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I don’t know what Nero’s going to ask me to do.
I don’t know what I’m willing to do.
Nero’s club is in the upmarket area of Brawley, in an old bank building – one of his first acquisitions outside of Tartarus Oaks. I don’t know what I’m expecting when I knock on the door of the Vault, but it isn’t the girl with glasses and high cheekbones and swinging black ponytail who answers my knock. “Welcome to the Vault. You must be Eli. I’m Livvie. Come on in.”
Livvie throws open the door, and I hurry inside. I stand in a grand entrance hall, carpeted in plush crimson. There’s a gleaming mahogany reception desk and old-fashioned mailboxes on the wall behind it.
I follow Livvie up a sweeping flight of stairs. She chatters about the history of the building and how Nero acquired it from the old bank and saved it from being demolished. Most of what she says flies over my head. She wears a tight pencil skirt and white tailored shirt, stockings with seams down the calves that I make a note to suggest Claudia wears because wow, and patent leather pumps with a stiletto so sharp it means business. There’s something about her that seems familiar, but I can’t place it.
“The main nightclub is downstairs on the old bank floor. The second and third levels are reserved for private functions and VIP guests.” Livvie throws open a door to show me a small room decked out like a Romanov castle, complete with a sitting area, a private bar, and an enormous king bed. “Above here are our offices, and we keep the animals in the basement.”
“What kind of animals?”
“Wanna see?” Livvie’s crimson lips curl into a salacious smile.
“Shouldn’t I meet the trainers, do a safety course, get a tour of the facility…”
“I think you might be confused about the type of operation we’re running. Let’s go.” Livvie grabs my hand and drags me into an old-fashioned elevator, pulling the ornate wrought-iron cage shut behind us. She does a little dance as she hits the buttons and inserts an old-fashioned key to take us to the basement level, all the while keeping up a running commentary about Nero’s clubs and films and how excited she is to work with me.
I never expected to see someone so… enthusiastic about a crime empire.
We emerge from the elevator into a narrow corridor filled with boxes and giant bags of dog food and animal feed. Judging by the delightful smell, much of it is past its use-by date.
Livvie navigates this biohazard with finesse in her insane shoes and leads me down a narrow staircase. Another smell rises up to greet me – the heady musk of manure and rancid meat. My stomach twists.
We emerge into a long, low room. Flickering fluorescent bulbs hang over glass and metal cages lining the walls. Racks of weapons, harnesses, and handling equipment, as well as tranquilizers fit for use at Jurassic Park stand by the door, but I’m drawn past them to what’s inside the cages.
In the first, a fully-grown lion walks in slow circles. His mane is matted, the fur caked in hard tufts of filth. In another, two baboons scratch at each other, their bodies covered in bare patches where they rubbed their skin raw. A white tiger slumps on the cold concrete with barely enough room to turn around, while in the glass box opposite, three tiny tiger cubs cry for her.
My throat constricts as their cries reach my ears. I put my hand up to the glass as they paw at it in desperation. They’re so tiny, their little faces and flat noses reminding me of Gizmo. But while she has a huge house and garden to play in, these guys have a filthy eight foot box.
I stagger back and turn in circles, unable to comprehend the horror of it. So many animals crammed into tiny cages. At the end of the row, another glass enclosure holds a mottled lump on a single rock. I step closer, my breath catching, as the lump moves.
“Is that… a python?”
Livvie presses her nose against the glass. “Yup. This is Essie. She’s an African rock python, about eight feet long. She has a real personality. Amazing, right?”
No, Livvie. Amazing is not the word.
I hold my breath against the smell as we walk along the row of misery. I see more lions, tigers, snakes, wolves, even a small black bear who bangs his head against the basement wall. They look like they’ve never seen sunlight or felt love. I didn’t think anything could affect me after Claudia was shot, but this…
CRASH.
I leap back as the white tiger slams her body against the cage, baring her teeth at me. I know enough about big cats to know that’s not normal. Her ribs stick out from her body. She’s starving.
I think about the lion in the arena at the Colosseum tearing that man apart. I’ve watched enough David Attenborough documentaries to know a lion would normally run away or cower in an environment like that. Being kept like this in a permanent state of starvation… these animals are being trained to be killers.
We reach the end of the basement. I brace myself against the wall as Livvie unlocks another door. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“The smell takes some getting used to.” Livvie waves her hand inside the other room. “This is the clinic. It’s where we treat sick animals, and it doubles as storage. I’ve got you a keycard that’ll open this.”
“I don’t think I can do this.”
“Even a pretty boy like you knows how to use a keycard. Swipe card, type in code, wait for click, door opens.” She pulls the heavy steel door open and grins at me. “Easy.”
My knees wobble. “These animals… this is cruel. I can’t be a part of this.”
Livvie’s crimson lips set in a firm line as she studies my face. She glances over her shoulder, then grabs my arm and yanks me inside the clinic, slamming the door shut behind her.
