Page 18 of Wreaking Havoc
“So!” he said brightly, leading Kai down the stairs and doing his best to avoid thinking about motorboating giant demon pecs. “The mob. Or Mafia. You know, take your pick on the terminology. Basically my brother is in charge of…a business, of sorts, like I said. But, um, illegal stuff. Like, we have legitimate fronts—nightclubs and the docks. But there’s also gambling, and a decent amount of drugs, and maybe weapons, but I can’t remember if that’s still going on. No people though. We don’t do human trafficking.”
Jesus. Was he really trying to justify his family’s shady dealing to a demon? “We’re not the biggest game in town, but we’re not tiny either. And there are a few families we deal with on a regular basis. Or compete with, depending how you look at it. And my brother pissed one of them off.”
“And what do you do?”
Sascha missed a step in the hallway. “What?”
Kai’s massive hand landed on his shoulder, righting him like a wayward tenpin. “You keep saying it’s a family business. What do you do?”
“Oh. Um, nothing,” Sascha told him, shrugging off the touch, a little disconcerted by the part of him that wanted to push up into it instead. “I’m not really involved. Our dad didn’t want me to be.”
“Because you faint at the sight of blood.”
“No. That’s—” Sascha turned in his tracks, scowling up at the demon. “I didn’talwaysfaint at the sight of blood. There was an incident.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, he just…didn’t. Said one of his sons should be paving the way for legitimacy. Sent me to school instead. Schools plural. Boarding school, then college to get a business degree. But when I graduated, he never gave me anything legitimate to do, so I guess that was all bullshit. I think what he really wanted was to be a real father to at leastoneof sons, and I needed to not be his goon for that to happen.”
Kai was staring back at him intently, his face unreadable. Why was Sascha even talking about this? There was no possible way the demon cared about any of his—or his brothers’—daddy issues.
Not to mention the mommy abandonment issues.
The doorbell rang, and in an instant, Sascha was flung against the wall, Kai looming over him, lethal-looking dagger in hand.
“What are you doing? Put that away. It’s not a hit man, it’s our coffee order.” Sascha pushed his way out of Kai’s grasp, ignoring the warm tingling at each of the places Kai’s body had touched. “Stay here, you lunatic.”
He opened the door to find the same buff dude from the bar the other night, coffee order in hand. “It’s you,” Sascha said with surprise.
Buff Dude nodded amiably. “You bought the old Eisner place. Right on.” He held up his closed fist, presumably for a bump of some kind.
Sascha narrowed his eyes, his own hand remaining at his side. “I thought you were a bouncer.”
“Oh, I do a lot of stuff,” Buff Dude told him with an easy grin, lowering his arm. “But my passion’s fitness. I post my routines online and everything.” He gave Sascha a once-over. “If you ever want to bulk up some, I’m your guy.”
Sascha hummed noncommittally. He wouldnotbe doing that. Twink death might be inevitable down the line, but that didn’t mean he had to go and help it along.
He was about to politely shut the door in the guy’s face when Buff Dude’s eyes widened comically, his gaze fixed past Sascha’s shoulder.
Oh fuck.
Sascha turned, expecting the worst. Would they have to erase the guy’s memory like the suited dudes fromMen in Black? Where did one go about acquiring a memory-erasing pen?
But it was not a giant horned monster in his entryway, after all.
It was a giant human man instead.
A giant humanKai, presumably, unless he had a human twin he’d been stashing away somewhere. He had the same unnaturally gorgeous face, but he was about half a foot shorter than his demon form—topping off at an almost reasonable six foot five—his armor gone. He was just as shirtless, with miles of tanned skin on display and that gorgeous hair falling to his chest. His weird swirling tattoos had turned into ordinary dark-blue ones that didn’t move at all.
He still looked fierce as hell, reminding Sascha of some legendary Highlander from a trashy romance novel.
What he was, when it came down to it, was sex incarnate.
Sascha swallowed with a dry throat. Oh God. This was just a disaster, wasn’t it? There was no use denying it anymore.
Sascha really wanted to fuck this demon.
Sascha wasn’tsure what he said to get rid of the delivery guy, only that he was suddenly back in the kitchen with a still-human-looking Kai, who was making absolutely obscene noises over his coffee.
At least Sascha knew he’d gotten the order right: large black coffee, no sugar, no cream.
He held his own oat milk latte—still too hot to drink—between his hands, praying to whoever would listen he didn’t spring a hard-on over a demon and his caffeinated beverage.
