Page 23 of Wreaking Havoc (Demon Bound #1)

22

Sascha

S ascha kept his eyes closed tight, using all his inner strength to keep his breaths steady and even, to not let a whimper or yelp escape his lips.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Kai to keep him safe—Sascha trusted him with every ounce of his being—but the familiar sounds of violence still put him on edge.

Luckily, his demon seemed to be efficient—any screams were brief, and there was not even one word of begging to set off Sascha’s horrible memories.

These are bad men , he reminded himself. Evil men.

But it didn’t matter the justification. It didn’t matter what they’d planned to do, or the fact that this one over-the-top act would act as a deterrent against a longer, more brutal mob war between the two families.

Sascha was never going to like violence. He was never going to revel in other men’s lives being taken. It wasn’t in his nature. He let the anger that had built within him for years dissolve with every second that passed.

After not too long at all, there was silence. Sascha swallowed hard. “Can I open my eyes yet?”

Kai’s hand landed on his arm with reassuring warmth. “Not yet, zaychik.”

There was more silence, and then a startled, squeaky yelp, followed by Kai murmuring, “What do we have here, then?”

Had Kai missed one?

Despite his curiosity, Sascha kept his eyes shut tight. Eventually a firm, warm weight landed on his shoulder, a familiar smoky scent surrounding him.

Kai.

“I’m going to turn you to the wall, zaychik,” Kai murmured softly. “You’ll keep your eyes there. No looking around.”

“Bossy,” Sascha chided, even as he let himself be pivoted.

But Kai wasn’t accepting half answers. “You’ll keep your eyes where I tell you, yes?”

Sascha huffed. “Yes, yes.” While he had no objections to the way Kai bridal-carried him whenever Sascha pulled off the damsel act, he didn’t actually feel like fainting today.

“I have a surprise for you,” Kai told him, an alarming amount of mischievous glee in his voice.

“If I open my eyes to you holding up a severed head, I swear to God—”

There was that startled squeak again.

Unable to hold in his curiosity any more, Sascha opened his eyes.

Huh.

Kai—looking for all the world like an owner wrangling a wayward pup—was holding a boy by his shirt collar,

Or not a boy. A young man? Probably early twenties, but it was hard to tell. He was short and way too thin, small by anyone’s standards but even more so compared to Kai’s massive size.

His dark hair was shorn close to his scalp like the other Mafia drones, but where on them it had looked vaguely intimidating, on him—with his enormous dark eyes and dazed expression, visibly shaking in Kai’s hold—it reminded Sascha more than anything of a fuzzy baby chick.

“Who—?” Sascha started to ask.

But Kai interrupted, grinning smugly, shaking the guy lightly. “You wanted a friend, zaychik. I told you I’d procure one for you.”

There was so much wrong with that statement that Sascha didn’t even know where to begin.

But then Kai’s captive spoke for the first time. “Y-You’re not going to kill me?” he asked, wide eyes darting between them.

Kai made a disgusted noise. “Why would we?”

“Because you killed all of them?” the guy pointed out, not unreasonably. “And Mr. Caruso, he’s m-m-my—”

“Boss?” Sascha guessed, after it didn’t seem like Kai’s captive would finish.

The little chick shook his head furiously. “Stepdad,” he corrected.

Sascha didn’t remember hearing that Luca Caruso was married. “What about your mom?” he asked.

The chick shook his head again.

“Well then, um, I guess Mr. Caruso was your stepdad?” Jesus, what was Sascha supposed to say here? Your father figure was an evil dick and we had to do away with him ? He didn’t have any experience with this. Papa had died suddenly of an aneurysm, no Mafia violence required. “ Are you going to want vengeance or something?” he asked.

That brought out a low growl from Kai.

The little chick gave another terrified squeak, staring at Kai like he was the devil incarnate. As far as this poor guy was concerned, he probably was. “N-No!” He looked over Sascha’s shoulder at something, his voice taking on a firmer note. “ No. But…” To Sascha’s horror, tears filled his big brown eyes. “They all know I was here, and now… They’ll come for me. They’ll kill me. I have nowhere to go. No one to help. You should just kill me now and get it over with.” He closed his eyes tight, like he was already waiting for the fatal blow.

And here Sascha had thought he was the one with all the Mafia dad trauma.

He supposed he had to be the grown-up in this situation. “Did you have anything to do with this trafficking plan?” he asked.

The guy opened his eyes the tiniest bit, shaking his head warily. “But I didn’t—I couldn’t—couldn’t stop it.”

