4. CHAPTER
CHAPTER
FOUR
Indy’s new hope for taking a shower as quickly as possible was put on the back burner when he heard the clink of his collar hitting the floor.
Holy shit.
He was free.
Wait, no, shit.
That meant he was going to die.
“Sweetie?” Gammy asked worriedly. “What’s wrong?”
Indy didn’t know what to say. For once, he’d been shocked into complete silence.
Being freed from working for a demon would have made anyone else happy, but it filled Indy with a horrible sense of dread.
His job hadn’t been that bad, and the whole not dying thing was a huge perk.
He didn’t know if his symptoms would return all at once or slowly.
He might drop dead this very damn second and never see it coming.
Mr. Heiss snapped his fingers and the bodies of Tanze and Underwood both vanished.
It wasn’t immediately clear if they were dead or not. Fucked up for sure, but Mr. Heiss didn’t seem upset. It also could be that Mr. Heiss was simply a dick who didn’t care if his employees lived or died.
Not a comforting thought considering the circumstances because Indy very much wanted to live and that was pretty counterproductive to Mr. Heiss’s needs. After all, it would be much easier to take a magical leshy ring off a corpse.
But did Mr. Heiss know?
Did he know why Indy had sold his soul?
Was that something demons talked about around some fiery watercooler?
Shit, shit, shit.
Mr. Heiss beckoned Indy over. “You. Come here.”
Indy stepped around the lint bunny to walk forward, numbly following the command. He had to think. He had to make a plan. He had not come this far and sucked that many monster dicks to die now.
Mr. Heiss took out a handkerchief from his inside jacket pocket. He wiped off Indy’s face, saying slowly, “We are going to try this again. When I tell you to do something, I expect it to be done. I told you—”
“Right. You want to get sucked off all nice and sloppy with no talking back.” Indy glared up at him, hiding his fear behind a wall of fury. “Got it.”
Mr. Heiss grabbed Indy’s chin, the handkerchief raised as if it was a weapon. His eyes glittered curiously as he gazed at Indy, clearly searching.
But for what?
“What?” Indy managed a cheeky grin. “Do you wanna make out or something?”
Mr. Heiss smirked but said nothing and went back to cleaning Indy up. He gave him a final inspection and then let go. He finally spoke again, saying, “This will do for now until you can bathe. Let’s go.”
“What about Reginald?”
“Who?”
Indy waved at the giant lint bunny. “Can we bring him? He’s pretty cute. Getting kinda attached to—”
Mr. Heiss snapped.
The bunny was immediately engulfed in flames and reduced to ash in seconds. The pennies clattered when they hit the floor.
“Reginald!” Gammy gasped.
“Wow.” Indy scoffed in disgust, kneeling to swipe the pennies. “You really are an asshole.”
“This and many other things.” Mr. Heiss put the handkerchief away.
There was no snap signaling the magic this time, but the warehouse vanished.
Indy and Mr. Heiss were in a bathroom decked out in black marble and gold accents.
There was a giant tub, a standing shower, and a double vanity with mirrors framed in gold.
It was extravagant to the point of being tacky, exuding the same hypermasculine feel as the office Mr. Heiss had brought him to before.
Indy’s skin tickled, and all of his clothes were gone.
In their place, he wore a plush robe that was absolutely the softest thing he’d ever felt.
He glanced at his reflection in the mirrors, making a face when he saw there were still some small splatters of blood.
His earrings were also missing, along with his other jewelry except for the leshy’s ring.
No earrings meant no Gammy, unless the earrings happened to be close by.
Shit.
The bath was full instantly, nearly overflowing with steamy water and mountains of bubbles.
Mr. Heiss was present and also naked. He was broad, bulging, his sleek purple skin mottled with strange twisting scars, and objectively an absolute feast of flesh.
He stepped into the tub, and there was a flash of soft movement and flapping.
Wings? Big feathery wings? Indy couldn’t be too sure since he was more interested in checking out Mr. Heiss’s ass.
Not bad.
For a fuck face demon anyway.
If Mr. Heiss did have wings, they were gone now.
Which meant he was one of the fallen.
Indy’s basic understanding was that there were three types of demons: earthborn, hellborn, and the fallen.
Tanze and Underwood were earthborn, demons who had once been human before getting their posthumous demonic makeover.
Hellborn and the fallen were both from the Celestial, but the fallen had once been angels.
How or why they fell from their big magical light was a mystery to Indy. Most demons weren’t big on pillow talk and he’d never knowingly met one of the fallen until now. Mr. Kalt had only been a hellborn, so no wings for him.
Well, nothing ever for him now since he was dead.
Shit.
The deal.
Indy looked back at the mirror, studying himself intently.
