The Guru: Shadow (Dark Triad #1)

18. Emma

18

EMMA

PLAYLIST: DANCE WITH THE DEVIL – MADISON DAVENPORT

“ E mma. Stop!” shouted Deis after her. “If you leave now, you’ll never get your revenge.”

With one hand on the door handle, she froze.

Revenge? What revenge?

“Deis if you mess with me, I–” She turned around very slowly.

“You’ll what? Make my life hell?”

“Something like that, yes.”

“I like it when you threaten me, now come. We are leaving.”

“No.”

He’s a manipulator, a strategist.

He knows what drives me.

If I go with him, I will end up like Carl one day.

Because this man is a hunter, a killer.

And yet there is this part of me that craves him, unable to resist him.

He walked over to her, coming so near her that the hot air leaving his mouth blew against her lips while he stroked b ack a strand of her hair.

“So many no’s today.”

“Respect my boundaries then.”

“Oh, I do, if I didn’t, I would’ve fucked you the day we met and your ex wouldn’t wander on this earth any longer.”

His words reached her, and she should run. She really should. But instead, a lighting of arousal struck through her.

Gods, get a grip on yourself, didn’t you hear his last words?

A dark smirk ran over his face.

“Good,” he whispered, and his lips kissed her so softly on the forehead. She melted into his touch, her eyes closed from the electrifying surge whirling through her body.

“Now, come. It is time for your revenge.”

Unable to say what made her do it, she just let herself be pushed outside.

Outside stood the black G-Class, the driver greeted her with a short nod. Something about him was weird, but she couldn’t grasp what it was. It gave her the feeling that he wasn’t just a driver.

“Some cleaning to do,” said Deis silently to the driver. Obviously, he didn’t want her to hear, but she had amazing hearing abilities.

“Greg is already on standby.”

“You are going to vanish him?” She rounded on him in fear, her hand on the door.

“I am,” he said without caring as if it were as normal as ordering a coffee. “Get in.”

It was not normal. None of it was normal. She just shot Julie’s ex-fiancé, Deis killed him, and she still had no fucking clue who he really was. Deis just murdered someone in front of her eyes and was about to get rid of all the evidence.

Something in her revolted, shouting for her to not get in the damn car. The man was everything but the person he let on. At day a guru messing with people’s minds to ‘empower’ them, at night a cold-blooded killer? Something just did not add up. Something just didn’t make sense.

What she needed was time and privacy to look at the phone .

I feel like a fucking villain on a quest for truth. How did I get into this? It started with him staring at me. Did he do it on purpose? Something gave her the distinct feeling it was just as much.

“Deis, who the hell are you?”

He considered her for a second.

“Get in the car, and I’ll show you who I am.”

His words made a shudder run down her spine, leaving her with a feeling of ice spreading through her veins.

Danger. Another manipulation. Don’t do it.

But she did not listen to her inner voice.

She had to know.

Curiosity killed the cat, after all.

So, she climbed onto the seat. The leather, soft like silk under her hands once again. As she glanced around, she saw a tablet on the console separating the seats. On it, was all kinds of data. And as Deis was walking around the car to get in the other side, she just took it. It was her chance to find out more.

At that moment, she felt Carl’s phone in her sleeve, and with a single movement, she slipped it out of her sleeve and into her cross-body bag. To appear as if nothing had happened, she gazed at the tablet.

What she saw made her heart hammer against her chest within a second.

This cannot be.

She rushed through the tabs. Tracing signals, messages, photos. Of her. From her. Her stomach sank to the floor, a big lump was growing in her throat. He monitored her. Closely.

Just when he placed himself on the other rear seat, she opened the files app, and sure enough, she found a folder named after her.

“I see you are not wasting time, ” said Deis, but she did not really hear him. She opened the files in the folder. What she saw made ice run through her veins. There was everything. Certificates. Chats. Archives. Browsing history.

God damnit.

Medical files.

Medical files!

I must get out of here .

He knows everything.

He tracked me from day one.

Her hand reached instinctively for the door, but it did not open.

“Let me out.”

“No,” he said coldly,

“You will let me out immediately!” And she rattled at the opener.

“I thought you wanted revenge? And to know who I am?”

“I don’t give a fuck, let me out,” she ordered him while trying to open the window.

“But you do give a fuck. Because you want to feel alive, and because you have this need for truth. I know you; you want to know.”

He’s playing you.

“I don’t, I’d rather be dead than spend another minute in this car.”

He leaned over the console with a smug grin and grasped her wrist, pulling her towards him. She tried to get away with all her power, but he just whirled her around the console onto his lap, his other arm around her throat.

“Yes, I think you would,” he whispered darkly, against her ear, breathing a strand of hair into her face while he let go of her wrist but tightened the choke with his arm.

Goosebumps appeared on her body as he breathed against her neck like a hunter snigging its prey, and something about it was so carnal, so captivating, she couldn’t help but lean into his grip. It was then that she felt the pressure of his hard cock against her buttocks.

You must fight him.

She tried to remove his arm around her throat, but he was simply too strong. She even tried pinching and pressing her fingernails with all her force into his forearm, but he was utterly unimpressed. It even made him chuckle.

“I needed the files to confirm my theory.”

“What theory?”

“You are different.”

She snorted .

“That’s not hard to figure out, no need for medical records and tapping my phone.”

“I don’t mean the obvious different,” he whispered in her ear so darkly it made a shudder run down her back.

Why does what he does make me so fucking aroused?

“And what did you find in them?” She tried to focus on her anger about him violating her privacy to keep her mind clear.

“All I needed to know.”

“And why did you need to know it?”

