by Mia Knight
He clenched his teeth to hold back the rage building in his throat. His hands shook as he held Nora. He looked down at her as she kicked his chest and waved her arms. She looked up at him with such trust and innocence. I’ll bring Mom back. He said it silently because he wasn’t capable of speaking. He tipped Nora against his chest and took a deep breath, the first in what felt like hours.
“Gavin.” Carmen’s baby blue eyes shimmered with tears. “Bring her back.”
He nodded and handed Nora over. “Take care of her.”
Her fear clouded the air. “Gavin.”
“No matter what happens, you take care of Nora,” he ordered.
Tears began to fall. “Gavin.”
“Promise me,” he snapped.
“Gavin, you can’t do this to me.”
“Promise me, Carmen.”
Carmen grabbed a handful of his shirt and yanked. He obliged and took a step forward. He and Carmen had a long and complicated history. They loved with an abandonment one never recovered from and they loved the same people, Vinny and Lyla. They’d both lost Vinny. He’d be fucking damned if he lost Lyla and he saw the same fire in Carmen’s eyes. If Carmen didn’t have Nora to care for, she would come with him. He had no doubt Carmen would spill blood if it meant getting her cousin back.
“You bring Lyla back to me,” Carmen hissed as tears spilled down her cheeks. “And you make that motherfucker pay.”
He nodded and she released him.
“You got this, Gavin.”
“You armed?” he asked, even though there was a host of men on property.
Carmen lifted her sweater to show a gold gun in the waistband of her pants. He nodded and turned away from her.
“Be safe, Gavin,” she called after him.
He walked away and blocked out the sound of Nora fussing. Angel and Blade were waiting in the driveway. Gavin glanced at his men who looked uneasy. It was clear Blade told them their destination.
“Good luck, boss,” Barrett said and several others echoed it.
Gavin nodded and slid into the passenger seat of the SUV. Blade floored it. No one spoke as Blade zoomed towards the neon lights of the city.
“I called Marcus, told him if this goes bad, he becomes CEO,” Blade said.
Gavin nodded and glanced at Angel in the backseat. “You don’t have to come.”
“Don’t, Gav.”
“You don’t know what this is.”
“Then why don’t you explain it to me since Blade hasn’t said shit. Who’s Lucifer? You think he’s the one who did in Uncle Manny?”
“No, it wasn’t Lucifer.” He was sure of it. Lucifer didn’t wear masks. He wanted people to know about his kills.
“So Lucifer is helping the guy who did in Uncle Manny,” Angel surmised.
“Looks that way.”
“And this Lucifer is a big shot in the underworld?”
“Not in the underworld.”
“Then where?”
“In Hell.”
“Hell?”
“Hell is a Death Club.”
“A what?”
“An underground fight club gladiator style where only one opponent lives. No guns allowed. It’s also a brothel and slave trade hub.”
Angel leaned between the two front seats. “And this is all under the radar?”
“Yes.”
“An underground fight club, huh?”
“The brothel is for hardcore customers. It’s common for the whores to die on the job,” Blade said. “And who knows what else goes on there.”
“Why would Lucifer want Lyla or work with the guy who did in Uncle Manny?” Angel asked.
“Because he has a score to settle with Gavin,” Blade said. “He beat him once, but Gavin broke the rules and Lucifer’s never forgiven him for it.”
“How’d you break the rules?”
“Only one opponent survives,” Gavin said. “I didn’t kill him.”
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t want to run Hell.”
A pause and then, “So what did you do?”
“I knocked him out and left. Haven’t been back since. Lyla’s the only reason I’d go back to Hell and Lucifer knows it.”
“So you think Lucifer kidnapped Lyla so you two can duel to the death?” Angel asked.
“I don’t know.” He had a feeling Phantom was involved. Lucifer wasn’t the kidnapping type.
“How long ago has it been since you beat him?”
“Five years ago.” The day after Lyla left him the first time.
“Whose side is Lucifer on?”
