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I was never one to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I always had my fangs proudly on display. It never stopped foolish little lambs from coming closer. They seemed to like it when I made them bleed.

“No, it was good. So good that I knew it wasn’t all an act. If Calista really wanted to leave me, you’d help her. Wouldn’t you, Jinx?”

I felt her pulse jump beneath her skin. She looked at me in equal parts fear and surprise. “No, I would never do that.”

“Just like you swore you were reporting back everything that happened at Tito’s?”

She shook her head back and forth, denying the obvious right to my face. I turned her around, bringing her back flush with my chest, and settled my hands on her shoulders.

“Let me guess, you were so busy protecting her, you forgot to tell me that the woman I’d been searching for shared a room with you. Am I correct?”

“I didn’t––”

“You did know.” I cut her off, and took hold of her head.

“Romero,” she started to plead, but I didn’t need to hear anything she had to say.

I snapped her fucking neck before she could lie to me again. I wanted to tear her apart and remove her vocal cords, but I didn’t have time—Cali would be up soon.

“Well, thank fuck that’s done,” Grimm commented, stroking his beard.

“I should have killed her ass long ago.”

I’d sent her into a large group of outliers under an alias, and she’d intentionally failed. Now, she was just another body in my cleaning house regimen.

I could have men do my dirty work for me, but half the respect I got was for doing shit myself. I needed to kill. I needed to hear the screams and hopeless pleas when I tortured.

I needed to see the blood and feel the hearts struggle to continue beating as I took a life away. Looking into someone’s eyes as they died was like drinking a warm glass of milk before bed, or a good fuck.

“What do we do with the bodies?” Grimm asked.

“That one can go in a dumpster.” I pointed to the toothless blonde. “I told Luther he could have Janice for Annie. I’ll stuff her ass in one of the double-loaders for now.”

“Look at you, being creative.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

He laughed as I grabbed Janice by her hair and dragged her towards the washing machines. It only took a few minutes to get the traitorous bitch inside, though she had to be bent into an unnatural shape to fit. Her elbow had popped all the way through her skin by time I finished, clacking against the glass door when I slammed it shut.

I left Grimm with instructions to get Arlen ready, and slipped back into the room. She lay in bed, naked, completely defenseless, trusting that the devil she allowed to ease his demons between her legs wouldn’t kill her while she slept.

She was even more gorgeous like this. I could slit her throat and her pretty blue eyes would fly open in confusion as the blood streamed down onto the sheets. I could tie her up and take my time removing every one of her soft limbs piece by piece.

I was going to punish David by taking the life away from his one and only sick, twisted vice. But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. I could never hurt her or take her life without taking my own. Cali was my perfect disease–I craved the sickness in her like I needed air to breathe.

I never intended to keep her.

Then, she looked at me and changed everything.

She tilted my entire world on its axis. Now, it was time to rule that world together.

I was king of an empire for the damned and Cali was going to stand by my side like the motherfucking queen she was.

We were going to be legends, a tale of two gods who let their demons reign free. Chaos, anarchy, bloodshed…it would all be right in our backyard.

I could never give her heaven, so it was a damn good thing she coveted hell.

CHAPTER NINETEEN