I grin and hold down the high-speed button for a minute, watching his eyes get wide and his skin flush a darker shade underneath his mask. He grips the seat and bites down on his bottom lip, his chest heaving as he meets my eyes with a look of lust and awe and need so intense that it makes my cock throb. I release the button and he slumps back, breathing heavily. He moves his hand towards the stiff bulge of his erection, and I slap it away with a smirk.
“I’m going to edge you all night, slut, until all it takes is the stroke of my finger along your cock to make you finally explode.”
“That’s what I was hoping for, Sir.”
I lean in and tease my lips against his without actually kissing him. “I know you were.”
The demonstration starts on stage, and we both turn our attention to it for now. I’m not attracted to women, but that doesn’t stop the show from being thrilling. The sound of the paddle against bare skin, all the pleasured gasps and moans coming from the sub, I’d have to be dead for it to not be a turn-on. And there’s the added excitement of watching out of the corner of my eye to see when Alessio is the most engrossed in the performance, then using the vibrator at varying intensitiesand durations, leaving him squirming and panting over and over again.
People come and go from the booths around us, some of them pulling their curtains closed for the small amount of privacy it gives them, others openly touching themselves or their partners. One demonstration ends and another starts, and I wonder if I could actually be normal enough forthis, with Alessio. Maybe he has enough demons of his own that mine won’t scare him away.
Of course, there’s still the issue of what the Morettis want with The Ghost, withme, but if I put that aside, I can almost let myself pretend that there could be something real between us.
I press the button again in little bursts, and when his lips part on a moan, I lean in and slip my tongue between them, swallowing his heavy, gasping breaths and savoring the taste of his mouth. He whines and I smile against his lips, pausing my tapping long enough to let him catch his breath and ease back from the edge again.
I sit back in my seat, and a man clomps past our booth. My blood runs cold instantly and the same memory that haunted me on the street corner a little over a week ago resurfaces. I know that face. I know that man.Mad Dog. He’s the Reaper who chatted me up, flirted with me, and offered me my first taste of hell. He’s the one who ruined my life.
“Everything okay?” Alessio asks.
I want to look away from Mad Dog and reassure him, but I can’t. I grind my teeth together and watch as he swaggers through the club towards the hallway that leads to the private rooms. There’s a glowing Exit sign over that hallway too. He could leave and I’ll miss my chance. He could leave and find someone else to hurt, someone just like that kid I saved last week… Someone just like me.
“Yeah,” I lie gruffly, not looking at Alessio. “I’ll be right back.”
If he says anything as I stand up, I can’t hear it over the pounding of my pulse in my ears. I should get a hold of myself. I should go back to Alessio and focus on our date. But my demons are already in control, I’m just along for the ride.
Chapter
Fourteen
GHOST
I don’t havemy gun on me, but that isn’t going to do a damn thing to stop me if I manage to get Mad Dog alone. I’ll wrap my hands around his throat and squeeze until I see the light go out of his eyes. My gaze lands on a bondage rope lying on the floor as I follow him down the long, quiet hallway. Someone must have dropped it without noticing.Perfect. I stoop to pick it up, winding one end around my hand as I walk, never taking my eyes off of my target.
He doesn’t even seem to notice that he’s being followed. Or he’s cocky enough, so sure of his own invincibility, that it doesn’t occur to him to be worried by the sound of my footsteps keeping steady pace a few feet behind him.
My instinct was right. He doesn’t go into any of the private rooms. He keeps walking until he reaches the door at the very end of the hallway with a green Exit sign hanging over it. He pushes through it without pause and I’m only a few seconds behind him. When I step out into the alley behind the club, he finally notices that he isn’t alone.
He turns around and looks me up and down dismissively, lingering on the rope in my hand for only a few seconds before his gaze returns to my face with an expression that’s visibly telling me to fuck off.
“Can I help you?” he barks when I don’t move or say anything.
I let a slow smile creep over my lips. I hope it looks fucking unhinged and unsettling. I hope it’s making his heart beat just a little faster, even if he doesn’t know why.
“I think you’ve helped enough,” I answer coolly. “Mad Dog.”
He frowns. “Do I know you?”
I huff a laugh and take a step towards him. He’s at least a head taller and has more than a hundred pounds on me, so I can understand why he doesn’t feel the need to back up, and that was the exact kind of posturing I was hoping for.
“Me? No, I’m just a ghost,” I whisper. A brief flicker of understanding lights in his eyes, and I bring my knee up as hard as I can, nailing him right in the balls.
He yelps and drops to his knees. I know I only have a second before he recovers from that blow, so I don’t waste even a fraction of it. I don’t have my mask on, so all I can hope is that no one comes through that door, but watching for any witnesses is the last thing on my mind. All that matters to me right now is justice. Justice for that poor kid whose name I might never remember. Justice for all the vulnerable men and women who came before and after me. Justice for everyone whose life has been ruined or taken by Mad Dog and the rest of the Sleepless Reapers.
I move behind him and wrap the rope around his neck, lightning quick before he realizes what’s happening. He starts to claw at it as soon as I pull it tight, but I have all the leverage as I twist it tight and put my boot right between his shoulder blades. He doesn’t stand a chance.
I’ve never been one for a monologue. Why waste my breath? Even if what I had to say might make them realize the error of their ways, they won’t live long enough to change them. I can’t resist a few parting words for Mad Dog though as his face starts to turn purple and he struggles against the rope.
“I was too young and naive to know any better, and you could see that. I was never anything but prey to you and your crew. But you’re the prey now. How does it feel to be hunted? How does it feel to not be able to catch your breath? I remember what dying felt like, and it’s too good for you. I hope there is a hell, because you deserve to fucking burn for all the lives you’ve taken.”