Lord of London Town

“Arthur, they tried to drag me to a van in an alley, but … but I managed to get away.” She sobbed and moved her hold from my wrist to my hand. Her fingers wrapped around mine, and I felt a fucking shock of electricity shoot through me like I’d just been stabbed with a cattle prod.

I went to pull back my hand, needing to keep my fucking distance from her. But she held on tighter. Fucking witchcraft. This bird was the only one in the bloody world that fucked my head up this well. I didn’t hold hands. Only with her. When her fucking witch’s spell had wrapped around me.

“They said Dad and Hugo owed a debt to dangerous people but never paid up. So, they took payment with their lives. With my best friends’ lives.”

Cheska eventually stopped crying, shock clearly settling in. Her grip on my hand tightened. “They’ll be coming for me. They want me as payment. Arthur … they’ll come back for me. They’re not done.”

Her words, mixed with the sheer fucking terror in her hoarse voice, made me want to snap some arsehole’s neck. As she’d spoken every bloody word, I’d felt the fire inside of me scald my fucking flesh until the only remedy would be someone’s blood coating my hands.

She was shaking, and her pupils were blown in fear. “Arthur,” she whispered, and then pressed her cheek against the back of my hand, almost bringing me to my fucking knees. “Everyone has gone. All my family, my friends … they’ve all gone. I’m completely alone …” Her broken lip dragged along my skin, opening the cut and staining my skin with her blood. “I’m so scared.”

Ignoring the fact that she was hurt, I yanked her closer until her face hovered in front of mine. I gripped her jaw and made sure her eyes were fucking right on me. “They’re not getting anywhere near you,” I growled; Cheska exhaled in relief.

And I saw what else was in her stare. I knew that fucking look. I knew exactly how Cheska felt toward me. For such a smart bird, she was fucking thick when it came to me. Reckless. She was like a kid putting her hand into a roaring bonfire when she’d been told one too many times to back off or she’d be burned. But here she was, hand in the inferno once again.

“No one will dare fuck with you now you’re under my protection,” I promised.

“Arthur,” she whispered, that posh accent washing over me the same way it always fucking did. Like opium or some shit. Calming me right the hell down. I had no fucking clue how she managed to do it, but she was the only thing in my life that had ever had that effect on me.

She was fucking dangerous.

I pushed her hair back from her face. She smelled of antiseptic, but underneath was all her, that familiar smell that used to stick to my skin for weeks after I’d paid a midnight visit to Oxford and fucked her. The scent that almost me drove me insane for days afterwards until I was back between her legs again. That rose perfume she always wore.

“You have no idea who these fucks were?” I asked, about two seconds from climbing onto the bed and fucking her again. She was alive, and the devil had sent her here, all for me to possess. A gift for doing his work to perfection.

It had been too fucking long. I needed to feel her under me, clawing at my back and raking at my hair. Telling me to fuck her harder—then I’d know she was still fucking alive. I didn’t care if she was bruised and beaten; the dark part inside me just needed to be inside her to know she was good. That these balaclava-wearing twats hadn’t ruined her. Hurt her, killed her.

The daft cunts had no idea they’d just put a fucking Adley bounty on their heads.

“None,” she said, ripping me from my head, bringing me back down to earth. She stared off at nothing. “I didn’t even know the business was in trouble, that my dad was dealing with dangerous people again.” I knew the “again” came from the fact Cheska’s old man had dealt with mine in the past. A loan. That was how we’d met. Dear old Daddy had taken a loan from my old man, and he was late with the repayment. So, Alfie Adley paid Mr Wright a visit, and I’d crashed into his fucking daughter with the force of an asteroid colliding with Earth. Cheska’s dad took his little virginal princess and placed her directly in my line of sight. Made a fucked-up East End boy take notice of her forbidden posh-as-fuck arse. The future dark lord finding his innocent little goddess, biding his time until he stole her right from under Daddy’s neglectful gaze and brought her to the dark side.