Boston Avant-Garde 5: Bellicoso (26 page)

Demon spoke to Mei-Ling in Mandarin, ushering her out of the elevator and in the opposite direction of Seraph’s quarters. The mistress was so on edge she didn’t even notice her slave had gone missing.

He watched Mei-Ling scamper toward a door that led to the club proper, and hopefully to Owen, Jace, and Lucas’s safekeeping. As he made to follow Seraph, Malachi appeared at the top of the steps. Demon felt a layer of unease peel away at the sight of his lover. Malachi exuded strength in his sleek gait, looking more and more intimidating with each step of his rolling walk.

“Ten minutes,” Malachi murmured.

Demon didn’t bother to hide his own agitation. “Stay by my side.”

“Nowhere else I’d rather be.” Malachi took up a place at Demon’s left shoulder as they entered Seraph’s chamber.

The door to her boudoir was wide open, but she was at her desk. She rifled through papers with some speed. Obviously looking for something, she began to curse in low Italian when she couldn’t find it.

Her gaze drifted up briefly and locked suddenly on Malachi. “That disk! Where’s the disk I gave you? I need it. It has detailed transaction records. Do you have any idea how bad it would be for all of us if that thing fell into the wrong hands?”

“That’s not my problem. I told you I didn’t want anything to do with your business ventures.” Malachi looked and sounded bored. “So I got rid of it.”

“Got rid of it? How?” Her voice grew high-pitched and shaky.

A noise outside the room caught her attention. It sounded as if a herd of wild beasts was thundering down the hallway.

“What the hell is that? And where is everyone anyway? Where’s Jessica?”

“I sent them all home,” Demon said softly.

Malachi snapped his fingers in a clichéd impression of an aha moment. “I remember what I did with the disk, Seraph.”

“What?”

“Interpol,” Malachi drawled. “They were really interested in it.”

Lars appeared in the doorway looking as if he were out for a casual stroll. Half a dozen of his men filled the hallway. “Hello, Seraph. We have lots to talk about. I’m sure you’ll be quite comfortable in my office downtown while we have a chat.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Seraph was obviously trying to look unruffled. To anyone but Demon and Malachi she might have been convincing. “My lawyer will have a field day with this.”

Lars pulled out his phone and scanned the display, totally unbothered by her threat. “Oh I think it’s safe to say he’s not going to want to touch it, especially since you’re being extradited to Italy on murder charges. That and the human trafficking are pretty well guaranteed to make a noose tough to wriggle out of.”

“Lucas, Jace, thank God!” Seraph’s voice quavered when her security men entered the room. “Please escort this asshole off my property.”

Demon savored the expression on her face when Lucas and Jace positioned themselves behind Malachi without a second thought. Demon had told Seraph time and time again that only so much respect could be garnered by using fear. She’d never listened.

“Murder, Seraph?” Malachi sounded baffled. “Who did you kill?”

“I didn’t kill them! He did!” She pointed wildly at Demon.

Of all the things he had done in his long and sordid past, this was the one set of allegations that held absolutely no water. After living in a semidrugged state for more than eight months, Demon had been in no shape to kill a fly. Not that he would have balked at murdering Giovanni de Medici after the bastard had raped him repeatedly. Demon simply hadn’t possessed the strength.

“Demon?” Malachi arched one eyebrow in silent question.

Exchanging a short look with Lars, Demon decided he owed Malachi this much at least. The expanded version of what he’d explained earlier, though the true emotional turmoil lay in the things he’d confessed to his lover in the darkness, not the bald facts he would state here. “Seraph poisoned her father and her brother with an overdose of the drugs they were using to keep me sedated at the time.” He gazed at her thunderstruck expression, realizing she’d never thought his protection was something she might actually lose. “If I had to guess, she probably threw in some rat poison just to make certain they stayed nice and dead. Not that I was sorry to see them die, though I might have provided a quick end instead of the agony they suffered. Revenge is a double-edged blade.”

“You!” Seraph gasped as tears began to make hot tracks down her cheeks. “You betrayed me! You swore you wouldn’t!”

Demon let her see the depth of his disdain. She reacted as if he’d physically slapped her. “You became exactly what we escaped, Seraphina. I knew that when I watched what you did to Malachi. Was it any different than what your father did to you? Worse, you involved a child.”

