Where Demons Fear to Tread Read Online Free PDF

famous American ballerina, Nick had been in the public eye since his birth twenty-six years ago. His parents’ messy divorce had sent Nick bouncing between Sao Paulo and New York, cared for by a long string of nannies before finally being relegated to boarding school in Connecticut. His parents reasoned that they had given him everything a child could want.
    Everything but their attention. And that was the thing Nick seemed to crave. Ironically, the higher Nick’s star rose, the more his success alienated his parents. The more famous he became, the more they viewed him with distaste, eschewing the roles he picked as cheap and commercial. To numb the pain of their rejection, Nick had started on a string of benders that had turned the spotlight away from his acting career, and onto his now-legendary partying.
    Now, Julian watched the bare-chested young man baying at the crowd.
    Yes, Nick’s star was teetering on the brink. If it fell, it would fall a long way down.
    All the way to hell, Julian hoped.
    However, right now, what Julian wanted was information. Specifically, he wanted the name of the little angel who had just departed Devil’s Paradise. In three seconds flat, Julian put a halt to Nick’s table-dancing show, located his shirt and sat him in a booth. Humans were so easy to manipulate, Julian thought. Especially humans who were coked to the gills. Nick’s pupils were huge, dilated against the bloodshot whites of his eyes. His gaze flickered wildly, unable to focus on one point for longer than a few seconds.
    Nick’s female dance partners also settled into the booth. Julian motioned for one of them to move. She did, but her heavy-lidded gaze told him she’d rather sit on top of him, not beside him.
    “Julian Ascher,” he announced. “I’m the owner of this place.” He popped the cork off the champagne, eliciting a squeal from the girls.
    The girl next to Julian leaned in to give him a view of her generous cleavage. She said, “I’ve seen your picture in magazines. You dated Brooke Bentley just before she cracked, right?”
    Julian nodded, settling against the scarlet leather. He had all but forgotten about Brooke, a gorgeous young pop idol whose records had gone triple platinum after several hits. Poor, debauched Brooke was now living in a mental institution after their brief affair. Another resounding success on Julian’s part. He turned to Nick and said, “A friend of yours came looking for you earlier tonight. A little blonde. Innocent as a newborn dove. Ring a bell?”
    Nick shot out of his seat. “Serena St. Clair? Where is she?” His dark eyes zigzagged across the crowd, seeking her.
    Serena . So that was her name, an ironic reminder of his beloved city. La Serenissima.
    “She left,” Julian said, masking his interest. “Didn’t seem to be feeling too well. But she said to say hello.”
    Nick dropped back into his seat, like a disappointed little boy who had lost his favorite toy. “Did you talk to her?”
    “Yes. She was sorry she had to go without seeing you.” Julian smiled.
    “That blows. I’m so in love with her,” said Nick. The girl beside him pouted, but he simply ignored her.
    Nick and Serena in love… Julian felt his jaw clenching beneath his tight smile. He wanted to kill Nick Ramirez now, to cut his body into a million pieces and send him straight to hell without any of the usual preliminaries. But he forced himself to speak civilly. “Tell me more,” he said.
    “What’s to tell? You saw her, right? She’s hot. Even hotter than Brooke Bentley. I’m telling you, dude, it was love at first sight.”
    “So she’s in love with you?” Julian asked, in a tone he hoped conveyed boredom. The girls looked disappointed, so he poured some more champagne into their glasses to keep them quiet.
    He sat back and frowned, assessing what lay beneath Nick’s dark good looks. That slick Hollywood smile hid a nasty coke habit and a penchant for hookers, the pricier the better in both