KnockingonDemon'sDoor by Unknown (ink ebook reader .TXT) 📗

goings-on in the underground caverns. Otherwise, why would a hotel owner need this kind of protection?

From what Blake could tell Trevor had inherited the resort from his deceased brother a few years ago, right around the time the girls started going missing, or started dying on the slopes as most believed. At least that was how the dates on the coroner’s reports read. Blake suspected that something entirely different was going on and concluded that whatever underhanded dealings Trevor had been involved in before, he must have brought them with him. That, and his connections ran deep.

One of the guards opened the door, turned sideways and cleared a path. Blake stepped through the threshold and glanced around, his gaze coming to rest on the burly man sitting behind a massive mahogany desk.

Trevor smiled and motioned him forward. “Ash,” he said. “Right on time.”

As Blake met the man’s steely eyes, he put on his best “loyal employee” face. “Five o’clock means five o’clock, sir. Anything else is unacceptable.”

That seemed to please him. “So it is, so it is. Please have a seat.”

Blake lowered himself into the plush chair across from Trevor and noted the rather large file with his name on it.

Trevor tapped a thick finger on the manila file and got right to the point. “So it seems you’ve had a run in with the law a time or two. Probably have a real hate for cops.”

“Yes, sir. I hope that doesn’t affect my position—”

Trevor leaned forward, his pale, cold eyes cutting him off. “Oh but it does.”

“Sir, it—“

Trevor held his hand up. “Relax, Ash. What it gets you is a promotion.”

Blake didn’t have to fake relief as his mind raced, pleased at the prospect of being brought into Trevor’s organization. It was his ticket to uncovering the truth, finding his sister and exposing this place for whatever it really was.

“A promotion?”

“You see, Ash.” Trevor paused to push back in his chair. The leather squeaked under his weight. “I’ve been watching you. Carefully.” With a nod, Trevor glanced at the door where his guards stood waiting. “Had Lex and Neal watching you too, and you’re just the man I’ve been looking for.”

Blake offered him his best hardass face. “No matter what it is, I’m your man.”

Trevor flashed a grin and said, “That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.” He stood. “Come with me.”

Blake, along with the two guards, followed Trevor to the bowels of the hotel where they met with two other guards. Blake had seen the guards traveling to and from the basement numerous times before, but had never gone beyond the hotel boundaries himself. After all, very little got past him and he’d been kicking around long enough to know that Trevor and his goons had been watching him, which was why he’d never attempted to explore the underground himself. He was trying to prove his loyalties, and if he got caught snooping, it would surely blow his chance of being brought into the organization.

A long cold cinder-block corridor led them to a back room. Trevor nodded to the guard to open the door. Once inside it took two locked knees to keep Blake upright, and an iron-clad stomach to keep his lunch down. Fuck, no… In less than a heartbeat, Blake had figured out what the sick bastard was up to.

Shivers moved down his spine and he felt like he’d been sucker-punched as he surveyed his surrounding and took in the bed, props and camera equipment. As emotions rose sure and swift, they clogged his throat and caused his insides to shake. He worked to tamp down his emotions. Jesus Christ, now was certainly not the time to let his demon loose. He needed all his human wits about him and couldn’t afford to let his defenses down if he was going to protect the innocents and save them from Trevor’s monstrous hands.

As his blood curdled and everything inside him dictated that he rip these three to shreds here and now, he worked to school his features. Fuck, there was a special place in hell for guys like Trevor. Blake vowed then and there to make sure no woman ever set foot in the place again. His new mission was to expose the bastard and make sure Lucifer lavished him with the kind of attention a bastard like Trevor truly deserved.

His nostrils flared, his body tightened, and with effort, he resisted the urge to blink his eyes in distress as he thought about the suffering Trevor was inflicting upon all these innocent girls. And so help him, if he’d touched a hair on his sister’s head, he’d personally torture the monster until he prayed for death.

Trevor turned to speak to one of the guards and Blake took that opportunity to pull himself together. Trying for casual, yet feeling anything but under the circumstances, Blake drew deep breaths, straightened his shoulders and tried to keep the disdain from his voice when he turned back to face his boss. “Nice place you got here.”

Trevor laughed, the sound menacing. “I thought you might like it.” He shot Lex a glance and ordered, “Roll the reel.”

Oh, sweet fuck, no…

Lex dimmed the lights, pulled down a projection screen and flicked on the projector.

Blake’s nostrils flared. Knowing Trevor was carefully gauging his reactions, he folded his hands under his arms and widened his stance to keep himself from wavering. It took all his effort to keep himself together and fight the urge to look away. For one agonizing minute he listened to screams wailing from a nearby speaker and it took every ounce of human willpower he possessed not to let the rage unfurling inside him take over. The sound boiled his blood and raised his anger to near uncontrollable proportions. But soon those screams turned into tiny sobs and those tiny sobs ended on a gasp. Instantly, his vision went fuzzy around the edges. As his entire world tilted on its axis equal mixtures of sadness and shock moved through him. Fuck,