Devil Takes His Innocent

Evernight
Publishing ®

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright©
2015 Emma Anderson

 
ISBN: 978-1-77233-278-0

Cover Artist: Jay
Aheer

Editor: Jessica Ruth

ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or
distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names,
characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

I can never go past thanking my family. They are
my rock that has held fast in this tumultuous journey.

I would also like to send my appreciation and
heartfelt thanks to two very special women. They offered me both advice and a
kick up the butt when I needed it.
Bellann
Summer and
Honor James, your friendship means more to me than words can say.

And finally, a big
thank
you to
Evernight
Publishing for taking a chance on
this series. It was written with your publishing house in mind, and I have not
regretted my choice. The support and guidance I have received have made the
journey less stressful.
An especially loud call out to
Jessica, my editor.
You rock!

DEVIL TAKES HIS INNOCENT

The
Fall
of the Four
Horsemen, 1

Emma
Anderson

Copyright
© 2015

Prologue

Welcome
to Sin City. Where the stakes are high and playboys are many. A place where
bets are laid and deals are made. The paranormal
world thrive
in this environment, wheeling and dealing, living and loving. The Four Horsemen
are no different. The people of Las Vegas feed their hunger without even
trying. They are known by many names—Death, Conquest, War, and Famine—but those
close to them know them as Devil, Viper, Judge, and Chaos. They run their
business, Celestial Desert Paradise Hotel and Casino, the way they live their
lives, ruthlessly. They are unforgiving when wronged. It’s something that one
man is about to discover when he strikes a deal with the Devil that will change
both of their lives.

“
Mr. Harrison, as it stands at the
moment, your debt with us is in excess of a quarter of a million dollars,”
Conrad “Devil” Torments said as he leaned back in his chair behind his large
mahogany desk. “It needs to be cleared before any further credit can be
offered.”

Devil already knew this man had
nothing to give. He had delved deeper into Jeffrey Harrison’s financial
records. He was a gambling addict with nothing to his name but increasing
debts. He had been in recovery from his addiction for the last thirty years,
only to have fallen off the wagon three months earlier after the death of his
wife. It would seem he had sold everything of value and taken up his old habit.

When he had walked into the
casino within the hotel, Jeffrey Harrison had rolls of cash. By the end of the
night he had procured a line of credit with the casino. That line of credit had
been extended beyond what protocol allowed. The employee responsible had been
fired. But that did nothing to help this man, who was in over his head, or the
casino replenish
the lost funds.

“
I promise you, Mr. Torments, I
will get it for you. If you could just give me a few days,” Jeffrey Harrison
promised. Devil didn’t need his vampire senses to recognize the lies falling
from this man’s mouth.

“
I need more than your words, Mr.
Harrison. You have had more leeway than others, and that needs to stop now. My
brothers and I have a business to run, and I can’t allow the likes of you to
ruin everything we have built up,” Devil stated seriously. “I already know you
have nothing. How do you propose to pay us back?”

“
I have a daughter.”

This surprised Devil. Not that
this man was willing to sell his child to cover his habit. It wasn’t the first
time he had seen it, and he very much doubted it would be the last. What did
surprise him was the fact that the daughter hadn’t been mentioned anywhere in
the report compiled on this man.
A deadbeat son, yes, but no
daughter.
Devil’s senses told him that this man spoke the truth. Still
he challenged him.

“
Don’t lie to me, Mr. Harrison!”

“
I’m not. She carries her mother’s
name,” Jeffrey Harrison stammered. “The woman was a call girl when I met her
during my short separation from my wife. We didn’t stay together long, just
long enough to create a daughter. She’s just like her mother.”

Still unsure, Devil clicked his
fingers impatiently and asked, “Do you have a photo of her?”

The man rummaged through his
wallet. Shaking fingers fumbled, pulling a folded piece of paper from behind
one of his many useless cards. He handed it straight over to Devil, the page
still doubled over. When he unfolded it, his interest was piqued.

