Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
Deacon
The struggle in Zaur’s eyes was apparent for everyone to see as he stared at the small box in Nathan’s hand. It was no bigger than a quarter, and didn’t look particularly threatening, but Zaur acted as if Nathan had just pointed a loaded missile at him.
“Go ahead,” Zaur said, desperately trying to hide the tremor in his voice. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve already forced me to take that shit. A second dose won’t make a difference.”
One of Nathan’s arms was still wrapped around my waist, keeping me from tearing into Zaur like a wild animal. I’ll be the first to admit, when people I care about are threatened, I see red and lose all common sense. The hand on my hip gave a brief squeeze, silently asking if I was all right.
Sucking in a deep breath, I patted Nathan’s hand and nodded.
He still didn’t seem convinced, probably because he could feel how hard I was shaking. Instead of letting me go, Nathan kept one arm around me and handed me the little box.
“Deke? Do you mind?”
I accepted the box, always keeping one eye on Zaur. The man was now staring at me with as much fear as he’d directed toward Nathan.
The box was even smaller than I thought, and extremely fiddly. I nearly dropped it as I struggled to slip my nail under the latch. When I finally got it open, I found a single red pill inside. Carefully pinching it between two fingers, I held it up to the light for everyone to see. The round, slightly iridescent surface made it look like a bloody pearl.
“What is this?”
“It doesn’t have a name.” Nathan took the pill from me with the same gentle firmness as the arm around my waist. “As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it doesn’t exist. Only one of these pills is ever made at a time, and it’s the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought.”
“Okaaay.” I eyed the pill with confusion. “But what does it do?”
Nathan looked like he was about to answer, but then he stopped and turned to his brother. “Zaur? Do you want to answer that?”
With a deep sigh, Zaur turned his head away and refused to look at anyone else in the room.
“It’s a paralytic. Anyone who takes it will lose complete control of their body. They’ll still be able to breathe, but they won’t be able to move at all. Even their vocal cords will be affected, so they’ll be mute as well.”
He flinched just from recounting the symptoms, and I was certain he knew about the drug from personal experience.
Nathan’s arm slid up from my waist to circle around my shoulders. “To put it more poetically, it’s a way to imprison someone within their own body.” He then gave Zaur a very pointed look, which made the other man flinch again. “This isn’t the first tantrum my brother has thrown. A few years ago, I decided I needed a better way to keep him in line, so I slipped him this pill. There’s an antidote, but it only works for a month at a time, and the recipe is a heavily guarded secret. If Zaur wants to keep walking around freely, he has to do what I say.”
Zaur’s hands were balled into fists at his sides, clenched so tightly I could see a drop of blood leaking between his fingers. “Bastard,” he hissed under his breath, though not quite enough to go unheard.
Nathan just laughed. “That insult doesn’t work on me, Zaur. We have the same parents.”
Zaur’s lips pulled back to reveal his teeth in a poor imitation of Nathan’s intimidating snarl. “One of these days I’m going to find the recipe for that antidote, and then you’re going to pay for this.”
“But today is not that day.” Nathan held the pill up again, presenting it to the eyes of everyone in the room. “However, you are right about one thing. There’s no point giving this to you again. A second pill has no more effect than the first. This was just a reminder.”
He turned, bringing me with him, so we both faced Caprice Vidales. She still stood in the corner of the room, looking like a lost tourist in a foreign country with only her single personal bodyguard for support.
“What?” Caprice gasped when she realized Nathan’s implication. “No. You can’t do that.”
Nathan finally released me, but he didn’t go far as he stalked a few steps closer to Caprice.
“You’ve been a thorn in my side for too long and gotten too bold. You need to be controlled, for your own sake as well as mine.”
“No,” she shouted and backed away until she hit a wall. “Just kill me if you dare.”
Shaking his head, Nathan tutted at her like he was scolding a child. “No. If I kill you then someone else will just take your place, and nothing will change. This will be much more effective.”
I squirmed where I stood, hoping no one was paying attention to me. Something about Nathan’s condescending attitude was activating a kink I didn’t know I had. It would be different if he spoke to me that way. I could never find such humiliation sexy.
Watching him humiliate other people that I despised was a different matter. My blood ran hot through my veins and a familiar excitement twisted in my gut.
It hadn’t even been an hour since our rendezvous in the bathroom downstairs, but my hormones didn’t seem to have gotten the message. They were screaming at me as if I were a desperate virgin who’d never known the touch of a man before.
I would definitely be getting Nathan alone as soon as possible.
Nathan ordered Caprice to be captured. There was a moment of confusion where the various bodyguards stationed around the room weren’t sure whether to obey or not. With both their figurehead leader and their real leader in the room, the chain of command was a bit muddled. However, Zaur solved the problem by supporting Nathan’s order. He seemed relieved that Nathan’s attention was off him for now, and happy to throw Caprice to the jaws of The Wolf.
