Filthy Rich Fae

Chapter Three

A man lay crumpled on the floor under a single flickering overhead light. Two men in dark clothes—more guards, by the looks of them—stood over him.

A massive executive desk sat in the middle of the room, completely bare save for a bowl of apples placed in one corner like a macabre version of a classroom.

But it was the men gathered on the other side of the desk that stopped me in my tracks.

A collection of brutal beauty, each was dressed in a suit, as though they could hide their true natures behind fine clothing. They were all younger than I would have expected. Not a single one looked a day over thirty. No wonder they had no issue getting kids like Channing mixed up with them.

The one at the center of the group scanned us as we entered. He was handsome, in a cruel way, except for the sneer he wore. He looked powerful. Savage. Was this who I’d come to see? I waited for him to take a seat behind that desk, waited for him to pounce.

But he looked at the man beside me. “It’s about time, Lach.”

It took me a moment to process what he meant. My eyes widened as it hit me. The man I was with was not a guard. He was not some obedient lackey.

“You’re…” Lach. He was Lachlan Gage.

Horror laced with icy fear slithered through me. Unhinged. Vicious. Merciless. That’s what they called him. I’d followed him blindly, and now he had me trapped.

A smirk hooked his lips. “You really didn’t know, did you?”

I couldn’t speak. I simply stared.

He knew what I wanted. He knew why I was here. But he leaned closer and whispered, “I’ll be with you in a moment.” He winked. Straightening, he crossed the room and settled into the desk chair like a throne. “What is this about?”

One of the men moved closer and whispered in his ear. Gage’s eyes darted to the other men in the room as he listened, his expression unreadable. When the man stepped away, Gage sat back, his fingers steepled under his chin.

“Do you know what happens when you break my rules?” he asked the man on the floor in a surprisingly soft voice.

He whimpered in response, rising to his knees with clasped hands. “Please. It was a misunderstanding.”

“Now, Martin, you know that isn’t true.” Gage shook his head and nodded to the man standing next to him. “You broke the law.”

“Please. I will never do it again.” Martin switched tactics. “If you give—”

“I suspect you won’t, because another offense will mark you for the Hunt.”

Martin shrank toward the floor, his face contorting with pure horror at the strange threat.

Gage lifted his hand to the other man I’d initially thought was him. “Would you like to decide his fate, MacAlister? You are a guest.”

MacAlister stepped forward, brushing an invisible fleck from his suit jacket. In the dim light, he looked like a lawyer approaching the stand. He frowned as he gazed down at Martin. The other man shrieked, which seemed a little like overkill. What was MacAlister going to do? Force him to give a statement? Cross-examine him?

“Right or left?” he asked, and my heart began to race. “You must have a preference.”

“Please. I’ll do anything.”

MacAlister chuckled, shaking his head like it was some inside joke.

My stomach clenched. Were they going to kill this man in front of me?

One of the guards yanked Martin to his feet and shoved him forward. He folded in half onto the desk, his begging turning to desperate sobs.

“Choose,” MacAlister said. “Or I will choose for you.”

Martin began to shake. “Please. Don’t. My family…”

“Your family would agree with me,” Gage snarled.

“I guess he doesn’t have a preference.” MacAlister pulled something from his pocket, and bile rose in my throat when I caught a flash of steel.

“N—” I started to cry out, but the protest died in my throat when Gage shot a sharp look at me. Ever so slightly, he shook his head.

I clamped a hand over my mouth, even as every instinct in me screamed to stop this.

MacAlister pinned Martin’s hand to the desk and brought the knife to it. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to keep myself still. But I couldn’t block out the sounds: Martin pleading, then screaming. The wet splintering sound of blood and bone. And then…silence.

I forced myself to open my eyes, forced myself to look. Blood pooled on the desk, dripping onto the floor where Martin’s unconscious body lay. This time, I couldn’t stop myself. I moved without thinking. Dropping to the ground next to him, I swiftly unhooked the strap of my purse. I felt their eyes on me as I wrapped it around Martin’s wrist like a tourniquet to slow the bleeding.

“Interesting,” MacAlister said with a laugh. “Is she next?”

I looked up at him. “Fucking monster.”

The men began to murmur, but Gage held up a hand. “The matter has been dealt with. Get rid of him,” he ordered like he was telling them to take out the trash. Then, his attention shifted and landed directly on me.

“What about her?” MacAlister pressed.

“She is mine.” He held my gaze for a long, heated moment, then looked to them. “The night is young. Enjoy it. Elsewhere.”

No one argued as they made their way from the room.

“Careful,” I barked as one bent to pick up Martin. I looked at Gage. “He needs medical attention.”

“He’ll have it.” He nodded to his man.

I barely trusted myself to speak as the door shut behind us. I steeled myself as I stood, determined to be brave. But as I approached his desk, the scent of blood overwhelmed me.

“If I wanted him dead, he would be dead,” Gage said as if reading my thoughts.

It was a fact and a warning rolled into one. One order was all it would take, and I would be the next body carried out of here.

I ignored the warning. “You maimed him!”

“I did not touch him.”

“You allowed that bastard to maim him.”

“MacAlister.” His lip curled on the name. “He has a taste for cruelty, but custom dictated I allow him to step in. It’s hard to explain.”

“Try impossible.” I shook my head. “You could have stopped him.”

“Perhaps, but if you knew the crime that man committed, you would be reaching for the knife yourself. However, you didn’t come here to condemn my customs. You came to make a deal.” He sat back in his chair, completely unconcerned with the bloody mess before him. “Let’s hear it.”

“You already know why I’m here,” I said through gritted teeth. “My brother.”

He shook his head. “But now you’ve had time to consider your offer.”

“Channing owes you something. Money, maybe?” I took a deep breath. “I came to pay it.”

