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I lock the bathroom door behind me, hoping no one else will stray this far from the party before I can get this all cleaned up.
Chapter10
Mina
Brian pulls me against him in the darkened room, his mouth finding mine. I gasp, a tiny moan escaping me as I melt into his kiss. I’m about to ask about the target we still haven’t taken out when the door clangs against the wall, and I jump, spinning as the light flicks on. A masked man in a tuxedo fills the doorway.
Brian’s hand moves possessively up the back of my neck, gripping me. I expect him to move in front of me, to protect me from the intruder, but he doesn’t.
Finally, after what feels like my entire lifetime up until this moment, the man in the doorway speaks. “Mina, what in the hell do you think you’re doing with him?”
I try to spin around, but the man who now clearly isn’t Brian, has a grip on the back of my neck so tight I can’t move.
Brian removes his mask and puts it in the pocket of his jacket, then his eyes move away from me dismissively and on to the stranger. I feel suddenly like everything between us is gone in an instant—as though it was only ever a mirage.
“Brian?”
But he doesn’t look at me. It’s like I’m dead to him. My heartbeat picks up, thrumming faster and louder until my entire body is vibrating with the energetic pulses of life that could be taken from me at any time. I have never before been aware of just how close to death I live than in this moment. It’s as though my heart knows it’s almost over and is rushing to fit in as many beats as possible while it still can.
I’ve always known what Brian was—the monster he really is when he isn’t with me—and sometimes when he is with me—but I’ve never had the weight of his nature truly aimed in my direction. I thought I knew his darkness, his coldness, but if I thought I went to bed with death at night, I was adorably naive about what that meant.
This is Brian. TherealBrian. The one he shields me from. And I didn’t realize until this moment just how much he still shielded me from what he is.
I feel like I’m meeting this man for the very first time—like my first night at the Pleasure House when he terrified me so much… except this is somehow so much worse because back then, he was intrigued by me. I may not have known it at the time but that’s what it was. And now…? He’s flipped that switch inside himself—the switch I never thought would be flipped on me. I was so stupid, dancing with the devil all this time—thinking somehow I was special, that his danger and darkness would never turn on me and that the death he wears like a shroud would never wrap its icy fingers around my throat.
Because I was special. I was so incredibly wrong.
“Brian, I didn’t know, I thought it was you.”
He chuckles humorlessly. “You thought it was me, Mina? You can’t tell the difference in my kiss and a stranger’s? Let’s not kid ourselves here.” There’s an edge of barely controlled rage in his voice, and the combination of his ice and his fire aimed at me is almost more than I can take.
“Everyone’s wearing a mask! The party was crowded. And…” I trail off, stopping myself in time because I don’t know how Brian would react to what I was about to say.
“And what, Mina? What lies are about to fall out of your faithless mouth?”
“He felt cold and empty... like you.”
I see the slightest flicker of something behind Brian’s eyes, but it’s gone in the next second.
He turns his attention back to the man I can’t see, the man I so stupidly thought was Brian. I get it. I understand why this seems so unbelievable, that I wouldn’t know my own lover’s touch, that I wouldn’t be able to discern Brian’s lips on my throat or on my mouth from a stranger’s. But hefeltlike him. All I know right now is that I’m alone in a room with two killers.
“Well, this takes the fun out of everything,” the stranger says.
“Gregor, how have you been?” Brian says. His tone is calm, casual. He knows this guy? Of course he does. They both carry the same energy, like they were inducted into the same secret society murder club together.
“I can’t complain,” Gregor says.
“The target is dead, and I already sent proof. The money has been wired to my account. I was going to take Mina on a nice tropical holiday, but… tonight has reminded me… I work better alone.”
Gregor’s grip tightens on the back of my neck. “I’ll kill her.” It’s painfully clear that he had a script and can’t keep up with the change that makes the script irrelevant now. I realize suddenly that the history between these two isn’t pleasant. This guy lured me away with the plan to what? Fuck what belongs to Brian? Kill me? Kill me while Brian watched? Did Dante know it wasn’t Brian leading me away from the party?
Brian rolls his eyes. “Did you miss the last couple of minutes? I don’t give a flying fuck. Fuck her, torture her, kill her. What the fuck do I care? She’s not mine anymore. She’s nothing to me. I would sell her to you, to try to recoup some of my losses—and frankly this contract is only a third of what I paid for her—but given the bad blood between you and I, I think it’s a pretty even trade. I’ll take the monetary loss and we can let bygones be bygones.”
“Brian… I swear I didn’t know… please. Master,” my voice cracks on that last word.
I see the muscle in his jaw tighten, but he ignores me.
“Master?” Gregor says. “What kind of kinky games do you two have going on behind the scenes?”
