Cheska brought my face closer to hers, grazing her lips against mine and speaking against my mouth. “She’s waiting, has been waiting, for the king to show his true colours. Then he’d realise she’s not waiting for the valiant knight on his white horse to carry her away to her happily-ever-after. Rather she’s waiting for the fucking dragon to appear, to burn any suitor who gets in his way, and claim the queen once and for all. She wants the dragon, Your Majesty,” she said mockingly. “She wants the fire. She wants the thorns and the razor-sharp branches. She wants the eternal fucking darkness. She wants to sit beside the king on his treasured throne of bones.”
Cheska was breathing hard, as if adrenaline was pumping her blood like rapids through her body. I grabbed her wrist and squeezed until her fingers fell from my face. I could tell by the sting those nails left behind that she’d broken the skin and drawn blood. My heart was thundering in my chest, and my blood was lava, fucking scalding and incinerating the walls of my veins.
“You want darkness?” I said to her, pushing her back with my wide chest until she was pinned against the back of the chair, trapped. “Then you’ll get darkness. You want the fucking dragon, the fire and blood? Then you’ll get the motherfucking dragon. You want the bones, the flesh and the death … ?” I brushed past her cheek and down her neck, then scraped my teeth against her throat. “Then you’ll get fucking death,” I said against her scorching skin.
I pulled back, glaring down at Cheska as she lay back against the back of the chair, gripping the arms and looking up at me like I was every inch the dark lord the pathetic bloody papers claimed me to be. “Tomorrow night, you can come with us, and we’ll see if you still want all the sadism and depravity you claim your pussy gets soaking wet for.”
Her eyes narrowed at my crassness, but as I walked to the door, needing to fucking get away from Cheska and all the fucked-up things my evil soul wanted to hear, she said, “I want the dark lord in the obsidian chariot, black horses carrying us away into hell. Not the white knight. I’ve already had him, let myself be rescued by him. And he proved worthless.”
Cheska stood, swiped a packet of cigs off the fireplace and sparked one up. “I want the king of my dark-hearted nightmares.” Cheska looked down, and in her hand were the ivory queen and ebony king. Cheska took another drag of the cig, then stabbed the lit, ashy end into the heart of the ivory queen, a black mark staining the white. I met the challenge in Cheska’s eyes with my own, then threw open the door and went to the spare room I’d been staying in while she slept in my bed.
Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night she’d see the true fucking dark king she said she wanted to drag her to hell. Then we’d see if her conviction was as good as her talk.
We’d see if she really wanted to be the queen to stand at my side. Through blood and torture.
Through darkness and hell.
Chapter Ten
ARTHUR
I stood at the bar waiting for Betsy and Cheska.
“You sure this is a good idea, mate?” Freddie said beside me.
“She wants to be in this world, then this is her test,” Vera answered for me.
“He’ll hold back.” Charlie smiled cockily at me.
“I won’t,” I said, eyes pinned on the fucking door. “She wants to see all this shit, how we live. Then she’ll see it all. No fucking holds barred.”
“Should we prepare a limo to take her ladyship away after she sees the lair?” Eric said. “I can have it on standby at the back door, sick bags at the ready.”
“Cheska will be okay,” Vinnie said, eyes fucking blown, readying for tonight. Out of all my men, he craved these nights the most. Almost as much as I did. “I’ve seen it.” Vinnie looked up and nodded at the ceiling like the fucking nutter he was. “There’s more black around her now. Still some red, but much more black. Everyone is dead. All her family are dead. That always brings more black. And it never goes away.”
Something fucking pulled in my gut at that. I stood off the bar, righting my cufflinks, just as the door to the living room opened and Betsy and Cheska stepped inside. I fucking froze on seeing Chelsea Girl. She was dressed in all black. Skinny black leather trousers clung to her fucking legs like a second skin. Legs that seemed to go on for fucking ever. She wore a skintight black top tucked into the high-waisted trousers. Her hair was down and she was wearing makeup. I hadn’t seen her wear makeup since she’d collapsed on my nightclub floor. Her sky-high stilettos left her only a few inches shorter than me. They’d make it easier for me to turn her around and sink into her cunt, if she managed to last the night.
Ronnie and Vera got to their feet. The room was quiet. Betsy threw me a smug look and went to stand beside her brother, linking her arm through his.
“Let’s go,” I said, moving to leave the room.
“One thing first,” Ronnie said, and I stopped dead. She turned to Cheska, who was watching her with a suspicious stare. Ronnie’s face was steel as she walked toward Cheska and pushed her against the wall. Cheska’s back hit the wall with a thud. I gritted my teeth, ready to wrench Ronnie the fuck out the way. I made to move, but Vera shot me a glare. She shook her head, telling me to leave it. I told my cousin with my fucking cold expression that if anything happened to Cheska right now, they’d be sorry.
“You think you’re ready for tonight?” Ronnie said. Cheska nodded, chin held high like it had been in the study last night. Never knew a posh bird could have so much fucking fight.
Ronnie smirked, then took hold of Cheska’s face and pinned her head back against the wall. With her free hand, Ronnie reached into her pocket and pulled something out. I stepped forward, suspecting it was a blade. But she held the silver metal item up and smiled. “Then you better wear a fucking killer red to go with those heels,” she said and twisted the tube in her hand until red lipstick came out.
I rolled my fucking eyes at her theatrics and pushed past them all. I flicked my eyes to Cheska as I passed, only to see her smiling at Ronnie as she painted her lips scarlet red. Betsy laughed, and my boys followed behind me. We got into cars, and in my peripheral I saw Cheska get into the one at the back with Betsy, Vera and Ronnie.
There would be no attempt to hide her identity at the place we were going. The people there wouldn’t give a fuck who she was anyway. And they knew better than to fuck with me. They might be my associates in business, but I had dirt for fucking days on all of them. The place we were going to was my motherfucking domain. No one would dare fuck with any of us Adleys there. And if they did, then it was the perfect place for retribution.
“Ready, old boy?” Charlie asked. I knew he wasn’t referring to tonight by the cocky look on his face. It was about Cheska. But I wasn’t talking about her right now. She’d see one of our enterprises tonight and fucking leave. Out of my life and back to her world. Then I’d be back to bloody breathing right. Because I wasn’t sure I’d taken a full fucking breath since she’d burst back into my life.
The cars stopped at the old warehouse in Mile End. I flicked the collar of my coat up and lit a cig, the freezing cold wrapping around me, then led the way toward the warehouse. To normal people, it was just that—a warehouse, filled with car parts and other mechanical shite. To us and those in my world, it was a gateway to fucking sin.