Brent jolted, like someone had shoved an electrical charge into the base of his spine.
Chaya.
What the hell have I done?
Seeing her had shaken him from the haze and he was slowly regaining control.
Someone had set him up, had targeted him.
Fuck, he needed to find Chaya.
He shoved through the crowed gathering and ran after her. She was in serious danger. He couldn’t lose her now, not now. She was every fucking thing to him.
He searched the club, but he couldn’t see her, couldn’t feel her.
His stomach twisted. She was out there on her own.
Heart pounding, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed her number. It went straight to voice mail. “Chay, please call me back. I need to know you’re okay.”
Cursing, he disconnected and ran for the exit. The only other place she could be was her apartment. His phone vibrated and he yanked it from his pocket. Chaya’s name flashed on the screen. Thank God. But when he answered, he realized it was a video call.
Victor’s face filled the screen.
“Sorry, Chaya can’t come to the phone right now. She’s a little tied up.” The camera moved and landed on her. She lay motionless on what looked like the back seat of a car.
“Chaya, sweetheart?” She didn’t speak, didn’t struggle, eyes lost and glazed. It was more than fear. There was something else causing her to withdraw, to sink inside herself. She whimpered and he called out to her again.
The camera came back to Victor. “There, you see. So far she is unharmed.”
“What do you want?” Brent snarled.
All traces of humor slipped from the guy’s face. “You have no idea, do you, my boy?”
Brent froze. “Garrett?”
The other male rubbed a hand across his jaw and shook his head, a grin tilting up his lips. “No, afraid not. But if you hand yourself willingly over to me, I’ll help you find him and let her go.”
Brent stared into the guy’s eyes through that little screen and tried to work out what the hell was going on.
“You still don’t remember me?” the bastard said before Brent could reply then frowned dramatically. “I’m hurt. We had some good times, you and I.”
His stomach bottomed out. That voice? A memory came crashing back, an unwelcome one. He’d never seen his face, but Victor had been there, too, held in that place, and like Brent, he’d been confused and lost. They’d used what he was against him.
“Why are you doing this?” Brent rasped.
Victor’s eyes hardened. “Will you do the exchange?”
Brent would endure anything to keep Chaya safe, to get her away from that psycho. “Where are you?”
Victor’s nostrils flared and he licked his lips. “You agree to my terms?”
Like hell. “Yeah. Now tell me where you are.”
“I’ll meet you at her apartment. You have fifteen minutes to get there, alone, before things get unpleasant for her.” Victor disconnected.
He contemplated calling for backup anyway, but Victor was clearly unhinged, unstable. Brent didn’t know what the guy might do if someone other than him showed up. He couldn’t risk Chaya.
He reached her apartment with barely five minutes to spare.
The door was locked when he tried it but then swung open before he could put his fist to it. Like the fucker had been waiting with his eye pressed to the peephole.
Victor stood with a gun in his hand, but it wasn’t aimed at Brent. It was aimed at Chay. She lay on the floor, tied up. Arms at her back, her body was bound tight enough to cut off her circulation, to cause pain.
Victor’s gaze traveled over Brent, making his skin crawl. “Come in. Make yourself at home.”
Brent took a step toward Chaya’s still form and reached for her.
Victor shook his head. “I wouldn’t go any closer if I were you.”
“Can I at least talk to her?”
The male’s cold eyes darted down to her then back to him. “You can try.” He shrugged. “She wasn’t well when I found her stumbling down the street. Made for an easy target, though.”
Victor had set him up and had those demons attack him in the club. The bastard knew exactly what would happen when they force-fed him their emotions because he’d witnessed it firsthand four years ago.
Brent turned back to Chaya. “Sweetheart? Can you hear me?” She didn’t acknowledge him, eyes fixed straight ahead. “What have you done to her?”
“Nothing yet.” He motioned him away with the gun. “Over there.”
Brent had no choice but to do as he was told and moved to the other side of the room. “I did what you asked. I’m here. Untie her and let her go. She has nothing to do with this. This is between you and me.”
“Hands behind your back.” Victor pulled a pair of cuffs from his back pocket. “Turn around.”
“Let her go first,” Brent gritted out.
“I’m not stupid, my boy.”
My boy.
Shivers skated down his spine. God, he’d never wanted to hear that again. That’s what Garrett had called them, the demi and other demons being used there. My boy. My girl. Turning his back, he offered the other male his hands. A cuff clicked into place on his right wrist then Victor threaded it through the old radiator pipe attached to the wall and secured the other. “You have me where you want me. Now let her go.”
With Brent immobilized, Victor seemed to relax further and took a seat on the couch, resting the gun on his knee. “I was very angry when your friend came and set us free. The knights should have stayed the hell away.” He stared blankly at the wall, deep in his own head. “You were his favorite. Did you know that? The master knew what you liked, what made you scream in pleasure…in pain.” His nostrils flared and his face twisted. “I loved him, and you ruined everything. When the knights came, they didn’t just take you, they took everything. They destroyed everything.”