Well, then. Sascha knew a little bit about feeling powerless in the face of mean men with big guns.

“I don’t smell any soul rot on him,” Kai pointed out gruffly.

Sascha honestly wasn’t sure what that meant, other than Kai hadn’t deemed this guy evil enough to do away with.

“No one’s killing you,” Sascha said, gently as he could. He could feel the swell of another massively impulsive decision bubbling out of his chest. “You can come with us,” he offered before he could stop himself. “The house is definitely big enough. No one will think to come for you there. What’s your name?”

The little chick opened his watery eyes more fully. “Matteo.”

“All right, Matteo. How do you feel about Maine?”

Kai grinned, looking all smug again. “See? All settled.” He let go of the little chick’s collar and gave him a push. “Go wait outside now.”’

Sascha wasn’t so sure about “settled.” Matteo hadn’t even technically agreed. But it seemed like they were going to be adding kidnapping to their list of charges today, because they sure as hell couldn’t leave him here.

Matteo scuttled out of the warehouse obligingly—presumably not running away, but who the hell knew—leaving Sascha to assess Kai. He must have worked his demon magic, because there wasn’t even a spot of blood on him.

“Did I do well?” Kai asked, a smirk on his lips.

Arrogant bastard.

“The vanquishing of my enemies, or the extremely traumatized boy you just foisted on us?” Sascha asked.

“Both.”

“You know that’s not how human friendships work?”

Kai gestured to the warehouse behind them. “Shall we leave him here, then?”

“What?” Sascha asked, startled. “ No . We just took out nine men and left him the only survivor. And if he really doesn’t have anyone…” He shook his head. “We’re taking him with us.”

Kai caressed his cheek with a talon, his smirk turning into a tender smile. “My sweet Sascha,” he murmured.

“I’m not being sweet ,” Sascha told him haughtily. “I’m being impulsive. It’s different.”

“Of course.” Kai leaned in for a kiss but stopped halfway there. He grabbed Sascha’s hand, sticking Sascha’s pinky finger in his mouth instead.

“Um…”

Was Kai really trying to start hanky-panky in the middle of their murder zone?

But he only sucked once perfunctorily, then dropped Sascha’s hand. Sascha realized—he must have had a drop of blood on his finger. Kai had been making sure he didn’t see it.

It was too much. Kai had just taken care of the threat against Sascha—the threat that had hounded him for months—with complete ease, lending Sascha his strength and his power and asking for nothing in return but Sascha’s affection. Finding what he believed—in his misguided way—was a new friend for him in the process. And now he was treating Sascha with such delicate care, no matter the corpses waiting behind them.

“I love you,” Sascha blurted out, horrified at himself but unable to stop the words. “I know we haven’t known each other very long and it’s too soon to say, but I do.”

Kai cocked his head. “We’re already bonded for eternity, but you’re worried it’s too soon to say those words?”

“Yes?”

“Sweet Sascha,” Kai crooned.

“Now you say it back,” Sascha told him.

Kai laughed, grabbing Sascha’s hand and leading him to the front doors of the warehouse. “Humans are so strange.”

“Yeah, but now you say it.”

“So very strange,” Kai mused.

“Kai. Now you say it.”

Walking into Ivan’s office building felt different this time. Sascha felt different.

Even without backup, Sascha only gave the guard a little ironic salute before making his way to the elevators, ignoring his huffing protest.

It hadn’t been as difficult as he’d thought it would be to convince Kai to stay in the car. That could have been because they had Matteo there as well, and Kai thought he needed more babysitting than Sascha. Or, more likely, it was Kai’s faith in Sascha’s new, convenient imperviousness to harm.

Which, actually, Sascha should at some point get the details of. But it didn’t seem incredibly urgent at the moment. It wasn’t like he was going to be throwing himself off a building to test it anytime soon.

He found Ivan sitting predictably in his desk chair, looking a bit more put together than their last meeting—his shirt was buttoned, his tie in an immaculate knot, his hair neat as ever. Except…

“Is that a hickey on your neck?” Sascha asked in disbelief, flopping down in the seat across from him.

It wasn’t like Sascha thought Ivan didn’t get laid—he’d seen him canoodling one too many times with the tacky, brash women who frequented their family’s clubs to be under that impression—but Ivan had never let them leave marks before.

Sascha wasn’t even sure Ivan let them kiss him on the mouth, for that matter. He was half-convinced his older brother had some sort of Pretty Woman agreement with his conquests.

But it didn’t seem like any answers were going to be forthcoming, since Ivan only glared at him, holding out a hand. “The Book?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Sascha handed it over, trying and failing not to stare at the conspicuous hickey-shaped bruise on Ivan’s neck, just above his shirt collar.

