A Very Dark Masque Christmas (Dark Masque)

Chapter 1

ONE

KENNEDY

I peered out of my office as Ice walked past, humming off-key, a large box in his hands.

A couple of moments later, he walked the other way.

I didn't think much of it until I realised he did that three times already. Each box getting progressively bigger.

"What are you doing?" I called out after him.

He stopped and peered through the doorway. "Nothing."

He drew the word out, his eyes shifting to either side, deliberate, playful.

Something was definitely going on right now.

What was new? This was Isaac 'Ice' Miller. He was always up to something.

"Uh-uh, I said in disbelief. "Do I need to come and see what's going on?"

"No," he said quickly, raising his hands in front of him. "Stay in there. Nothing is happening, I… No, I don't promise. Something is going on. Nothing you need to worry about."

"In other words, I should worry about it," I said dryly. I cocked my head at him and gave him an 'admit you're up to something' gesture with my fingers.

He looked back at me, blue eyes full of perfectly feigned innocence.

"You didn't kill someone and bring their body parts here for me, did you?" I wrinkled my nose.

"Would I do that?" he asked.

I fixed him with a look, which only made him grin.

"How do I put this?" I asked slowly. "Yes. Yes, you would."

"What would he do?" Ares appeared from the other end of the corridor, face full of suspicion as he regarded Ice. He'd known him longer than I had. He knew exactly what the other guy was like.

"What wouldn't I do?" Ice asked, the sweet as honey mask never slipping.

Ares gave him the side eye. "What is it this time?" He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Ice. As long as I'd known him, he never had a problem giving his opinion and calling Ice out when he thought he needed it. Ares Turner was blunt as a hammer at the best of times.

"It’s supposed to be a surprise," Ice said, his brow creased at both of us like he was frustrated with our persistence.

I almost felt bad.

Almost.

I knew him too well for that. He wasn't going to tell us anything, but he wasn't really irritated.

Yet.

"I hate surprises," Ares growled. "You know who also hates surprises? Mannix. If he knew you were up to some shit, he'd tear you a new one."

"No, he wouldn't," Ice said easily. "Mannix loves me too much to hurt a hair on my head," he patted his dark man-bun for emphasis.

"Always knew there was something wrong with him,” Ares muttered.

"Did you need to talk to either of us?" I asked, directing the question to Ares. Might as well try to steer the subject in a different direction, for everyone's sake.

"Right." He dropped his arms to his sides. "Apparently we're expected to have an…" He grimaced, disgust evident on his face.

"A Christmas party."

The words hung in the air like he said we needed to jump off a cliff into the churning waters of Dusk Bay itself.

Ice enthusiastically broke the silence. "I love Christmas parties."

"Of course you fucking do." Ares narrowed his eyes at him.

"Why wouldn't I?" Ice asked. "Christmas parties are fun.” He snapped his fingers. "Right, you don't like having fun."

"I like—" Ares started to protest. "No, not that kind of fun. Christmas is a waste of time. "

Ice stared at him. "Who doesn't like Christmas?" After a moment, he started to smile slyly. "The Grinch doesn't like Christmas."

"Yeah, but in case you forgot, there are two Grinches here," Ares said. "Me and Mannix, he hates that bullshit too."

"Kennedy and I will celebrate. Together, just the two of us.

Right, Kennedy?" One of Ice's eyebrows twitched the way it did when he was trying to get a rise out of Mannix or Ares.

Often, both of them at the same time. He rarely took things too seriously.

The exception being his job. That, he was deadly serious about.

Literally.

At the moment, though, he couldn't resist stirring the pot. Sometimes, it was too easy to get them going.

He was right though, Mannix liked him too much to hurt him, no matter how annoyed or angry he was. It wasn't worth it for Mannix to get on Ice's bad side anyway. Ice knew more ways to kill someone than anyone else I'd ever met.

And he enjoyed doing it.

A lot.

"We'll all fucking celebrate," Ares growled. "Not like they're giving us a choice."

He scowled like he might go down into Ice's workroom in the basement and chain himself there until Christmas was over.

"Whose order was it?" I asked.

Reuben Brantley, head of the biggest organised crime syndicate in Australia, occasionally requested things of the guys. Some stranger than others.

This though, was out of left field, even for him. For one thing, Christmas was festive, and festive wasn't a word I'd use to describe Reuben. It wasn't even in my top thousand words. Maybe the bottom thousand.

