The Devil's Masquerade: The Remedy (The Devil's Eyes) (11 page)

“I have to go make arrangements for the Masquerade that is coming up. Lots to do you know.” She smiles, touching me tenderly as I notice the tears on her face.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, grazing my finger gently along her cheekbone.

“Oh, it was absolutely terrible Nicholas,” she says, diving into my chest with dramatic tears.

“Who did this to you? Tell me, and I will take care of them,” I say with a caring voice, but she backs away, shaking her head. “Tell me, Ria, it was that Kayla woman that has caused you so much stress, wasn’t it?” Her expression give me reason to pursue my efforts. “No reason to answer. I know it already.” I wrap my arms around her. “Let me take care of this for you. Do you know where this woman Kayla lives?” She looks up at me, wide-eyed. “Tell me please. Maybe I can help you complete the task that Grandfather has given you.” She hesitates, but with a warm kiss and a few soft touches underneath her dress, she promptly goes weak. “Tell me how I can help you, Ria. You know you want me to. Let me do it, and I will let you take all the credit. He will glorify you and give you everything you want if Kayla is taken care of. You don’t even have to break a nail.” I lean in close, touching her neck with my lips and humming my desires. “Tell me baby, so I can take you to bed. I want so badly to feel your naked body against mine. Don’t you want that? Don’t you want to feel my dick inside you, making your pussy feel so good and wet?” I hum gently against her breast. “Don’t you want me to make you come? I could do that for you, over and over again. I could fuck you so hard, so hard that you won’t ever want my dick to leave your pussy.” She gasps, gripping me tight as she weakens in my arms even more. “You want to come right now, don’t you? Of course you do. Just my words make you excited, don’t they? Just me telling you what I could do to you, how good I could make your body feel,” I breathe softly against her lips. She vibrates and comes right into her panties. “Now, tell me. Where does Kayla live?” Her heavy eyes smile as she tells me exactly what I want to know. “Thank you,” I say, straightening myself up and leaving her behind.

“Nick?” I look back at her. “What about us?”

“What about us? I am not going to fuck you now, Ria. You’re a complete mess. I do have standards,” I smile, walking away happily while Ria panics, knowing she just gave me information she shouldn’t have. She jumps into her car and speeds away to, as I imagine, try and quickly do what was asked of her before I can do it for her. Now I have to make sure she does or clean up her mess if she doesn’t.

Chapter 14

Elijah

Savaged called the house today and left a message for Kayla, to let her know the court date has been set for Nick and Kayla’s divorce. Seems they can force the divorce without Kayla’s acceptance of it, so she doesn’t even need to be bothered with showing up. Ryan and I, thankfully, intercepted it before Kayla returned home. However, Franky, calmly told me over the phone that she feels the need to bring the information by in person. She is clearly not the brightest woman in the world. Now, Ryan and I are trying to decide whether we should run or make popcorn for the big event that is about to happen.

“Oh, I am pretty sure there is going to be blood shed tonight,” I say to Ryan before retreating to the bar for a drink.

“That is one thing we both can agree on, but I think it is a little early to be drinking. We may need to be fully aware and ready to act quickly to keep someone from getting hurt or to keep them from destroying the house. We both still have to live here for a while longer,” Ryan says as Franky walks through the door with more paperwork for Kayla and a giant ring on her finger. “On second thought, maybe it isn’t too early to drink,” Ryan says, grabbing my drink from my hand and downing it.
Son of a bitch!

“Enjoy that, asshole, because I am not giving you another,” I say, rushing to make myself another. “Franky, you might as well just leave us the paperwork and be on your way before Kayla gets home,” Ryan says to her.

“No, thank you. I want to make sure she understands that it isn’t her fault and that Nick wants her to be happy. There are no hard feelings, and everyone should be allowed to go their separate ways without any bitterness,” she says, making herself at home.
Oh this is going to be bad. I better make myself a double.

Kayla comes home with Exie at her side and Amery at her back, or, in other words, backup at her side and jackass at her back. “What are you doing here?” she asks Franky.

