The Royal Flush (Knights of the Darkness Chronicles(Book Three)) (24 page)

“Does it matter?”

“That depends. Who did I speak to last night?”

“An associate. Now, are you going to tell me your name?”

“Does it matter?” Adam retorted.

Sergio snorted. “I just like to know who I’m doing business with.”

“Brian,” Adam lied, giving him his alias. “and you?” he asked, placing the briefcase on top of the trunk of his car, he worked the combination locks, opening the case to reveal the two-hundred thousand dollars.

“Cicero,” Sergio gave him a fake name as he glanced at the money lined perfectly in the briefcase.

“Looks good.”

He gestured to Adrian and Nagesa to bring over the trunk with the ammunition in it.

Natasha was so worried about the deal at hand, she almost forgot to perform. She swallowed hard and sashayed up to Sergio, who slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her closer. She was thankful that her eyes were hidden behind a pair of very dark sunglasses because she didn’t want this guy who was now staring at her to see the fear that was really there. She was so nervous, she thought she might vomit, but that would just be disturbing and disgusting so she forced herself to calm down. She gathered up her senses. If she was going to be of any use, she was going to have to overcome her fear. She took a look around, the four men standing near-by made her feel protected. She took several deep breaths, preparing herself for the performance of a lifetime…
her
lifetime, that is.

“Is it enough, baby?” she asked in a soft voice. By golly, she thought she might just pull it off.

“It’ll do,” Sergio said as he stared at Adam who returned the glare.

Now, is the perfect opportunity to make my move
, Natasha thought. She prayed that she could walk over to him without falling face first. The height of her six-inched heeled boots was about three inches more than what she was used to. Natasha never understood how women could endure such pain for the sake of fashion. That was, until she looked at herself in the mirror. The boots did make her legs look longer, sexier. Still, she wasn’t going to make a habit of wearing them, already her feet and calves were starting to ache. Slowly, she sashayed closer to Adam who began to grow nervous.

“What are you doing?” Adam asked suspiciously.

Natasha walked over to his car running her fingers over the trunk.

“Don’t worry, she just likes to get a little... personal. Shouldn’t bother you, unless you detest a woman’s touch?” Sergio goaded.

Adam’s expression tensed, but to prove Sergio wrong, he allowed Natasha to touch his
sweet ride
.

“No problem on my end. In fact… ” He turned to Natasha. “ …Hey sweetheart, when you get through playing with my toy, I have something else you can ride a lot longer and harder.”

Appalled, Natasha turn towards the man.

“Careful now, didn’t your momma teach you not to play with dangerous things?” she warned masking her revulsion successfully. Adam, disturbed her greatly and she really wanted to be as far away from him as quickly as possible.

“Ooh, I like her,” Adam said, giving Natasha a wicked, lustful glare.

“What’s not to like? I’ll tell you one thing. You say one more word to her, I’ll rip out your fucking tongue,” Sergio threatened with pure menace.

“Yeah, whatever, she’s not my type anyway. Let’s just get this over with.” Adam watched Adrian and Nagesa as they opened the trunk. He looked inside inspecting the merchandise.

Natasha used that opportunity to touch the hood of his car. Immediately she sensed something, but the sensation was more powerful than it had ever been in the past. A vision flashed in her mind relating to the car. A woman was tossed on the hood, her clothes ripped from her body violently. Nails scraping across her flesh, thin lines of blood flowed from the fresh wounds. She screamed, cried, and begged for mercy. The man, the one who called himself Brian was on top of her, a gun in his left hand which he pressed underneath her chin. He told her to keep quite if she didn’t want her brains splattered over the car’s hood. Fearing for her life, she acquiesced with tears of desperation and overwhelming despair streaming down the sides of her face. Adam raped her over and over and when he was done and she was sore, terrified and ashamed. He pulled the trigger of his gun, splattering her brains over the hood of the car. He took great care to shoot her through her chin so that the bullet would exit through the top of her head, not through the hood of
his
sweet ride
. Natasha yelped as she snatched her hand away from the car’s handle.

Adam turned around sharply, looking at her. Pointing rudely, he asked. “What the fuck’s going on with this bitch?”

He turned around to address Sergio and was knocked down by the shifter’s right hook. He looked up at Sergio from his prone position on the ground; blood trickled from his nose and mouth.

“What the fuck?!” He spat the blood that had gathered in his mouth onto the ground then rose. “This meeting is over with. Close the trunk!”

“I don’t think so. See, we’re going to be taking the money and the merchandise,” Sergio said.

“What is this, Cicero? Are you trying to double-cross me?!” Adam laughed harshly. “You fucking idiots!” He looked at the others. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you have some pretty huge brass balls. Unfortunately for you, there isn’t a brain rolling around in that noggin of yours. You see, I don’t get scammed. Look around you?” He pointed towards the few abandoned buildings that surrounded the area.

“What exactly am I looking for?” Sergio asked sarcastically.

“My men are all around this area, one signal from me and you’re fucking dead.
I
will be taking the money
and
the merchandise… that is if you want to live.”

“Oh, do you mean the so
-called hit-men

slash guards you had stashed in those abandoned buildings? Give the signal, I dare you.” Sergio smiled arrogantly.

Adam didn’t hesitate, this ‘Cicero’ guy was just too confident. He looked at Sergio’s bodyguards and noticed that they weren
’t concerned at all. He waved his hand, signaling for his men to shoot them down. When the bullets didn’t come, he panicked. He grabbed Natasha who was still in shock from what she saw and confused as to why she had the clairvoyant vision, and now terrified that she was a hostage. She had been putting the pieces together in her mind. Darian had increased her power the night before, this must be the result. She was coming to grips with that as well as the threat of the current situation when Adam placed a gun beside her temple.

