...When in Hell

by N. Tetterton

  “I know you do, Lucifer.” I tell him, trying to contain my smile again. A small laugh comes out of him.

  “I just needed to tell you, you know. Just in case”

  “You didn’t need to. I know you love me. I’m not really sure when or why that happened, but I know you do.”

  “How do you know?” He laughs out as he asks it.

  “Because I don’t love people who don’t love me back.” His entire face lightens at my statement until I turn around to walk away. Pulling me back to him, his mouth is on mine and he pulls me in close. My lips part as soon as I feel his tongue touch them. His tongue is rough inside of me and I can’t help but think about it licking me this morning. I’m not sure we’ve ever kissed like this before. It’s gentle, but needy. It’s passionate. One hand trails down my body while the other one moves up, grasping onto my neck as he holds me closer to him. Slowly he pulls away, looking down at me as we both catch our breaths.

  “Don’t antagonize them too much, Lilith.” He makes me laugh, smacking my ass, before I move to the car.

  I watch as he walks out to the SUV and gets inside. They’ll tail me, but they’ll be far enough behind that no one will notice. It’s the first time I have left the compound by myself.

  Even if I’m not technically by myself.

  ❖

  Luce

  I watch as the car moves down the driveway and out of the safety of this fucking fortress that I have created… it wasn’t initially for her, but now I would build it a thousand times over. I can see the smile on her face as she speeds off down the lane before I get into the SUV with my men.

  “You sure about this, Boss?” Blaine looks over to me and I just slowly shake my head.

  “Not even a little bit.” I can tell by the shocked expression he holds he’s understanding more.

  “Are we sure that they have already left?”

  “Yeah, they said they landed a few hours ago.” Nodding my head as we follow out the gate. Making sure that she never gets too far out of sight.

  “You’re putting an awful lot of trust into her.” Gunner says from the backseat as Blaine snickers out next to me.

  “I leave nothing up to chance, kid.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Always have a safety net. Always be 4 steps ahead.”

  “How are you—“

  “You’ll see.”

  We watched Nyx walk into the store over an hour ago and have yet to come back out. I grow antsy in the SUV before I open the door, pushing out of the door, pulling the baseball cap that I’m wearing down on my head low, so you can’t really see my face. Into the clothing store and then I look around.

  It’s empty in here. Eerily empty and something is unsettling to me. I try to convince myself that I’m just overreacting, but I know deep inside that something is wrong.

  I don’t even see any store workers and I know that she didn’t leave.

  “Hello.” I call out before I round the corner of the counter, seeing the feet before I reach the remains of the corpse lying on the floor, sans brain matter. “Fuck.” I mutter out before moving back around the counter and heading towards the dressing rooms. “Nyx.” I shout down the hallway as I slam open each door, gun drawn just in case. The last two doors remaining, trying to open the left one, but it doesn’t budge. Without even hesitating or waiting for anyone to open, I kick the door in, gun raised. Terrified green eyes stare back at me. I’m not sure if the terrified look is from the gun in her face or what has happened here.

  “Please don’t.” She whispers, hands in the air as if she is surrendering. Stepping back out of the room, I move to the last one. Door locked again. Kicking this one open as well. There was obviously a struggle. Pieces of shattered mirror lay scattered on the floor. Her purse lies on the floor scattered. I can see her phone and her wallet lying on the ground. Looking at her phone, I see the half written text message.

  They’re here

  “They took her.” The blonde tells me as I glance over at her. “She put up a fight.” She says quietly next to me. “She saved my life.” I glance at her before I turn around, rushing out of the hallway. “Wait, you’re not going to leave me here, are you?”

  Chapter 17

  Nyx

  Driving alone, not worrying about looking over my shoulder to who may follow me, feels so fucking freeing. This time, things are different. He trusts me. I’m a part of the plan.

  Pulling up to the parking lot, I move out of the car and into the store.

  I can feel eyes on me. I’m only trying to decipher if they belong to evil or more-evil.

  I may be in love with Luce, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know he’s evil-incarnate. But wouldn’t you be too?

  I pick a few clothes out before I walk into the dressing room. Luce’s black card is still in my purse, and I mean if I’m going out I might as well get a couple of things, right?

  Green eyes look at me as I pick a few items off of the racks and turn to walk towards the dressing rooms.

  Looking at myself in the mirror as the dress hugs my body, and for the first time, I like how it looks. Lifting my hair up as if it was in a high ponytail. Turning to the side and looking to see what he will see of me in this dress. Moving back around, my hands come out of my hair as they run down my neck and over the scars that still clearly show. Then slowly trailing down to the necklace he gave me last night.

  I can’t believe that he loves me.

  I feel like a dumb, giddy little school girl. And a small part of me still feels like I have some fucked Stockholm Syndrome.

  There’s shouting that distracts me from outside of the room and I stop slowly opening the door to look out, the same green eyes as I saw before looking from across the hall in the opposite room back at me, wide with fear. The gun shot causes me to jump.

  They’re here.

  “Hide,” I whisper to emerald-eyes as I nod my head. “Lock the door, don’t come out.” She nods her head before she quietly shuts the door and I follow suit as I move into the dressing room.

