Dark Deceit (5 page)

B
ryn sat back in
her chair and let out a deep breath. The cops had just left discreetly from the
back door, the human trying to sell Ex on her turf cuffed. Outside the
interrogation room, Korvain had been waiting, watching the door like a loyal
guard dog.

His presence had shaken her up more than she wanted to admit. She
didn’t know how else to explain it other than there was an animalistic rawness
to him that made him both seductive and dangerous to her. The images she’d
experienced when they’d first met had left her with a need she had never
experienced before. She didn’t understand what they meant, only that she knew
she wanted him.

A quick glance up at the clock above the door told her it was only
just after midnight. There were at least another three hours of night left for
the humans to throw their money away on booze and women.

Rubbing the itch from her eyes, Bryn looked over at one of the dual
screens she had set up on her desk. The CCTV cameras streamed through it,
flickering from wide angle shots to close ups on each level every few seconds.

Every floor was packed, the people crammed in until the only way
they could move would be to rub themselves up against one another. Her eyes
darted to the shots of her bouncers. Each of them were exactly where she needed
them to be.

Bryn’s eyes finally settled on the image of Korvain up on
Level
Three
. He was bigger than Adrian—wider, too. The room was heaving with
people, but around Korvain there was a large perimeter surrounding him, like
people were afraid to get any closer than a few feet. She wasn’t surprised
though. She could practically see the menace rolling off his body in large, thick
waves.

His dark eyes flickered upwards, looking directly at the camera
above his head. A blast of heat hit Bryn’s body; her skin tightening, her
muscles trembling. A gasp escaped her lips and she looked away.

‘Get a fucking grip, Bryn,’ she chastised herself softly. She looked
back at the screen, finding Korvain had gone back to watching the crowd with
hooded eyes. She was losing her mind, the sleep deprivation finally catching up
with her. She looked at the mountain of paperwork she needed to attend to and heaved
a heavy sigh.

Picking up the first invoice, Bryn got to work. When she finally
lifted her tired eyes again, it was three in the morning. The music had stopped
and a quick glance at the surveillance cameras confirmed
Raven
and
Level
Three
had been cleared of patrons.

She was stretching out her back, yawning, when there was a knock on
the office door.

‘Yeah.’

Mist opened the door holding a fabric bag in her hand. ‘We’re done.’

‘How’d we do?’

‘The bar took about ten large. I don’t know about the other two
levels. Someone’s going to bring the take down soon.’ Mist slid the
reproduction copy of William. T. Maud’s
The Ride of the Valkyries
off
the wall and opened the safe with a few expert flicks of her wrist. After
placing the money in with another three bags, she replaced the picture.

Mist leaned on the wall, her arms crossed loosely over her stomach. ‘Are
you going to be much longer?’

Bryn looked down at the pile of paperwork. She’d hardly made a dent
in it at all. ‘I’ll get as much done as I can before the others come down with
the take.’

Mist nodded and slipped from the room silently. It was another ten
minutes before there was another knock. Glancing at the camera placed outside
her office door, she saw it was Korvain.

‘Come in,’ she called, hating how her heart was already beating like
a snare against her ribs. The handle depressed and Korvain filled the doorway.
His shoulders barely fit in against the jamb, his head almost touching the top.
He looked down on her, his black eyes glinting.

Bryn could taste her pulse on the back of her tongue, and she
pressed herself into the back of her chair. She let go of a shaky breath,
hiding her discomfort by crossing her arms over her chest.

‘I’m busy,’ she snapped.

‘I can see that,’ he murmured in response. Her eyes flickered up,
noticing his were hooded and raking over her body. He licked his lips, drawing
her eyes down to his mouth, and she couldn’t stop them there.

She took in all of him: his shoulders, his chest, his stomach. Her
eyes lingered on his waist, his hips. His legs were thick with muscle. She
could see that clearly even through the fabric of his pants.

Korvain cleared his throat, forcing Bryn’s eyes back onto the
paperwork in front of her. ‘You told me to come and see you after my shift.’

Fuck it.
‘Yeah. I did. I owe you for
helping out tonight.’ Pulling open a desk drawer, she found a small locked tin
and placed it on the desk. Reaching into another drawer, she took the key and
slid it into the lock. Bryn started counting out the green, placing three
hundreds onto the desk.

