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I allowed him to sit and stew, watching as Marco gave up everything in his sorry, pathetic little brain. And he watched as James marched Leo into the room when it was over.
Leo’s face was impassive as he saw the mess that was once his brother, and then his gaze flickered over to the man lying on the table. “Are you asking me to take him or join him?”
The answer to that was neither, and I told him so. “I’m asking you to hold up your end of the bargain. This ends today. By tonight, the Romanos are no more. You have until the end of the year to get this city cleared out. You and Rhys have free passage once the task is done, but if we ever catch a hint of your return—”
“Trust me, that’s the last thing either of us wants.” And then he was gone.
The room is quiet now. Marco’s body has been disposed of, and Aldis sits in his place. He’s a little worse for the wear. Ari couldn’t hold in his rage after listening to the way Aldis spoke to our beloved, and I didn’t do much to stop him.
He’s breathing through his mouth now, thanks to a shattered nose, a few broken teeth showing between his parted lips. He knows what’s coming because, as he had the nerve to say when he was speaking to my wife, he’s been serving his place as bitch in this family for a long time.
Crouching down, I meet his gaze though he tries his best to avoid my eyes. “I’m not going to offer you a deal. I’m not interested in making things easier for you. You can confess your sins and die screaming, or you can take them to the grave and go the same way. I’ll find out regardless. You were never smart enough to cover your tracks.”
He sighs and looks at me. “You don’t deserve your title.”
I shrug. “I think the god of death is pretty apt.” I grab his chin, and he struggles to pull away, but he’s too weak now. “You were going to buy her.”
“You have no moral ground to judge me. You did the same fucking thing,” he spits.
I laugh, then drop his face and stand up. “The reason this family worked—the reason people thrived under the Walsh rule—is because we followed a code. Without it, we become like him,” I jerk my chin at Romano. “I know this man disgusts you, but you were in line to buy his daughter.”
“Not his daughter,” Aldis says with a bitter laugh. “And clearly, you’re not as clever as you think you are. Marco’s not the man you should have taken down.”
“You were,” I say, and smile at him when he looks at me with defeat in his eyes. “And now look at you. Getting the jump on me once, Aldis, was pure luck. You had enough money to bribe one little peon who could sneak into our network. We didn’t even keep them alive long enough to ask who hired them.”
Aldis tried to lick his lips, then grimaced. “So why am I still alive?”
“Because you pissed off my psychopath by touching Alice, and he wants to take his time with you. I also want to make sure your son heard enough to understand why you met your end the way you did. He’ll be by to collect your corpse…if he’s in the mood.”
For the first time, Aldis looks afraid.
“Pride goeth before a fall—or some biblical bullshit,” I say, waving my hand. I take a few steps back, wincing at the soreness of my leg and realizing that Aldis was behind that too. He was pulling Guido’s strings in hopes that he could take over when the Romanos fell. That’s why he wanted Alice. I turn to Ari, who’s been watching like a rabid leopard waiting to pounce. “Take his leg first,” I say. “Call it my poetic justice. I have a few calls to make, and I’m going to check up on our princess.”
Ari nods, and part of me wants to kiss him, but I’m liable to have my tongue bitten off, and I don’t feel like seeing the damn surgeon during all of this. Instead, I walk over and cup hischeek, smearing around some of the blood that hasn’t dried all the way.
“Take your time,” I tell him.
Behind me, Aldis sobs, but there’s no pity left in me. There’s just a quiet, sad resignation that everything this man ever did for me was a lie.
I listento the screams for a while after the three calls I had to make, and then I turn it off and find Phoenix in his library. He seems a bit shaken, but I don’t think it’s from the torture. I don’t think it’s from Alice’s rescue either, and I know we’ll all be reeling from that for a while.
It’s likely that we weren’t able to stop the abduction before it happened, though Alice is no worse for the wear. She has a mild concussion, a few bruises, and the swelling in her lip should go down in a day or two.
It’s almost like a rite of passage, but there was a part of me that hadn’t wanted that part of our life to ever touch her, and now it has.
Crossing the dark room, I push Phoenix’s chair back, then urge him to his feet. He drags a little, but he doesn’t put up a fight as I curl around him in the window seat, and I push my nose into his hair, clinging to him as though it might save my sanity.
And maybe it will.
“He’s not going to last much longer,” Phoenix whispers.
“I know.” I kiss his temple. “Aldis was the one who told me that I should be with you. He was the first one who noticed the way I looked at you.”
Phoenix laughs and tips his head up. I can see the light from the moon just outside the window reflecting on the eyes he’s wearing. “He wasn’t the first one. I knew before you did.”
I stroke his cheek and wonder just how much of Phoenix’s blindness rests on Aldis’ shoulders too. Guido was the one who gave the order, but it’s becoming clear that Aldis was the one who gave him the location.
“Do you want some time with him? He’s probably the reason why Guido knew where to send his men.”
