“No.” Mack stands fully upright, flexing his massive fingers into even more intimidating fists. “No fucking police. That’s your true game, isn’t it?” He lashes out from across the table, seizing me by my chin so harshly that my jaws snap together.
Just like that, all of the air leaves the room. Gasoline replaces it. One tiny spark is all that’s needed to blow everything from the pool table to the people gathered around it sky high.
Lucifer says nothing, though his eyes go to Mack with the intensity of a wolf gnashing its fangs. He pauses when my bloody hand meets the sliver of the table in front of him though. Slowly, his gaze settles over the bloodied fingers, and I face Mack alone, staring deep into his eyes. His gaze isn’t a mystery to me like Lucifer’s. I can read each violent emotion clearly—greed and jealousy are a universal language Vinny educated me in so well.
“Why not?” I ask.
He laughs, and his grip tightens hard enough to grind new bruises onto my already battered jaw. “Little girl, you don’t even know the half of it. Not even fucking half. Your beloved fiancé owns the goddamn police. We go to them and I might as well just give that fucker the keys to my own little kingdom.”
I attempt to shake my head, but I can only jerk my chin, trapped by the force of his grip. “He owns half the police,” I admit. “But...the rest...”
“They answer to the public,” Lucifer says softly. He frowns and rakes one of his bloodied, bruised hands through his hair—something that I notice he does when he’s thinking. “Nobody gives a damn about a drug scandal. But women...girls. A story like that would trigger a larger investigation that even Stacatto couldn’t shut down even with every judge in the city in his pocket. It would start a fire that the city couldn’t contain...”
“Hmph, and how the fuck do you propose we do that?” Mack demands as his fingers relinquish their hold on me.
“We bait the trap,” Dante says as if it’s obvious. “We find a wayto lure him out of his hiding spot, and then we hit him where it hurts.”
“Those are pretty words and all, Dante,” Mack counters. “But I’m gonna need something a little more concrete.”
“We tip off the police about the girls. When they go to warn Stacatto—”
“He won’t give a shit because the police are in his fucking pocket, like I’ve said,” Mack interjects.
Lucifer merely smiles. “Not all of them. You getonenosy pig on his trail and that’ll force him to at least try to cover his tracks. When he does, we’ll be waiting...to steal a little bit of his merchandise.”
“Hmm.” Mack takes his time drinking in the plan. There’s a rough cruelty even in the way he thinks to himself, rubbing absently at his chin. “I get the girls when we’re done—”
“No.” My fingers release the blue ball, and it bounces twice across the table’s surface. “Iget them.”
Mack laughs. Even Arno has to snort. Such a silly idea, the princess wanting to claim a bunch of whores. Lucifer doesn’t snicker, however. Maybe he knows my plan already. Maybe he doesn’t really care.
“Iget the girls,” I repeat, staring Mack dead in the eye.
“Is that so?”
“Yes,” I say. “Because I’m going to use them to hit Vinny right where it hurts.”
“Oh, really?” The corner of his mouth quirks, revealing a sharpened canine. “And just how do you plan to do that?”
I shrug. Then...I smile, going against the neat expressions Vinny preferred me to display. He hated when I smiled for anyone but him. He hated when I laughed out of his earshot. It seems only fitting that, with him being the topic at hand, I do both.
“I’m going to let them go—”
“Bullshit.” This time, Mack really does come for me, swinginghis massive form around the pool table to grab me by the throat. He presses hard, just enough to make it a struggle to breathe, and I feel the curve of every finger, down to the ridge of each nail gouging my skin. “I’ve had just about enough of this little bitch,” he snarls, his breath hot on my face, his mouth still curved into a mocking smile. “Say one more stupid fucking word and I’ll find a good use for that smart little mouth of yours.”
“Let her go.” The command comes from Arno, but his eyes are focused somewhere behind me, where another man lurks, his shadow swallowing mine. “M-Mack, let her fucking go!”
“Should I, Dante?” Mack wonders, directing the question beyond my shoulder. He drags me forward until I have to strain on tiptoe to keep him from crushing my throat. “Should I let the little whore go? Or maybe I should give her a little taste of my cock first?”
He shifts one of his hands and tries to jab the pad of his thumb between my lips. I choke when he goes too far, and my teeth clamp down. Hissing in pain, he draws his hand back, and thenpain. I see silver. I taste blood. Agony plays a deafening melody through my skull, and when I finally regain my senses, I’m on the ground, both hands braced against the floor in front of me. It trembles. There has to be an earthquake taking place...
Or a body being thrown against the wall.
“Dante, stop!”
There’s a beast attacking Mack. Arno does his best to rein the monster in, but nothing can stop a devil unleashed. If I’d been stupid enough to believe that Lucifer’s skill in battle extended only to the show within the cage, I would have been sorely mistaken. That fight was child’s play.Thisis the true devil off his leash.
He snarls, his muscles rippling with every punch he lands before Mack can even form a proper defense. Blood flies with each blow, after blow, afterblow... Arno has to throw himself forward to get enough leverage to wrap both arms aroundLucifer’s waist. He tugs, but the man doesn’t move. He doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t comprehend anything but the violence.
