All Chapters of Made for the Devil's Pleasure: Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

144 Chapters

An unexpected meeting

RENEE"You do know that you can't stay indoors forever, right?"Iris said it gently, setting a mug of coffee down in front of me at her kitchen table, though we both already knew it wasn't really a criticism. It was just the truth, laid out plainly, the way Iris always preferred to do it."I know." I wrapped my hands around the mug, grateful for the warmth of it. "I'm working on it."My landlord hadn't exactly been sympathetic to the fact that I had disappeared to another continent for nearly two weeks without a word of explanation. By the time I'd made it back to Dubai, my things were already sitting in a heap outside my old apartment door, most of it picked over or ruined by the time Iris managed to get there and salvage what she could. What remained now sat in neat, sad little boxes stacked against the wall of her spare room, where Emma and I had been camping out ever since.It wasn't ideal. But it was safe, and it was free, and for the moment, that was more than enough.I spent mo

The attack

SERGEI"Pakhan, you need to see this."The call came in just after midnight, and I was already pulling on my jacket before the man on the other end had finished the sentence. He sounded completely on edge and I knew that it had to be something serious.It had been quiet since the burial. Unsettlingly quiet, if I was being honest with myself. Nearly a week now since the council handed the Orlov assets back over and confirmed Maxim in Mikhail's old seat, and in that time, business had continued moving with a smoothness I hadn't fully trusted from the very first day.I hadn't expected an immediate strike, not this soon, not with the council's ink barely dry on the decision. But I hadn't expected this level of silence either. Silence, in this world, rarely meant peace. More often, it meant someone was taking their time deciding exactly how to make the next move count.I'd been on the verge of telling Nikolai to head home, back to Katya instead of this whole mess. Perhaps I had been over t

Max and the date

RENEE"Where have you been?"Emma was curled up on Iris' couch when I walked through the door, still in her pajamas despite the hour, and Iris wasn't far behind her, emerging from the kitchen with a raised eyebrow and a spoon still in her hand.“Work.” I said without much conviction.“That’s a lie.” She said instantly. “Your shift ended a couple of hours ago.”"Alright, fine… there's this guy," I said, dropping my bag by the door and flopping down onto the couch beside Emma. "At the bar. He asked me out for a drink.""He asked you out for a drink," Iris repeated slowly, "when you were both already standing in a bar."I laughed, shaking my head. "I know how it sounds. It was cheesy. But also kind of cute, honestly."I saw them exchange glances for a brief second."So, tell us everything," Emma said, sitting up properly now, clearly far more invested in this development now.Taking a deep breath, I told them everything that had happened and how the whole night progressed from just rando

Your move, Sergei

SERGEI"One of my facilities was attacked two nights ago."I stood at the head of the council table, my voice carrying flat and even across the room despite the fury still simmering just beneath the surface, threatening to break through with every word"Burned to the ground," I continued. "Every unit of product inside, gone. Six of my men lost in the fire before we could get it under control. Every indication points to a coordinated, deliberate hit. Not a robbery. Whoever did this wanted nothing except to watch it burn."Silence settled over the table for a long moment."And you're bringing this to us because?" Andrei finally asked,"Because I believe someone in this room, or someone closely tied to it, ordered it."The room shifted instantly. Murmurs rippled around the table, several of the older men exchanging. I'd expected some resistance walking in here. I hadn't expected the sheer speed with which the temperature in that room turned against me."Are you throwing accusations at us

The Yacht

RENEEThe yacht was massive, sleek white decking stretching out beneath my feet, the marina lights reflecting off the water in long, wavering streaks as Max led me aboard. But the whole thing was eerily quiet. No music thumping from below deck, no crowd of laughing strangers or anything. Just the soft lapping of waves against the hull and the low hum of the engine somewhere beneath us."I thought this was supposed to be a party." I said,Max turned to face me, an easy, unbothered grin already spreading across his face. "I lied about the party.""Excuse me?""There isn't one." He shrugged, entirely unashamed of himself. "I just needed an excuse to see you again tonight. That, and I wanted to show off the boat a little. Figured it might help my case, considering I'm still very much trying to convince you I'm worth your time."I laughed despite myself, shaking my head. "That's incredibly presumptuous of you.""I prefer confident.""It's a nice boat," I admitted, glancing around."I do ha