There on the paper lay his
personal wet dream. The young woman was gorgeous. Her long, blonde, wavy hair
hung down her back, strands blowing in the wind. Her bright blue eyes sparkled
with laughter in reaction to something someone had said or done. The hand on
her hip highlighted her curves. The word “perfect” came to mind. It was time to
do what he did best, wheel and deal.

Chapter
One

Gabby Winters stumbled toward her
car. She had just worked one of the longest shifts of her four-year nursing
career. A major crash involving a busload of children came in several hours
ago. Doctors and nurses had been called in to cover the large amount of
incoming patients. The ER had only begun to calm down thirty minutes earlier.

But now she didn’t want to think
any more about work. As soon as she had walked out the hospital doors she had
started her two-week vacation. The first one she had taken since becoming a
nurse. She planned on heading out to the cabin her grandfather had left her in
his will. It was an old hunting cabin that sat on a large piece of land. No one
apart from her best friend and roommate, Nikki, knew it existed. It was her
little secret getaway. Even better, there was no Wi-Fi or phone coverage.
Nobody could bother her.

As she drew closer to her car,
the one thing she knew she wasn’t going to miss vibrated in her bag. Pulling
out her phone, she read the caller ID. It was the man who had a hand in
creating her, but nothing else. He had left her mother heartbroken as soon as
he had discovered that she was pregnant. It would seem that he was desperate to
get a hold of her, because her phone displayed a number of missed calls from
him.

“
What do you want, Jeffrey?” she
asked, not bothering with the usual pleasantries she offered everyone else.
“I’ve just got off work, and I’m exhausted.”

“
You’re going to do something for
me.”

“
What, you’re forgoing the normal
asking, and going straight for the demanding? I don’t think so.”

Jeffrey Harrison and his son
Grant had walked into her life five years earlier. She’d stood at her mother’s
fresh graveside, crying over the loss of the only family she had left. In her
grieving state, she allowed these two men into her life and had regretted it
ever since. Jeffrey’s wife treated her like an intruder, taking any opportunity
to send a malicious dig Gabby’s way. Jeffrey was no better. In fact, his
comments had become even more hurtful after his wife had passed away. Over the
last three months, he had contacted Gabby only when he wanted something from
her. And each call ended in vile, menacing commentary about her looks or her
mother, when Jeffrey had failed to obtain what he wanted.

Grant was no better, except he
tended to whine to win Gabby’s favor. The only contact she had with him was
when he wanted money. Money she didn’t have. She was a nurse. What kind of wage
did he think she was on? She still had a large college debt hanging over her
head, and her savings, while minimal, were her rainy day fund.

“
Stop with the dramatics, girl.
You’re going to get that fat ass of yours dressed sexy and take yourself over
to the Celestial Desert Paradise Hotel and Casino, room 1102. The man’s
expecting my call girl daughter to arrive by nine. Your body is going to clear
my gambling debt,”
came
the man’s disgusting reply.

“
Not happening!”

“
It’s either you, or I send him
after your pretty little roommate. It’s probably been a while since she has had
a little male attention.”

That had Gabby’s attention.

Three years ago, Nikki had been
brutally beaten and raped by her then on-again, off-again boyfriend. Gabby had
been at her father’s having dinner when she’d received the call from the
emergency room. Scared for her friend, she had dropped her defenses and told
Jeffrey and his wife what had happened before racing to Nikki’s side. Nikki
knew nothing of Jeffrey’s knowledge of her attack. Gabby could never hurt her
best friend by telling her that one of the few people she despised knew of her
traumatic experience. It would seem that Nikki’s opinion was well deserved.
Jeffrey’s morals were not just limited as she had previously thought, but
nonexistent, if he was going to use one of the worst times in Nikki’s life to
his advantage.

“
So what’s it going to be, girl?
Either you or your friend?” Jeffrey’s question drew Gabby out of her
ponderings.

