Chapter 16
Hazard
The pond water was pungent in the air, the sun glaring on the surface like a magnifying glass ready to roast a stream of ants, but all I could smell was that sweet vanilla mixed with her natural sweat.
Zira’s irritatingly addicting scent. And even with this frustration roaming in my mind, my dick was halfway there.
My head burned with questions, wanting to know the goddamned answers this time.
I needed to show her that I saw through her lies.
Whatever she was hiding, it wasn’t going to work on me.
But that wasn’t how it was playing out at all. She was still alive, and I didn’t have any answers about Gabby’s past. Instead, Zira had me on my knees.
The replacement contractor nodded at me as I crossed the main hallway of the Bloom Estate.
I ignored him, going straight to Zira’s quarters.
She was on the phone in front of her laptop, perched behind her desk like a corporate queen.
A flowing cream colored dress with extravagant layers and a lace bodice wrapped around her, like a bohemian fairy.
She quickly closed the laptop and stowed her phone. What else was she hiding? Maybe I was just paranoid, but I didn’t care. She was hiding secrets from me and I was tired of it.
She placed her hands on her lap and waited patiently. I didn’t say a word.
“What can I help you with?” she finally said, breaking the silence. Was she serious? Treating me like I was a walk-in client with business ready for the board? Fuck that.
“You killed Gabby, didn’t you?” I said. “That’s why you won’t tell me the truth. You know I’ll kill you if you do.”
Her jaw dropped. In reality, I knew she didn’t kill Gabby.
A person like Zira takes responsibility for her actions; she wouldn’t hide behind anything, even if she regretted it.
But accusing Zira of something that went so far beyond her beliefs would be one of the best ways to spur her into action. To force her to admit the truth.
“You don’t believe that,” she said. “You couldn’t.”
“What other explanation is there?”
She grabbed my hand, a sigh escaping her mouth as she led me through the estate. We took a golf cart over to the banquet hall, and inside, we went to the farthest room down the hallway.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
She pressed on a picture frame to the side of the room, and a wood panel opened, revealing a staircase that led underground.
A fluorescent light flickered on, illuminating our descent.
Water dripped, the tap against a metal basin echoing like the ticks of a grandfather clock.
The stale scent of decay and dust lingered in the air.
Wooden boxes framed the stone-lined the walls, like filing cabinets deep in the center of the earth.
It reminded me more of a tomb than an office space.
“The fuck is this place?” I asked.
“There are thousands of people here,” she said. “Thousands.”
It was a tomb, then. An underground tomb right underneath the picturesque Bloom Estate. The irony was infuriating.
“Do you know how many of them are men?” she asked. Sorrow and pain shadowed her eyes, her posture heavy, like she knew how messed up the entire thing was. I didn’t say anything, too aggravated to give into that kind of lecture, so she continued: “Forty-six. That’s it.”
That number hung in the air, creating a blockade between us.
“Forty-six men that died during the Masquerades over the last three centuries,” she continued.
“Sure, the Syndicate has killed plenty of men outside of these walls, but when it comes to the Masquerades? Thousands of members had their wives and mistresses killed and stored here. To be forgotten. To be kept ‘safe’ so that no one would ever find them. To show how much power they have.”
Tears welled in her eyes, but she ground her teeth, forcing the emotions to stay inside of her. A vein in her forehead pulsed with fury. I wanted to hold her, to tell her that it wasn’t her fault, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Because Zira wouldn’t do the same for me. She was too selfish, even if her desires destroyed the people on her side.
“Gabby is one of thousands,” I said dryly. “Great.”
“Don’t you get it?” Zira said. “No one matters here. Especially not someone like me.”
Her blue eyes flashed with a rare vulnerability that made me lose my breath. She was finally letting go of that veil and showing her true self. The person who knew that one day, she might end up like the rest of them, in a box with thousands of others, and that her time on earth would mean nothing.
Guilt ached in my throat. How could I be angry at her for holding back secrets when she had been through this much?
But I clenched my fist at my side. No. This was bullshit. I wasn’t like the rest of the members. Not after everything I had done for her.
“And how does that relate to you lying about my sister?” I rasped, trying desperately to keep myself in place. I needed that information she was holding close to her chest.
