Beautifully Ruined (Devoted In Darkness #2)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

CADE

When I embarked on my dark and erotic fun and games with my little brother Jack’s ex, I never thought Violet would land in life-or-death trouble.

Trouble, yes. But good trouble.

Hot trouble.

Trouble that starts and ends with me buried in her as we fulfil each other’s fantasies and dark desires.

It’s all gone wrong, and Vi’s life is on the line.

Through the tremors that rock me each time I breathe in, through the pain that swallows me whole, I keep that thought front and center because Vi’s wellbeing grounds me.

The computer sits in front of me, the screen filled with what they want me to infiltrate, to steal from.

This task would be almost impossible for anyone who doesn’t have my level of expertise.

For me? Easy.

I figure this is about those secrets Isaac was selling or trading.

He had ambitions, the sick fuck, and no doubt he had connections. But I don’t think it’s about state secrets.

More like dirt to control and crush those that get in Ivan’s way.

After all, state secrets aren’t his jam. They’d be for other diplomats.

Ivan screams of money and power, not political bullshit.

Diplomacy for him is a means to an end.

One thing I do know is this won’t play out well for me or Vi if I fail. Or if I succeed too easily.

This hack is a test, one that involves millions. But he wants to see what I can do for him. He wants to see how good I am.

I cast a careful glance at the Russian hacker, a weedy guy I don’t underestimate. I just happen to know I’m better. Otherwise, he’d have done this.

Ivan wanders over and shoves me hard, pain ricocheting through me. “Stalling will not help.”

“Who’s stalling? I want to get my girl, get out of here, and pretend this didn’t happen.”

“And you can do that… right after you do what I ask.”

I don’t believe a lying word from his mouth, but I’m going to do this for him. Hack into Ivan’s enemy’s accounts, a client of The Syndicates, and transfer the money into Ivan’s offshore account.

Enzo will be working, and he, like me, has alerts on his phone that pop up if anything goes wrong or if there’s suspicious activity.

“Okay, I’m going to do it. I’m just taking in the system, working out how to navigate it without alerting them.”

Ivan laughs. “You think I care?”

“It depends whether you want a number of linked bratva on your doorstep.” I nod at the other hacker. “Igor here will tell you that.”

The hacker growls, clearly not liking my nickname for him.

Too fucking bad. I’m hurting too much, and I’m positive parts of me are passing the fuck out as we sit here, so I need an added element to help me keep awake. Poking the bear’s pet helps.

I’d be flippant, say I like danger, which I do, but I’m being serious. I poke him and he’ll be distracted, I poke and prod enough, and the added danger keeps me on my toes.

I don’t want to overplay. I won’t risk Vi. But we’re dead if I don’t buy enough time to think and work out my strategy.

Which is alerting Enzo in a way they won’t know.

So, I focus on Ivan. “We run into a booby-trapped fire wall, or set off a defense they put in it, you don’t get a cent. Worse, they’ll trace us. And if we trigger a silent cyber mark…”

“Just do what I told you.”

A hand squeezes my shoulder tight. “One more thing. Try anything funny, call in anyone, and you’re dead. Your girl’s dead, cut up into little pieces.”

I don’t look at Ivan. I don’t need to.

“No one wants bloodshed less than me. I just want to walk away and pretend we never met.”

“And you will. If you do as I ask.”

I can almost hear him smile, and the gloat in his voice scrapes down my spine.

My mind turns to the task at hand.

Knowing Enzo, he’ll have Isaac’s info up, his bank accounts. I’m sure he’s thinking of stealing or watching to see if there’s activity. Even if he doesn’t, it buys me time to set up the bigger hack.

And if Enzo gets two alerts from me, then he’ll know to trace me. To find me.

The best thing is I can do it sitting here, in front of them, and do the best I know.

I really don’t want to steal from our clients, but for Violet, I’d do anything.

Fuck, I love her that much.

I suck in a slow, careful breath, calming myself. “Look, you’re going to need me for whatever it is Isaac has. His secrets would have been hidden on his computer, or he would have gotten them for you some other way, correct?”