“I’m here to talk with you, woman to woman. I think we can work all this out so everyone can leave each other peacefully,” Franky says, standing up to Kayla.

“Get out of my house,” Kayla says calmly. Franky asks to speak to her alone, to which Kayla denies her without any consideration.

Franky follows her around, offering bribes to get Kayla to sign the paperwork. “Come on Kayla, you don’t want to go through this. Nick doesn’t want to go through this. Just think about the hassle of going to court and the attorneys, and about how this is going to affect your children. He is willing to give all his rights as a father up so there will be no issue with custody, but if you continue this, he will fight for full custody, and you will not be allowed to see them ever again. You know he will win that battle. Do you want to put your children through that? Do you want to lose them, too? I suspect you don’t Kayla, and why would you? Sign these papers, and let’s all go on with our lives and find happiness,” Franky pleads with an innocent expression.

Kayla looks up at her as if she considers the idea, and we all swallow hard. “No, but thanks for stopping by.”

“Kayla! Stop being such a jealous whore and sign these damn papers!” Franky yells at her. I lean back and ready myself for my drink when Exie takes it and downs it.
Motherfucker!

Kayla walks up to Franky smoothly, “I am going to tell you this one more time, and please, make sure you understand because I won’t repeat it. I will see you in hell before I give up on my husband. Now get the fuck out of my house and don’t ever come back,” Kayla seethes in her face with a deadly stare. Kayla backs away and turns her back towards the woman with defiance so bold that the air goes cold and everyone in the room gets chills.

Amery who had taken a seat when he first came in showing little interest in anyone, suddenly jumps out of his seat towards Kayla. “Kayla!” He yells as Franky takes a step towards Kayla and grabs her.

That was the fastest second of my life. There was no time to think. If there had been, I would have thought for sure that Kayla was going to die. The entire room of people go into a panic, but Kayla does not. Her movements were so quick and so precise that not even her attacker saw them coming. We all get no more than half a step towards them before Kayla has her attacker down on the ground, bearing down on her with a bright, knife-penetrating stare. Who we thought was Franky slowly fades into someone else. She is begging for her life, and we all stand dumbstruck as Kayla smiles and leans down into her paling face. “Hello Ria, I knew it was you. Your desperate stench was thankfully shared with me by Amery. It didn’t take me long to figure out who you were after that. Now, where is Franky?”

“She’s dead. She had two kids and a husband, so she had no interest in coming back for Nick. Savage had her killed so I could take her place. Savage made me pretend to be her in order to lure Nick away from you,” Ria says with fear in her eyes.

“Her family thinks she’s dead?” Ria shakes her head. “They think she left them?” Ria nods and Kayla snarls and grips her until she screams out.

“But I can tell them otherwise, and get her body back to them, no problem.” Ria says in between desperate gasps.

Kayla picks up the blade from the floor and twirls it in front of Ria, torturing her into tears. “You tell him. You tell Savage I’m coming for him, and he need not bother sending another useless minion to kill me.” Kayla leans down into Ria’s face. “Do you understand me?” Ria nods. Kayla smiles wide and then strikes her hard across the face. The blow sends blood splattering from Ria’s nose. No one seems to move or even breathe as Kayla strikes her again. By the time Kayla allows the woman to crawl out from under her, she is barely recognizable, but she quickly runs before Kayla has a chance to stand and meet her face to face.

Silence. Awe. We have no words within any of us, and Kayla does nothing more than stand tall, smile sweetly, and flip her hair back behind her shoulder before leaving us all. I look down at the bottle of liquor in my hand and decide to toss my glass before downing the alcohol straight from the bottle.

Chapter 15

Nick

I make an excuse to Grandfather that I left some work that needs to be done at the office, and I explain that I am going to go ahead and get some dinner at a new restaurant I have wanted to try. He agrees but won’t let me leave Delin behind, so I decide to use Ro to my advantage and have him keep Delin preoccupied while I look into the information I just received from Ria. My two tagalongs and I stop by my office first; however, I don’t plan on doing any work I search the address Ria gave me and locate the residence. I review the entire estate and plan my way inside before I gather Delin and Ro and go to the new restaurant I told Grandfather about.