“It’s not about you, or me, Hazard. It’s about something so much greater than us. Greater than Gabby. I do what I have to do. One death means nothing when you see how many victims are just like her.”
Wrong answer.
I grabbed Zira by the shoulders, swinging her around until I locked her in a chokehold, dragging her across the cement, the backs of her legs scraping on the ground.
She tried to stand up by pushing up on the balls of her feet, but her stiletto broke and her other shoe tore off.
Even if she had a point—the bottom line was that Zira and I had an agreement, and she was breaking it.
In an alcove, a faucet dripped water into a basin, and as I kept her neck locked in my hold, I turned on the water, letting it fill the tub. A long, shallow tray with another hose was to the side, almost like an operating table. It must have been to wash the bodies. Like my sister’s.
I hoisted Zira until she was on top of the table. She threw her fist at my cheek, but I ignored the attempt and used my weight to keep her pinned. I pinched her cheeks until she opened her mouth, then I forced the hose between her lips and she panicked, shaking her head.
“Nnnno!” she garbled around the hose. “Oom—”
I turned on the hose, letting water overflow her mouth.
She flailed, and I kept my arm against her neck, forcing her to take it.
. Air filled my chest as I took in her desperation, waiting for that exhilaration to fill me, but it never came.
My dick was hard, but there was something off about this.
Flinging her arms. Gargling like a brook.
Reduced to nothing but the will to survive.
That’s all it ever was, wasn’t it? Gabby had accepted the offer to marry a fucked up rich boy who let her be killed in order to ‘teach’ her a lesson. And all Zira wanted was to make sure that shit like that never happened again. They both just wanted to survive.
But this was my own show of survival, because I didn’t like being played like that.
I turned off the faucet and let go of my hold on her. Zira flung herself up, coughing to the side. Next to us, water continued to fill the basin. How many bodies had been cleaned in this space before being stored in a box? Would I end up here? Would Zira be in the coffin next to mine?
“What happened to my sister, Zira?” I asked again, my voice louder this time.
“I don’t know,” she rasped.
“Ernest said that you were the only one there when she died. You didn’t even tell him who killed her.”
“You killed Ernest, didn’t you? You broke a promise to me.”
She was trying to make me feel guilty, but it didn’t mean shit to me. “You really care more about Ernest than my sister, don’t you?” I gave a dark chuckle. “You are one psycho bitch.”
“And you are delusional.”
I grabbed her by the shoulders, her dress soaked and clinging to her body, then ran her over to the basin, shoving her down until her head was submerged in water.
She pressed against me, thrusting and revolting, ramming her hips against me as my dick engorged with blood, but I held her in there, taking away her ability to breathe.
“All it takes is a name,” I shouted. “I know you wouldn’t do it. You’re not like that. You’re a good little princess. So who the fuck did it, Zira? Who is so important that you’re protecting them right now?”
I lifted her head and she gasped, mascara streaking her red cheeks.
“Hazard!” she screamed.
“Say the name,” I ordered.
“Hazard! Fuck!”
Another wrong answer.
I shoved her into the water. I pinned her against the sink as I dug out my cock, peeling her dress from her back until I ran my entire length into her pussy.
Her cunt struggled against me, squeezing my dick like it was a flotation device, and I let go of her shoulders.
She coughed up water, her lungs searching for air, and I grabbed her hips, digging my nails into her skin.
This was better than anger. This was better than facing every truth in front of me at that moment.
Because the truth was that I had trusted Zira. I wanted her more than anything in this world, and she had betrayed me.
I couldn’t face that reality.
I flung her to the ground and grabbed the switchblade from my back pocket, flicking it open and putting the sharp edge to her throat, pinning her against the ground. Dirt and cement particles clung to her neck, her body soaked and shivering.
“Tell me who it is,” I said.
“I can’t,” she cried.
“I’m not going to repeat myself again, Zira,” I breathed, exasperation taking hold of me. “Who killed my sister?”
Those blue eyes begged me to understand everything she was hiding. That she truly had no other choice. And that’s when I realized it was obvious.
The only person she would protect, the only person who could truly give her what she wanted, was her father.
She was protecting her abusive, rapist father from me.