“No one’s.” Gavin rubbed his thumb against the brass knuckles, which had done damage in his youth. “In Hell anything goes. The people that go to a place like this are killers looking for the kind of entertainment they can’t get anywhere else.” He thought of Lyla being in a place like that and closed his eyes. Lucifer wouldn’t do anything to her yet.
“How come you never told me about Hell? Fuck. This place sounds like my type of Disneyland.”
“You might want to call Raul,” Blade said.
“No need. We’re all coming out of this alive and with Lyla,” Angel said.
Blade bypassed the glittering Strip and turned onto a dingy street with broken streetlights, dirty liquor stores and abandoned buildings. Blade pulled into the parking lot of a nude bar. The sign out front wasn’t lit and there were only two other cars in the vicinity.
“No one’s here,” Angel said.
“There’s lots of ways into Hell. This is one of them,” Blade said. “There’s a locked compartment under your seat. Stash your gun there.”
Gavin didn’t take his eyes from the shabby building, which had no windows.
“You have a knife?” Blade asked Angel.
“Of course.”
“Good. You’re going to need it,” Blade said as they stepped into the bar.
Death and depression clung to the walls of this place. He could taste it in his mouth. The dancers moved with a sluggishness that said they were high on something. The men lounging in the dark corners didn’t move or speak. The beat of music struck a dark chord in him. The type of people who were drawn to this place had no hope or souls. These men didn’t care whether they lived or died. Once you entered Hell, your life was on the line. Many entered, few left breathing.
Gavin ignored the dancers, patrons and bartender who watched him weave between the tables. He walked through an open door beside the stage. The light here wasn’t much better. He walked down a hallway with rotting planks and into the dressing room of the dancers who were doing drugs and completely oblivious to their presence. He turned into the walk in closet, which was filled with the shit strippers wore before they bared it all. He pushed on the wall of hooker shoes and it swung open.
“Holy fuck. We don’t have shit like this in New York. We have to step it up,” Angel murmured.
Gavin led the way down the narrow, creaking staircase and approached a group of men guarding a black metal door. They were smoking and playing poker. One man looked up and surveyed them with one eye. The empty socket of his other was on full display.
“We got Vegas royalty here, boys,” he drawled.
The men threw down their cards and started patting him down.
“You fighting?” one of the men asked.
Gavin didn’t answer because it went without saying. They spied his brass knuckles and admired his knives before they moved onto Blade.
“That you, Blade? It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” One Eye stepped to the side so he could see Angel. “Who are you, pretty boy?”
“This is my cousin, Angel,” Gavin said.
One Eye grinned, showing that he had three teeth left.
“We make demons out of angels here.” One Eye suddenly narrowed his eyes. “Your cousin?” He looked more sharply at Angel. “You a Roman?”
Angel nodded and One Eye elbowed his friend.
“Roque’s brother.”
“You kno
w my brother?” Angel asked.
“Everyone knows your brother. He stepped into the arena several times. Those were nights to remember.”
“They’re clean,” the other man announced.
“Lucifer expecting you?” One Eye asked Gavin.
“Yes.”
“I have a feeling tonight’s gonna be entertaining, boys.” His eyes roved over the three of them and nodded. “Very entertaining.”
One Eye opened the door and gave them a mocking bowed as they passed.
“Welcome to Hell, my brothers.”
Gavin walked into Hell and heard Angel suck in a breath. Hell was a two-story amphitheater with wide staircases that led down to the sandy Pit, which saw more action than the Colosseum. Nearly every seat in the arena was taken. The only sound in Hell was the sound of metal clashing as the men in the Pit fought with swords, rousing Gavin’s beast.
