. He wanted to fucking kill her, to snap her neck and rid the world of one of its greatest evils. “She has the gall to fucking think of happy memories, torturing girls, while MJ’s still lost—”

“You’ll be the one who’s dead if you react like this every time you meet the world’s greatest fuck-ups.”

Olga, still cowering behind the desk, watched as the most menacing-looking of the four came between her and Helios Andreadis. She didn’t even think of hitting the panic button under the desk, knowing it would be all over for her if this came out on the news. The combined hold of these men over the media was beyond even her power, and she knew the news of her darker proclivities would come out before she could have them arrested.

“I’ve met worse people than this bitch in my line of work for the club, Helios. Trust me – you cannot risk losing your head over this. If you kill a high-profile bitch like her, it won’t be good for you or the club. It won’t be good for MJ either, because then Chavez might know we have something planned.”

Helios struggled to listen to Andreus, knowing his friend was right. He had to concentrate on what mattered the most, and that was getting MJ out of whatever hellhole she was in –
alive.
 

“I’m fine,” Helios said finally. And he was, for the moment. “We can leave this place now. We’ve gotten what we wanted.” Kellion and Yuri slowly let him go, but both were tense, waiting for any sign that their President might snap again.