...When in Hell

by N. Tetterton

  “I could go back and feed you intel.”

  “That’s never going to work.” I look at him. “There’s no way that he’ll believe you left out of here unscathed. I have a better idea.” He just looks at me quietly. “If you go back, they will kill you. Stay here. We’ll put you up in a place until this blows over.”

  “My family.” He nearly pleads with me.

  “I’ll send someone to get them.”

  “Boss,” Blaine calls from behind me. Holding my hand up is all for him to know to shut the fuck up.

  “What do you say, Cruz?” Slowly, he just nods his head after a few minutes. “Good.” I reach over and, with my left hand, grasp the back of his head, leaning into him. “This is your one chance. You fuck me over and I will end you and your family without a second thought.” Then I laugh slightly. “Although some things have consequences no matter what.” He looks at me, confused. “You were going to stand there and watch my woman get raped. That’s something that can’t be overlooked.” Quickly, I move my right hand and plunge it into his eye socket. His scream echoes through the room that we are all standing in.

  I can feel his eyelid fluttering shut as I’m assuming he’s getting ready to pass out from the pain or the shock. I’m really not sure what. His scream fades as I pull back and scoop the eye out of the socket. Pulling my finger out of the socket with the eyeball still on it, almost like a child, put olives on his fingers. Grasping the eye in my hand, I hastily yank it the rest of the way out, tearing the nerve holding the eye to his body. I’m not really sure when he passed out, but I shrug as I turn around and walk to my men. Both of their eyes are wide as he stares at me, never seeing me do something quite like I had just done.

  I stop at the men and hand the eye to Gunner. He grimaces as he just lets the eyeball sit in his hand. “Doc will be down here once he leaves Nyx.” He nods his head. “Get him awake and maybe an eye patch. Get that ready to send to Arlo.” Then I look over at Blaine and start again. “Get Khan in SoCal on the phone. He still owes me a favor. Have him go down to get Cruz’s family and set up a plane to meet them to bring them back here.” I start to walk away and stop looking back at him. “Tell him I said either he or the kid needs to go. I don’t trust those other neanderthals.”

  Chapter 14

  Nyx

  Laughing as I drive down the street in the sports car, feeling the rush through me as I know that about now he’s freaking out because he probably found that I took off.

  Rounding the driveway and coming to stop. I’m sure that he has some sort of tracking on it. He’ll freak out, probably, then realize that I just came back to the house and be confused.

  Smirking to myself as I swing the door shut and move towards the front door. Pushing it open, with the security system, someone always being here, and the amount of balls it would take for anyone to try it we never lock the door.

  As soon as I step through the door, there’s something eerie that is lingering in the air. Something is different even though everything in the entryway looks to be in its place. I don’t say anything. I don’t call out. Ruby’s around here somewhere, but I’ll just go and search her out. Kicking my shoes off I look around me before I continue to move forward, the last thing I need is the click of the heel to be an indication of where I am.

  When I see her, my entire body stops, I’m not sure I can keep going. Images come flooding my mind and flashing of my past start to bubble up. I’m cold, so cold, but I’m sweating.

  She’s lying on the floor, my dad standing over top of her.

  He looks back to me and then rushes me.

  Two sets of eyes stare at me.

  He charges at me tackling me to the ground.

  My head hits the ground.

  I try to break out of his grip.

  I’m being dragged down the hallway.

  My feet thrash, I kick the wall as we struggle.

  The heel of my foot smacks the ground hard as I try to get away, I wince, but I try not to let them see me as I raise my hands up into my hair to try and get them to let it go. I’m sure they’ve already pulled a good amount out.

  I feel his fist connect a couple of times with me as I whimper.

  The man’s face comes into view as another one ties my wrists. My arms are pulled above my head as I’m pulled upward. My toes barely touch the floor.

  “We have to wait for him.” They talk to one another, but it really seems like one is giving the other one orders. Lifting myself up from where I’m tied at with my wrists I wait until I am high enough and latch my legs around his neck. If this was a movie I would have broken his neck, but it’s not. That’s why I feel the blunt force slam into the side of my body. A second slam to the same side, but I’m still holding on as the man tries to grab at my legs. I tighten them. Something slams into my chest, knocking the wind out of me, my legs loosen quickly, and I fall backwards.

  “You cunt.” one shouts at me as the other one gasps for air. I see him swing something in my direction.

  The bathroom is bright. I can see my father’s face rippling in the water as it moves. It stings my eyes. I’m trying to hold my breath, but my lungs are screaming at me to breathe. I scratch his hands as I try to pry them from my body. The light from behind him starts to overshadow his face.

  I gasp.

  ❖

  “Shh, Nyx.” I sit up, abruptly. Pushing myself to the middle of the bed. “It’s okay. Luce called me. I’m a doctor and he wants me to check you to make sure that you’re okay.”

  Looking around the room, I don’t recognize it, but the bed I’m lying in smells slightly like him and it’s literally the largest fucking bed I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m also in one of his Henley’s that is way too big for me. Slowly, I just nod my head.