“
You’re an evil bastard. Do you
know that?”

“
I don’t really care what you
think of me, girl, as long as you get the job done!”

“
So your conscience sees nothing
wrong with using someone’s body to clear your debt?”

“
Not someone’s, yours. And you owe
me!”

“
How the hell do you figure that?”

“
The knowledge of your existence
killed my Betty,” he accused, his voice softening at the use of his late wife’s
name.

“
Cancer killed her, not me!”

“
You are a cancer!” he spat. It
wasn’t the first name she had been called by this man, and probably wouldn’t be
the last, either. “Now answer the damn question. Is it you or your friend who’s
clearing my debt?”

“
Why the hell should either one of
us
do
it? What’s stopping us from going to the cops?”
she demanded, knowing Jeffrey feared the police and the idea of going to jail.

“
You do and you’re asking for hell
to land on your doorstep,” Jeffrey said. “This man is not a person to be toyed
with. He’s dangerous. You’d do well to remember that.”

Gabby hung up on her father, not
bothering to respond to his demands. Jeffrey, however, knew Gabby would do
anything in her power to protect her best friend. She had no intentions of
allowing any form of danger to darken Nikki’s life. Her life had already been
marred by evil. Gabby refused to see her friend suffer any further. The
question was
,
could she allow Jeffrey this sort of
power over her life and her body? Did she have any other choice in the matter?
Could she believe Jeffrey’s assessment of the man? Could she risk not believing
it? No matter what question she asked herself, her thoughts continually
returned to Nikki’s safety. Gabby needed to protect her friend from any further
harm at all cost. It was something she had failed to do three years earlier. It
would never happen again.

The night Nikki had been
attacked, Gabby was at work. It wasn’t even her shift, but one of the other
nurses had called in sick. The decision to take on the extra work had been one
that she had regretted ever since. Not usually one to dwell on past events,
this one haunted her, and would probably do so for the rest of her life. If she
had followed her own schedule, Gabby would have been home when Nikki’s ex had
broken into the apartment she shared with Nikki. She could have stopped the
attack before it had even started. She hadn’t been able to protect Nikki from
the danger then, but she could now. She would deal with the consequences of
allowing Jeffrey this kind of power over her later. Her resolve was set. She
would give this man an hour of her time, no more, but hopefully less. Gabby’s
love for her friend would see her giving the stranger her body, but nothing
else. Well, that wasn’t exactly true.

Little did either man know, she
would also be losing something else
tonight.
It was
something she had been able to hold on to for the last twenty-five years.
Her virginity.
She had wanted an experience like those she
had read about in the many romances stored on her Kindle. But instead she would
no doubt be giving her virginity to a man who wouldn’t value it. She would
though, because she knew it would be lost ensuring Nikki’s continued safety.

Two hours later, she was still
questioning her sanity. She should, by all rights, have called the cops on
Jeffrey. That way she would probably have already been snuggled up in bed right
now, ready to start her vacation the next day. Instead she was snuggled up in a
dress that was two sizes too small for her, walking over soft carpet toward a
strange man’s hotel room. Well, walking probably wasn’t the best description
for what she was doing in the stiletto shoes. Nikki had been excited about the
prospect of Gabby “having a date,” even if it was one set up by Jeffrey. She
had taken great pleasure in dressing her as if she were a Barbie doll. A Barbie
doll
who
had eaten too much chocolate cake.

She couldn’t tell Nikki the truth
behind this little outing. It would not only draw to the surface memories that
were best left in the past, but her friend would have insisted they called the
police. Gabby would have usually agreed had it not been for this mystery man.
He was an unknown variable. He was an associate of Jeffrey’s whom the man
seemed to fear. There was no way of telling how dangerous he was. And placing
Nikki in danger was the last thing she would ever do. So Gabby had painted
Jeffrey in a fatherly light for once, and thankfully the idea of her meeting a
guy had stirred Nikki’s romantic juices, rather than her more suspicious side.