“Speaking of,” Lars said conversationally. “I’ve arranged to have the Boston School for the Arts named as the interim guardian for your daughter, Malachi, until we get this mess straightened out.”

Demon exhaled a sigh of relief. That had been the one point Lars was uncertain he could make stick. None of the rest mattered. If Demon was deported back to China, at least Allie would still have her father and her freedom.

“I’m sending you back to China in a box!” Seraph spat. “Fuck my lawyer. I’m using my phone call to inform INS of your whereabouts!”

“Gentry!” Lars called to his men waiting in the hallway. “Can you and Diekes please escort the lady to the garage, where her chariot awaits?”

Two brawny guys in SWAT outfits emblazoned with Interpol badges strode into the office and gathered Seraph’s voluptuous body between them. For a second, Demon thought she might actually put up a fight. Then she seemed to wilt.

“Don’t let Allie out of your sight for a second, Malachi!” Seraph said suddenly. “Han isn’t going to let this go. I owe him way too much money for that.”

Lars cursed beneath his breath. “Get her out of here, guys.”

The agents removed Seraph, but the specter of her words lingered behind. The muscles in Malachi’s jaw leaped as he ground his teeth together, and it was difficult for Demon to squelch the urge to go to him. They could only hope between the two of them and Lars, they could unravel Seraph’s trail and find enough evidence to boot Han back to China.

Lars waited until Seraph was gone to speak. “I’ll have a few agents keep an eye on Allie’s school, but I know for a fact that Han is in New York. I just don’t see him striking out at such an innocuous target.”

Demon met Malachi’s gaze, knowing they were of the same mind on the topic of Allie. Bringing her to Triptych would be foolish. Han was most likely to strike the club in search of monetary retribution. Allie had been moved with little-to-no paper trail as she always had been, thanks to Demon’s paranoia. So while Lars’s offer of watchdogs was probably a useless one, it was the best solution available to them at the moment.

Bottom line—they had to extract enough information from Seraph to put Han away for good. There was a chance, however small, that Seraph would help them if she thought it kept her daughter from being at risk. Demon didn’t like gambling with the lives of those he loved, especially when he was trusting in the maternal instincts of a hell-bitch like Seraphina de Medici.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Of all the potential careers she might have stumbled upon, Selena never would have imagined the role of teacher would fit her like a glove. From the first moment she’d asked her class of vibrant girls to take their places at the barre, she’d made a conscious decision to put her fear aside and play a role. Now on her third day, she knew this was where she really belonged. Would it be all smiles and giggles? Probably not, but Selena had learned the hard way that nothing was.

“Ms. Aasen?” Tonya gazed up with blue eyes as big as saucers. “Is it really true you danced the Dewdrop solo with the Boston Ballet?”

“It was a long time ago, sweetie.” Selena glanced at the girls still gathering their things. Allie was watching from the corner of her eye. “I had to work really hard for it, though. So I’m sure you could get there too if you did the same.”

“That would be awesome,” Tonya breathed. “So cool! I’ll see you tomorrow for Saturday session, ’kay?”

“I’ll be here. You have fun with your mom and dad tonight. I heard the girls saying you were going someplace special.” Selena felt as if she was getting to experience her girlhood all over again through these freethinking and sometimes crazy-as-hell kids. It was liberating.

Tonya was practically vibrating with excitement. “We’re going with my grandparents to dinner. I get to pick since we’re celebrating me getting into the flower corps.”

“Well congratulations! But you worked hard, and I know Madame was really excited that all of you girls made it into the flower corps. I can’t wait to see the costumes. They’re always so much better than the Snowflakes.” Selena gave Tonya a conspiratorial smile. The older girls had been given the Snowflake roles, and there was a good bit of competitive spirit going on between two classes, which were really neck and neck in technique and only a shade different in age.

Tonya bounded out the door, and Allie was the only girl left in the classroom. Selena had been careful not to show any favoritism, but it was hard not to when Allie had Malachi’s eyes.

“Can I talk to you, Ms. Aasen—Selena?” Allie shifted nervously in her pink Converse sneakers.