“Channing sent you?” he asked, a little surprised.

“No.” I gave him a cold smile. “As I told you, he’s in the hospital, and after that, he’ll be in jail. So it might be easier to work with me than him.”

Gage lifted a brow. “The hospital doesn’t call the police. If someone there—”

“I called the police,” I interrupted. “And they suspended me for doing it. I’m sure once you call them, I’ll be fired.”

“Doctor?”

“Nurse.” I squared my shoulders.

He studied me closer. “I should have guessed from your medical theatrics. Unfortunately, your brother has sealed his own fate. I can do nothing.”

“What?” It exploded out of me. I’d just watched this guy order someone to cut off another man’s hand. I didn’t buy that excuse for a second. It was just another twisted game.

He continued, “Channing should have followed orders.”

Something reckless took hold of me. I lurched a step forward and pointed to the blood on his desk.

“Orders like that?” My voice shook, but I was past caring.

“He broke the rules.” For a moment, he almost looked apologetic, but I knew better than to trust that. “Channing stole food. He didn’t deny it. Not that it would matter. He is guilty, and there’s nothing I can do.”

My mouth dropped open. “Food,” I repeated. Even after what I’d witnessed, I refused to believe that…to believe anyone could be so cruel over so little. “He stole food, and you’re going to kill him for that?”

“Kill?” Gage looked up at me, his tone shifting to bitter amusement. “I have no plan to kill Channing. Is that what he told you?”

Not exactly. “Well, he’s already been shot.”

“The shooting was a misunderstanding.”

“Because that makes me feel better. What else do you plan to do to him?”

“He will pay the price. He knows what he owes.”

“And what is that?” I demanded.

“His life but not his death.”

I stared at him, waiting for the punch line. When it didn’t come, my mouth hung open. “You can’t be serious. You think he owes you his life?”

“I am serious.” He pushed back in his chair and stood, rising to his full and considerable height. “You should leave.”

Every instinct in my body shouted at me to shrink, but I held my ground. I wasn’t weak, regardless of what he thought. Being horrified at what these men had done to Martin wasn’t weak. It was human. I could feel, unlike these monsters. And I had walked into Gage’s office. I had faced him. I had survived worse than this brute. I was strong, and he wouldn’t cow me.

His head tipped, interest lighting in his eyes at my defiance. “Will there be anything else?”

I swallowed, forcing myself to voice my deepest fear. “Please,” I said softly. “He’s all I have.”

“Then I would advise you to be more careful with your possessions, Cate.” He plucked an apple from the bowl on his desk, tossed it in the air, and caught it. “Let’s try again, shall we? What would you offer for your brother’s life?”

My hands shook as I touched the ring. I’d vowed to never give it up, but I would. For Channing. I held out my hand. “I have this.”

His eyes flashed, his gaze dropping to the ring with faint surprise. He took my hand, stroking a thumb across my skin, and paused at the emerald ring. He studied it for a moment, eyes narrowing, something unreadable moving behind them. Hope blossomed in my chest, only to wilt when he said, “It’s worthless.”

“It’s valuable to me.”

“Then I suggest you keep it on before you offend me by offering cheap trinkets in exchange for a life. Besides, as I said, Channing doesn’t owe me money.” He leaned over the desk, tattooed hands splayed across the wood. “You said this was a matter of life and death—now act like it. What would you give in exchange for your brother to be free of his debt to me today?”

“Anything.” Tears slipped down my cheeks. “I would give anything.”

“Even your soul?” he asked quietly.

“Don’t be ridiculous—” I started, but he cut me off.

“Would you trade your life for your brother’s? Would you trade your soul?” he pressed.

“Yes.” In a heartbeat.

“And you’re sure about that?”

I smashed my palms into the desk, bringing my face level with his. “I would do anything to save him from you.”

“In that case…” He tossed me the apple. I barely caught it. “Eat something. Your stomach is growling so loudly, they can probably hear it upstairs.”

I looked at the apple. All of this trouble, and all I was getting was a stupid apple. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Do you resist every effort to help you?” he asked.

My eyes narrowed. “What happened to don’t eat or drink anything?”

“We’re past that now, don’t you think?”

I was done with this twenty-questions bullshit, done with this brutal world. If a stupid apple was all I could take from Lachlan Gage, I would.

I bit into it ferociously and glared at him, but he simply folded his arms across his chest, his smile wolfish. A strange sensation, like I was being watched from behind, prickled across the back of my neck. I looked over my shoulder, but no one was there. The prickle deepened as I chewed. I reached up to rub it, but it didn’t go away. Instead, it burrowed like a hook, and I gasped, dropping the apple as I nearly choked.

“I should tell you that I prefer that you call me Lach.” He picked up the discarded fruit and studied it for a moment before lifting it to that sinful mouth and sinking his perfect white teeth into the bite I’d just taken.

My heart nearly climbed into my mouth. The sight was both erotic and infuriating. I backed up a step, catching the edge of the desk when the room spun. “I’m leaving.”

“No, you aren’t,” he said. He swallowed, and I watched his throat slide, watched that hint of shadow on his jaw tense and release, watched his tongue lick the juice lingering on his lower lip. “We need to discuss the terms of our arrangement.”

“There is no arrangement.” My heart pounded in my chest, beating faster and harder until I felt it everywhere. I steadied myself, but when I tried to turn away, I couldn’t. My feet might as well have been encased in concrete. The tingle on the back of my neck returned, sharpening to a sting as though an invisible hook had caught me. My breath sped into shallow pants that heaved with my speeding heart. “What is happening? What have you done?”

“You made a bargain.” Darkness glittered in his eyes as he watched me strain, trapped like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb. “Your soul for his—and now, you are mine.”

Then, he snapped his fingers.