She slid the money across the wooden surface, pulling back when
Korvain’s fingers touched hers, lingering there for a second longer than what
was socially acceptable.

‘Thanks,’ he murmured, holding her gaze hungrily.

Bryn couldn’t stop the shiver tracking down her spine. ‘You did a
good job tonight. If I ever need help again, I’ll give you a call.’

When he didn’t respond, Bryn focused back on her paperwork with a
frown. ‘I’ve got a mountain of paperwork to do,’ she said tersely, gesturing at
the offending paperwork in case he needed visual aids.

His dark eyes fell to the desk, the corners of his mouth curling
slightly. ‘I’ll leave you to it then.’

* * *

K
orvain stepped
out of the office, pocketing the three hundred he’d earned, and turned toward
the exit. Even though Adrian had told him he couldn’t fade into the building,
Korvain had still tried. If the protection was anything like what they had on
their place, he could have breached it. It wasn’t until he’d made it inside
that he’d understood why. There were runes painted on the walls passing off as
pieces of décor, but although the pattern seemed random, it was a very powerful
ancient verse meant to protect the building from unwelcome visitors fading in
and out.

As he reached the door, one of the other bouncers, the one who had
seen him into the office when he’d first arrived, stepped in front of him.

The male was human—as most of the bouncers were in the place. He
crossed his muscular arms across his barrel chest, his hazel eyes narrowing on
his face. ‘Is she allowing you back?’ he asked, his deep voice rumbling with an
unspoken threat.

Korvain stared down at him, forcing the other male to crane his neck
back to maintain eye contact. ‘Who wants to know?’

‘I’m her head of security. I want to know if I can trust you, trust
you to have my back if shit went south.’

Korvain’s dark eyes looked over the male. Not even a hint of fear.
‘Yeah, I got your back,’ he replied after enough silence filled the space
between them.

The other male relaxed visibly, his shoulders drooping, the bravado
draining from his hazel eyes. ‘Good.’ He offered Korvain his palm. ‘I’m Mason.’

‘Korvain.’

He frowned.

‘Yeah, I know it sounds weird to you. I had parents with a strange
fucking sense of humor.’ Korvain laughed to ease the
other man. Mason laughed, too.

‘Does it mean something?’

‘Korvain? No.’ Korvain brushed off the lie with a tight-lipped
smile.

‘Look, I’ve got to get home and see Sophie. I hope you can make it
back here. I heard you handled yourself real well up there.’ Mason turned and
left him in the dimly-lit hallway.

Korvain didn’t mix with humans, but when he did it was never
well...except for this male it seemed. Ducking left, he pushed down on the metal
bar across the door and stepped into the cool night. The door slammed shut behind
him and he faded back to the house he shared with Adrian and his sister.

The front door was unlocked when he arrived on the front step. With
the door shut behind him, Adrian’s voice carried down the hallway.

‘My brother. You hungry?’

‘Yeah. I could eat,’ Korvain called back, locking the door at his
back. Fading into the house would have been so much easier, but it was a safety
issue they didn’t want to handle.

Above the door, they had a protection rune carved into the wood to
prevent any unwanted visitors. The premise was the same as the runes used in
the club, just more rudimentary—less powerful. It prevented people from fading
in, but it wouldn’t stop everyone.

When Korvain rounded the corner, Adrian had somehow crammed his body
into an apron that was straining across his chest, the slogan ‘Kiss the Cook’ distorted
over his wide pectorals.

‘That’s a good look for you, Ad. I’m sure you’ll make someone a very
nice wife someday.’

His best friend barked a laugh and threw a dish towel at him. ‘Did
you remember to pick up some milk, sweetie?’ he asked in a falsetto voice,
laughing again.

‘What are you making?’ Korvain asked still chuckling, parking it on
one of the stools under the breakfast bar.

‘Just reheating what Taer made for us earlier.’

Korvain smiled. ‘She’s a good kid.’

‘Yeah, but don’t let her hear you calling her that.’

