Page 20 of A Love So Deadly (Kissed by Darkness #1)

Chapter

Seventeen

Elliot

T his time of year blows. Rain and muggy warmth.

Part of me expected Lucian to chase after me that night or try to contact me after.

He hasn’t.

It’s foolish of me to think he cared for me at all, but I still hoped…

Stupid.

Nell’s words run through my head. I’d be lying if I should I wasn’t a bit jealous that she got to spend so much time with Lucian. As lovers and then as friends. But that’s stupid of me to think, too.

She had told me about her final request, the one where she wanted Lucian to end her life.

That isn’t why I ran.

The thought of him drinking her blood didn’t even turn my stomach. On a base level, I understand it. I get what he is. What his nature dictates he is. It was her dying wish, one he chose to burdened himself with it to relieve her. It clearly hurt him to do it.

But no, none of that is why I ran.

I ran because I needed to separate myself from Lucian. It’s the only way I can do what I do best. Be a pain in the ass and investigate.

Being at VMR, being with Lucian, is too distracting. My head is too hazed, my focus on Kayla and how he makes me feel, but it was time to switch directions.

It took some time and a lot of prying, but I got what I needed. I found Vinnie’s headquarters, a god-awful, sleezy nightclub located in a not-so-great part of the city. And tonight, I’m doing some undercover research.

The club Vinnie the snakes owns matches his aesthetic perfectly. Oily, shadowy, and doused in too much cologne.

I don’t know what business VMR have with Vinnie or Benicio, if it’s clean or criminal, but the fact that Lucian turned down Benicio who effectively murdered his ‘gran,’ makes me lean toward the illegal kind. No one’s going to off someone simply because of a lost business deal.

What I learned about Vinnie is mostly typical weaselly criminal kind of stuff. He’s trying to fill the pockets of others so he can stay out of prison, and he’s in a deadly amount of debt.

But Vinnie fucked up recently because, in his lust to drive up the price, the deal between Benicio and Lucian went south—I was there at the party for that—and he had already passed along information about Nell to Benicio.

She was only meant to be a threat, but Benicio took it too far. He hadn’t expected Lucian to turn down his offer and took the rejection personally.

Since Nell’s death, Lucian hasn’t bothered coming after Vinnie. He must know about Vinnie’s part in this, but according to a bartender who gets to hear all of Vinnie’s drunken rants, he thinks he’s been let off, scot-free. He stopped making payments.

The man’s an oily fool.

I don’t have to be a vampire to know he’s scared of his own shadow. Even time someone walks through the door, he jumps up from his corner table, like he’s about to run. The only thing that’s been keeping him from crawling out of his own skin is the shots he keeps downing.

But there’s more. And this, I don’t think Lucian knows yet, otherwise there’s be no doubt in my mind that this place would’ve been painted with Vinnie’s blood already.

According to a former waitress that I met with last night, Vinnie owed Benicio. Big time. So Benicio called in a favor, one that would erase his debts and make them square.

Vinnie had to hurt Nell.

That last part was revealed to me by Nell herself. She told me that when we talked alone. She had described Vinnie perfectly and said the man kept apologizing as he beat her, said he owed Benicio. And well, it doesn’t take a genius to know why Nell didn’t tell Lucian that bit of information.

She loved him.

The club’s door opens and the man I’ve been expecting comes in.

I’m wearing a cap, drinking a beer, and wearing an oversize hoodie.

He walks in like he owns the place and joins Vinnie, right where I can hear them.

They’re not big on keeping it down. After all, men who think they’re untouchable never see reason for hiding.

My blood starts to run cold as they talk, and I make notes on my phone.

It’s not much to put anyone in the line of the law, perhaps. Then again, I’m not looking to do that.

After about an hour, the two men get up to leave. I leave a fifty on the bar and follow Benicio and Vinnie outside. Pulling my hood up, I duck into a dark doorway that’s far enough away to stay out of sight but close enough to still hear their voices on the breeze.

“Warehouse Nine?”

“Mr. Vale’s on his way now,” Vinnie says. “I’ve got it all under control.”