There was a pause before he answered, “Your choice of question is quite interesting,” he finally said. “Any other would have asked what I learned, even insisted on it. But you don’t. You ask why. That means, you already know what I found, don’t you?”

Yes, she knew. She knew all the markers in there. The past that fucked her up every day. And as thorough as he was, he’d know too. But what she wanted to know was one single, specific thing. And she needed to hear it.

“I do. Now you tell me why,” she demanded.

“Your honesty is positively refreshing.”

Gods, can’t he just answer one question straight?

“Honesty is a two-way street, so tell me why, and it better be honest.”

“I have a better idea,” he said, quite elated.

“And what would that be?”

He fumbled her phone out of his pocket, unlocked it by holding it in front of her face, and opened the front-facing camera.

“Where did you get that? What the hell are you doing?”

“You know exactly where, as you purposefully turned it back on.”

Yes. But damn.

“Relax into me, let them see that you enjoy yourself.”

She had no clue why she did it, but she gave in to his pull and relaxed into him. His arm around her throat loosened, and he let his hand glide up from her throat to her jaw, which he grasped and pushed towards his face.

And then he leaned in on her and kissed her. Not as heated as before, it was soft as his lips almost caressed over hers, only the tip of his tongue searching sweetly for hers. Funny how a man so dark and dangerous could kiss so sweetly.

“Now, you’ll post it,” he breathed against her lips as their kiss found an end.

He put her phone into her hand, and there they were – at least a dozen photos he had taken during their kiss. Swiping through, one of them blew her away. Seeing herself, it was as if she were a different person.

There were photos of Chris and her kissing, but they were normal ones. A normal couple making silly, normal selfies. The pictures she now had with Deis were different. They consumed the onlooker with core-melting perfectionism and a radiating feeling of lightness.

“How did you do that while kissing me?” she asked him incredulously.

He only chuckled, and it enraged her.

“Can’t you give me one straight answer?”

And he had the audacity to smile down at her. “Link me in the post.”

I…what?

“Therefore, I’d need a handle.”

“You didn’t Google me?”

“I wanted to, but then I got a bit sidetracked, and then I couldn’t care less after all the shit you pulled, and well, maybe I enjoyed the mystery a bit.”

He chuckled, “Doesn’t happen often that I meet people who don’t recognize me. Deis DeBarra.”

Finally, I’ll know.

DeBarra sounded familiar, but she couldn’t pinpoint it. Names in general were never her thing. She just couldn’t remember them.

Opening Instagram, she typed in his name. A small flutter buzzed through her chest and stomach, filled with curiosity and anticipation.

She clicked on the name and gasped.

Holy cow.

She did not care about famous people; it was almost something she hate d. Even as a teenager, while all the others around her had crushes on actors and actresses, she never got it. For her, those people were nothing special, she never wanted fame or to be in the spotlight.

But if she posted the image of him and her, she would be.

“Fifty-six million,” she whispered. “Now I get Julie’s big fish thing.”

He did not respond.

“That’s a lot of people to see us kiss.”

His slightly maniacal laugh behind her made her jump a little, as she hadn’t expected it to be so unhinged.

“And there is your why.”

So, he needed to know that I was what? Different? Not like many others, using him for his money and status?

“Why do I have the impression that’s not all of it?” she asked.

“Because it’s not,” he chuckled.

Of course, it was not.

“So, ready for revenge?”

And when he said it, something in her roared. It would hit Chris full in the face because he was one of those people aiming for fame.

“Any orders for the captions?”

“You’re a big girl, it’s your revenge, not mine.”

What is it about him that makes life seem so weightless sometimes? So playful? Even like a quest. Where all darkness was allowed to exist and the player had all the power.

For a moment, she closed her eyes. Everything in her was a mess. The rollercoaster of emotions in her from the past few days, especially today, made her feel like being put into a tumble dryer on cocaine.

At least my life isn’t boring anymore.

So, if she’d do it, she would forever be associated with Deis. And she’d play right into his cards. He wanted her to do it, so there must be an ulterior plan. But then, all the images of Chris and Sami – them fucking, their wedding pictures, the trip to the hotel she had found – replayed yet again in front of her inner eye.

Yes. It was time for revenge. Whatever the cost .

And she typed in a single red heart. For a second, she glanced up at him in his eyes. They burned with fire. So, she added @deisdebarraofficial and pressed share. Her heart pounded up to her throat the moment she had done it; it was exciting and frightening at the same time.

“Ed, repost it,” ordered Deis. “Em, you wanna bet how far the waves will go?”

“No, because it’ll be much farther than I’m okay with. So how about you tell me what exactly made you that famous?”

“Read my profile, it’s all in there.”

“Oh, I can read, but I can tell from what happened in the past hours that you are not ‘the world’s best life and transformation coach changing everybody’s lives’ to what was it? ‘unlock their fullest potential.’”

“No, I am not,” he said with an audible smirk in his voice.

“So, who are you?”

“That is a tale I wish to tell when we have more time.”

“I have time.”

“No, you don’t. Because we are home.”

Home?

At that very moment, they turned into a garage.

“This is not my home.”

“No, like you said, your home was not a real home.”

“Then, where are we?”

He only chuckled.

It must be his home.

He could’ve asked first, but he didn’t. Because he is not an ‘ask for permission’, nor an ‘ask for forgiveness later’. He’s an ‘orders are followed’ man.

What played in front of her eyes, however, was beyond anything. The garage they just entered screamed wealth. The number of sports cars and rare classics was extraordinary. And all of them were black, like the G-Class.

It was then that she realized that they all must be his.

“Please, for once, Deis, answer straight.” And she pushed herself off his chest to be able to observe every single reaction on his face. “Are you mafia? ”