“You know who I am?”
“Everyone knows who you are. You’re Cassius Ferragamo of the Coldlake Syndicate.”
The drugs seem to have worn off and she’s no longer slurring, but she is shivering in fear.
“Then you’ll know I’m not a gangster. I’m a businessman. A lot of people who work for me are women and I treat them well.”
Scared, injured women aren’t good for business. Happy women smile. They dance better. They fuck better. They earn better money in my strip bars and sex clubs.
“Do you make Chiara work for you?”
“Of course I fucking don’t,” I growl. Let other men fuck my woman for money? I’ve endured rumors about myself since I became one of Francesco Fiore’s captains at the age of twenty-four, but people saying that I’m whoring Chiara out is on another fucking level.
“Do you know what makes me happy, Nicole?”
“What?”
“Chiara.”
Nicole takes a shaky breath. “What does happiness even mean to someone like you?”
“The same thing that it means to everyone. That the people I love are safe and taken care of.”
“Chiara isn’t happy. She never wanted to marry Salvatore, and then you kidnapped her. You’ve all been horrible to her. You’re monsters.”
Only the five of us know what the past few months have meant to all of us. It’s been bloody, it’s been brutal, and it’s been beautiful.
“Even villains have hearts.” Big hearts, to go with our ambitious plans and desires.
“Where was your heart when Chiara was being forced to marry Salvatore Fiore, and you kidnapped her from her wedding?”
I gaze across the darkened, decrepit kitchen, picturing Chiara in her beautiful white wedding gown, the veil in her golden hair that tumbled down her back. She clutched her bouquet of flowers and turned to me in a rustle of silk, her eyes wide and her lips parted. A beautiful bride, just eighteen years old and mine for the taking.
I scooped her up in my arms and walked out of that church with her, and I never looked back.
“My heart was lost, but Chiara found it. She found all our hearts.”
Nicole is silent and I think that she’s not going to reply, but she says in a tear-filled voice, “She did? That’s…if anyone could find your hearts, she could. Chiara always saw the best in everyone.”
Nicole dissolves into pitiful sobbing. I put my palm against the cabinet door, wondering if I should open it. “Nicole?”
Vinicius appears in the doorway and hisses, “Why is she crying? What did you do?”
I gesticulate angrily and whisper, “I don’t know! She just started crying.”
“Chiara is the best friend I ever had and I turned my back on her when she needed me,” Nicole sobs. “I didn’t want to, but Dad made me. She’s never going to forgive me.”
Vinicius comes over and crouches next to the cabinet door. “Nicole, it’s Vinicius. I promise you that when Chiara gets here, all she’s going to be is grateful that you’re alive. Please tell us what happened here tonight and where you’ve been.”
But Nicole goes on crying quietly, brokenly, and doesn’t reply. We’ll just have to wait for Chiara.
I send a text to the group chat. We’re still at the abandoned building. Nicole’s hiding in a cupboard and she won’t come out. We need Chiara. Have you killed everyone at Strife yet?
I hope they have. Fucking Acid. Fucking Thane. Fucking Zagreus. I said all along that Lasher is the only one of the Strife men who’s worth anything. The other three are slippery bastards who don’t give a fuck about Coldlake and anyone in it except for themselves.
A message comes through from Salvatore. Not yet.
Then hurry up, I send.
A moment later Salvatore replies, Be there in ten.
I sigh and shove my phone in my pocket. Why do I get the feeling that Acid and the others aren’t going to pay for this with their lives? After what they did tonight and the danger they put Chiara in, their blood and entrails should be painting the broken concrete outside their shitty bar.
Scava, I’m disappointed in you.
A few minutes later, we hear the purr of an engine. It cuts out and car doors slam. There are quick footsteps and Chiara hurries through the door as I get to my feet. Her eyes are wide and bewildered and she grasps my shoulder and touches my cheek as I pull her into my arms.
“Bambina, are you all right? Did they hurt you?”
“I’m absolutely fine. Where’s Nicole?”
I step aside and point to the kitchen cabinet, and Chiara drops to her knees and calls softly through the wood.
“Nicole? It’s me. Nicole, please come out.”
I turn to Scava and say under my breath, “What happened at Strife?”
“I’ll explain later,” he says through clenched teeth. Salvatore is standing in the doorway and gazing at Chiara. The only person who could stop these men from doing what they set out to do is the small blonde woman who’s currently sitting on the floor with her hands pressed against a cabinet door.
“Nicole? Please talk to me.”
A hesitant voice carries through the wood. “Chiara?”
Chiara’s eyes widen and fill with tears. “It is you. You’re alive. Oh, my God, you’re alive. Please come out. I promise no one is going to hurt you.”
Slowly, the cabinet door creaks open. A head with dark hair appears, and a tear-streaked face. Nicole’s eyes lock with Chiara’s, and both girls throw their arms around each other, shoulders shaking with sobs.
“You’re alive.”
Nicole buries her face in Chiara’s shoulder and cries, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”
The four of us stand over the girls and exchange glances. The I’m sorries bother me. What does Nicole have to be sorry about?
“I tried to stop them, but they wouldn’t listen to me.” Nicole pulls away from Chiara and her petrified gaze darts from one of us to the next. “I never wanted to do it. Please don’t kill me.”
5
Chiara
“No one’s going to hurt you,” I assure my friend. “You’re safe now. Come on, we’ve got to get you out of here. We’ll take you somewhere safe. Lorenzo?”
I look to the blond man for permission to bring her to the compound. His jaw is tight, and it looks like he’s tempted to put his gun to Nicole’s head and demand she tell us what the fuck is going on right this second, but he nods.
Cassius steps forward and helps me to my feet. “Chiara, you and Nicole come with me. Scava, lead the way, and the two of you follow behind. Keep your weapons handy. He’s still out there, somewhere.”
A shiver goes down my spine. The Black Orchid Killer. He was here tonight. He nearly took Lorenzo prisoner, and Salvatore was going to kill his friend rather than let him be tortured to death like his sister. If Nicole had a part in this plan then I don’t know what I’m going to do.
We have to know what she knows. It could be the answer to everything.