by Stasia Black
And what, exactly, was she supposed to do with that?
Twenty-Four
Cora was exquisite in the red velvet dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. Marcus stopped in her doorway and watched as she put on her earrings. She was so beautiful, it almost hurt to look at her. She smoothed down the skirt of the dress, eyeing herself in the mirror and touching her earrings, double checking they were fastened correctly.
From the slight crinkle in her brow, Marcus could tell that she wasn’t seeing what he was seeing. At first he thought it was an affectation—her pretending not to know the effect of her beauty. But he’d slowly realized she genuinely didn’t see it. She considered herself plain. Ordinary. Her mom had really done a number on her. She didn’t know how special she truly was.
Marcus wasn’t sure if he looked forward to the day she finally realized it or not. With enough time, would she be spoiled and corrupted like everything else in this city?
No, the answer came to him almost as swiftly as the question had.
Cora wasn’t like anyone else he’d ever known. She wasn’t afraid of him and she didn’t want anything from him, apart from the obvious, to be rid of him. He couldn’t help the smile quirking his lips at the thought.
And now?
Now that he’d felt her soften and go pliant underneath his touch, even knowing all she did about him? Could he ever let her go?
Again the answer came swiftly.
Never.
He cleared his throat and Cora jolted, spinning around to look his way.
“The driver is waiting with the car.”
Cora nodded. “Of course. Let me get my shawl.”
Marcus had it over his forearm and he held it out to her. It was a luxurious mink shawl and he draped it around her shoulders.
He wrapped it around her and captured her arms with it, pulling her back against his chest and dropping his nose to the back of her neck. Her hair was done up, exposing the area.
He inhaled deeply and dropped a kiss right behind her ear. “You look exquisite tonight,” he breathed.
“T-thank you,” she stuttered.
Marcus smiled against the back of her neck, held her captive another moment, and finally let her go.
“Come,” he said, finally pulling back. “We don’t want to miss the opening act.”
She nodded but Marcus didn’t miss the way her breath hitched.
She turned and he took her arm, guiding her out of the penthouse and to where the driver was waiting outside the lobby with the Bentley.
Neither of them said a word until Marcus had her tucked safely in the back of the car.
When Marcus spoke, Cora looked over at him in surprise. “Cora, I want you to know…” He was usually quiet in the car. It was one of the few places where all the noise and people wanting his time and attention stopped.
But right now, he was more interested in Cora. He wanted to make her understand.
“I wasn’t always like this.”
Cora’s eyebrows knit together and she didn’t say anything but he definitely had her attention.
“Growing up, my father always wanted the best for his family. He would’ve done anything for my mother and us kids. But he was an immigrant and powerless to stand up to the Titan family. They used to run the streets.”
Now he definitely had Cora’s attention.
“The so-called ‘protection tax’ the Titans asked for ate up almost all my father’s income. Everyone else’s too. So my father decided to do something. He hadn’t come to this land only to be poor and starving like in the old country.”
Cora hadn’t taken her eyes off him.
“And Gino Ubeli was a natural leader. He built the outfit up from nothing and within five years, he was challenging the Titans for territory. It was all out war. The Titans had held a monopoly over New Olympus for decades by that point, but their supremacy had made them lax in enforcement.”
“It was Karl, Ian, and Alexander’s father who had created the Titan Empire, they were just the heirs. They’d never fought for territory before and they were laughably bad at holding onto it.”
Cora swallowed hard but she didn’t avert her gaze, not even when he said her father’s name. Karl.
“They thought to crack down by becoming more vicious in their collection endeavors. They went after not only the men who owed them but their families. It had the opposite effect they intended. Because my father promised people that he lived by a Code. No one would suffer but the sinners themselves. The innocent would be left out of it.”
Marcus’s eyes drifted to the window as he thought of Chiara. “My father held fast to his Code until the day he died.”
Marcus shifted his gaze back to Cora. “The Titans, however, lived by no such Code.”
“Chiara,” Cora said.
Marcus nodded but he couldn’t say more about his sister. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. “Anyway, that’s how it began. I took over for my father and I tried to enforce his Code. It might not be anything you could ever believe, but I do what I do to keep those like Chiara safe.” Even as he said it, though, he felt his own hypocrisy. Because no one was more like Chiara than the woman sitting on the seat beside him.
Cora’s small hand found his.
He pulled away. What was wrong with her? How could she look at him like that, with eyes brimming full of sympathy? Her family and his were natural enemies from the day both of them had been born.
She had no business looking at him with understanding. Especially after what he’d done to her.
He didn’t even know why he was saying all this. Why was he trying to pretend that he was anything other than what he was?
“Forget about it.”
“No. No, Marcus, no.”
She grabbed his hand again. “You look at me this time.” He looked at her if only because nobody else had the balls to try to order him around like that.
“I’m so sorry for what happened to your sister, Marcus. I’m so sorry that any of this happened. We should have met in a different world where you were just a man and I was just a woman.”
He shook his head but he couldn’t help reaching out and caressing a thumb down her face and over the apple of her cheek. So much of his life dedicated to protecting it and he’d almost forgotten what it looked like—true innocence.