“You’ve done it, then?” Ivan asked, after tucking the Book safely away in his desk drawer.

“The Carusos are taken care of,” Sascha told him. “You’re very welcome, by the way. I’m sure the family will be scrambling for some time to get new leadership established.”

Ivan waved a hand. “Not that. The bond. You’ve done it?”

Sascha tried to hide his surprise that Ivan was asking a personal question over business. “I have.”

Ivan only nodded, looking distracted.

“And we maybe picked up a stray,” Sascha mumbled, hoping Ivan’s new chill would extend to kidnapped Mafia members.

Ivan gave him a sharp glance. So maybe not. “What the fuck does that mean?”

“Do you know anything about Matteo Caruso?”

“Enough to know he’s not a Caruso by blood.” When Sascha made a go on gesture with his hand, Ivan tipped his head back against his chair, gazing up at the ceiling. “Let’s see. Luca Caruso’s stepchild from a since-dissolved marriage. He was being raised to be a successor, then next I heard, he was the family’s whipping boy. Possibly literally.”

Sascha flinched. Fuck. If he’d been having any second guesses about his course of action, that did away with all of them. “We’re offering him sanctuary,” he told Ivan firmly.

He was proud of himself for coming up with something that sounded like official Mafia speak. Better than, We’ve semi-kidnapped him because he looked too emotionally wounded to be let out into the real world.

He raised a brow at Ivan. “Is that going to be problem?”

Ivan was still staring at the ceiling. “They’ll think he’s on the run, I’m sure. And a rival family wouldn’t be anyone’s first guess.” He waved a hand again. “You should be fine.”

“Well…good,” Sascha said slowly, a little concerned by the lack of pushback.

“I have a club for you,” Ivan told him abruptly. “One that’s clean. You should be able to manage the back end of things remotely. If you do well, we can add on others.” He lowered his gaze to meet Sascha’s eyes again. “You’ll need to make visits every now and again.”

“That’s fine. I can show Kai more of New York.”

Ivan’s lips twitched. “Yes, play tourist with your demon husband. That’s exactly what I meant.”

Sascha held back his eye roll. “Anything else?”

Ivan’s fingers tapped on the desk in a steady rhythm. “Your demon is going to need paperwork to exist in the modern world. Identification at the very least.”

“I guess so.” That wasn’t something Sascha had thought much about. Those were the types of things that were just…taken care of in his life.

“I can have Cooper arrange it,” Ivan offered.

Sascha knew his brother well enough to recognize the offer for what it was: the closest thing to an olive branch he was ever going to get.

“Thank you,” he said, meaning it. He looked around for the first time. “Where’s your demon?”

Ivan’s tapping stopped abruptly. “My apartment,” he answered shortly.

“And are you going to be…okay with all that?”

Anything that could have been construed as warmth in Ivan’s expression dissipated immediately. “Everything is under control,” he said tightly.

“I meant what I said yesterday,” Sascha told him, a little concerned by what—for Ivan—might as well have been a whiplash of conflicting emotions. “You can come visit if you want a break from all this.” He paused, then couldn’t help but add, “You kind of seem to be falling apart at the seams a bit.”

Ivan’s tapping started up again, his face blank. “My seams are just fine, Sascha.”

“And the mole in your organization?”

A vein in Ivan’s temple pulsed. “Everything’s under control.”

“All right.” Sascha knew that was the best he was going to get. He rose from his chair. “I’m going now. I love you,” he added.

Because if Ivan was extending olive branches, Sascha could too.

He received a stilted nod in return.

Back in the car, Kai was waiting in the passenger seat in human form, poised in a way that suggested he was willing to leap out of the car and avenge Sascha’s honor if Ivan had slighted him in any way.

Sascha leaned across the dash to kiss him. “We’re all good.”

He caught Matteo’s eye in the rearview mirror. He was hunched in the back seat in an oversize sweatshirt Kai had plucked out of thin air for him, chewing on his nails like they were his last meal. “Ivan doesn’t think we’ll run into any trouble bringing you with us,” Sascha told him.

Matteo nodded jerkily, his eyes flitting away again in the next moment.

Yeah, definitely the start of a beautiful friendship.

But maybe there really was some secret sweetness hidden somewhere in Sascha, because he still only wanted to take this traumatized kid back with them and tuck him under a million blankets, keep him safe until he stopped flinching at every word.

Sascha turned to Kai. “Let’s go home, shall we?”