  Where the fuck can I even hide.

  Grabbing my purse, I open in, reaching for my phone, unlocking it and trying to type a quick message to Luce, just to make sure that he knows.

  I hear a knob twisting, but when I look up, I don’t see the knob in my room moving.

  “Shit,” I whisper before I purposefully drop my purse to the ground. The sound from across the hall stops before I see the knob to my room twisting.

  The door swings open as I see a man standing staring back at me. He smiles as he leans backwards slightly and yells, “found her.”

  Quickly looking for an exit, I try to run past him. I know the plan is for them to take me, but I can’t fucking make it easy for them.

  Hands come on me and I’m being pushed backwards, knocking over the pile of clothes on the bench in the room with me. Then slamming me against the mirror, I feel pricks against my skin as pieces of the mirror fall around me and I try to push back against him. He slams my body back against the mirror for a second time and I whimper out as I feel pieces cut through my skin.

  “Oh, that’s not anything compared to what’s going to happen to you.” He laughs into my ear as I see my opening. Lifting my knee, I press my full body weight into the thrust up towards his groan before I push him to the side. I move out of the dressing room and down the hall.

  Rounding the corner, I move into the store as I see the feet sticking out from behind the counter, covering my mouth to keep from screaming.

  Those deaths are my fault.

  I need to get out of the store. I need Luce to know that they are taking me. I can see the SUV parked on the street as I reach the large windows and I’m nearing the door. Inching my way towards the door. I can see him. Barely, it’s only an outline, because the windows are so darkly tinted so no one can see them. He’s talking with Blaine. My hands touch the cold metal of the door handle. I think I see a smile spre
ad across his lips. He shakes his head at them.

  The hands on my hips pull me backwards, away from the door as I fight against them.

  But his hand comes up, covering my mouth as I feel a prick at my side.

  ❖

  I feel the bouncing as soon as I’m conscious. I feel as if I’m in the air. As if I’m on a plane.

  When I open my eyes, I am correct. But I am tied to the seat that I am currently in, with two men glaring at me.

  “Where are we going?” The men laugh at my questions. I wonder if one of them is Arlo, but based on both of their appearances, I would assume not.

  “We thought we may have given you too much.” Tweedle Dee laughs.

  “Ah, yes, it would be a shame to kill me before we get back to your boss.” I shrug the best that I can. His laugh quickly subsides.

  When we land, Both Dee and Dum come over and untie me from the seat as the door opens and I hear footsteps coming towards us.

  I’m being lifted and pushed forward. Although it’s the same thing that Luce was doing to me on the flight from LA it feels completely different.

  “I’m walking.” I shout as I catch myself against the wall, falling forward. “For fuck’s sake, you don’t have to shove me around. I’m complying, not like I have much of a choice in the matter now, though.”

  “You better drop that attitude.” Dee or Dum, I’m not sure, says as I right myself, turning around and looking at him. “Arlo won’t like it. And the more you piss him off… Well, on second thought, go ahead with the attitude. It will be more fun for me that way.”

  “You’re a sick fuck.” I snap back at him. I see the rage flash in his eyes in an instant and feel the sting on my face as the sound echoes around my head. I stand, shocked for a second, as I feel the blood slowly flowing into my mouth. He leans into me and I think about head butting him as hard as possible right now.

  “Really cunt?” He laughs loudly in my face. “I’m the sick fuck? You must not know that fuck you just came from very well.”

  I smile back at him. I’m sure by the look on his face, the blood is very visible. “You do not know, just how much I know.” Reaching up almost instinctively, feeling at my neck when the realization hits me. “Where’s my necklace?”

  “It’s gone. What do we look stupid?”

  “Yes.” I mean, I didn’t nickname the large ogre looking men Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum in my head for no reason. The name matches their faces.

  “You’re a bitch.” He snaps back at me as his hand raises for a second time, but I refuse to stand down.

  “That’s accurate.” I laugh as his hand falls down as he realizes his insults won’t affect me.

  “Move.” He pushes me forward again and then I’m moving down the stairs of the plane.

  If I thought that Luce’s grounds were impressive, this place makes it seem like a dilapidated shack.

  It’s everything that you would expect for a cartel mansion to look like, including a fountain in the driveway. Wrought Iron gate that surrounds the entire compound. More guards than I can count. The brick house is huge, with large windows.

  How the fuck is Luce going to get to me.

  They took the tracker even if he knows where this place was. Even if I still had the tracker, how could he get past these men to get to me. The car comes to a stop in front of the mansion and just like 4 years ago, I’m being shoved out of the car and up the stairs.

  I’m pushed down a hallway and into an office where a large older man sits behind a desk.

  “This is the infamous Nyx?” He laughs. “You’re much smaller than I imagined.”

  “I could say the same for you.” I smirk. “I’m tougher than I look.” He eyes me, questioning for a second before he nods his head.

  “For some reason, I don’t doubt that.”

  “So what? Is this where you kill me?” He shakes his head as he looks back at me.