“You’re a marvel,” he murmured.
He continued tracing with his thumb, over to her mouth and across her plump bottom lip. She sucked in a sharp gasp at his touch.
He smiled. She was so affected by him. Even when she’d professed to hate him, she’d always been so affected.
The devil in him drove him to thrust his thumb between those sweet lips. This was her effect on him. It was impossible to see her innocence without wanting to have it all to himself.
Her tongue darted forward to lick the pad of his thumb in her mouth and immediately his dress slacks became uncomfortably tight.
He only pulled back with reluctance. As much as he’d like to shove that fancy dress up and pull her into his lap, he didn’t trust that he wouldn’t rip the damn thing off considering the things he felt like doing to her. And he wanted to give her this night.
She loved the theater. She lit up reading the stupid brochure the night of the auction. The desire to put her needs first was a strange impulse he felt himself giving into more and more.
He was glad when they arrived on Theater Row and the driver pulled to a stop. Sometimes the train of his own thoughts around Cora unsettled him.
Several of his Shades approached the car as he helped Cora out. He raised his chin to each of them, all men he trusted. They would be on guard at all times tonight both in and outside the theater. Sharo was still lying low.
Marcus took Cora’s arm as they headed into the theater. It was the largest and grandest theater on the Row, with a huge marquee all lit up with flashing bulbs. Marcus wanted to hustle Cora inside but she’d stopped, staring up at it all, her eyes wide, perfect lips parted, gl
owing like a goddess.
Marcus stood there drinking her in for a moment. Too long a moment. It wasn’t safe here out on the street. Marcus frowned and grabbed her arm more firmly.
“Let’s go,” he ordered gruffly.
Cora huffed, obviously annoyed at him but he ignored her. She never understood even the basics of what it took to stay safe in a city like this. Obviously. She’d walked right into his waiting clutches when he was so obviously a lion and she a lamb.
Well she might not have any instinct for self-preservation but he did, and he’d keep her safe no matter what. Safe from everyone but him.
He led her up the grand, red carpeted staircase and down the secluded hallway to the balcony of the box seats. Ushers looked at them as if to ask about their tickets but as soon as they got close enough and recognized Marcus’s face, they simply dropped their heads and scurried away again.
Box seats weren’t always the best seats in the house but they were in this theater. Marcus helped Cora settle into the front row of the box seat that provided a perfect, unimpeded view of the entire stage and orchestra.
Even though nothing was happening yet, Cora seemed mesmerized, using the tiny binoculars to look at all the people who were arriving.
“Everyone looks so fancy,” she whispered, breathless.
Marcus smiled at her. Her neck was long and elegant with her hair done up like that. He followed the lines down to her creamy chest and the smallest peek of cleavage afforded by the elegant gown. He could barely wait until later tonight. He could imagine it, what the buttery soft velvet would feel like under his skin as he grabbed her around the waist and slowly, slowly slid down the zipper at the back, unwrapping his prize.
“Oh, sorry,” Cora said, dropping the little bronze binoculars and holding them out to him. “Did you want to look?”
“Everything I want to look at I see just fine,” he murmured, taking another slow perusal of her body up and down.
Her cheeks flushed such a pretty pink in contrast to the pale of the rest of her face. She was so young and fresh, like an unplucked petal.
“What am I going to do with you?”
Her eyebrows wrinkled the tiniest bit and Marcus could have sworn he saw a quiver to her lip. Her features were full of unchecked emotion and vulnerability. As if a word from him could make or break her.
Foolish girl. Foolish, foolish girl.
But how could he berate her for it when it was what he lo—
He shook his head—when it was what he appreciated about her most?
But he was disturbed enough by his almost mental slip up to turn away from her. Luckily the lights around the theater began to dim at the same time.
“The show is about to start,” he said unnecessarily, lifting a hand and running it through the back of his hair.
He was glad when darkness settled completely over the box and lights focused down on the stage.
The play was a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Marcus had sat through it before but not paid much attention to the narrative. The theater was a nice, respectable place to meet up with contacts who didn’t feel comfortable coming to visit the Underworld.
He couldn’t say he was getting much more out of the show this time around, either. It was much more fascinating to watch the play of emotions on Cora’s face instead.
Her hands clutched the wooden railing of the box seat as she bent over, mesmerized for the entire production. At the end, copious tears poured down her cheeks and she jumped to her feet, clapping furiously.
She wasn’t shy about sharing her thoughts, either. As soon as the lights came back up, she was talking a mile a minute.
“If she’d just woken up a minute sooner,” she gushed, tears still wet on her cheeks. “Or if he hadn’t been so stupid and rash in killing himself like that. And nobody should rely on a stupid bike messenger when it’s about life and death! What were they thinking?!”
Marcus nodded to his Shades as they exited the theater, putting his hand to the small of Cora’s back and leading her to the car that was waiting at the curb.
“How did you not even tear up?” Cora exclaimed, pausing on the sidewalk. “Did you not just watch the same play that I did?”
Did she know how kissable she looked when she was in a pique?