Brent had to fight not to react. Lazarus had not only rescued him; the knights had freed the others being held. Garrett and a few others had already made a run for it. Brent had hunted and taken down every one—every one except the male Victor spoke so fondly of.
Victor sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “I have nothing left. I’m rich, but money means nothing when you don’t have the one you love to share it with. But now I have you, Brent, his favorite. We can go to him together and he’ll take us back. He’ll take me back.”
Love. The bastard was insane. “It was you, wasn’t it, who sent the pictures, the video? Not him.”
Victor smirked. “Yes. The master knew of my skill with a camera and utilized it. I knew where they were kept and went back for them after the knights raided the building. Everyone left so fast. They were locked away and missed.”
Brent ground his teeth. “You’re Garrett Industries?”
He nodded.
“Is Garrett even his name?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. Garrett Industries dissolved after we were released. I created my own business under the same name, a way of sending him a message. To let him know I wanted him to come for me.” He tilted his head to the side. “Then you started coming after anything with Garrett Industries attached and you led me straight to you. I knew then how to get the master to come for me—you…his favorite.”
“But he hasn’t, though, has he, Victor? Not for either of us. He doesn’t want you, not anymore.”
Victor flushed red with rage. “He will. It’s only a matter of time.”
Brent stared the male in the eyes, trying to get through. “You’re wrong. You know you are. It’s been four years.”
Victor shook his head furiously. “I’m not and we can help him, you and I, to take this city. It’s the master, I can feel him. He’s behind it, the unrest. His power is so much stronger. He needs us.”
Jesus. He’d lost it completely. The male was seriously unhinged. He needed to get Chaya away from him.
“I told you I’ll go with you. I’ll go willingly. I’ll even help you find him, but only if you release Chaya.”
His eyes narrowed, mouth twisting with displeasure. “Do you love her?”
He shook his head, lying. “She’s an employee. I look out for the people in my club, that’s all.” Behind Victor, he saw Chaya move. Let her be okay.
Victor stood and made a tsking sound. “Now you’re lying to me. I don’t like liars.”
He strode across the room, crouched down, and grabbed a hunk of Chay’s dark hair, wrenching her head back.
That dead, lost stare caught and locked onto Brent’s. He bit his tongue. Any show of distress would only prove him right.
“Chaya told me all about your relationship. She told me she has feelings for you, that she believed you felt the same way. You came for her, you rushed to her side. I think maybe she was right.” Victor’s grip tightened, and she winced, lucidity creeping back. “I’ve been watching you for a while, waiting for the right time.” He glanced down at Chaya. “The right motivation to get you to see things my way. I’ve seen the way you look at her, the way you watch her.”
Brent yanked on the cuffs, making them clatter in the quiet room. “No. You’re wrong.”
Victor looked down at her, a sneer covering his face, then back at Brent. “Now I’ve explained everything, you know, you understand. I know you want this, too. But how can we start our new life with the master with this uncertainty hanging over our heads?” He shook his head. “No, I won’t have it. The master won’t like it. There’s only one way for me to be sure you won’t run from us, run back to her, and hurt him again. That’s to make sure she won’t be a problem.” He lifted the gun and pressed it against her temple.
“No.” Brent yanked harder on the cuffs, now slick with his blood. “Don’t—”
Pain shot through Chaya’s head as Victor yanked harder on her hair, pulling her from the emotional agony surrounding her. Brent’s agony. His humiliation, confusion, pain, and lust had become her own and she struggled to break free. It was suffocating.
But that bite of pain brought her back, pulled her from the darkness.
What Brent lived with daily, Jesus, she couldn’t stand it.
That’s when she became aware of him. He was here. In her apartment. He was yelling, but she couldn’t hear his words because every one of her senses had zeroed in on the cold hard steel pressed against her temple.
A gun.
And if she didn’t act, she was going to die. She knew it with one hundred percent certainty. She would not let this asshole take her away from Brent.
Summoning all the strength she could muster, she jerked her head to the side, and Victor immediately wrapped his fingers around her throat to hold her in place.
It was all she needed.
Skin-to-skin contact.
Opening up her senses, she used the powers she was given and pushed out all the emotion trapped inside her, her own and Brent’s. She forced it out of her body, pouring it all into Victor, unloading all the agony he’d caused back into him. The gun immediately dropped from his hand and clattered to the floor. The force of that initial rush was enough to have him crumpling to the floor.
There was a groan of metal and a crash as Brent tore the pipe from the old radiator out of the wall, freeing himself. He came straight at her, coming down beside her. “Chay? Speak to me.”
She opened her mouth but nothing would come out.
Brent twisted and yanked the key for the cuffs from Victor’s pocket and managed to unlock them before he quickly secured them on Victor. Next, he went to work on her ropes. As soon as she was free, he pulled her into his arms, rocking her, kissing her hair. “God, I love you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
She wrapped her arms around him in return, his distress helping her to find her voice. “I’m all right. I’m okay.”
He held her like that until Victor stirred beside them. Brent kissed the top of her head. “I need to deal with him.” He released her and palmed the discarded gun.