  When the door finally opens on the other side of the room, I see Luce walk in towards us and Doc gets up walking over to him. Talks to him for a bit and then he leaves as Luce walks over to the bed. He lets his dress pants fall to the ground before he leans onto the bed and he crawls up the oversized bed as he moves to me, and then he leans up against the headboard. “Come here, baby.” He whispers to me as he reaches out and I move to him before he wraps his arms around my body. “Doc says you have a mild concussion.” That makes sense.

  “Did you just call me baby?” I tease him, and for the first time I see him look over in a slightly embarrassed look.

  “Shut up.” He smirks at me as I lay my head down on his chest and he flicks the TV on.

  I feel as if I just nod off as he nudges me awake. I sit up and look at him. “You okay?” I slowly just nod my head before he smiles, kisses me again and then leans my head back to his chest as I fall asleep quickly again.

  When I wake in the morning, it’s bright, and I’m disappointed when I notice he isn't here with me. Slowly, I get out of the bed, but my entire body aches as I walk into the bathroom and look in the mirror. The bruising on my face is very apparent and I take in my appearance as I pull Luce’s shirt off of my body I see the bruising that continues down my body.

  The swearing I hear from the doorway breaks my attention off of my reflection as I glance towards the door in the mirror. “Baby,” he whispers as he approaches me, “do you need anything? Are you okay?”

  “Luce, stop.” I turn, holding my hands out, stopping him in his place. “I’ll be fine. It’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened.” I see a slight tick in his jaw before he brings his lips down and gently kisses me. Pulling away, I laugh at him as I turn and walk into the shower. “But I see you’ve been holding out on me.”

  “What do you mean?” He smirks at me from the other side of the glass wall.

  “Your bedroom, this bathroom, and I definitely snooped in the closet.” He laughs as he leans against the vanity and just watches me wash my body off. “Not to mention the bed. It’s fucking huge. I’m positive that it’s bigger than any bed I’ve ever seen. What size is it?”

  “It�
�s custom.” He smirks at me.

  “Of course it is.” I mumble to myself, “How do you get sheets for it?”

  “I have them made.” I can see his cocky smirk on his face even through the steam that the water is producing.

  “Got it. Harem-sized bed have to have custom sheets.” This time when he laughs out, he’s standing naked, right behind me. His hands are gentle on me as they rub through my hair.

  “I wouldn’t know about harem-sized.” He whispers in my ear as he works the shampoo into my hair. He then spins me around to rinse my hair out and I look up at him. My mouth falls slightly open and as I move to bring my mouth to his, he spins me back around again. This time working conditioner into my hair. “I need to tell you something, though. I’m not sure how good of a look you got of them last night, but one of them is going to be sticking around.” I freeze before glancing over my shoulder at him; he spins me around again and rinses my hair once more.

  “What?” I suddenly realize why he’s being so nice to me and I panic as I try to get away from him.

  “Calm down, Little Girl.” He snaps as his hands come up gripping onto my arms and holds me, still looking up to him. “He’s lower in ranking. He was just following orders he didn’t agree with. And well…” he pauses as I look up to him again, “an eye for an eye.”

  “What?”

  “I mean almost literally an eye for an eye. He exposed you and looked at your body.” He pauses, and his jaw ticks once more. “ And he was just going to sit back and watch him, uh,” he stutters, and I realize he’s having a tough time saying what was going to happen to me. I slowly nod my head, taking that brunt of feeling as if he has to say what happened. “So, I took his eye.”

  “You did what?” I nearly shout as a slow smirk spreads on his face.

  “I took his eye. Just one. I left him the other one.”

  “What? How?”

  “Little Girl, they come out a lot easier than you would think they do.” He smiles before he leans down and kisses me when I realize that my hair is done.

  Standing in front of the terrace doors that look out over the city, I can feel Luce behind me.

  He whispers, causing me to look over at him. “You took the car. Why did you come back to the house? You could have gone anywhere.”

  “To prove a point.” I smirk at him before I step out onto the terrace, still only in my towel, causing him to growl from behind me.

  “What point is that?” Turning around, I look at him as he carefully watches me, as if he’s telling me not to fucking think about dropping the towel.

  “That I’m here because I want to be, not because you are forcing me to be.” The smile spreads across my face as I watch his mouth open slightly. Even if it’s slight, it’s the biggest shocked expression that he will show.

  “You want to stay in this hell with me, Lilith?” He smirks at me, using the name that I picked which he found the most comical.

  “My whole life has been a living hell.” I whisper back to him as looks at me. Quickly, I try to slide out of that statement. “This entire world is a living hell. At least here the angels aren’t pretending to be good.”

  “Did you just call me an angel?” He laughs out and I can feel a smirk form on my face.

  “Fallen, of course.” Rolling my eyes as his smile grows. Then I can see him contemplating things once again. It’s a strange look for him, the hesitation and the uncertainty. Completely different from what I’m used to seeing him like.

  “You want to stay?” He asks. The question is so quiet. It’s so uncharacteristic for him it causes me to look up when I notice something new in his eyes. Quickly, he shakes his head and his demeanor is back, but I feel a sense of pride knowing that even if, for a brief second, I could stun him. He moves me back over to the bed with him as he lies down, pulling me down with him so that I have to straddle his hips to look at him. “I mean, you want to stay and reign over Hell with me?” He smirks up at me and it causes me to laugh out loud.

