King of Depravity: Chapter 11

Triston talks forever about permits and purchase deals, but at the end of the call, I think I understand.

The Russians are double-crossing the Kincaids and making deals with the Italians to buy more casinos. Something they agreed not to do in exchange for access to the Kincaids’ underground Las Vegas tunnel. They’re trying to work both sides, which is why they’ve been so secretive.

Mason Kincaid, the head of his family, is not a man anyone should fuck with. I’m a badass motherfucker, and I would not take on Mason.

Dimitri can think he’s better than the Kincaids, tougher, meaner, but Mason climbed his way to the top from nothing. And he’s legit the smartest man I know. No one is outthinking him.

But that is the Russians’ problem. All we can do is give Mason the information and let him do his worst. Triston has decided we’re going all in with the Kincaids. Part of me is relieved to not have to deal with the Russians myself. I’m going soft…

Then again, I’ve gathered everything Mason will need to take them down. I still have my uses.

Putting on a fresh T-shirt and strapping on a pair of worn leather work boots, I head out, planning to meet Chloe at the piano bar to escort her back to my place. It’s not the usual business attire I’d wear, but let them try to keep me out.

The bar is already quiet when I get there a little after midnight as I make my way to my usual table.

A bubbly brunette rushes over to take my order. “What can I get for you, handsome?” she asks with a syrupy sweet smile.

I glare. “I’d like Chloe, please.”

“Don’t you worry,” she pats my arm, running her hand over my skin. “I can take care of whatever you need.”

I narrow my gaze, glaring until she removes her hand. “I said I want Chloe.”

“She isn’t here,” the other girl snaps, her smile gone.

Chloe works like no one I know, so she must be feeling really terrible. I stand, the waitress taking a step back. “I can get someone else.”

“I want to know where Chloe is,” I growl out.

She gives me that look that I get a lot, the one that lets me know she thinks I’m insane. “Ask Mike at the bar.” Then she spins on her heels and stomps off.

I cross the room, not bothering with the shadows since the Russians are nowhere in sight.

Stopping at the bar, I slap my hand down, to get the bartender’s attention.

“Can I help you?” he looks up at me with a startled expression. I know I’m being difficult.

“Where’s Chloe?”

“Went home two hours ago, sick. Won’t be back for a few days, buddy, you’ll have to have another girl serve you drinks.”

“She’s sick?” I ask. She was fine like six hours ago. What did she come down with so quickly? A fever? Stomach bug?

“Yeah, man, she’s sick.” He gives me a skeptical up-and-down glare. But I’m out the door before he can ask me any questions.

I stop at a late-night Thai place and grab a takeout container of a noodle soup in chicken broth before I hop a cab to her house.

The place is dark, and for a moment I consider just heading up the fire escape, but the soup will do better if I enter through the front door.

So I raise my hand and knock.

Nothing happens.

I stand there for a good thirty seconds before I knock again…louder.

“Who is it?” a sleepy woman’s voice calls from the other side of the door.

“Killian,” I bark. “I came to see Chloe.”

I hear the lock unclick but when the door opens, I realize the chain is still on the door. Daff is standing, peering through the two-inch crack. “If you came to apologize, you should come back in the morning.”

“Apologize?” I ask, now thoroughly confused. “What are you talking about?”

“I saw what you did to her face,” Daffodil straightens her shoulders. “I’m not letting you in.”

“Her face?” My gut twists. “What’s wrong with her face?”

“Like you don’t know,” she sniffs.

“Open this door, or I will break the chain,” I grit out. Daffodil gasps but shuts the door in my face, clicking the lock into place.

I pound again. “Open the fucking door.”

The lock clicks again, and it opens with the chain still in place. Chloe stands on the other side of the door, her face turned to the side. “Don’t scare Daffodil, she’s just trying to protect me.”

“Protect you?”

Then she looks at me, her face swollen and my vision blurs with rage as I drop the soup. “Who did that to you?”

“It-it wasn’t you?” Daffodil asks from behind Chloe, her voice shaking with her surprise.

“Why would you think it was me?” I grunt, my hand coming to the knob. “Unlock this door, Chloe.”