The hacker is the one who answers. “Da.”

“His computer is offline. He smashed it. Presumably to kill what he had.”

“Check.” Ivan’s command isn’t to me. It’s to the hacker.

The man does, frowning.

All I can think of is Vi somewhere. Scared. Alone.

Worse.

I shut that pathway down.

I have to.

Going along that tangled road is dangerous and filled with madness. I can’t afford the distraction or losing my fucking mind.

The man speaks to Ivan in rapid Russian. He says something like everything’s offline, and he can’t get in at all. He tells Ivan I’m right, and they should have just forced Isaac to get them everything they wanted.

This tells me something vital.

Whatever Isaac had for sale was either a lie or not online. I might have it. On that thumb drive.

“You are right,” Ivan says.

“As a gesture of goodwill, to show I’m not going to fuck with you, I’ll take his money now. The man might have been a fool, but he was loaded.”

Ivan’s greed gets the better of him. “Get his money, then do your job.”

I nod, and I drain Isaac’s accounts, the hacker breathing over my shoulder, but he won’t pick up on anything. To him, this seems on the up and up.

The transfer is smooth and takes a fraction of the time it’ll take for the next one.

But I take my time, doing it in such a way that Enzo is alerted.

I leave a very clear trail, open an account for Cancun that the money funnels through.

It’s not out of the ordinary, us setting up a dummy account, like a slush fund, or something that if the wrong people look will seem like money laundering.

The hacker explains my moves to Andronski, including the new account.

I then transfer the money to a shell company and finally into Ivan’s offshore account.

Enzo should pick up the trail. And he’ll be able to track me.

Cancun will alert him.

“Right, now for that big windfall you want.” I carefully turn to face Andronski. “Or does Igor want to check my work out?”

“He will check.” Ivan motions for me to move.

I wheel my chair back.

Right now, nothing would give me more pleasure than to take them both out.

He doesn’t have any men in here. They’ll be outside the room.

In my state, plus the fact he has a gun, Ivan’s confident he can keep me under control.

He figures I’m no threat.

And he’d be fucking right.

In this state, I’m not even a threat to a fly.

Battered. Bruised. Bleeding. That’s me. I’m a fucking mess.

But I’m not as bad as I thought.

I haven’t coughed up any more blood, and I haven’t found any broken ribs from my tentative poking.

Breathing is becoming a little easier.

Did they beat me to an inch of my life? Yeah. But I guess there’s something in being an expert. Hurt someone but don’t physically break them. Just destroy them enough to make them think they’re on their death bed.

Of course, I won’t be shocked to find I’ll be pissing some blood; my kidneys ache.

And I’m betting I have some hairline rib fractures, too.

This is the worst beating I’ve had. But I don’t think anything is broken outright.

That being said, I still move like I’m just hanging on. It hurts less, it buys time. Two things I need.

I also don’t need to take Ivan out.

I can’t.

Even if I could, I wouldn’t.

Too many men here are armed, and I don’t know where they have Vi.

The longer Igor looks, the more time I buy before I have to hack the Andronski’s enemies accounts.

My client’s.

A man who doesn’t understand the word forgiveness. Just like he doesn’t understand the word reasonable.

But that’s something to worry about only if I survive and I can’t get his money back.

It’s something I will worry over if no one turns up to help me and Vi get the fuck out of here.

They finish talking, and it seems they’re satisfied.

The hacker finds nothing wrong or untoward with my work.

Andronski shoves the gun into my spine. “Do it, no stalling. Or your girl dies.”

“And if I do it? You know a man like me in this business won’t talk. It’s all based on discretion, and you’re asking me to rob a very dangerous man for you. I’m not talking. I promise that. Both our heads would be on the line.”

And it’s very easy to say because it’s the truth. We’d both be hunted and killed.

“Do it and you walk,” Ivan says easily.

A little too easily.

“And Violet?”

“Both of you.”

