Chapter 58
ALEX
Rough fingers slid down my thighs as I drifted in and out of consciousness. A man lifted me in his arms and cradled me against his hard chest with his hand on the back of my head. I couldn’t find the strength to move an inch. My eyelids felt heavy as he carried me down a flight of stairs.
The man laid me on a soft bench. Leather mixed with the saltiness of the sea filled my nostrils. Someone sat beside me and brushed my hair off my face. Gentle, in a loving way.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered.
Okay.
We moved forward, and the man placed his hand on my back. He made slow circles to put me at ease, his feather-light touch sending a shiver down my arm. I rested my head on his thigh as he coaxed me back to sleep.
What felt like a few minutes passed before we stopped moving.
A door opened, and I heard water splashing from a distance.
The man with solid arms carried me toward the marina.
Fear rocked my body, sending a ripple of nervous energy down my arms. Several pairs of shoes tapped the cement behind us.
Instead of heading toward the dock, we took a set of stairs that tunneled underground.
We stopped at the bottom of the encasement.
“Where are you taking me?” I choked out.
No answer.
The sound of heavy footsteps filled the silence that hung in the air between us like smoke.
We stopped in front of a brick wall. A man wearing a black cloak with a hood pulled over his head removed a brick from the center of the wall, revealing a hidden lock.
He slipped his hand into his pocket, produced a skeleton key dangling from a silky red string, and slid it into the lock.
“Where am I?” I attempted to roll onto my back to look up at the man cradling me, but as I moved, he tightened his grip, smashing my face against his hard chest. “This is some Skull and Bones meets Harry Potter shit,” I muttered.
“Are the Death Eaters on the other side of this wall waiting for us in Diagon Alley?”
A man laughed behind me.
I struggled to break free from the man restraining me, but it was no use.
The harder I fought him, the more he tightened his death grip.
As the man in front of us removed the key from the secret lock, another person helped him push the wall inward, revealing a private entrance hidden beneath the town.
“What the fuck is this place?”
Of course, no one answered me.
Dead silence.
We entered a cramped passage that smelled like mildew, salt, and earth.
No one even breathed as we rounded a corner, then another.
I tilted my head to the side to look at the stone walls with iron lanterns built into them, the dim light casting a soft glow.
Symbols were etched into the walls. They looked like markings you would see in a Masonic temple.
Except these were scary.
Skulls with knives driven into the bone. Knight helmets with blank faces and the eyes of a demon. A knight in full armor holding the Scales of Justice. The weight was unbalanced, dipping to one side with a giant serpent holding it down, slithering up the arm of the knight.
A few minutes passed before the man in front of us opened a door. He set my feet on the ground, and I staggered to the side. I couldn’t maintain my balance, and before he could grab me, I fell on the hard floor.
My curls hung in my eyes as I leaned forward, groaning in pain.
Someone moved behind me, fisted my hair, and forced me to look up.
Straight ahead, two thrones sat atop a dais.
A man dressed in a long black cloak sat on his throne with a hood covering his face.
I knew he was watching me, studying every move I made.
I blinked a few times to clear the sleep from my eyes. Five men in black cloaks hid under their hoods. The man before me rose from his throne, tall and imposing, his cloak fanning around his ankles. I stared at him, attempting to glance at his face, but his hood covered his eyes.
He stepped off the dais and moved in front of me. The man behind me forced my head down, holding my hair.
“What do you want from me?” I asked, my voice sounding distant.
The robed men surrounded us, creating a circle to trap me inside. My breath caught in my throat. With my heart hammering out of my chest, I could hardly function, on the verge of a panic attack.
Were these men going to kill me?
Rape me?
Torture me?
I had no fucking clue.
“You brought me here,” I muttered. “What do you want? What is this place?”
No one spoke.
Was this all a dream?
Wake up, Alex.
I dug my fingernails into my forearm, clawing at my skin to help me wake up.
This had to be a dream.
A new version of hell.
I raked my fingernails up and down my vein, trying to free myself from this prison. When my nails proved unsuccessful, I flattened my palm on the floor, feeling in front of me. I found a small stone and pinched it between my fingers, scraping my sensitive skin with the sharpest point.
“Wake up, wake up,” I whispered, repeating the same motion.
Why wasn’t it working?
Not real.
Not real.
Wake up, dammit.
Black wingtips stopped in front of me. A man reached down and grabbed my wrist, his fingers digging into my flesh with force. I slapped his hand, and he released me, stepping back.
I shot up from the ground, my blood pumping so fast my head spun, the room whipping around me.
I lost my footing and fell sideways, cursing at these assholes.
Someone grabbed me from behind to steady me.
I glanced at the five hooded men. There was a gold shield with two knights’ helmets on each side and two swords beneath the shield over the left breast.
That’s when it hit me. I was with The Devil’s Knights. This was their Billionaire Bat Cave.
But why would they bring me here?
I shoved my palms into Luca’s chest, and he stood there, allowing me to pound my fists. But not for long. He wrapped his long fingers around my wrists and squeezed.
“What do you want from me?”