  “I thought you’d never ask.” I pause, laughing and looking back down at him. “But one thing,” he looks intrigued. “I don’t bow to any man, I am Lilith, after all.” He laughs before I smirk down at him I guess just trying to press my luck. “But Luce, you belong to me.”

  “Whatever you want, my Queen.”

  “Why are you being so different?” The question comes out before I can stop it and before I even realize that I’m thinking about it.

  “I don’t know.” He starts. “I guess, something snapped in me when I saw you hanging like that.” He leans towards me and presses his lips to my shoulder. “I guess, I realized I can’t be half in, half out.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m all in, Little Girl.” He stares up at me, more serious than I have ever seen him before.

  “What if I’m not?” I can’t help but say.

  “Then I will just have to pursue you to be.”

  “And how are you expecting to do that?” I whisper down to him before he spins me onto my back quickly.

  “Gentle and slow.” I can’t help but laugh out loud.

  “I don’t know how to be gentle and slow.”

  “Me either, but I’m willing to try.” He laughs with me before pulling at his own towel and opening mine. “I’m willing to be anything you want or need me to be.”

  “I don’t want soft and gentle.”

  “But—“

  “I’m not glass. I will not break.”

  “I know you’re not going to, but—“

  “Luce,” I glare up at him. “If you’re going to fuck me. You better do it right. You can’t let the first time after you ask me to stay, be when you decide to be a pussy.”

  Quickly he presses himself into me, causing me to moan out as I feel the girth of his cock stretch me. “You better watch your mouth, Little Girl.” He grunts out to me before he pulls out nearly all the way and slams back into me, causing my head to tilt back and a loud moan to come out again. “This is how you end up getting yourself into trouble.” He grunts into my ear again before he thrusts into me again, as deep as he can go. Feeling him pressing against my womb, I subconsciously try to wiggle away from him, moving up. Gripping onto my hips, he slams me back down and even though his hands are rough on me, he is careful enough to not touch the bruising that covers nearly most of my upper body.

  ❖

  Luce

  When I say that Arlo is dead, I fucking mean it. He cannot send someone after my woman and expect me to go easy on him.

  He should know this.

  He fucking taught me.

  “Lucian.” His voice rings through the line as I call him.

  I’m calling him. What have I fucking turned into?

  “Arlo…” I trail, not really knowing what to say to him.

  “I was expecting you to call if you managed to survive my present.” He laughs. Apparently, he hasn’t gotten word yet that I killed his men.

  “This will not end how you think it will.” I tell him, causing him to laugh.

  “How’s that?”

  “Your men are dead.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, they’re not very smart. Although I did promise Cruz that I would save his family before I was finished with him, so if it’s them you are looking for, then you won’t find them… they’re already gone.”

  “If you saved them then he…”

  “Yeah, I got some information that I wanted.” I lie to my new-nemesis.

  “Now do you want to come to an agreement?”

  “What kind of agreement Lucian? Because the only thing I’ll agree to is that woman dead.”

  “Well, that’s going to be a problem.” Shaking my head to no one in particular. “Because that woman is my woman.” He laughs out into the phone.

  “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

  “I wish I was.”

  “Well, Luce. I see we are at an impasse.”
/>
  “That’s a shame, Arlo.” I laugh to myself as I start again. “Do you remember my first kill? What you told me?” I stop giving him a chance to answer, but he doesn’t. “I’ll remind you. You told me it’s rare to find someone who you love. So once you do, you protect them no matter what. You keep them safe. Even when it isn’t a straightforward decision.” He stays quiet longer. “You best believe if I can kill my father for killing my mother then I can kill you for attempting to kill her.”

  “You will not be able to get close to me.” He laughs out again.

  “I’m positive that’s where you’re wrong.”

  “We’ll see about that, Luce. We’ll see.”

  “We will. I’ll see you soon.”

  Chapter 15

  Luce

  For the first time in my life, when I wake in the morning, I feel something that I haven’t ever felt before. My heart squeezes as I roll over and see the light streaming off of Nyx’s face and I smile, leaning over and pressing my lips to her temple.

  “Good morning,” I whisper to her as her eyes flutter open and a slight smirk spreads on her lips as well.

  “Morning.”

  “I have to go out-of-town today.” I tell her honestly. This whole letting someone else know what’s going on in my life is weird.

  “Why?”

  “I have to go tie things up.”

  “No.” She tells me, but it wasn’t a question. She isn’t asking me not to go, she’s telling me I’m not allowed to.

  “Excuse me?” I look down at her serious expression, laughing.

  “No, you’re not going.”

  “I’m not sure that’s your decision.”

  “It is. You belong to me Luce, you agreed to that. And you’re not going. We’re going to stay here.” I disagree with her when she cuts me off again. “We will wait for them to come to us. We will fight them together, on our turf.” Looking at her, she nods her head. “If we go to them, we’re exerting energy we don’t need to. If we wait for the defense. All of our energy goes into that.”