“Killian,” she whispers. “It’s been a long night and I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“I’m in over my head, here. Your family, their business. You. It’s…” Her lips begin to tremble.

I reach through the crack in the door, touching her hand on the jam. “I’m your monster, sweetheart. Let me in so I can protect you.”

She hesitates for another second and then she closes the door, and I hear the slide of the chain. I pick up the dropped soup and push the door open and then step in, locking it behind me, letting out a breath of relieved air.

Daffodil stands behind Chloe, looking at me with worried eyes. “You think I would do this?”

“You told Sarah’s date you were going to let the homeless rape him,” Daffodil answers, raising her shoulders, like this should be obvious.

But I’m done talking to Daffodil as I set the container of soup on the counter and reach for Chloe’s face. “You still haven’t answered me. Who did that to your face?”

Chloe lets out a long breath. “This guy who was with Alexander.”

“What guy?” I look at the marks on her skin and I know that I’m going to end whoever touched her like this.

“His name was Preston. Preston Wingate.”

I go very still. Preston fucking Wingate? Gris has been asking me to take care of this problem and I’ve been putting him off… “Fuck,” I rumble as I wrap an arm under her ass and lift her into the air.

Her hands come to my shoulders, her body molding into mine. “My face will heal,” she says, “But the money I’m going to lose…”

“Baby, you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Killian, you’re not paying for things for me.”

I would. Her tuition means nothing to me. But I already know Chloe’s got a lot of pride in that regard and I’m not trying to take that away from her. “We’ll talk about who pays for what later.”

“Put me down, Killian.”

“Why?”

“Because,” she huffs out a breath. “Alexander and Preston told me they weren’t fans of your family, that I should stay away.”

I stop again. They targeted her, not just because she rejected Alex but because of her affiliation with us. With me.

My teeth grind together. “Do you want me to put you down because you think I’m causing the problems in your life?”

She looks away, nipping at her lip. “I can barely keep myself afloat. I can’t be caught in some…” She drifts off.

Very gently, I turn her face back to mine. “We’re fixing this. Starting with your job. Triston called Leo Kincaid, and Leo said he’d hire you at his nightclub, Temptation, whenever you want. Tips there are off the hook.”

She looks down at me for one second, her lips parting in surprise, before her mouth crashes down over mine. Her legs come around my waist, her arms wrapping around my neck. I slant her mouth open and dive in with my tongue. We haven’t made it to her room yet, so I stop in the hall, devouring her mouth.

She’s got on this cute night shirt, which gives me all kinds of access to her panty-covered pussy and I take full advantage, sliding my fingers over her until I’ve got my middle finger right on her clit.

“Ahem,” Daffodil says from behind us.

“Sorry,” Chloe gasps, but I don’t look back as I open Chloe’s bedroom door and carry her into her room. “We were supposed to sleep in my big bed tonight,” I say against her mouth.

“Did you really get me a job at Temptation?”

“I did. I’ll take you over tomorrow and you can meet Leo. You’ll like him, I think.” Secretly, I add that under Leo’s watchful gaze, she’ll be much safer at work. That guy is tough as nails. “Now tell me what happened tonight.”

In halting words, she tells me what Alexander said, what Preston did, making it clear that it was Triston’s intervention last night that provoked tonight’s attack. It was a message meant for my brother.

When she’s done, I lay her down in the bed, and then I pull the covers up her body. “You’re not staying?” she asks, propping up on an elbow.

“Not tonight.”

“But…” she nips at her lip. “Don’t we do this thing where we return favors. I kind of owe you.”

Satisfaction rumbles through me. I’m going to collect. But first… “How about you meet Leo tomorrow and then we’ll call the favor complete. After that, you can show me your appreciation?”

She nods as I straighten up.

“You could still stay.” She gives me this pleading look that makes me diamond-hard. “I don’t want to be alone.”

I cross to her window and take her baseball bat, jamming it diagonally from across the top window sash so that it can’t be opened and then I return to the bed.

“Tomorrow night, baby.” But I lean back down to kiss her again. “Tonight, I’ve still got work to do.”

“Work? What kind of work?”

“I need to talk to my brothers.” Which is true. But first, I’m going to do what I should have done a while ago. I’m going to tear that motherfucker Preston Wingate apart.