  “No, that would be too easy. First, we have to wait for that boyfriend of yours to get here.”

  “Ah, yes, because he spent so much quality time here.” I laugh at him.

  “I see he told you about our relationship.”

  “Yeah, he told me that all of this has the potential to make some weird fucking almost-family dinner very uncomfortable.” He laughs out as I continue to stand in front of him, unwavering.

  “Take her to the dungeon.” He looks back at Dee before he looks back at me again. “I’ll see you again when Lucian arrives.” Then he smiles.

  “I was under the impression that you thought of him as a son?” I say to him quickly. “Even when I was working in the club. I would hear some rumors and all of them were how you had some mild connection with the East Coast. Some relatives, but no one said who. It wasn’t until he told me that I connected those dots. If you think of him as family, why are you going to kill him?”

  “Because he made his decision.”

  “He chose me.”

  “Yes, he did. He should have put a bullet in your head.” He’s so callous when he says it. He mumbles something to himself but I can’t quite make out what it is.

  Hands on me again are pushing me out of the door.

  Chapter 18

  Luce

  “—and that’s how I knew I wanted to switch my major and study in Theatre.” I roll my eyes as I look over to Gunner who is actually interested in her vapid, useless thoughts, simply by the cleavage that is peaking out of her top.

  “I bet you’re inspirational.” He tells her as I look over, trying not to choke on my whiskey, and both Blaine and I try not to laugh. Yup, definitely interested in the cleavage.

  How did blondie talk her way onto the plane?

  Because fucking Nyx, the pain in my ass that she is, tried to save her. So I couldn’t leave her behind. Once she was in the SUV, Gunner invested in her contributions… that went something like:

  “But I can show you which men were there.” Honestly, I doubt she can because she was so tightly locked in that dressing room that I doubt she saw anything, but Nyx has resurrected a side of me I was hoping was dead forever.

  Gunner silently pleaded with me and since he had done a decent job, I guess I could do this one thing for him.

  As we walked up to the plane, I pulled him backwards, away from earshot.

  “It’s your job to keep her from being killed.”

  “She’ll stay back.”

  “I don’t think you understood. I meant to keep her from being killed by me.” He shakes his head slightly. It almost looks like he wants to laugh, but he doesn’t. He fucking knows better.

  That’s how she weaseled her way onto the plane. Gunner wants to fuck her, nothing more, nothing less.

  I should have just killed her in the store earlier, because now I have a headache from her weasel voice.

  “You got a trace on it, yet?” I call back to Gunner before he looks down at the computer away from Weasel’s tits. He just looks up at me and shakes his head. “Shit. Can you override it and turn it on?”

  “Yeah, but it’s not letting me, meaning that it’s not functional anymore.”

  “What? What does that mean?” Weasel asks, looking over at Gunner. Thank god she’s not asking me.

  “Why are you even toying with that one?” Blaine asks me before I look back over.

  “Because I don’t really want to tell her. And if she doesn’t have it, then I have to figure out my story before I get there.” Blaine laughs out as he looks back to me and shakes his head. “What?”

  “Nothing Boss.” He nods again. He knows not to call me out in front of people.

  “No, speak your mind.” I gesture to him, leaning in.

  “You’re changing.” Sitting back just slightly, I glare at him for a second. “It’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s good for you, but you need to accept it and learn to process it because if not, then it leaves you weak. That’s when it leaves you vulnerable.”

  “So, wh
at do you suggest?” Crossing my arms across my chest. “How does it not make me vulnerable?”

  “Lean into it.” He laughs. “You can treat her like a China Doll, but only because you know that the world won’t and make them pay when they don’t. But you treat her that way because she deserves it, not because you think she needs it. Because if not she’s libel to purposefully blow that doll up in your face.”

  I nod my head. I’m not really sure exactly the analogy that he used, but understand what he’s saying. I can be gentle with her because she is that fucking special, but don’t make her feel like I think she needs to be.

  I know she can handle herself. I just wish like fuck she didn’t have to.

  “I don’t get it.” Weasel whines as I look over to Gunner, who mumbles something to her. I’m guessing that he gets that he’s coming awfully close to not completing his job.

  Turning back to Blaine I sigh, “pull it up.”

  ❖

  “Ohhhhhh!!” A high-pitched squeal starts as we drive through the city. Blaine laughs as he drives at my irritability. Pulling up outside of the compound “Oh my god.” She gasps from behind me.

  “Uhhhh…” gripping my temples in my hand.

  “Where are we?” she asks. “Is this like a palace? Oh my god, are those guards? Do they have guns? Why do they have guns? Are they nice?”

  “For fuck’s sake.” I look back in the car to where she sits. “Yes, they have guns, no they’re not nice. They will shoot you.” Gunner’s eyes widen as he reaches over to her, shaking his head. I’m assuming realizing that he’s coming fucking close to not being able to complete his job.

  “What’s the plan, Boss?” Sighing, I know what I have to do. Arlo feels betrayed now. He’s waiting for me.

  Reaching into my jacket, I pull out the Glock that always sits secure in it and lay it on the center console.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Drive around the block, let me out up the street.”