He wanted to see if there was any sign of his illness, but he saw nothing that would indicate he was unwell.
He hated how his brow pinched up in worry and immediately relaxed his face.
The last damn thing he needed was to give himself wrinkles.
Time to focus.
Like finding out why Mr. Heiss had brought him here for a bubble bath.
Indy tugged at the sash of his robe. “You know, if you really wanted to get me naked, you could have just asked.”
Mr. Heiss rolled his eyes as he got settled, leaning his head back against the side of the tub and being mindful of his horns. “It was easier to remove all of your clothing than figuring out which part of it your dear Gammy had possessed.”
Ah, clever prick.
“Hey! What did you do with her?”
“She is not far.” Mr. Heiss gestured vaguely.
“All right.” Indy opened the robe as he stepped forward, swinging his hips.
He had a mastery over his body from years of dancing, and he made every effort to walk as gracefully as possible, willing his limbs to be liquid.
He could see Mr. Heiss watching him, and he grinned. “So, you wanted me all alone?”
“Without distractions.”
“There’s plenty of dick-stractions from where I’m standing.”
“Maybe you should try sitting.”
“Oh, so you want me to get in there with you? Rub your feet?”
“What you’re going to do right now is listen,” Mr. Heiss replied. “I am very tired. I am also very angry.”
“Ah, so the bubbles are for your benefit? Help you zen or whatever? Maybe you do need that foot rub.” Indy dropped the robe so he could slide into the tub.
He took his time, moving nice and slow so Mr. Heiss could enjoy the view, though it was difficult to tell if he actually was or not.
Indy sat opposite Mr. Heiss, brazenly stretching out his legs to brush up against Mr. Heiss’s.
Mr. Heiss didn’t react. “From now on, you’re not to leave my immediate vicinity. Where you go, I go.”
“Aw! Worried about me?”
“Worried that someone else might kill you and take what’s mine, yes.”
Okay, that was good.
Yes, it was horrible Mr. Heiss was only concerned for Indy’s well-being because of the ring, but it also meant that Mr. Heiss didn’t know Indy had made a deal to save his life. If he did, all he would need to do was lock Indy in a basement somewhere and wait for him to slowly die.
Which, technically, there wasn’t much preventing Mr. Heiss from doing that now unless it was a question of the leshy interfering.
Fuck.
Indy was confident he could still work with this.
As long as Mr. Heiss didn’t find out why Indy had made the deal, he had the threat of the leshy to protect him from any physical harm.
It was worrying that Dill hadn’t shown up to help him before, but that was another bit of info he was planning to keep to himself.
Mr. Heiss narrowed his eyes. “Care to explain what motivated you to escape?”
“Weird how being kidnapped puts me in the mood to run away as fast as possible.” Indy flicked bubbles at Mr. Heiss. “Crazy, right?”
Mr. Heiss glared.
Indy groaned loudly. “It was King, okay? He told me a bunch of guys were going to bust in and there was going to be all this blood. Seemed like a great idea at the time seeing as how I didn’t want to die.
But, uh, turns out his visions are a bit on the wonky side.
Escaping the house is what made it come true. ”
“If only you had obeyed me and stayed there.” Mr Heiss scowled. “Your cowardice was costly—”
“Fuck you,” Indy snapped.
Whore, slut, trash. He’d been called worse by better, but he would absolutely not accept being called a coward. Maybe because it was so close to the truth. Whatever it was, it made the marrow of Indy’s bones boil.
Mr. Heiss did not acknowledge he’d struck such an obvious nerve as he continued to rant. “Tanze and Underwood would not be injured, my resources would not be occupied cleaning up your mess, my head wouldn’t hurt, and—”
“But hey, then you wouldn’t know that Mr. Kalt was a traitor,” Indy cut in with a sweet bat of his lashes.
He had to stay smooth and not lose his temper.
He couldn’t let it be any more obvious that Mr. Heiss had rattled him.
“Or that Mitter-not whoever guy. Working with the ol’ mostri ribelli, right?
Pretty sure that’s what ol’ Floppy Ears was ranting about anyway. ”
“What else did they say?” Mr. Heiss tapped his claws along the side of the tub.
“Uh, something something, purge the city, blah blah. All the usual crap.” Indy tried to remember. “And oh! Yeah, his johnson was rising.”
Mr. Heiss stared.
“I am serious.”
“I was afraid of that.”
“It was, uh… No. Hmm.” Indy hummed as he tried to think back to the correct wording and not the innuendo he’d laughed at. “Okay, I got it. Okay, it was Johnson will rise.”
Mr. Heiss’s brow twitched.
“That name mean anything?” Indy rubbed the bottom of his foot along Mr. Heiss’s thigh.
Mr. Heiss shivered.
Pleasurably.