Badass Omega [MxM] - A Reimagining of Carmen

Chapter 1 - A Meeting with the Devil

Si tu ne m'aimes pas, je t'aime                           

Mais si je t'aime - si je t'aime -                            

Prends garde à toi!                                                     

If you don't love me, I might still love you

But if I love you - if I love you -

Be on your guard!

- From Carmen, by Bizet

Before

Kit stood face to face with the Devil. And he was starting to get a really bad feeling about it. 

Devlin Novák, a notorious mobster nicknamed the Czech Devil because of his ruthlessness and the way his eyes supposedly flashed red when he killed someone, tilted his head to the side and smiled a close-lipped, cruel smile. 

"Well, well... What do we have here?"

He had dismissed those rumours, but now chills crept up Kit's spine as the lean, handsome man stared at down him. The mobster had silver hair swept away from his face, straight eyebrows, and high, angled cheekbones. 

Even though he had to be in his mid thirties at least, his face looked surprisingly young. Except for the hair he could be a man in his twenties. 

Glancing away from him, Kit's eyes skimmed over the four other men in this poorly lit warehouse. Two of them wore black T-shirts and the other two white button-ups. 

All four were pushing away from a tall stack of cardboard boxes taking up a third of the floor space, putting out their cigarettes, and spreading out to form a loose circle around Kit, surrounding him. He stood no higher than the shoulder of the shortest man. 

Kit eyed the handguns they wore on their belts and glanced back at Novák. Up close the boy could see that his eyes were mahogany rather than black, with a burgundy gleam. That must be why people said they looked red. 

Clad in an dark, tailored suit hugging his slim waist and broad shoulders, he looked like he should be on the cover of a magazine instead of fencing stolen goods. 

It should be illegal for someone so evil to look that good, Kit thought. 

According to the police and Kit's private investigator, Devlin Novák was a mid-level mobster from the Czech Republic with a shady past as a thief and murderer in Moscow. He had served several stints in prison. No-one knew when he had come to San Fransisco or what he was doing here. 

"My name is Christopher Callaghan, and I'm here to talk business."

Although shorter than two of the other men, Novák stood out as the unrivalled centre of attention. The patchy light outlined his sharp nose and pale skin. His posture looked relaxed and graceful, yet ready to strike, confident as a cat with a mouse between his paws. 

This is the man that got Charlie killed, Kit thought.

And if he wasn't responsible, then he knew who was. That was the reason the young man had voluntarily walked into this dodgy warehouse late at night to seek an audience with one of the most notorious men in the city.  

It was dangerous, but the only thing he had to lose was his life. And that seemed to be dropping in value by the minute. 

"Business? Is this really the time and place?"