Page 46 of Vicious Kingdom

But as it always did, one little thought of the temptress, and my whole body came alive. Even now, after all this time, she had the power to drive me mad.

“Funny, I’ve never seen you at one of these gatherings, Hertz.” I took a sip of scotch.

Blau swallowed hard, looked between us, and wisely scampered away. As I watched him go, I noticed the bouncers escorting the plebian to the exit. He would be taken upstairs, instead of being allowed to leave through the front door. A cruel trick, thinking he was so close to freedom, and yet so far away.

“Didn’t know this place existed until earlier this week. What a well-kept secret, an elusive gambling hall that most of society seems to know about,” Hertz mused. “I’m so glad I was finally invited.”

The fucker.

It would take one wrong move, and he would be writing an op-ed about this. If only it was possible to shoot annoying people. There would be three dead tonight if that was the case.

Of course, my bullet would only wound, and therefore scare, the jeweler. We didn’t want to lose that business permanently. Plus, the pest was under our protection.

“People won’t take kindly to a journalist snooping,” I said, letting him see my hand. “There are sharks here who would destroy anyone foolish enough to whisper.”

“Don’t worry, Baldwin. My pen is safely at home.”

This interaction was exactly what I needed to remember my revenge. I nearly took this man’s business once before. What he didn’t know was that he had a mole in his company. Anonymous tip sheets arrived every few days from someone pissed at their boss. Hertz was using the media company’s money to fund all sorts of personal ventures. It was only a matter of time before a legal avenue opened up, and I could finally swoop in and gut his empire.

Meanwhile, things between me and the little temptress were an entirely different battlefield. Driving her from the city was more difficult than I anticipated. I’d been busy, which was the excuse I used not to send the pictures to Blitz News. But they were there, ready to send when the time to strike felt right.

When I went to war, I won. This whole family would pay.

“Enjoy your evening, Alfred,” I snapped.

The beast inside paced, begging for a pound of flesh.

And there was only one place to sate the bloodlust tonight. I pushed off the bar and strode to the exit. Sandro was busy and his enforcer’s hands were already wet no doubt. There was no one to stop me going upstairs.

The humidity draped over me like a wet blanket, making the suit cinch around my body. Ripping at the tie, I tugged it viciously from my throat. Quickly checking that I wasn’t followed, I moved around the exterior of the building to the back entrance, where I took the stairs two at a time.

The doors were soundproof, but the moment I pushed inside the interrogation room, sobs and snuffling greeted me. A single trickle of blood ran from the plebian’s split lip.

Dante broke him after one hit.

Pathetic.

“Leo! Get back on the floor,” Sandro barked.

“I’m done.” I walked to the man in the brown suit. “So…you think you can steal from us?”

Sandro groaned. “Now we’ll have to kill him.”

Rotten luck. This man was going to escape our wrath after a beating and a promise never to return until I showed up. Now we couldn’t risk him connecting my presence to the operations of the illegal ring.

Oops.“Guess it’s not your lucky day,” I scoffed, crouching before him.

“Please, signore, I only needed to double my cash.” Those muddy brown eyes looked up at me.

The air sucked sharply through my nostrils. The determination in his gaze was a pleasant surprise.

“What makes you so desperate as to steal from the mob?” I demanded.

“My girl, she’s seven and has refractory leukemia.” The man wiped his nose on the back of his hand. “There’s an experimental drug, but I couldn’t afford it on an elementary teacher’s salary.”

O, dio.What a fucking mess.

The callouses around my heart melted. I didn’t care that this man was going to die…until he mentioned his child.