Reaching the door, she hesitated.
Her anger at Jeffrey and protective instincts toward Nikki abandoned her. In
their place, for the first time since the call, was fear. Fear for
herself
. For all she knew, a mass murderer could be on the
other side of the door.
One lying in wait, planning his next
crime.

Shaking her head, a nervous
giggle escaped her. She was allowing her nerves to get the better of her.
Jeffrey at least had the fortitude to explain that he had told this man that
she was a call girl, like her mother.
Though considering he
was capable of prostituting his own daughter out to a stranger, his word really
meant very little.
As added insurance, Gabby had ensured that Nikki knew
where she was going and when to expect her home.

 
She
lifted her hand to knock. But before she could, the door was flung open. There
stood every girl’s fantasy guy. Her attention was immediately drawn to his
chest. His curved muscles were barely contained under his tight black t-shirt.
Moving her line of sight upward, passing his strong, chiseled jawline, her gaze
collided with his black, mesmerizing eyes. He belonged in one of her romances,
as the hero. Why did he have to be playing the villain instead?

Forcing her hand out, she offered
it to this gorgeous, yet evil, man and said, “Hi, I was sent—”

“
Yes, yes, I know why you’re
here,” the man said, dragging her into the room and shutting the door.

The simple touch of his hand on
her arm sent a tingling sensation from her wrist down to her pussy. She had
never reacted to anyone the way she did him. Reminding herself whose associate
this was, she pulled from his hold and moved toward the expansive window that
looked out upon the Strip. Even knowing what light Jeffrey had painted her in,
her hips still desperately wanted to put in an extra swing for this man, but
her skyscraper shoes wouldn’t allow it. She had no desire to fall flat on her
face.

Looking out across the lights,
Gabby was reminded how lucky she was to live in such a beautiful city. She had
lived in Las Vegas all her life, yet she never grew tired of the lit up view.
Her attention was drawn away from the spectacular light show when she felt the
man stand beside her.

Unable to contain her curiosity
about this man who she desperately wanted to see as a hero, she turned and
asked, “So how do you know Jeffrey?”

“
I have no desire to discuss that
man tonight,” he responded gruffly. “I have plans for us. But first, tell me
your name.”

With her head held high, she
replied, “Barbie.”

“
Well,
Barbie
,” the man said with a mocking tone. “They call me Devil. Do
you know how I came by that name?”

Even though they both knew her
name wasn’t real, she took offense at this man’s attitude. He expected a call
girl, and that was exactly what she was giving him, name and all. “No, but time
is ticking. So if you want to waste it talking then by all means, please
explain. It makes no difference to me. Your hour started from the moment I
walked into the room.”

With a raised eyebrow and a
downturned mouth, he replied, “It’s because I’m ruthless in business and in the
bedroom. I take and do what I want in both forums. Now strip.”

“
Not even going to offer me a
drink?” she asked sarcastically.

“
I have plans to do that, have no
fear,” he promised, rubbing his groin.

Her pussy wept at the promise of
her mouth gaining a new experience as her gaze fell to where his hand continued
its up-and-down motion. What lay beneath it had her heart racing. If the bulge
was anything to go by, Devil was huge, and still her untouched body wanted it.
Even knowing who he was affiliated with didn’t stop her body from responding
instantly to him. Why of all the men she had met did it have to be this one who
succeeded in bringing her body to life?

Her mind began replaying a scene
from the book she was currently reading. The heroine was lying across the
bonnet of the hero’s car. Her legs hung over his forearms as he pounded into
her. Only the two main characters had been replaced by herself and Devil. A
blush heated her cheeks. The man before her was potent. Never before had she
even considered sleeping with a man. Yet here she was, no longer just accepting
her fate in the name of protecting Nikki, but wanting it. Wanting this man,
imagining he was something she knew he wasn’t.
A hero.