Marcus smiled down at her. “In the car,” was all he said.
Cora shook her head at him but scooted into the car after he held open the door for her.
He got in and instructed the driver, “Take us back to the Estate.” The driver’s head dipped, formal as always with his round chauffeur’s cap firmly in place.
“I mean Juliet was so sweet and smart, Romeo should’ve known she would’ve found another way to be with him. If only he would’ve trusted her—”
Marcus silenced her with a kiss. He’d wanted to do it since midway through the first act when she’d begun biting that luscious bottom lip in anxiety over the lovers on stage.
He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and nipped at it with his teeth until a petite little groan escaped her throat. Fuck, yes. It was so easy to lose himself in her. In the feel of her soft body molded to his as he laid her down across the backseat. In the taste of her on his lips.
She was so innocent. Good. Pure…
Except for the ways he alone could defile her. No other man would ever hear those little breathy aroused noises she made. No one else would ever revel in her delighted giggle as they ran their stubbled cheek along her neck.
He would never let her go. She was his, for always.
She’d come into his life like the sun bursting through the clouds after a long, frozen winter. He’d tried to deny it. He hadn’t wanted to admit how precious she was to him. He’d been so blinded by his agenda and his thirst for revenge but now…
He looked down at the face that brought him so much… He shook his head as he pulled back and brushed a wisp of hair behind her ear.
“Cora, these last couple of months with you… I never thought that I…”
Her eyes searched back and forth between his. “You never thought that you…?”
She looked like her life depended on what he was about to say next.
But something had caught his eye out the window—First Athens Bank? Why were they on Athena Boulevard? They were supposed to be heading east out of the city to get back to the Estate.
Marcus frowned and looked in the rearview to try to catch the driver’s eye. As if feeling his gaze, the driver glanced back at him.
The eyes were feminine and he didn’t have any female Shades.
Shi—
It all happened so fast. The driver stomped on the brakes and the car wheels screeched, Marcus barely had time to wrap his arms around Cora, and they were both thrown forward against the seat in front of them. At least Cora always put her seatbelt on and the driver’s seat stopped Marcus from flying too far forward, although it hurt like a son of a bitch when he rammed into it. Cora’s terrified scream filled the car.
Marcus didn’t bother shouting. There was no time. He had to focus. He had to get Cora out of there. As soon as the car stopped—
The car finally came to a stop and Marcus struggled with Cora’s seatbelt to get it undone.
“Take your hands off her. Hands up.”
“Mom? What are you doing?!”
Marcus turned and there she was. Demi Titan, pulling off the chauffeur’s hat that had hidden all her dark brown hair and tossing it to the side.
She held a sizable pistol, the barrel pointed straight at Marcus’s chest.
“Cora, get out of the car,” Demi ordered.
“Mom, put the gun down!”
Demi never took her eyes off of Marcus even as her voice got sharper with her daughter. “Get out of the car now or the gods help me, Cora, you won’t like the consequences.”
Marcus already had reason to hate this woman but her treatment of Cora only cemented it. If he moved quick enough, he could jam the gun upwards and even if she got a round off,
it would land harmlessly in the—
“Tell your sister I send my fondest regards,” Demi said. “Poetic justice, if you think about it. Mine was the last face she ever saw, too.”
Wait, what? She’d killed Chiara—
“Mama! No! I love—”
Two things happened at once, simultaneously really. It was a moment Marcus would live and relive over and over again in his memory. Why hadn’t he seen what Cora had? Why hadn’t he realized that Demi was done eulogizing?
Because there was the explosion of a gun firing right at the same time as Cora’s body slammed into Marcus’s.
Demi’s agonized scream only reinforced what his brain refused to process.
No.
Cora hadn’t really just jumped in front of a bullet for him.
She wasn’t that foolish.
But when he pushed her back onto the seat, her face was ghostly pale and, though not immediately visible against the red velvet of her dress, his hand came away slick with her blood when he touched the left side of her chest.
Demi had thrown away the gun and was screaming and reaching back to try to get to her daughter, but Marcus shoved her away.
“Drive! She’s going into shock, get us to New Olympian General. We’re five minutes out.”
Blood streamed down Cora’s bare arm now and pooled on the leather seat underneath her.
Marcus put pressure on the wound. “Stay with me. Cora, do you hear me?” he barked. “Stay with me, dammit!”
Cora’s dazed eyes drifted towards him but he wasn’t sure she heard him at all. Fuck!
“Drive faster,” he shouted to the front.
Demi didn’t say anything but she did run the next red light, barely skirting past an oncoming car. Marcus didn’t care. Cora’s breath was labored and her eyes were erratic.
“Stay with me. Stay with me, Cora.” It was all he could say. He kept chanting it until it was a prayer.
She couldn’t leave him. She couldn’t fucking leave him now that he’d found her. He couldn’t go back to—to— There was no life for him without her in it.
“We’re here,” Demi called and Marcus looked up to see that they were indeed at the hospital, at the emergency room entrance. Demi pulled the car all the way up to the entrance and several emergency room techs ran out.