“Back the fuck off or I’ll kill this bitch, I fucking swear it!” Adam threatened.

Natasha screamed as she was being dragged backwards. Her right ankle twisted as he dragged her forcefully towards the trunk filled with ammunition.

“Grab it, now!” he ordered.

Natasha grabbed the trunk’s handle and tried to drag it back to Adam’s car but couldn’t. “I can’t! It’s too heavy,” she protested.

“Shit. Get the briefcase, then,” Adam said as he cocked the gun, keeping the barrel pressed against her temple.

Natasha reached for the briefcase on the hood. It was then that Adrian appeared behind Adam, startling him. Adrian’s hand caught Adam’s gun, crushing it into a small metal ball. Adam was at a loss for words, too terrified even to scream. He released Natasha and she ran into the protectiveness of Sergio’s arms. Adam had just witness the awesome strength of a shape-shifter, of that he was certain, it had to be, everyone knew vampires couldn’t survive the sunlight.

“Remember we don’t want him dead,” Sergio said, speaking in Italian to Adrian, who nodded and released the man.

Adrian took the briefcase full of cash from Natasha’s trembling hand. Nagesa reached for the trunk and carried it back to their car with Justin. Sergio began to back away from Adam then he turned, taking Natasha with him as he walked back towards the car.

Adrian watched Adam with the gaze of a predator. “Don’t fucking move, if you do... I won’t hesitate to kill you. Be a team player and tell your boss if he harms any of the people he has imprisoned, I will make him wish he was never born.” He turned and walked away, leaving Adam standing alone in the parking lot.

Immediately, Adam climbed into this car and sped off, heading towards the
Esquire Hotel.

Adrian climbed into the back seat; he looked over at Natasha who was sitting next to him. “What did you see that had you so freaked out? You had me worried back there, I’ve never seen you so zoned out or that frightened?” he asked as he put his arm around her, holding her close.

Natasha could no longer hold back the tears that welled inside of her and she began to cry. Sergio drove the car back to Xander’s mansion as Adrian held her in his arms, comforting her as best he could. She remained silent, not wanting to talk about what she had witnessed, not at that moment, at least. It was still too fresh. All she wanted now was to be held and that was just what Adrian did.

Sergio pulled in front of Xander’s mansion and they all climbed out, bringing everything with them. Adrian assisted Natasha to a seat in the den once they were inside the mansion.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked. He was concerned for her.

“I saw what he did to her.” Natasha began to cry once more, she closed her eyes tightly and shook her head rapidly as if she could shake the memory from her mind.

“Natasha, what did you see?” Adrian asked, he knelt down in front of her, grabbing her by the shoulders.

Natasha fought to get herself together, she was never one to break down and she didn’t want to start now. If seeing random visions like what she witnessed was going to be a part of her life now, she needed to regain control. She was going to have to find a way to deal with it. She closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

“Natasha, speak to me, are you all right?” Sergio asked, both he and Adrian were looking at her when she opened her eyes.

Xander and Tatiana entered the room.

“Give her some room, darling. Let the poor girl breathe,” Tatiana said to Adrian, who rose to his feet, stepping back from Natasha.

“Go and get her a glass of water,” Xander told Justin, who left and returned quickly with a tall glass of ice cold water. He handed it to Natasha, who took the glass and quickly began to drink pausing only to catch her breath between swallows.

“Leave us,” the Alpha ordered.

Tatiana looked at her husband and nodded. She ushered everyone out of the room, leaving Xander alone with Natasha.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Xander asked. He looked at her clothes, and knew the outfit was Adrian’s idea. It had his son’s taste written all over it. He fought the urge to smile.
Smiling now, would be completely inappropriate,
he thought. he sat down in the chair opposite Natasha and waited for her to feel comfortable enough to speak.

After five minutes passed, Natasha placed the empty glass on the coaster that sat on the end table. She looked at Xander.

“Last night, Darian increased my ability. At first, I didn’t feel any different from before, but today when I touched Adam’s car I received a vision. Before when I would touch an object, I would feel some sort of connection, like an electric spark or something. But this was different.”

“What did you see in your vision?” Xander asked calmly and softly. The tone of his voice helped Natasha relax, it comforted her.

“I saw Adam rape and kill a woman on the hood of his car. I saw it as if I were actually standing there, like I was the one doing it!” Natasha was visibly disturbed. “The connection I formed with Adam let me see his past through his eyes.” Coldness rippled through her and she shivered.

Xander rose from his seat, kneeling down in front of her. He had seen many horrible things in his lifetime. In his eyes, Natasha was an innocent in many ways. He couldn’t imagine how the vision was truly affecting her, but she was traumatized, of that, he was certain. She wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly as his arms encircled her.

“The world is a dangerous place. People can be ugly and cruel. I wish that you did not see such atrocities with your visions. I apologize for b
ringing you into this

”

Natasha pulled away, interrupting Xander. “No, don’t apologize. I wanted to help, I still do. It’s not your fault that some people are evil.” She smiled sadly. “It’s unfortunate that I had to see that, lord knows I’d rather get visi
ons of puppies playing. But I’m grateful for my visions. They allow me to help people. To save lives, it’s nothing that I can’t bear. My best friend, whose life was viciously snatched away from her a few months ago, once told me that my ability was a gift from God and my cross to bear. I could choose to ignore it, or embrace it. I decided long ago to embrace it and all that came with it. So don’t worry about me, I’ll cope. You’re all helping me with that, too. So thank you.”

“You are an interesting human. Very few have your amount of courage and fortitude. I don’t normally associate with humans past making business deals. I prefer to keep to my own kind. But you have a quality about you that I admire. I can say with complete honesty, that it has been my honor to have met you, Miss. Natasha Hemingway,” Xander said with a charming smile.