Of course I didn’t have keys. He knew that.
But he didn’t know that I had three very scary guys shadowing my every step.
:This is our purpose.: Baron’s graveled voice rumbled with a blood-thirsty pleasure. :It’s time to take out the trash.:
“It’s a pretty evening for a walk.” Officer Coleman fell into step beside me, oblivious to the hoodie skull hovering over his shoulder.
Cross stepped closer to me, his size and strength against my right side comforting me.
:When he touches you, he’s dead,: Baron growled.
My heart skipped a beat and then burst into frantic pounding. :It’s broad daylight. There’s cameras on the streets.:
:Doesn’t matter.: Cross slipped his arm around my waist, tucking me against him without making me miss a step. :Our power obscures and warps such technology.:
:Even for me?:
:You’re one of us now.:
I made the appropriate sighs and uh-huhs as Officer Coleman talked. I didn’t even try to follow along. Nothing he said mattered to me.
I could only imagine how many young, vulnerable women he’d done this to. How many women had trusted him because of his badge and his helpful smile?
:I read seven rapes in his past,: Cross replied, his voice quivering with rage.
My rage. I could feel my fury bubbling up inside me like a volcano. On the outside, I seemed normal and unaffected by the serial rapist blatantly targeting me, but on the inside…
I burned with the fiery fury of countless women who were done being told to smile by men they didn’t know. Who were afraid to be rude to a man because of what he might do. Or worse, who’d trusted someone—like a husband or police officer—and paid for that mistake with their lives.
Like me.
All that emotion rose, swirling up out of me like the smoke I’d smelled last night as Cross had hovered over me. They breathed in my fury and the sky darkened. The wind picked up. A sudden storm threatened on the horizon, black clouds boiling with thunder and lightning.
A side alley opened up on my right. Officer Coleman suddenly shoved me into that darkness. He intended to slam me face first up against the dirty, crumbling brick, but Cross had me in his arms. He turned me so I could see as vengeance came for my would-be rapist.
Cem wrapped a fist around the officer’s throat. A long silver knife flashed in Coleman’s right hand. The sick eagerness in his eyes faded to confusion and then anger. He couldn’t see the hand holding him in place. He certainly didn’t see Baron rising up over his back, skull face leering a terrible smile of glee as he wrapped his hand around Coleman’s.
Baron met my gaze, stretching the officer’s arm out to the side. “So he dies.”
He drove the man’s own blade deep into his upper thigh. Blood spurted immediately in a raging fountain. So much blood. I thought it would make me woozy or ill. We were killing a man.
A man who’d hurt at least seven other women. I could hear their screams and sobs of pain echoing in the shadows about him. Shuddering, I pressed harder into Cross’s arms, but I watched the man die, twitching in Cem’s unrelenting grip. For them, the women he’d hurt, I had to see it all the way to the end.
Baron picked up the limp body and tossed it into a dumpster. Literally taking out the trash.
It only took a few minutes start to finish. The black storm clouds dissolved. The wind died down, though I could still smell the promise of ozone in the air.
No, that was Baron’s scent as he came closer, mixing with Cross’s spicy smoke. It felt nice in his embrace. Comforting. Safe in a way I’d never felt before. Who’d fuck with these three guys to ever hurt me again?
“That’s it?” I asked softly, searching Baron’s face. “That’s what you do?”
He nodded. “We hunt for the scumbags in our city, but our powers are limited unless we find a conduit like you. Now, we can appear physically if we wish. Our powers are nearly infinite.”
I could deal with that. In fact, it sounded pretty fucking great. If I could stop a guy like Coleman from ever hurting another woman, then it was worth enduring what Michael had done to me. Though I still wasn’t completely sure if I could commit myself—possibly for an eternity—to this new existence.
I could forgive Cross for the pain he’d given me last night as he embedded his symbol in my arm. He’d been right. I’d needed that physical sign today to know that I wasn’t just hallucinating. They were real, even if only I could see them.
I could certainly forgive Baron for murdering a man like Coleman.
Bracing myself, I met Cem’s dark gaze. The silent man at the door had spoken to a little girl and made her scream. Granted, the kid had been a brat and made a lot of extra work for me, but I didn’t like the idea of terrifying innocent kids, even if their mother was a bitch who didn’t tip and had been rude to me.
I opened my mouth to ask what he’d said to her, and a door swept open in my head. A memory that I’d forgotten, or simply buried deeply in the recesses of my mind.
I’d been six years old, skipping alongside Grandma Jenny’s side holding her hand as we walked home from the circus. My face was sticky with cotton candy and I still clutched a partially eaten stick of pink gooey sugar in my free hand. The sidewalk was old and rough, patches broken up and dislodged by giant tree roots. Two grand old trees grew on either side of the gate we passed, their limbs heavy with moss.
The iron gate stood open. Old gravestones dotted the ground inside, dappled in sunshine and shadows. A cemetery.
A crow cawed, drawing my attention from my cotton candy to the man at the gate. Dressed in black. Tall and grim and silent. He leaned down toward me as I walked by, and his eyes glittered like black coins.
He’d whispered something to me.
Something awful. Something that had made me cry and given me nightmares for weeks. Until I’d finally managed to convince myself the whole thing had just been one long, bad dream.
“I stand at the gate waiting for you.”
Blinking back tears, I searched Cem’s face. “Was that you? At the graveyard?”
His head tipped like the crow’s, his eyes shining despite their darkness. “Not me exactly, but yes. An aspect of me.”
“Cem. Cemetery.”
Inclining his head, he swept low in a formal, old-fashioned bow. “Baron Cimetière to be exact.”
“Baron La Croix,” Cross said. “At your service, sweetheart.”
“But if you’re all barons, why is that your name?” I asked Baron, the man in the hoodie.
“My aspect combines many of the Guèdè,” Baron replied. “Though Baron Kriminel primarily.” He waggled his eyebrows as if that name should mean something to me. When I failed to react, he sighed heavily and tucked my arm in his. “The first murderer.”
“Ah. It suits you.” As soon as I said it, I clapped a hand over my mouth, appalled at myself. I was making jokes with a murderer. With a voodoo… Guèdè. Whatever that was.
But it felt… right. Strange, but right. This was me. The me who didn’t have to smile at an asshole that might try to rape me if I refused him. Or a customer who’d try to get me fired and deny me even a modest tip after I’d served them. I’d been Michael’s abused wife for so long…
I didn’t remember what it felt like to be… me.
But I liked it. A lot.
Or maybe that was just the barons’ power flowing over me. I could feel dark shadows swirling around us as we walked. Tendrils of malevolence reaching out into the city, searching for our next prey.
Actually, I knew exactly where to go. Even better, the barons didn’t have to ask me where we were going or who was next.
I couldn’t wait to see Michael’s face when he saw me alive and well.
About Joely Sue Burkhart
Joely Sue Burkhart has always loved heroes who hide behind a mask, the darker and more dangerous the better. Whether cool, sophisticated billionaire, brutal bloodthirsty assassin, or simply a man tortured by his o
wn needs, they all wear masks to protect themselves. Once they finally give you a peek into the passionate, twisted secrets they’re hiding, they always fall hard and fast. Dare to look beneath the mask and find love in the shadows.
Read more from Joely Sue Burkhart and sign up for her newsletter.
Tormented: A Bully Romance Anthology Page 29