Misted (Team Zero #5) by Rina Kent

“Scar,” I say. “Do you have something to tell me?”

She has attention deficiency and needs to be reminded all the time.

“Right!” She claps her hands and faces me. “Mist is in Le Salon — Bitch — I made sure she knew I’m here for you while she isn’t.”

Not that she cares.

“Hawk,” Eloise says tentatively with more pronounced French accent. “I only knew you guys for a short while, but I think all of you are misjudging Mist. The day you were shot, Crow and I found her crying while compressing your wound and begging you to come back. I never saw someone so broken as she was.”

That’s the fucking thing about Mist. She cries for you, she breaks your fucking heart with those tears, then she stabs you in the bloody back.

“Right!” Scar claps her hands again. “I remember what I want to tell you, Hawky! Flame called me on the plane and told me that Mist struck some kind of deal with Hades. Ink is out!”

It’s insane how one’s life can dim from light to pitch black in one single day.

It happened all those years ago, and now, it’s repeating itself.

The only difference is that I have nothing to lose now. I’m ready to self-destruct if it means I’ll bring her down with me.





29





Mist





Your pain has always been my own, but I’ll pay back in full.



I stand in an abandoned warehouse, wearing a black dress, veil and heels. It’s as if I’m dressed for a funeral. I’m ready for that – or anything – at this point.

Ink appears unfazed about everything in his surroundings. He’s perched on a brunette – one of his disciples – tattooing what looks like a bird on her left arse cheek.

Black leather gloves cover his hands, but his dress code is elegant; pressed trousers and pristine button down dress shirt. Even his leather shoes are Italian.

The only thing that stand out from his businessman appearance is the tattoo gun and his long blonde hair that’s gathered in a messy bun at his nape. Every now and then, he pauses the low humming of the tattoo gun to inhale from a joint.

Although he’s tall, Ink has always been the leanest amongst Team Zero’s men – and that’s only because he believes that cunning is better than brute force. Though he’s one of the scariest when he does use force.

His pretty boy charms always got him anywhere and everywhere he wanted. I don’t think he used his full force in years. His disciples — or Ink’s Clan — kill his targets for him while he sat back and relaxed.

Until he was taken by Hades.

I expected to find him beaten up and bruised – like when Hawk came out – but he’s as pretty as ever and tattooing away as if nothing happened.

“Were you even taken by Hades?” I cross my arms under my chest. I put every fucking thing on the line to get him out. If I did it for nothing, then some necks will be broken.

“Who knows? Whose truth is the actual truth, eh?” He blows smoke from his weed joint and goes back to marking the girl’s skin – who I swear has been holding back her moans the entire time.

“Ink,” I warn.

“He was taken,” the girl says on his behalf. “We just made sure to supply him with Omega whenever we could.”

“Thanks for that, sweetheart.” He grins and smacks her unmarked arse cheek. This time, she does moan. The memory of Hawk spanking my arse hums through my body and it takes considerable effort to bottle the reaction down.

“So?” I ask.

Ink smacks her arse again. “Go take a break, sweetheart. I'll be with you in a bit.”

“Thank you so much for getting him out.” She addresses me, grins at Ink and saunters out of the warehouse, not even bothering to cover her lower half.

Ink taps on where she used to lie. “How about I make you something? I have a wild idea in mind.”

“No, thanks.” I bite out, my patience starting to run low. “You know what I’m here for.”

He hops on the seat I refused, throws his tattoo gun on a worn out table and draws from his cigarette. I’m getting a better view of his eyes and they’re glassed over like a washed out blue sea. He’s on Omega all right.

“What did you offer Hades on behalf of letting me go?” he asks.

“Doesn’t matter. Tell me what I need.”

“I bet you didn’t even do it for me.” He places a hand on his chest. “You wound my heart, Misty.”

“Do you even have one?”

He grins. “Sometimes.”

“You’re incurable.”

“You flatter me.” He blows a cloud of smoke my way until I’m surrounded by skunk and herb smell. “Hades thinks you killed Nero.”

“I guessed about that much.”

“He has evidence.”

My arms drop to each side of me. “What evidence?”

“Some gun you left in the hotel room Nero was burnt in.” He rubs his lower lip with his pinkie. “I never pegged you as an idiot.”

I did leave my gun in the bathroom, but since it was never mentioned, I thought Hawk got rid of it when he burnt the room.

How come that important piece of evidence has only come out now?

“How do you know all this?” I ask Ink.