She shook her head. “Please, leave it to the knights. You don’t want his blood on your hands.” She climbed to her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck. “He was a victim once, like you. Please. Call Zenon or Lazarus.”
His body was hard as stone. She could see he was struggling with his rage, his need to kill the male at his back. “This is important to you?”
“Yes.”
“He was going to kill you,” he gritted out.
“You’ve been through enough. Dealt with so much on your own. Let someone else do this, take this burden from you. Please.”
Finally, he took his phone from his pocket, and called Lazarus.
When he ended the call, he gagged Victor so they wouldn’t have to listen to him and made good use of the rope that had been used on her.
She didn’t know what to say, how to make this better for him. So she just sat with him, comforting him as best she could while they waited for Lazarus to come and take Victor away.
Lazarus arrived with Zenon a short time later. Lazarus’s sharp gaze landed on her. “You okay, Chaya?”
She nodded and offered up a wobbly smile. “Yeah.”
He nodded in return then pulled Brent aside.
Zenon, her scary as hell brother-in-law, stood in the corner several feet away, and those eerie yellow eyes moved to her. “He hurt you?”
“I’m okay, Zen.”
His hard gaze did not falter. “Not what I asked.”
Shit. “He, ah, slapped me around a bit, tied me up. Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
Murder filled the male’s eyes, his nostrils flaring, teeth bared. That terrifying gaze moved to Victor and locked on. Victor began struggling, eyes wide, terror evident in his panicked stare.
Lazarus and Brent joined them again but Brent’s eyes locked on the male tied and gagged, so much going on behind that troubled stare.
Zenon stepped forward, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. “Chay’s my family. I want to take care of this.” His hard stare shifted to Brent, and his next words, simple as they were, hit her behind the ribs hard. “And she’s Brent’s.”
Brent was family, too. The unspoken meaning behind his words was clear.
He looked after family.
She had no idea how he knew about her and Brent, probably never would, but she could see his words affected Brent as much as they had her.
Zenon would right the wrong inflicted on those he considered his family. It was that cut and dried for the knight. The male loved her sister more than anything on this Earth, and because of that, loved her as well. He would kill for those he loved, as would all the knights. Lazarus looked to Brent, and he nodded, giving the okay.
Without another word, Zenon moved in, ignoring Victor’s renewed struggles, and lifted him like he weighed nothing. His massive black leathery wings sprung from his back and he strode to the large fire-escape window. One minute they were there, the next they were gone.
She had no idea where Zenon would take Victor or how he planned to end his life, and she had no desire to ever find out.
Laz and Brent talked for a while longer before the knight left the same way Zen had.
Brent turned to her, closing the distance between them. “You okay?”
She nodded. “Now I know you’re safe.” She pulled him close, and he buried his nose in her hair, breathing in her scent.
“Victor sent demons after me, used his knowledge of my weakness so he could get to you,” he said. “But, Chay, even as lost as I’d been, as confused and ruled by instinct, when I closed that door, when I looked at that male waiting for me to fucking do something, I hadn’t been able to. I spent an hour frozen on the opposite side of the room. I couldn’t even bring myself to touch him.”
“It’s okay…it’s over.”
“Can you ever forgive me…for everything?” He shook with emotion. “I love you, Chay. So much. I’ll do better. I’ll do anything. Anything. Just, fuck…don’t leave me,” he said, voice low and gritty.
She took his hand and pulled him into her bedroom, not wanting to be in that room after what had happened. She sat him on the bed, and moving in close between his parted thighs, cupped his face, looking down into his troubled eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He sucked in a shaky breath. “No?”
“I know now what you live with every day, everything you’re feeling and struggling with. You’ve kept so much locked up inside you, Brent.”
“I stupidly thought being with you would make it harder, would test my control even more.” His big hands lifted to her thighs. “But, Chaya, you make it better. Just being with you makes everything better. The demon inside me, it’s changed. Its only focus now is you. I think we both needed you.”
“That’s because you are mine. You were always meant to be mine.” She smiled but shook her head. “But as much as I wish I was, I’m not the cure. You have to do this for yourself. You have to want it.”
He pressed his forehead to her belly. “I do. Fuck, I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
She threaded her fingers through his hair. “The knights can help you, but you have to ask for it.”
“I know and I will,” he said.
She climbed into his lap. “When you’re struggling, I want you to tell me. Promise me you won’t suffer in silence anymore.”
His arms tightened around her. “I promise,” he rasped. “I only want you, Chay. I only need you.” She could feel his big body trembling.
She smiled, unable to stop herself. “I love you, you know that? I’ve loved you since we first met. I took one look at you and I was a goner.” He wrapped his arms around her tighter. “I’m just glad you finally caught the hell up.” She pressed a kiss to his lips.
Brent kissed her back. “I love you so much.”
Threading her fingers though his hair again, she tilted his head back and nipped his lower lip. “Good. Now take me home. I need you to make love to me.”
He chuckled darkly. “God, I love it when you’re bossy.” Then he kissed her long and slow and carried her from the apartment.
He took her home.