"Caleb," Ares said with an irritated flick of his finger against some imaginary piece of dust on his jeans. "It's a front for some other shit. Probably."

When it came to Caleb Brantley, that was a reasonable assumption.

The second oldest of the Brantley brothers, he was the one who organised logistics for smuggling gems, guns, whatever.

You name it, he was smuggling it. It didn't surprise me he'd use Christmas as an excuse to shift something or someone.

Honestly, I'd be more surprised if he wasn't up to something.

"How many people are we supposed to invite?" I asked. "Please say it's not thousands."

"I'd love to have a party with thousands of people." Ice rocked back and forth on his toes, excitement too much for him to keep still.

Ares rolled his eyes. "You would… You're easily the most unhinged person I've ever met."

Ice grinned. "That's the nicest thing you ever said to me. I love you too, Ares." He leaned over to kiss his cheek, but Ares pushed him away and stepped back.

"Let's organise this stupid fucking party and get it over with."

"Have you told Mannix about it yet?" I leaned back against the door frame and watched Ares' expression change.

"Not yet. This is going to suck. He's going to be pissed." Ares rubbed a hand over the back of his head. "You know how he is about being told to do crap like this."

I did know. Mannix worked for the Brantley family, but organising a party? That was not going to be something he'd want to be a part of.

"Rock, paper, scissors?" Ares asked, looking hopeful for the first time since he'd appeared.

"I'll do it," Ice offered. "He'll lose his mind a bit less if I break it to him."

"He's still going to lose his mind," Ares said. "But by all means, go ahead."

He was visibly relieved to have that job taken out of his hands. Of course. He was like a brother to Mannix, but that wouldn't stop Mannix from being vocal about his thoughts on this party.

"I'll come with you," I said. "Mannix will take this a little better if it comes from both of us. Ares, you might as well come along for shits and giggles. You wouldn't want to miss it, would you?"

"'I can think of a million things I'd rather do, but I'll come with you,'" Ares said grudgingly. "'Someone has to stop Mannix from murdering both of you.”

As if Mannix could or even would. Mannix loved Ice and me far too much to murder us just because we were delivering an unwelcome message.

I hoped.

I mean, there was love, then there was explaining to him that we'd have a few hundred people here in the house in Dusk Bay, luring them here for whatever it was Caleb had in mind.

I sighed to myself.

Yeah, Mannix was going to lose his shit.

"He wants us to… What the fuck?" Mannix's dark eyes flashed, angrier than I'd expected. Ready to put his fist through the wall.

"It's just a little Christmas party," Ice said in an easy tone meant to soothe. If Mannix could be soothed. "It'll be fun. Imagine, all those people coming here and getting drunk. It'll be good for a laugh."

Mannix squinted at him. "That sounds like a special kind of hell." He snatched up a knife from the side of his desk and stabbed it through the dark timber on the last word.

"Think how much blackmail material you could have afterward.” Ice patted his shoulder. "Not to mention Caleb would owe you one."

"We don't have a choice here," Ares pointed out, his blue eyes full of irritation. His hand twitched, like he wanted the pull the knife out and stab it into another spot.

"Reuben and Caleb aren't going to let us off. They've probably sent out invitations already."

"Fuck," Mannix growled. "Couldn't Daze, Mina or Chelsea have hosted this? Why does it have to be us?"

"My guess would be that they hate us," Ares said. "They want us to suffer."

"Pricks." Mannix grabbed the hilt of the knife and yanked it out of the desk before glaring at the hole he'd made as if it appeared by magic.

"Fine, we'll play along since we have no choice. But Caleb is going to owe me a big one." He toyed with the knife. He'd might use it on Caleb if the man was in front of him right now.

"A very big one," Ice agreed. "The biggest one. What can we ask him to do in return for this?"

Mannix shook his head and let out a frustrated breath. "Nothing he won't try to squirm his way out of. If we have to do this, we have some rules. One, no fucking mistletoe."

"I like mistletoe," Ice argued. "Not that I need any excuse to kiss Kennedy." He placed his hand on the back of my head and leaned in for a deep kiss, brushing his tongue over my lips.

I kissed him back, the conversation all but forgotten until he broke off the kiss.

"What do you have against mistletoe anyway?" He cocked his head at Mannix. "Let me guess, someone turned you down?"

Mannix glared at him. "I don't like the stuff, okay?" His grip tightened on the knife like he might use it on Ice instead.

