Good Side of Sin (7 page)

Instead of answering right away, those red pumps started walking slowly in his direction. “I know everything about you, Ethan. I know you’re twenty-nine, you go by the alias Trick, you only take jobs that pay cash—all of which are illegal—your mom left you and your father when you were only twelve, and then he developed a big drinking and gambling habit that you continuously support.”

“You’re wrong.”

Her perfectly shaped, dark brunette eyebrows peeked over the Dolce & Gabbanas. “Care to correct me on anything?”

“She left
because
he had a big drinking and gambling problem, not after the fact.”

“Why didn’t she take you with her?”

“I refused to go.”

“Why?”

“Thought you knew everything about me. You tell me.”

“I would think any good mother would take her twelve year old child out of that type of environment, regardless of his or her wishes.”

“You need better informants, lady. I never said she was a good mother.” The trembling in his hands had all but stopped, now that he realized she had come alone and didn’t seem to have handcuffs anywhere on that tight red dress she wore so well. Ethan walked past her to get to his bike. “I’m really stoked the DEA has so much personal information on me, but until you get some hard evidence that I’ve done anything illegal—”

“I trust the transaction went smoothly with Carlos this morning?”

Ethan’s muscles tensed as his vision swam before his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. All he could think was that he needed to warn Carlos before the DEA got to him.

He hadn’t noticed the vehicle stop at the curb beside him until a male voice spoke his name.

“Get in the vehicle, Trick.”

Ethan turned quickly to find Carlos in the backseat of a black suburban.

“Fuck!”

***

Ethan stared out the window of the suburban as one of Carlos’ muscles loaded his bike in the back cargo area.

Carlos sat in the bucket seat beside him and the brunette sat in the front passenger seat. Neither of them were looking at him or offering any information. Obviously, there would be time for all that later, as it appeared he wouldn’t be leaving here on his bike.

That was okay; he was really curious to know why his highest paying employer hung out with narcs. He just hoped he got to live after they filled him in on all the answers.

The back doors closed, causing the vehicle to rock from side to side a few times, and then there were two knocks that came from the back. The driver put the SUV in drive and pulled out into the steady flow of Las Vegas traffic.

“Where are we going?” Ethan said after a while, but got no response.

Fine!
he thought, and then huffed, adding a little noise to the eerie silence of the vehicle. The steady purr of the V8 engine was all he heard for about twenty minutes. They had gone south, and had been several miles out of Vegas before the driver turned onto a narrow dirt road.

Ah, shit! They’re bringing me out here to kill me,
Ethan thought, and then began to fidget in his seat.

He looked down at the door handle and thought about jumping out and making a run for it. If they were going to kill him anyway, shouldn’t he at least try to get away?

Just before he grabbed for the metal handgrip, the brunette whipped around to glare at Carlos and started shouting at him. “Who the hell invited Boggs? This is my case, Cabrejos! Don’t you dare screw me over on this! I’ve been working on this for over a fucking year! He can’t just come in and take over!”

With wide eyes, Ethan moved his hand slowly back from the handle and watched as Carlos sighed, and then squeezed his eyes shut as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Technically, he can, Cross. He is the boss.”

“He’s not
my
boss!”

The boss?
“You-you are a na-narc, too?” Ethan stuttered as he stared wide-eyed at Carlos.

Carlos leaned forward and let his elbows rest on his knees, and then his face fell into his hands. He nodded.

Ethan’s eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open in shock. “Ho-ly shit!” he said, and then grabbed the handle of the door and began to work the lock mechanism back and forth.

“It can only be opened from the outside. Just relax. Nobody’s going to hurt you.”

“That include not going to prison for the rest of my life, too? Because that’s really all I’m worried about at the moment.”

The vehicle stopped at a little white house with several unmarked vehicles parked haphazardly in the front yard, most of them appearing to belong to people that carry a gun on their hip or back and a badge hanging around their fat necks to make carrying the piece legal.

“I didn’t say anything about that,” Carlos—or Cabrejos, rather—said.