My heart squeezes hard as panic flashes through me. They’re planning something with Lucian. And from the evil grin on Benicio’s face, they’re not inviting him to tea and cookies.

“Go and meet him, asshole. You’re meant to be doing a fucking deal.” That’s Benicio. “Don’t fuck this up. We’re only going to have one chance and VMR needs to fall.”

I wait a beat, and Benicio steps into a black SUV, and then Vinnie flags a cab.

Shit. I shouldn’t be getting involved in this, but Benicio’s words “VMR needs to fall” streaks worry through me. VMR is too much of a powerhouse. The only way for it to fall is if Lucian and maybe some of the other higherups are taken out.

Is that what he means? Is this meet up at the warehouse some kind of trap?

I have to warn Lucian.

When the crime bosses drive away, I run down two blocks and find a parked car with an Uber sticker on the window. I knock, and when the driver rolls down the window, he’s holding a sloppy sub sandwich like I had disturbed his dinner mid-bite.

I pull out a wad of twenties from my pocket and shove it at him. “Hey, sorry, but do you know where Warehouse Nine is?”

It’s quiet when I walk up.

I’m not an idiot. I got out a few streets away from the warehouse, and at first, I think the driver got the address wrong because he left me at the docks where most of the warehouses have been long abandoned, a shell of their glory days during the industrial revolution over a hundred years ago.

But then I spy the weather-worn sign on the building and a few high-end cars in the lot.

The entire drive here I tried to get ahold of Lucian. I called the number he’d given me when I was first hired, but he didn’t pick up. After maybe a dozen times, I give up and try text.

Lucy, pick up.

Nothing.

I text again.

It’s me. Elliot.

I try one more time.

You’re in danger, asshole.

Still not a thing.

He’s a vampire. He should be able to handle himself. The man’s damn near immortal, right? Right? I don’t really know if there is a way to kill his kind—he didn’t get to tell me the ins and outs of his life—but I don’t know what Benicio has planned and it’s not a risk I’m willing to take.

I want to just warn him, tell him what I found out, and then he can rain hell on Vinnie and Benicio however he wants. I don’t need to be around for that part. Hell, Lucian won’t have to see me ever again after this.

As I settle behind a pile of pallets, out of sight, an overhead door rolls up, and in the pools of darkness, a tall figure walks in and my heart goes crazy.

Lucian.

Where are his people? His vampire hordes? Vittoria? Surely he’s not this stupid. Is he?

He walks further inside and passes a doorway into another room.

On light feet, I hurry to follow. The room beyond is one open space with the remains of old textile machinery and piles of dust-covered rugs and big spools of thread.

Lucian has disappeared from sight, but I can feel him here, that indefinable thing. But he’s seemed to poof into thin air.

I’m in over my head. He’s a vampire. His senses are much sharper than mine. He should be able to handle two human thugs.

Then why is my pulse thundering in my ears? I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Really bad.

“Calm down,” I whisper under my breath, edging my way around, sticking to the darkest places. In the back, something moves. There’s another section to the warehouse, and I cross to it.

I see him. Lucian’s talking with Vinnie, shaking hands. But as Vinnie turns and walks off, a shadow moves at the top of the metal staircase. There’s a glint of metal.

It’s Benicio. He’s got a gun, and it’s aimed for Lucian.

I don’t think. “Lucy!”

He spins and sees me.His eyes widen in shock and fear. “Elliot?”

It’s a trap! I want to say, but I’m already running to him.

Benicio’s yells something and Lucian’s head snaps up, but before I can reach him, there’s a loud popping sound followed by a white-hot pain that sears into my chest. I’m knocked sideways, losing my balancing, and hitting the floor in a hard roll. Pain explodes everywhere.

The gun… I’ve…I’ve been shot.

The world is slow motion around me. I try to move, but my limbs are too heavy.Warmth spreads across my shirt, my sweatshirt. Blood. There’s so much of it. And all I can see from my place on the ground is black polished shoes rushing for me, but my vision is quickly darkening around the edges.

Lucian shouts, but there’s a ringing in my ears. It drowns out all other sound.

The last thing I see is Lucian’s pale, beautiful face looming over me, his fangs bared, before I’m sucked into infinite darkness.