Chapter 29 #3
“I heard it’s because the Collectors had a fallout with the Underworld King,” the other answered.
Liam snickered. “Morons.” He made his way to the crowd of people betting on the painting. Everyone was blurred, except for one woman in an elegant white gown.
“Gemma,” I breathed.
She turned to us with a smile and winked.
“Sold! For fifty-three million dollars!” I heard the auctioneer say, the crowd clapping through excited murmurs.
Where were Grayson and Hunter?
“That’s a wrap on the auction,” Liam whispered to us as he moved with the small crowd of people. “But I have one last surprise for you.”
He paused at the bar first, to get a drink, downed it, then walked up to the podium where the crowd was waiting.
“You guys can’t see it, but man! This place is crawling with perps.
Smugglers, thieves, gangsters, you name it.
Four of the FBI’s most wanted men are in this room right now.
” He laughed. “You guys would’ve had a field day!
” He made his way to the front of the crowd.
“Eyes open, kids. You’re gonna wanna see this. ”
Grayson came walking out onto the stage from behind thick, red velvet curtains. He sauntered to the edge of the podium, his head high. I half expected to see more scars after our altercation, but his face was flawless, completely healed.
He lazily tugged at the cuff of his black suit as his eyes drifted over each face in the crowd, looking almost bored.
I swallowed hard.
I had never seen him like this. He looked like a god, quiet power radiating off him as he stared down his nose at the people beneath him.
For the first time, I really comprehended the name he was given. King of the Underworld. For the first time, I understood it, felt it.
The crowd was silent, waiting on him to speak.
“I have a special guest for you. In a special art performance. Put together by yours truly.” His voice slithered up my spine, my body breaking out in goosebumps.
The thick curtains parted behind him, revealing a statue of sorts on a pedestal. The crowd started clapping, but it quickly died off, replaced by low murmurs rippling through the space.
“That’s a human,” Syntax said, squinting at the footage on the wall.
I looked closer too. And gods, she was right. It was a man in a tux, standing on a pedestal, his arms stretched wide like a king welcoming his people.
No. He wasn’t standing. There were hooks through his palms, attached to cables, holding him upright. His head wasn’t human. It was a bronze sculpture with a sneering face. Behind the man was a large golden plaque, with the words from a poem I recalled reading once.
“My name is Ozymandias. King of kings. Look at my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Grayson arched a brow. “No cheers for the self-proclaimed king of kings?”
The crowd stayed quiet.
“Look at the tattoos on his hands,” Marshall stepped forward. “That’s Rurik. He casted the head of the Russian Mafia’s head in a bronze sculpture.”
I struggled to make sense of Marshall’s words. The head? Of the…
Oh, gods! I took a step backwards as if it could save me from seeing the truth.
The boss of the Bratva was on Grayson’s pedestal.
“What in the actual hell…” Syntax shuddered.
Hunter appeared beside Grayson. He helped Gemma climb the steps of the podium, kissing her hand adoringly as she reached the top. The three of them stared over the crowd, daring them to make a move, to say something.
“Who the fuck are these people?” Emerie hissed. “How can they do that to the Bratva and live?”
Grayson was slowly pacing the perimeter of the podium, watching every face in the crowd, his body radiating a lethality that had me shuddering. His usual snarky, playful demeanour in situations like these, was gone. Replaced by a brooding, cunning quiet.
The real Grayson.
“Anyone else want to claim supremacy over me?” He stopped in the middle of the stage when the crowd stayed silent.
“I never gave a fuck about titles. But don’t mistake my apathy for weakness.
You will burn in my hell before you even know I’m coming for you.
Let the king of kings here be your warning. ”
With one last menacing glare over the crowd, the three of them disappeared behind the curtains, leaving everyone to stare at their art.
The room was silent. Breathless.
Liam’s loud claps made me jump. “What a show!” he laughed. “Best auction ever!”
Then the footage cut out.
I looked at my team. No one moved. No one took their eyes away from the darkening wall.
This video did exactly what it was supposed to do.
They were scared. Even Owen looked bleak.
I turned around the room, speaking up into the air. “Is that it, Varon? You done bragging about how big and powerful you are?” I knew he was watching. He was always watching. “Why do you always have to be so loud about it? Is it because you have a small dick? It’s the tiny dick, isn’t it?”
My team just stared at me for a while. Then Emerie chuckled. “They have surgeries for that now, you know?” she said into the air, giving me a wink.
Syntax stepped up beside us, her eyes twinkling with their usual mischief. “Yeah, like killing the Russian mob boss was a little dramatic, to be honest,” she chimed in, making Owen cough a laugh.
I shrugged dramatically. “But go off, king. Anything but therapy, I guess.”
The flight home was quiet. Per usual, we found zero forensic evidence at the church. It was like they’d set up the place with hazmat suits.
We had no idea why Grayson had killed the head of the Bratva, and I was pretty sure we wouldn’t find any other clues at the real auction location in Willsbury City.
It was a new puzzle piece that seemingly fit nowhere.
But the worst of all, was the suffocating air of defeat that lingered around the team.
Their spirits were broken, their hopes stripped to the bone.
And no one was admitting it out loud, but they were scared.
We finally had a true glimpse behind Grayson’s veil, and the utter size of the monster we were facing had knocked the air from us.
Grayson had always seemed larger than life to me, but this? I had no idea of the sheer gravity of the man I had let hold me in that tent, in Frostford Forest.
Maybe it was best if we did back off. Was getting him behind bars more important than the lives of my team? My revenge didn’t seem worth it anymore.