Ethan’s door was pulled open and his eyes shot around to fall on the beauty queen in the red dress.

“Cooperate with us and I’ll make sure you don’t see a night in jail. I need you to tell them what happened last night,” Cross said.

Ethan eyed her for a moment. “Uh-huh,” he finally said. “You want me to give a confession that I carried illegal items to a known drug dealer?”

“I’m not a drug dealer—”

“I know that…now.”

“Look, unknowingly, you have been working for us for the last year. We have enough dirt on you to throw you in the penitentiary for two lifetimes, but we won’t do that if you tell your side of the story.”

“My side of the story? About last night and what happened with the badass psycho killer and his buddies that can lift very heavy objects and then just disappear? Is that what you’re referring to? Because if I tell anybody that, I won’t have to worry about prison, they will have me fitted for my very own straight jacket.” Ethan caught a whiff of something delicious and stopped talking long enough to give the air a few sniffs. “What is that?”

“Bar-B-Q. Want some?” Carlos said as he leaned his shoulder against the side of the SUV and crossed his legs at the ankles.

“You brought me to a Bar-B-Q?”

Cross shrugged. “We can do this downtown if you’d prefer. I think they are having leftover meatloaf.”

The mental picture of a cell door slamming with him on the wrong side of the bars flashed through Ethan’s mind and he shook his head as he stepped out of the vehicle.

“I wear an adult medium.”

I released Baddon’s hand and walked around, looking, taking in the beautiful scenery that surrounded just the two of us.

The sun shone down brightly on magnificent white waterfalls, casting beautiful rainbows in every direction I looked.

“Where are we?” I asked in a quiet voice.

“Victoria Falls, just on the edge of Zambia. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen, so it’s the only place I can compare to Heaven.” Baddon gave me a hopeful look. “Am I even close?”

It was very beautiful, but I didn’t have the heart to tell him his version of Heaven did not compare to the real thing, so I nodded and gave him a small smile. “You are close.”

He smiled as he looked out over the vast water, but the gesture didn’t reach his eyes. I could tell he yearned to be accepted into Heaven as Abigail had been, but as far as I could see that was never going to happen. Lucifer was smarter than anyone gave him credit for. Rhyan had just gotten really lucky and Lucifer had underestimated how far he was willing to go to rescue his soulmate.

I cleared my throat as I sat down beside him. My intentions had been to immediately get down to business about what he thought Lucifer was doing to Thoros, but when I opened my mouth that wasn’t what came out. “Why are men such pigs?”

Baddon’s head shot around to look at me, and then he let out a great belly laugh that even had me giggling. He clutched at his side and fell back on the rock to laugh some more. After a few minutes, his chuckles quieted to brief sniggers every now and then, and then he finally just smiled and looked over at me with a sigh.

“No wonder he’s such a mess.”

I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes as I pointed at myself. “Me? You think this is my fault, too?” I got to my feet quickly and dusted the dirt and moss from my pants. “Man, you demons are a piece of work. I haven’t been around for three months, but I still manage to be blamed for someone else’s mistakes!”

Baddon stood, still grinning, and took my shoulders in his hands.

I tried to move back, but his fingers tightened, leaving me no choice but to stand there and look at his mischievous smile or fleet away. I needed answers and I wasn’t going to get them from the arrogant horse’s ass back in Vegas.

I huffed. “How is that even feasible?” I exclaimed.

He shook his head. “Open your eyes and really look at him, young angel.”

“I have. He looks terrible, but it’s nothing I’ve caused!”

He stared at me for a moment, like he was waiting for me to
get
what I obviously wasn’t
getting
! “What?” I demanded, and he chuckled again.

“Nothing,” he said, and then turned away from me, kicking a rock over the edge of the cliff we were on. “Five days ago Thoros summoned me to him. He was in an alley close to the end of Freemont Street, down farther than any of the pretty lights or the good girls go.” He paused, like he wasn’t sure how to say what so desperately needed to come out of him. “He was a real mess, that boy was.” Baddon stopped to shake his head as if the image in his mind haunted him still.