Grinning, Ice raised his hands. "Okay. Okay. No mistletoe. Put the knife down and no one needs to get hurt. No one in this room anyway." His grin broadened.

"Who have you got down there today?" Mannix asked. "Anyone we know?"

Technically, Ice shouldn't be torturing anyone without Mannix's permission, but Ice often let that little detail slip from his mind. He was careful not to piss Mannix off though.

On the contrary, he usually had someone in his workroom before Mannix asked him to. He called it being proactive. We could all respect that. Who didn't like a person with initiative?

"Don't ask too many questions," Ice advised. "It's a surprise."

"You have a lot of those today,” I pointed out. "Should we insist he tell us?"

I placed my hand on my hip and gave him a look that usually made him melt.

Not today.

Today he just smiled and said, "You'll see soon enough."

"If you're doing some shit that'll get us in trouble with Reuben—" Mannix started.

Ice put a hand on his chest, over his heart like he was offended at the suggestion.

"I care about us too much to do anything to draw Reuben’s attention," he said. "Or even Caleb’s. Although, it's almost worth seeing the vein in Caleb's jaw twitch when he gets angry."

Ice put his fingers to his own jaw, making them jump against his skin.

"Someone needs to keep an eye on him during this party," Mannix said, "I don't know what he's up to, but I don't trust him. More than I don't trust anyone else."

"That's saying a lot,” Ice said. "You don't trust most people. Except us of course."

Mannix snorted. "Everyone else is out to screw us over one way or another. They want to take our place. Or our power. Or… It's always something. They always have an angle."

"The angles I'm more interested in," Ice said slowly, "are the angles people’s joints can be moved into. You'd be surprised how close to someone's forehead their knee can get when they have to. And by have to, I mean when I'm making them bend like that. It's easier if they have a few bones broken."

He rubbed the side of his face as if thinking hard about more ways to contort the human body. Knowing him, that was exactly what he was thinking.

He'd always had a fascination with how people were put together and how they could be torn apart. He liked it so much he'd made a job out of it. Some people called him unhinged.

To us, it was just him being him.

"We should all keep an eye on Caleb," I said. "And anyone else who comes through here. Maybe I should ask one of the girls to help organise this party. Maybe Chelsea."

"Chelsea would be great help," Ice said enthusiastically.

He adored his sister more than anyone I'd ever seen adore their sibling. Unless you counted my relationship with Mannix, who was my ex-stepbrother. Ex because he killed his own father for touching me. That ended his marriage to my mother somewhat. Death does that to a relationship.

"She just finished the refurbishment of Flirts. So she's looking for something else to sink her teeth into," Ice said.

After Chelsea’s brief stint as a doctor for the Dusk Bay Smashers rugby team, she bought the strip club and gave it a facelift, and an expansion. I hadn't been there myself, but I'd been meaning to. This might give me the excuse to head down there.

"No," Ares said, glowering at me.

"No what?" I looked at him sweetly, as if not understanding what he was trying to say.

"You're not going down there by yourself," he said firmly. "You don't know what kind of deviants frequent a place like that."

"I've been there," Ice said helpfully.

Ares turned a look on him. "Exactly."

Ice pretended to huff. "I think he's trying to cast aspersions on my good nature."

"I’m not trying to," Ares said. "Would you want someone like you staring at Kennedy?"

"Huh. Good point,” Ice conceded. "I’m starting to think I should come with you and bring a couple of scalpels to cut out some eyeballs. That sounds like a fun Wednesday afternoon."

Ares shook his head. "Only you would say something like that."

"Actually, I know a couple of people who'd say that," Ice said. "Gianni, for one. Most of Chelsea's boyfriends for another six. Especially Daniel Frost. He's sweet on the outside, but has a psychotic streak on the inside. You might say he's a bit like me."

"Out of his mind?” Ares suggested.

"I prefer to think of us as multifaceted," Ice said easily. "No one could call us one-dimensional. They wouldn't get away with it anyway. I have a special place in my workroom for people who say mean things like that."

"I'm pretty sure you've been called worse than one-dimensional," Mannix said.

"Absolutely, and I've dealt with them too,” Ice agreed. "All right, you two head down to Flirts and talk to Chelsea. Tell her I said hi and give her a hug from me." He wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips to mine.

"You want me to kiss her for you?" I teased, letting my lips linger on his.

He chuckled. "I can do that for myself the next time I see her. I just wanted to kiss you. Now off you go and let me get your surprise organised." He patted my ass.