Page 79 of The Voicemail

It’s a small movement, but it says everything we need.

“Vespero is confirmed,” I say.

Luca turns and starts issuing orders.

Nico pushes himself up onto one elbow. “You need me alive.”

“I needed you to be loyal,” I tell him through clenched teeth. “No loyalty, no life.”

His face pales.

I nod to the men behind him. “Take him downstairs.”

“No.” Nico’s voice cracks. “Wait.”

I turn away.

“I know something about Elena.”

My body goes still without my permission. The room falls quiet.

I turn back slowly. “What did you say?”

Nico is breathing hard now. He’s found the thing he thinks will keep him alive, and he’s trying not to look relieved.

“I know something about Elena,” he repeats. “Something you don’t.”

I walk back to him. “If this is another lie, I’ll cut your tongue out before I kill you.”

“It’s not.”

“Well then, what is it?”

He looks at the men around us. “I want your word first. Promise I walk out of here alive.”

“That’s a large request for someone who betrayed his own blood.”

“You can hardly call what I did a betrayal.” He tries to sound brave. It comes out desperate and pathetic.

Luca takes a step toward him. “I’ll kill you right now if you don’t shut up.”

Nico keeps his eyes on me.

“Stay out of this, Luca. This is family business.”

I hit him again. Not as hard, but hard enough. He falls back, breathing through his teeth, but he laughs like he has already won.

“That doesn’t change what I know.”

I crouch beside him. There are many things I can survive. Betrayal. Blood. War. Guilt. What I can’t survive is not knowing something that might help Elena, and Nico knows it. That is the only reason he’s still breathing.

“If what you tell me isn’t worth your life,” I say, “my word means nothing.”

“I- swear it’s worth my life.”

I stare at him. In another world, I might admire the nerve. In this one, I want to open him from throat to hip.

“You live,” I say finally. “For now.”