“Go on,” I encouraged, and he nodded, but turned and stared out at the waterfalls a minute or so before continuing.

“Thoros is a good guy, Josselyn. He has a good heart. I’m not saying he’s an angel—we both know that’s far from the truth—but he wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone. To say the least, I was shocked to find a dead body at his feet, and even more stunned to hear him say that he
thought
he had murdered the guy. He couldn’t remember doing it, but there was nothing on the body to suggest a human had done it.”

“Wait—” I walked over to him and he looked down at me with sad eyes. “Why would you think that? How could Thoros killing someone be different from a human doing it?”

The big guy shrugged. “There were no broken bones, bullet or knife wounds… There were no lacerations of any kind on the bodies. It’s like they all died from fright or the life had just been completely sucked out of them.” His brow furrowed in thought. “Except for one. We found two dead bodies last night with Thoros, but only one of them was like the others. One man’s skull was crushed, but he was under a door when we found him, so that could have totally been the cause of death for him.”

Five bodies… Five days…No broken bones or wounds…The life sucked out of them…
My mind was racing at a dangerous speed, and it was difficult for me to grasp onto one single thought. I blinked a few times as I focused on him. “And where are the bodies now?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded over his shoulder. “Back at the house, on the pool table in the basement. Why?”

“I’m not sure, but I think I need to see those bodies.”

Anxiously pacing the floor of the extravagant foyer, Thoros glanced at the gleaming door handle for the hundredth time. There was no use. Baddon wouldn’t bring her in through the damn front door anyway. Even knowing that, he spun quickly about face on the balls of his feet, and then glanced to his right, his eyes falling once again to the shiny handle.

“You’re an idiot,” Lameria said.

Thoros ignored the snide remark that came from the top of the grand staircase and continued his journey to nowhere with another about face, and then glance to his left at the handle.

“She doesn’t care about you anymore, Thoros. She probably never did.”

Step—step—step—step—step—turn—look to the right at the door.

“We demons don’t deserve to be forgiven for the wrong we have done.”

Right—left—hands clenched—right—left—hands unclenched—turn—look to the left at the door.

“Good people may be able to forgive, but they will never forget.”

Left—right—low growl—left—right—left—turn—look to the right at the handle.

“She’ll never be able to trust you after what you did to her—”

Right—left—sudden stop. Thoros turned to glare up at the innocent-looking female. “What
you
did to her!” he roared. “
You
knew how I felt about her, because you snaked your way into my head!” His bloodshot eyes fixed on her, daring her to move from her seated position on the top step. Thoros began to slowly ascend the stairs. His voice dropped to menacing as he glowered at the Princess of Greed, a female he’d once called his friend and lover, but not anymore. No, never again after what she had cost him. “Then, you told Lucifer.”

“Pfft!” Lameria rolled her eyes and nervously looked away from him. “Lucifer already knew of what—”

The rest of her sentence was cut off as Thoros rushed her and threw her up against the far wall. He pinned her to the Amazon-moss-green-colored wall, his fingers tight around her throat, leaving her bare toes fighting to find the hardwood floor eight inches beneath them.

No such luck.

He was pissed.

Lameria batted helplessly at his arm, and then squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she tried to speak, but only managed a “gaahch—kuuck—pal—eeahh—ze”

“Stay away from her, Lameria. And stay away from me. You may not be able to die, but I can promise you that if you don’t do as I say, before I am finished, you will have long wished for death a thousand times over. I will not have mercy on you,” he growled out.

He released his hold and took a step back from her as she fell to her knees, gasping for precious air she did not deserve. Thoros absentmindedly wiped his sweaty palm on his pants, his face distorting in disgust, as if touching her was something vile and nasty and degrading to his status as a demon.

He squatted down and whispered in her ear. “You’re right, Lameria,
you
do not deserve to be forgiven for the wrong that you’ve done. Not even by someone as lowly as me. Stay out of my way or suffer the consequences. That’s your only warning. And you can bet your sweet ass I won’t forget it.”