Caprice’s lone bodyguard put up a valiant fight. It was the same woman who had guarded her before and managed to survive going toe-to-toe with Nathan.
Unfortunately, she was significantly outnumbered, and Caprice was still injured, so the other woman wasn’t much help. The bodyguard was soon restrained, and Caprice was forced to kneel on the ground in front of Nathan. Multiple hands held up her head and pried open her mouth for Nathan to slip the pill inside. He pushed the pill so far down her throat that she gagged, then held her mouth closed to ensure she didn’t try to cough it back up.
I was reminded of a dog my family had when I was a child. One time the poor thing got sick, and it was too smart to be tricked by medicine inside treats. So, we’d been forced to shove the pill down the dog’s throat each day until it got better.
Nathan handled Caprice in almost the same way, but there were no whispered words of “good girl,” and no treat as a reward at the end. Once he was certain she had swallowed the pill, he shoved her away as if touching her skin burned him.
Still kneeling on the floor, Caprice coughed and sputtered until spit dripped down her chin, stained pink from her lipstick. Her hands were held behind her back so she couldn’t shove a finger down her throat to try and make herself throw up.
“Bastard,” she managed to choke out.
Nathan’s arm returned to its place around my shoulders. “Now, unlike my brother, you do have the right to use that insult for me. Although, it’s still inaccurate. My parents were married.”
Another coughing fit hit Caprice so hard, she doubled over until her forehead touched the floor. Once she managed to regain control of herself, her eyes were watering so badly it smudged her mascara, making her look like she was crying black tears.
“So, what? Now I have to submit myself to you every month for the antidote?”
One of Nathan’s hands idly ran through my hair, and I pressed closer to him.
“Oh, no. I’m handing you over to the Bianchi family. You can go to D’Angelo for the antidote, and he’ll decide what he wants to do with you.”
Caprice gaped up at us, clearly even more horrified by this new information than she had been by her initial poisoning.
I could almost understand. There was some honor in submitting to someone who had bested you. But to be outdone by someone only to be immediately tossed aside was an insult on top of injury.
“Hey, Nathan.” I wrapped my arms around him and angled myself against his body so he could feel how hard I was inside my too-tight pants. “Are we done here? I’m... bored.”
He laughed with a dark, wicked tone. Yet, the kiss he pressed to my lips was as sweet and light as spun sugar.
“Forgive me. We’ll have to take care of your... boredom right away.”
He led me out of the room, but just before we reached the door that led to the hotel’s hallway, a strange sound came from behind us. It sounded like the wail of a dying animal. Looking back, I saw Caprice collapse into a heap on the floor, trembling so bad that she seemed to be vibrating.
“Oh, did I forget to explain,” Nathan said as he watched her with a dispassionate gaze. “The initial dose can be rather unpleasant when it takes root. But don’t worry. It won’t kill you.”
With her hair fallen in disarray over her face, only one eye was visible as Caprice glared up at Nathan from the floor. Fire burned in the depths of her contracted pupil, and her breathing was ragged as she screamed.
No words escaped her. Just incoherent sounds of rage and pain. Her screams followed us as we left the hotel room behind and faded from our ears the moment the door closed.
The elevator ride back down to the first floor passed in a blur as Nathan and I locked in a heated kiss with our hands groping under each other’s clothes.
“You know,” I gasped as he palmed one globe of my ass and squeezed. “This is a hotel. There’s plenty of beds we could use.”
I was proud of myself when Nathan grabbed my ass with his other hand and I didn’t flinch. Our efforts in bed had been paying off. Maybe I could finally give Nathan the only piece of my virginity that remained.
Nathan never stopped kissing me and spoke in the brief pauses we needed to breathe. “No. Not here. I’ve got better plans for you.”
Unfortunately, we had to part when we reached the ground floor of the hotel. Stepping off the elevator, I was stunned to hear the sounds of the party still taking place in the ballroom. People were laughing, drinking, and even dancing with no idea of what had just taken place above their heads.
And they would probably never know. Based on the efficiency I’d seen from Nathan before, not a word of what had happened in the penthouse would ever reach public ears. Even most law enforcement would probably be left in the dark.
Although my pants technically had pockets, they were too small and tight to actually carry anything, so I’d stashed my phone in Kiki’s purse. This was usually fine, except in situations where she was the one I needed to call. Instead, I asked Nathan for his phone and punched in Kiki’s number, which I thankfully remembered. I shot her a quick text to explain where I’d gone.
A censored version, of course. I still hadn’t told her the truth about Nathan. That was something to tackle later. Now wasn’t the time. I would let her enjoy the party in peace and then worry about how to explain everything.
Only seconds after I sent the text, I got a thumbs up emoji in response, letting me know she’d seen my message. Then I returned Nathan’s phone and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“All right. Take me away. I want to know what these plans of yours are.”