Chapter 53 Paimon, The enforcer
The man spat blood at me and I shot him in the leg. He screamed.
"Talk!"
"I don't know! They don't tell us shit!"
I shot him again and moved on.
Then I saw him. A guard running toward the far end of the warehouse, panic written all over his face. He was fleeing, but not toward an exit.
"Stop him!" I shouted.
We gave chase, weaving through the maze of containers. The guard reached a panel on the wall and slammed his hand against a red button.
Sirens wailed.
Doors I hadn't noticed began rolling open. More guards flooded in, at least twenty of them, heavily armed.
And at their front stood a man who looked different from the others. He was older and more composed. He had the bearing of someone who'd seen combat and had survived it.
He smiled when he saw me.
"Paimon," he said, his voice carrying over the chaos. "Finally. I was beginning to think you'd lost your touch."
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Someone whose life you destroyed. But that doesn't matter now." He gestured to his men. "By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging for your life."
I looked at Jeffery beside me. Looked at my men flanking us and looked at the enemy force in front of us, outnumbering us.
Then I looked back at their leader and smiled but it wasn't a pleasant smile.
"Let's see who begs for their life," I said.
And then I opened fire.
Celene's POV
The information about Cole Ryder kept replaying in my mind like a broken record. The man had said so much... the information was too much to bear or understand all at once.
Paimon, The demon of death and enforcer for the Buenaventura mafia family.
It was hard to believe that the person I thought I knew was actually a killer, torturer and a monster.
The man pacing in front of me wouldn't shut up. He kept talking, taunting, and telling me how Cole had destroyed his family, how he'd waited years for this moment, how sweet revenge tasted.
I'd begged.
Like God, I'd begged so much that my throat was now sore. I'd pleaded for my life, for mercy, and for him to let me go. I'd promised I meant nothing to Cole, that he wouldn't come for me, that I wasn't worth whatever vendetta he had planned but he didn't listen.
Nothing worked.
My body was still tied up and it ached from where he'd hit me. My lip was split, and I could taste blood in my mouth. I was exhausted, terrified and completely trapped.
And somewhere in that exhaustion and terror, something inside me shifted.
If I was going to die here, in this cold warehouse, tied to a chair by a man whose name I didn't even know, then I wasn't going to die begging again.
I was going to die fighting.
"You know what?" I said, my voice hoarse but steady. "You talk too much."
The man stopped pacing and turned to look at me. "What did you say?"
"I said you talk too much. All this whining about revenge and how Cole destroyed your life. It's pathetic."
His face darkened. "Watch your mouth, girl."
"Or what? You'll hit me again?" I laughed, even though it hurt. "You're going to kill me anyway, right? Might as well tell you what I really think."
He took a step toward me. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't I? You're a weak man and a coward. You couldn't get your revenge on your own, so you had to use me. An innocent woman who has nothing to do with your little vendetta." I leaned forward as much as the ropes would allow. "You had to wait all these years until I came into the picture so you could use me as bait. That's stupid."
His hand landed on my face and my head snapped to the side, stars exploding in my vision.
"Shut up!"
I turned back to look at him, smiling through bloody teeth. "See? You are weak. You can't even handle the truth."
"I said shut up!" He hit me again, harder this time.
"You're nothing," I spat. "You're so insignificant that the only way you could even get Cole's attention was by kidnapping me. And you know what the funniest part is?"
"What?" he snarled.
"He's not coming. You think I'm important to him? I'm nobody. He won't choose me over his own life. So go ahead and kill me yourself, because that's the only power you have here. The power to kill a defenseless woman tied to a chair."
He grabbed my chin roughly, forcing me to look at him. "When Cole Ryder gets here, and he will come, I'm going to make him choose. You or his life and when he chooses himself, when he watches you die, that's when I'll have my revenge."
"You're delusional," I said. "Cole Ryder is a killer. A monster, remember? You said so yourself. Monsters don't save people, they destroy them. He'll probably thank you for getting rid of me."
His grip tightened. "You don't believe that."
"I don't know what to believe anymore. All I know is that you're a coward who couldn't face Cole man to man. You had to hide behind a woman's skirt to get what you want. What a child"
He backhanded me so hard I saw black for a moment. Then again and again. Each hit sent jolts of pain through my skull.
"I'm more important than you'll ever be," I managed to gasp out between hits. "At least people will mourn me but who's going to mourn you?"
"Shut your mouth!"
"Make me, coward. Kill me yourself if you have the guts. Oh wait, you don't. You need Cole here to witness it, don't you? Because without an audience, you're nothing."
He hit me one more time, and I felt something warm trickle down from my nose. It was blood. Everything hurt. My vision was blurring but I kept smiling to taunt him.
At least I'd gotten under his skin.
Then we started hearing gunshots, shouting and the sounds of a fight echoing through the warehouse.
I started laughing even though it hurt my ribs, face and everything, but I couldn't stop.
"That's him," I said, my voice barely above a whisper though quite surprised even though part of me knew he'd come. "That's Cole. You better prepare say your last prayer because you are so going to die a terrible death."
The man's face went pale, probably not knowing Cole would come this quick. He turned to one of his guards. "You! Untie her! We need to use her as leverage!"
The guard rushed over and started fumbling with the ropes binding every part of my body, wrist, leg and all.
The door at the far end of the warehouse exploded inward.
A body came flying through it, hitting the wall with such force I heard bones crack. The guard collapsed and didn't move again.
The man trying to untie me froze and everyone in the room pulled out their guns. Even my kidnapper, who'd been so confident moments ago, looked shaken.
My eyes were heavy, soooo heavy. The beating had taken everything out of me but I forced them to stay open, forced myself to look toward the entrance.
And there he was, Cole Ryder.