Adrian spooned some pasta onto a plate for Korvain and grabbed him a
fork. ‘What happened to the dealer you caught?’

Korvain chewed slowly, swallowing before answering. ‘Cops hauled his
ass away.’

Ad whistled through his teeth. ‘No shit, eh? I thought he would have
squealed after Bryn put the pressure on him.’

Korvain shrugged.

‘So did Bryn ask you to come back in again?’

Korvain shook his head, loading another mouthful of pasta onto his
fork. ‘She said she’d call me in if she needed help again, but didn’t say
when.’

‘Well, if Winta is a no-show again, I’ll make sure she calls you in
to cover. I’ve never seen the men behave so well before, with the exception of
that cocksucker with the wandering hands and the drugs. You scared the shit out
of them.’

‘I have a habit of doing that,’ he replied in a steady drawl,
smiling.

Adrian laughed out loud, but somehow managed to keep on shovelling
in the food at the same time.

When his plate was scraped clean, Korvain took it to the sink to
rinse and placed it in the dishwasher. ‘I’m beat. I’ll see you tomorrow
sometime.’

The two clapped palms and Korvain dragged his ass upstairs to disarm
and clean up.

He stripped his body of weapons, the twin Sig Saurs under his arms
going straight into the safe in his closet. His blades and the garrotte he
always carried went into another locked chest.

He never worried about concealing his arsenal with clothing. He
could cover them all with the shadows he called to himself, hiding the
tell-tale bulges and outlines.

He stripped off his clothes then padded barefoot into the bathroom, twisting
on the taps in the shower. The hot water quickly filled the room with steam. Korvain
dragged deep lungfuls of the stuff in through his nose, shaking off the tension
in his shoulders and back.

Tonight had been good. He’d gotten into the club and managed to make
Bryn trust him by pulling the sniffer dog routine. Tipping his head back, he let
the spray soak through his hair; the water’s scalding fingers running down his
face and along his neck. Alone with his thoughts, he ran through the plan once
more.

He’d already known the layout of the club from Adrian before he got
the invite, so no other recon was completely necessary. Plus he’d made contact
with Bryn and managed to gain her trust. That hadn’t been part of the plan—just
a bonus. If things continued on the way they were, he would have her blood on
his hands and ten years off his contract sooner than he’d anticipated. He
grinned, knowing how sweet that was going to be.

Korvain turned off the water and stepped out onto the white tile,
wrapping a towel around his waist while another went through his wet hair.
Dumping the smaller towel, he wandered out into his bedroom, letting his skin
dry in the air.  

Pulling on a pair of sweats, he left his chest bare and stretched
out on top of the sheets. He relaxed his body, closing his eyes, and thought
about Bryn. In his mind, he saw her dual-toned eyes, her alabaster skin. He
smelled the shampoo she used, the scent of her skin.

He thought she’d be in her office still, having fallen asleep while
doing that oh so important paperwork, but when he entered her dream, her body
was tangled up in the sheets of her bed as if she’d been unsettled before
finally drifting off.

Bryn’s lean legs were splayed, the sheets pooling in the depression
between her thighs. The long expanse of her naked skin held his attention for
longer than it should have. His body stirred at the thought of what was being
hidden from him.

Forcing his eyes to keep moving, they trailed up her lean body to her
face. Her braid had been taken out, her honey-blonde hair—kinked from being
restrained all day—was fanned out on her pillow; a halo of gold.

Korvain approached her slowly, his bare feet soundless on the
thick-piled carpet. He was still a few feet from her bed, but he could smell
that fresh sweet smell of gardenia on her skin.

Her deep, even breaths filled the air. He paced his with hers,
drawing in deeply, filling his lungs with that sweet temptation.

Bryn’s eyes began to flutter open. She inhaled deeply, her eyes
cracking wider as she had no doubt caught his scent. He knew the exact moment
when she realized she wasn’t alone. Her whole body became rigid, her hand
getting closer to her neck, but not yet touching the tattoo.

‘Who’s there?’ she asked, eyes darting around the darkness. He
remained silent. Watching her hauntingly beautiful eyes pierced something
inside of him, some long forgotten part of himself. ‘Korvain?’ she asked, her
voice soft, cracking just a little.