The line is long for their opening night, and the bar is so packed with people that you can barely move. It is perfect for what I plan to do. After I speak to the maître d, we are escorted to a table immediately. I sit down as if nothing is amiss and order some food. I have already filled Ro in on what I need him to do for me, and after I promise to pay for whatever he wants to eat and drink, he is more than happy to keep Delin preoccupied with conversation. Before I can leave though, Ria shows up and corners me to help her.

“What are you doing here? How did you find me?” I ask her.

“I called your house looking for you, and Galena said you were planning on coming here. I need you to help me, Nick, please.”

I lift up the floppy hood hanging in front of her face and notice she is bruised and swollen. “What happened to your face?” I say as she quickly adjusts it back.

“I was attacked by that woman Kayla. She is a ruthless killer and is coming after me. She wants to kill me. I have nowhere to hide. Your grandfather is so angry with me, and I need you to protect me from them,” she cries, burying her head into my chest while Delin and Ro look on. “You said you would kill her for me. Did you mean it? Can you help me like you said?”

I glance over at Delin’s puzzled expression, “You know Grandfather doesn’t want me to be anywhere near that woman. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. You are going to have to find help elsewhere,” I say, pushing her away from my chest. She seems shocked as she looks over us all. I lean towards her and whisper to her not to worry, but she can’t let anyone else know. Otherwise, we will both get onto trouble. She looks up at me with a hopeful expression.

“Okay, I understand. I will find another way then,” she says, excusing herself and walking out of the restaurant.

“Can you believe that?” I laugh.

“She looked roughed up. Kayla did that?” Ro asks. I nod. “Damn! Girl has gotten even more deadly.”

I nod agreement and quickly try to quickly change the conversation to something more calming. I need to sneak out without causing alarm. Thanks to Ria, Delin is watching me like a hawk. Damn woman. I have to wait through many Ro stories before I am able to find a good moment to slip away. I tell Delin that I am going to go to the bar and order a drink so I can talk to a beautiful woman I spotted there. He seems to understand and is at ease as long as he can keep an eye on me. The bar is so crowded that, when I find a shy man sitting by himself and trying to work up the courage to talk to the nearby women, I approach him for some help. He seems shocked at my approach at first, but I am able to put him at ease the moment his eyes look up to mine.

“I need you to take my jacket and put it on and never move from this seat.” I say to the man. He nods and takes off his own jacket to put on mine. I slide back as he sits back down and silently drinks his drink with no intention of ever moving. I leave the restaurant and set out to find Kayla.

Chapter 16

Kayla

The rest of the night I have to keep from smiling whenever I meet anyone’s eyes. Amery keeps his distance from me and so does Ryan. Elijah apologized for anything he has ever done or ever might do to upset me. I feel good about the new skills I have, but it doesn’t make up for Nick being gone.

“I’m telling you, Eli, there is no way to get in that way,” Ryan says, entering the room with Elijah following closely behind.

“Ryan, come on! You know damn well there is. Okay, I grant you there is no possible way for some people to get in, but others, like yourself, can get in by doing that voodoo thing that you do.”

“Maybe so, but what can we do about it?”

“We add devices that alert us no matter what … beings cross through the fences,” Elijah says, waving his hands in the air with frustration.

“Do you know how many that will take?”

“No, but it’s better to do something than nothing!”

“Okay, but before we go building a steel box around the place, let’s go look around and see what can and can’t be done. You know, I still don’t understand how you and Nick became friends. You both are so controlling that you must have driven each other insane.”

“Sometimes even the greatest of loves can’t work out their differences,” I chime in with a laugh.

“I do love Nicky, but he was a rough lover. I don’t like to be manhandled. I much prefer a softer touch. Thank goodness Nicky found the perfect brute to marry,” Elijah says, winking at me.

“Alright. Now let’s go stare at the fencing and argue for a while, like real men,” Ryan says sarcastically.

“Have fun,” I laugh. As they leave, I look up and catch sight of the papers Ria left, and my blood begins to boil all over again. I stand up, pacing to try and calm myself.