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ADRIAN

“ E veryone has skeletons in their closets, Adrian. These are mine.” Marisela lifted a nonchalant shoulder as my eyes bounced from the pile of mummified bodies stuffed behind a faux wall in the basement back to the smug expression on her face.

Didn’t know how we’d missed them in the initial sweep of the house; then again, I’d lived here my entire life without knowing about the tunnels.

“Yours are a lot…” I muttered under my breath, struggling to find the right word as the odor of decomposition burned my nostrils and stung the corners of my eyes. “…fresher.”

Or less fresh? Wasn’t sure if we were referencing skeletons or patients at the moment.

“Don’t have the stomach for it, Doc?” she challenged. “And here I thought you’d be used to the smell by now.”

“Wouldn’t be very good at what I do if the bodies on my table ended up like… that, now would I?” I fired back, throwing out an arm towards a face I couldn’t recognize beneath the liquified organs and leathering skin.

Marisela crossed her arms over her chest, her manicured fingertips tapping against an elbow. “You said you wanted to know everything. Meet everything.”

“Does everything have a name?” I grunted in reply.

“Several.” She nodded, swinging a hand out to point at each lump of bone and flesh as she listed them off one by one.

“Bernard Stevens, my assistant found out he was skimming off the top. It’s funny how men think you’re willing to fuck them even after they’ve admitted to stealing from you.

Didn’t even question why I was leading him into the basement.

And that pile there? That’s Javier Castillo—what’s left of him anyway.

Unfortunately, you were right. Javi got a little handsy after writing me that check.

But don’t you worry. I made sure it cleared first.”

“Do I even want to know how you got those through customs?” I dipped my chin towards the humerus bones I now knew were imported from Spain.

“I know a guy.”

“Of course you do,” I muttered, as she stepped closer to the corpse tucked all the way in the back of the alcove and I flicked a flashlight at its head.

“Oh, and you should remember him . Adrian Lambert, I’d like to reacquaint you with my father, Hernando Alonzo Cruz.

” She reached over, grabbing the skull by a tuft of hair, and lifted it off the ground.

“Don’t be rude, Papa. Say hello to Adrian.

” She released him with a thud against the concrete, and I watched another layer of decayed epidermis tissue slip free and slide off his zygomatic bone.

“Papa was a little harder to convince, but a quick shove down the stairs and he didn’t even know what hit him—it was the concrete.

” She grinned. Following it up with a huff.

“I didn’t get anything for that one. Fucker didn’t name me in the will. Felt good anyway…”

“You can’t leave a bunch of bodies to sit here and rot under your house, Marisela.” I lifted the heel of my palm to my right eye to trigger my oculocardiac reflex and hopefully reduce some of the stress building at the bridge of my nose.

“Wasn’t my plan.” She shrugged. “But my plans changed, as you can see.”

“Can’t have your name tied to a bunch of missing people either.” I shook my head. I wasn’t judging her actions. I didn’t care who met the other side of her blade—I could just make out the multiple knife-sized puncture wounds. It was her methods that gave me pause.

“Hundreds of people are reported missing in this city every year,” she replied while eyeing her nails.

“Yeah, and how many of those reports are connected to you?”

Another shrug. “At least three.”

“Fucking hell.” I could feel my eye twitching. That was what this woman did to me. She made my eye twitch. “I’ll send my guys to take care of it.”

“I don’t recall asking for your help.” She turned on a heel, limping towards the stairs. “Or your services,” she called out over a shoulder, and I grabbed her wrist to stop her.

“Too bad. You’re getting it anyway.” I tugged her to my chest until my chin was resting on the top of her head and quickly inhaled the scent of her shampoo in place of the decay. I much preferred one over the other.

I didn’t have a sensitive stomach. What I did have was an appreciation for a sterile work environment. Which meant I was crawling out of my skin as I peeled my shirt off my back and stepped into the shower for the second time in a few hours.

Death could literally seep into your pores.

The enzymatic degradation infiltrating the mucous membrane of your nasal cavity so that decay clung to the tiny hairs inside your nose for days.

Like a phantom odor you couldn’t stop smelling.

And I didn’t need another reminder of what I’d seen in that basement.

Fresh bodies, blood never bothered me. There was plenty I could do with them. So much I could use. Alter and create. Those rotten piles of meat were far beyond that.

Now they were just another problem.

I finished rinsing off. Stepped out of the shower and wrapped a large white towel around my waist before returning to the bedroom, where my girl was spread out on the covers with a book in her hand and nothing but a robe covering her.

I walked to the footboard, dropped the towel, and climbed onto the mattress so that I was positioned between her thighs.

Hooking my arms under her legs and tugging her bare pussy closer to my face.

That first lap of my tongue had me forgetting all about the basement, all about whatever forces had tried their damnedest to keep us apart over the years. It also had Marisela dropping her book.

I pulled back to look at her. “Don’t let me interrupt you.

” I grinned while dipping my chin towards the title on the spine that told me my girl was reading smut.

“I don’t mind a little friendly competition, princess.

In fact, let’s see who can keep you more entertained.

Me or whatever six-foot werewolf mafia Don had you so engrossed you forgot to join me in the shower. ”

Marisela glanced in my direction before swiping up her book and returning her focus to the pages. “You told me not to get it wet.”

“You’re right. I did.” I lowered my mouth to her cunt again while breathing in my favorite scent. “Because that’s my job.”

And then my face was back where it belonged as I gorged myself on pussy juice and precum. My precum. The trail I’d left on her skin after I’d finished fucking her a few hours ago.