The room was so quiet I could hear myself breathing.
“Why am I here?” I said with venom in my tone.
No answer.
He turned on his heels, and the men parted for him. Luca sat on his throne, the hood still in place. I moved toward the dais. The Knights moved forward as if they were going to stop me. But when Luca waved his hand, they let me approach.
“What the fuck is your deal?” I yelled at Luca.
More silence.
Fueled by my rage, I shouted, “Explain to me why you brought me here in the middle of the night.” I smacked his chest. “Say something, you sick motherfucker. Do you want to play games? Bring it, bitch. Because I’m so fucking ready to play.”
Luca leaned forward, his elbows resting on his thighs, the hood still covering his face. “You know why you’re here.”
“No, I don’t.”
I scanned the room, wondering what they did with the altar.
These sick assholes probably performed satanic rituals and made offerings to their gilded gods.
Luca glared at me, studying me with curiosity.
He should have been more concerned that I would claw his eyeballs out with my fingers and feed them to him.
I was sick of him and his stupid mindfuckery.
“Look, Luca, I’m tired. And I’m not in the mood to play beer pong with your frat bros. So we can keep doing this dance, or you can let me go.”
One man snickered. Maybe he wanted to play beer pong with me. I almost laughed at the ridiculous thought.
What the hell did they do down here?
Jerk each other off.
Fuck women.
Worship the Devil.
Who knew?
I wasn’t sticking around to find out.
Luca’s jaw ticked. Disrespecting him in front of his friends made him angry, but I didn’t care.
“You want answers we can’t give you,” Luca said after a long pause. “Not without swearing an oath. I tried to tell you this before, but you never listen.”
I moved in front of him and shoved the hood off his head. “What are you talking about?”
Luca’s intense blue irises met mine, and a shiver rolled down my spine. My dark prince was terrifying on a typical day, but tonight, he looked possessed.
“It’s time you accept your place with The Devil’s Knights.”
“I never agreed to join your secret society, Luca.”
A haunting smirk stretched the corner of his mouth. “You never had a choice, baby girl.”
“Because you never gave me one.”
He pointed his finger at the back of the room. “Go! If you want to leave, none of us will stop you. But you will never get the answers you seek. You will always be an outsider.”
Without a second glance, I spun around and hopped off the dais. Marcello blocked me, his chest inches from my face. His head was down, eyes on me beneath the black hood, but I knew his scent. Why did they even bother with this arcane bullshit? It was fucking stupid.
I stepped around Marcello, and he didn’t stop me this time.
Before I left the room, I stopped in front of the door and glanced over my shoulder.
All eyes were on me, but only Luca’s face was visible.
By process of elimination, I assumed Bastian, Damian, Sonny, Drake, and Cole were the other hooded men.
I took one last look. Luca was so damn beautiful my heart ached when our eyes met. His upper lip twitched as if he were about to explode at any second. The rage was always present, brewing at the surface. He did his best to contain it, but I knew him well.
Without a second thought, I took off, running from the room so fast my bare feet hurt as they scraped against the rough stone. I stopped at the end of the dark hallway, feeling like the wall was closing in on me. Hand over my heart, I blew out a deep breath and tried to control my rapid pulse.
Why would they bring me down here?
What the fuck were they thinking?
I had to get out of there.
Away from these psychos.
Taking one turn after another, I walked in circles, my head spinning with each turn.
Where was the exit? They opened the secret door by removing a brick from the wall.
But which one? They all looked the same.
I spun in circles, trying to retrace my steps.
Panic bubbled up inside my chest, the dark walls suffocating me.
It was too dark.
Too cold.
Sinking to the floor, I leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths, reminding myself to calm down. Otherwise, I would be stuck in this creepy ass cult hideout forever. Luca knew I would not get far. That was why he let me go without having me followed. He did nothing without a plan.
Get up.
Keep going.
I pushed myself up from the ground. Every bone and muscle in my body ached as I walked down the long hallway.
The ceiling felt too low, the walls too close.
I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, my pulse pounding out of my skin.
I swayed from side to side, still feeling like I was dreaming, forced to grab the cold, rough wall for support.
A chill rolled through the dense passage, filling my nostrils with the scent of moss. The faint smell of the sea lingered in the air. We were at the marina, but how far underground had they taken me?
As I rounded another corner, I stopped dead in my tracks. Seven men in hoods stood in front of double doors. They were about a hundred feet away, their gazes locked on me.
It was too good to be true.
Luca raised his hand, beckoning me with his finger.
I shook my head.
The hell with him.
A smirk tugged at Luca’s mouth.
Why did he look so happy?
Because he won.
My heart raced as he approached me with a sadistic expression on his face. The landscape blurred before my eyes, and two versions of my handsome devil were there. On shaky legs, I slumped to the side, forced to hold on to the wall so I didn’t crumple to the ground.
“When will you learn?” Luca said in his usual cold tone. “You can’t escape fate, baby girl.”
I used the wall for support, finding it impossible to hold myself up. As my feet slipped out from under me, I saw Luca’s pretty blue irises before I lost consciousness.