Gavin turned to the bar and scattered tables where men watched the action on the screens instead of in the bloodthirsty crowd where their throats could be cut. Gavin focused on a man drinking Coke, lounging at a table with a crossword puzzle in front of him. The giant man watched the TV screen as idly as if he were watching a commercial. He snorted in disgust when one of the fighters was decapitated. He twirled a pen between two fingers and scanned the crowd. When he saw Gavin, the pen stopped moving and a wide smile curved his mouth. Lucifer’s Polynesian, Russian and Swedish blood made him into a monster of a man. Despite his size and reputation, he managed to appear as unthreatening as a California surfer, but Gavin knew better. Lucifer knew every method on earth to kill a man. Gavin resisted the compulsion to grab his knife as they approached.
“I never thought I’d see the day that you lost control of the underworld,” Lucifer said in greeting.
“I want my wife,” Gavin said.
Lucifer waved a hand with red nail polish. “I heard you were partial to your wife, but I didn’t believe it. What makes her different from any other?”
He wasn’t going to have this conversation with him. “Give her to me.”
Lucifer ignored his order and steepled his hands in front of him, fingers touching at the tip, perfectly aligned. “A friend of mine came to me with a generous offer. He offered to share the experience of torturing your wife in the Pit using his considerable skills and then summon you for the rematch I’ve been waiting for.”
Blade and Angel crowded him, ready to restrain him if need be, but Gavin’s demon was in control and it wasn’t easily baited, not with Lyla’s life at stake.
“This is generous of my friend,” Lucifer continued blithely, “but you and I go way back, Gavin, and I want a fair fight. I want you clearheaded, not distracted because you see your wife in pieces.”
“I have no interest in ruling Hell,” Gavin said.
Lucifer’s eyes danced with excitement. “So sure you’ll beat me?”
“Yes.” He had no choice but to win. He wouldn’t think of any other outcome.
Lucifer waved a hand. “Come now, Gavin. I think you’ll come to appreciate Hell as much as I do. My friend can run the underworld and you, Hell. I’m sure you two can see eye to eye if you put your hostilities aside.”
“No,” Gavin said.
“Was what he did so bad? He set you free, Gavin.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“After he murdered your father, you went on a rampage. I’m impressed you managed to hide that many bodies. That’s you, your true self, the one your father knew you would become. That’s why he put you in the Pit at twelve.”
Gavin felt Angel’s glance and ignored it.
“You and I are one and the same.” Lucifer licked his lips. “We need violence the way other people need sex.”
“What I need is my wife.”
Lucifer snorted in disgust. “Your obsession with this one woman is unhealthy.”
“Is she alive?” Blade asked.
Lucifer’s eyes flicked to him and narrowed. “Going soft, Blade?
“Is she?” Angel demanded.
“You Romans, so family oriented,” Lucifer mocked. “What are you doing here, Angel?”
“You know me?”
“Of course. You’ve built up quite a reputation in New York.”
“Then you’ll be happy to hear that Angel’s going to take my place in the underworld,” Gavin said. “So your friend is out of the running.”
Lucifer rarely poked his head out of Hell, but if he chose to, he could make Angel’s rule of the underworld hell on earth.
“A Roman in Sin City?” Lucifer mused with a cruel smile. “What about New York?”
“Raul can handle it and Roque will be out soon. I need a challenge,” Angel said.
Lucifer chuckled. “You came to the right place. These two,” he jerked his head at Gavin, “have torn the underworld apart.”
“I didn’t start this war,” Gavin said quietly.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
There was an agonizing scream from the Pit and a cheer from the crowd.
Lucifer stacked his feet on the chair opposite and considered him. “The reason my friend came to me is because he needs you to die publicly and he can’t match you. He’s been saving you for me, a gift if you will, and tonight’s the finale.”
Lucifer didn’t blink his soulless eyes. He was like a snake, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
“Word on the street is that you’re going soft, Gavin. You step down as crime lord for some woman and now the city is in shambles. Every enemy you ever made is here tonight to watch you lose your throne.”
“What do you want, Lucifer?” Gavin asked.
“I told you, a fair fight.”
“That isn’t it.” He was certain of it.
Lucifer loved games, especially one with high stakes. It was no coincidence that Lucifer called him before Lyla was brought into the Pit. Lucifer wanted something bad enough to double-cross his friend.