“Is your dad coming to pick you up for dinner, or are you headed to the dining room?” Selena gathered her things, trying not to sound starved for information about Malachi and Demon.

“I think I told you Dee isn’t my dad.” Allie gazed up at Selena with the gloomiest expression on her face. “Daddy can’t get here very often. He…well, it’s his job, you know?”

Selena had made herself a promise she wasn’t going to tell this sweet kid that she knew all about her fucked-up family life. Yet Selena found herself longing to do just that. Worse, she knew for a fact she was head over heels for both of Allie’s sexy guardians. Had it not been for teaching and dancing, Selena would have been clawing down the door at Triptych while begging Owen the Ass to let her back inside to apologize for her stupidity in leaving.

Except with my luck Seraph would answer the door, and I’d just screw things up worse than they already are.

“Your daddy loves you, Allie.” Selena gently drew the girl beneath her arm. “I know he does. And I know a lot about him and the man you call Dee too.”

“His name isn’t really Dee,” Allie whispered.

“Demon,” Selena agreed. “I’m sorry if you’re stuck here all by yourself tonight, but you’re welcome to hang out with me after dinner if you don’t mind being bored silly. I’m still trying to put my stuff away and decorate my room a little bit.”

“Really?” Allie’s face lit up. “I— Thank you, Selena.”

* * * *

“I told my dad that he and Dee had better not screw things up with you.” Allie lounged on Selena’s bed, looking full and happy. She should’ve been, considering the heaping helping of lemon meringue pie she’d consumed after her tomato basil pasta.

“Nobody screwed anything up.” Selena cast a sideways glance at her young guest while trying to decide if she should hang the painting or send it back to Brookline. It was one of Mattie’s.

Her room, though spacious by dorm standards, was a shoe box compared to her suite at the estate. Selena didn’t care. It was cozy and always full of smiles and laughter from the wide variety of boarding students there at the school. Not just dancers, but string and brass players, pianists, vocalists, and even the drama department thespians that had personalities guaranteed to make her love and hate them all at the same time.

Outside her window, the earlier snowfall had receded into a clear night that looked too cold for even a peek outside at the full moon. She’d already hung her thick pink-and-white-striped draperies with their silvery accents. She probably should have sent Allie to her own room by now. The rest of the boarders were snuggled like mice in their beds, but Selena couldn’t make herself tell Allie to go.

“I’m glad you like pink. Dad and Dee always pick black or maybe blue if they’re trying to attempt creativity.” Allie fingered the corner of a duvet that matched the curtains.

Selena tried Mattie’s painting against the opposite wall. The canvas featured a sunrise over Salem Common with more pink, purple, and mauve than orange—perfect for Selena’s taste. “The two of them live in a medieval-style church at the moment, kiddo. I think if either of them ever moved out of the club, it might change their take on decor.”

“Do you think that will happen someday?” Allie sighed and rolled onto her belly before propping her chin on her hands. “I’d give anything to live someplace other than a school.”

“When did you start boarding?” Selena asked.

“My first week of first grade. My dad used to come get me and bring me home every weekend. We had an apartment back then. By the time I got to third grade, Mom got rid of the apartment, and I had to stay at school all the time, except on holidays. That’s when my mom likes to take me on vacation.” Allie wrinkled her nose.

“Where are you going for Christmas this year?” Selena could understand the desire to spend a holiday at home. The Aasens had never been much for hanging around during holidays either.

“She hasn’t said yet, which is kind of strange since there are only three and a half weeks left until Christmas. I hate vacationing with my mom. She always brings at least one girlfriend, and I just don’t need to see that, you know?”

“Oh,
that
kind of girlfriend, hmm?” Finally satisfied with where the painting would go, Selena reached for a picture hanger and her petite utility hammer. The tool even had a baby-pink handle.

“Yeah. At least Dee and my dad don’t flaunt it or act all weird about it.”

A tiny tap had the little hanger in place. Selena made sure the painting hung straight. “But you don’t think it would be weird if they added another person to their relationship?”

“No.” Allie picked up one of Selena’s fuzzy throw pillows. “They love each other, but they aren’t happy living like two gay guys. They both need a woman as much as I need a real mom. Someone who knows how to have fun, dance, and likes pink would make our lives complete. I want it to be someone like you.”