Twice kidnapped

SERGEI"It has to have been Max."I was pacing the length of my study, phone gripped so tightly in my hand that I could feel my own pulse hammering against it. "Nobody else would be bold enough to make a move like this. Straight at her. Straight at a civilian with absolutely no connection to any of this beyond me."Nikolai sat in the chair by the window, watching me wear a groove into the carpet.I stopped, dragging a hand through my hair."He is exactly like his fucking father. Involving civilians, dragging innocent people into things that have nothing to do with them, just to make a point. The attack on my facility, I could have stood for that. That's business. That's the world we live in. But this?" I shook my head, fury climbing hot up my throat. "This is preposterous."I'd already tried Emma's number four times in the last twenty minutes. Straight to voicemail every single time. Iris hadn't picked up either, and the growing silence on both ends was doing nothing to help the sick,

Just the beginning

Renee's eyes fluttered open to unfamiliar ceiling tiles, her head pounding with a dull, heavy ache that made the room tilt slightly even though she hadn't moved yet.For a long moment, she simply lay there, blinking, trying to make sense of the soft grey light filtering in through a window somewhere to her left. Her mouth felt dry and cottony in a way that had nothing to do with the wine she remembered drinking.Wine. The yacht. The stars overhead. The kiss.Max.The memory clicked into place all at once, and her stomach dropped straight through the mattress beneath her. She sat up too fast, her vision swimming, and only then registered the cold metal biting into her wrist, a set of handcuffs securing her to a metal bar attached to the headboard."Good to see you're awake."She whipped her head toward the voice, finding him seated in a chair pulled into the far corner of the room, one leg crossed casually over the other, watching her with an expression that held none of the warmth he'

Fall in line

The alley was quiet, tucked behind a row of shuttered shops on the edge of the industrial district, exactly the kind of place nobody bothered looking twice at. Maxim sat in the back of his car, engine idling low, watching the mouth of the alley through the tinted window as he waited.It was already quite late and he hated being here so much. He hated these meetings even more.“This motherfucker is keeping me waiting.” He cursed underneath his breath.A figure emerged a few minutes later, hands in the pockets of an unremarkable grey coat, and slid into the seat across from him without waiting for an invitation.They stared at each other for a long moment before either of them spoke."I heard you weren't in the country," the man said finally, looking Maxim over. "You know you can't just leave like that without informing us first.""I had business to take care of." Maxim kept his voice even, though something tight had already settled behind his eyes. "Besides, I was told I have free rein

Find her

SERGEI"I can't believe this." Nikolai shook his head slowly, disgust plain across his face as he stared down at the file still spread open across my desk, page after page of documented meetings, signed agreements. "A rat. Sitting at the head of our council, passing information to the Feds this entire time. That is the lowest of the low, Sergei. Lower than anything Viktor ever did, and that's saying something."I sat back in my chair, still working through the shock of it myself, reading back over the same page for the third time in a row, as though the words might somehow rearrange themselves into something less damning if I simply stared at them hard enough.When Nikolai’s man had sent the initial document over the phone, I thought it was a lie, but staring at them physically now."You're absolutely sure about this source?" I asked, looking up at him finally."Positive." Nikolai crossed his arms, leaning against the edge of my desk, his expression grim but certain. "Every single dea

A pattern of misfortune

RENEEI lay there on that unfamiliar bed, wrist still cuffed to the metal bar above my head, staring up at the ceiling and running through every single decision that had led me to this exact moment.The bar. That fucking yacht and the wine. I shouldn’t have consented to any of it.I should have fucking known all of this was too good to be true.That had always been the pattern, hadn't it? Every time something good drifted into my life, it turned out to be built on rot underneath, waiting to collapse the second I let my guard down enough to actually enjoy it. Sergei. And now this. Max. Maxim. Whatever I was supposed to call him.I was still turning that thought over, twisting the sheets between my fingers in frustration, when the door opened and he walked in, carrying a tray with what looked like an actual decent meal balanced across it.He set it down on the small table near the bed without a word, and I stared at it, then at him, refusing to reach for it despite how loudly my stomach

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