I nod. “Okay. We have a deal.”

“Yes.” Andronski moves to a seat and takes it. He motions me to the computer with his gun. “Now, get to work.”

There’s no option left for me other. I hope like fuck Enzo got the first alert, and he’s now looking for my next move.

I leave enough of a trail into the accounts to make sure Enzo can track the laptop I’m working from, and he can get here to help me and Vi out of this mess.

A mess of my making.

I go as slow as I dare. Taking a circuitous route for security’s sake.

There’s no fucking way Ivan is letting me live. Even if I’m of use in getting whatever information Isaac promised, I think he’d let that go or find another way over letting me live.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he’ll keep me breathing long enough to get all the shit promised to them by the councilman. But, once that’s all done and dusted, it’s good night to me and good night to Vi.

A wave of ice-dipped dread passes through my bones.

Her fate might be worse than death.

She’s young, pretty. Worth something.

I don’t know enough about Andronski to know what he’s into. I never scraped his information. I know surface level stuff, and I know he’s bad news.

The world is full of bad people. I work for a lot of them.

But he never raised a blip on The Ghost’s radar.

If I looked into him properly, would he have?

And is that the fate I’ve handed to the girl I’ve fallen hard for?

I want to speak to her, hear her voice, make sure she’s alive. I want to see her to make sure she isn’t hurt. I want to hold her for my own wellbeing and to try to protect her.

She’s got to be alive. She’s the leverage he has over me.

But I’m in no position to demand proof of life, so I have to just fucking believe it.

The alternative makes me sick. The alternative is incomprehensible.

I’m furious at myself for not being more careful.

I should have kept away.

I should have looked into Isaac deeper that first time. And I should have absolutely found the connection between Isaac and Andronski before Ivan found me.

If anything happens to Vi, I’ll never forgive myself.

Ivan growls from behind me. “Hurry the fuck up.”

“We can’t rush these things.” I don’t want to be a smart ass, but what I’m doing is insanely difficult.

I’m laying a lie, I’m laying the tracks for Enzo, and I’m covering one so deep that no one but Enzo will see it. And I’m laying another so the hacker can see it when I’m done. And…I’m also stealing millions of dollars from a ruthless client and making sure no one on that end can identify my work.

All that, and I’m in agony.

Mentally and physically.

But the work is finally done. The transfer takes a few minutes.

When that is done too, I spin in the chair, moving it away with my feet as the Russian hacker swoops in to check.

He nods. “It’s through.”

I look at Andronski. “We had a deal. And knowing you, I’m going to assume you’re not letting me go. But let her go.”

Ivan laughs and shakes his head. “No one’s going anywhere.”

“Let her go.”

“You don’t have any leverage. You’ve nothing to barter with. You can live a little longer because I need you to get me everything Isaac owed me.”

“And then?”

“You die.” He grins, stroking his beard with a bejeweled hand. “Unless you impress me.”

I lean forward. “You want to be impressed? How about this? I just set up the transfer in a way that the cops will be alerted in exactly sixty minutes unless I manually disable that request.”

His eyes move to the hacker.

The hacker gets on the computer and twenty seconds later, he turns to Ivan. “He’s telling the truth.”

Ivan leaps up. “Dismantle it!”

The Russian hacker works frantically, but he finally shakes his head. “I can’t.”

Ivan shoots him in the head.

I shake my head. “Two words. Anger management.”

The gun points at my head.

“Why shouldn’t I shoot you dead and have your girl carved up?”

“If you kill me, then the entire police force and the FBI will be here. They’ll know who took the money. You. You’ll be stripped of your diplomatic immunity because I don’t think Moscow likes stupid messes.”

He narrowed his eyes.

I shrug. “I need to manually disable it. So, you need me alive. And the only way I’ll do that is if you let Vi go. Now.”

Fury and hate darken Andronski’s gaze. “Do not mess with me.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me? Tell me, Ivan. Will you do that before or after the cops and FBI arrive to arrest your corrupt ass?”