Lucifer spread his hands. “What else could I possibly want?”
Gavin had no fucking clue what a man like Lucifer could want from him. “You tell me.”
Lucifer said nothing for a long minute. In the Pit, there was the sound of a cracking whip and a piercing scream.
“You and I both know there’s very little in life that interests me,” Lucifer drawled. “Everything is so fleeting.” He gestured to the TV screen as a whip sliced another’s face open. “Tonight, I would enjoy my friend’s show and I could fight you, but then it’s over like that.” He snapped his fingers. “And then I’m bored again.”
It took every ounce of Gavin’s control not to grab Lucifer by the throat and throttle him. Gavin didn’t have time for Lucifer’s sociopathic ramblings, but he held all the cards. Lucifer held the key to two things Gavin needed: Lyla and the Phantom’s identity. Fuck.
“I’m looking for an arrangement with more longevity,” Lucifer said.
Gavin ignored the chill that ran down his spine. “Which is?”
“I’ve always had a soft spot for you, Gavin. We have a lot in common. We were both raised in Hell. You part time, of course. I can’t deny that I’m happy to see you home. This is where you belong.”
There was no point in arguing with Lucifer so he said nothing. Angel and Blade were very still on either side of him. They were all waiting for the axe to fall.
“I call you into Hell and you walk in as if you own the place in a fucking suit, knowing that alone is enough to make men want your head,” Lucifer grinned. “Fuck. I have your wife, your Achilles heel, and you come in stone cold. He wanted you on your knees, but you’ll never give in.” Lucifer shook his head. “Fuck, Gavin, I’ve missed sparring with you.”
“What do you want, Lucifer?”
“What do you think about being my sidekick?”
Gavin’s beast slipped the chain. He leaned forward. Wood crackled beneath his hands as he sank brass knuckles an inch into the table. “Not gonna happen. What do you want, Lucif
er?”
Lucifer drummed his fingers. “For starters, I want a good show.”
“A good show,” Gavin repeated flatly. Lucifer’s idea of a show was to watch someone dismember a body piece by piece.
“My friend and I go way back,” Lucifer drawled. “Not as far back as you and I, but still... He keeps in touch and brings me gifts, unlike you.”
Gavin couldn’t imagine what kind of ‘gifts’ Lucifer enjoyed. Lucifer had been born in Hell and had seen and done things that made Gavin’s stomach churn.
Blade stepped forward. “You want a show?”
Lucifer’s eyes glinted with bloodlust. “Always.”
“Then we’ll give you one,” Blade decreed. “All of us will fight.”
Lucifer eyed them each in turn, weighing what he knew of their combat skills.
“I want more,” Lucifer said and his focus shifted back to Gavin. “Why did you stop coming to Hell?”
“What?”
“You used to come once a month. You took on as many men as you could in an hour and then left, calm as you please. Then one night you show up, challenge me, beat me, don’t kill me and never return. What changed?”
Lucifer may not have normal emotions like compassion or fear, but he possessed a healthy dose of curiosity. Although Lucifer wore an indifferent expression, his eyes were intent.
“I found a reason to live.” Like the women he used, Hell was another outlet. When Lyla left, it changed everything. He didn’t realize he loved her until she disappeared. Finding out what happened to her became an obsession, a drive that overrode his destructive demon. The fight with Lucifer was the last time he indulged himself and then he went cold until he got her back.
Lucifer’s lip curled into a sneer. “And you live for your wife?”
Blade shifted. “Lyla’s special.”
“There’s no such thing as a special woman.”
“You must have heard about her body count. It’s pretty impressive.”
Lucifer waved a hand. “She ran over some guys with a car and shot a couple of morons. Big deal.”
“She killed her father.”
Lucifer’s attention sharpened. “Her father?”
His sudden interest made Gavin tense. Blade was trying to negotiate for Lyla’s life by playing on Lucifer’s fondness for the violently unique, but Gavin had a feeling this could backfire in a bad way.