by Goode, Ella
“That sounds like a good thing?”
“You’re a stupid naïve little girl,” she spits at me. Holy cow she’s mad. “And you’re going to fix this for me and Ashford.” Who is Ashford? Sara grabs my wrist and starts pulling me. “I was going to be at his side. We were going to rule this city together. Until you ruined it all for us.”
From the wild look in Sara’s eyes, I’m not sure she’s all there. I’ve never seen her act this way.
“Maybe we could talk to Mom about this,” I try to reason with her, but she keeps pulling me. I try to jerk my arm back, but it doesn't work. I almost fall on my face in the process.
“No, you’ll fix it. You’re the only one that can.” I start to panic, realizing that she’s headed for the back door. She puts her hand on the scanner to unlock the door. The sun floods into the hallway, blinding me.
“Sara, think about this please. There is no way I can fix this. You’re just going to get yourself killed,” I plead with her. Aidon spared her life once, and based on the conversation we had only moments ago in the car, I know he wouldn’t do it again. Especially now that she’s putting me in danger.
“The only one dying today is you.”
Chapter 20
Aidon
“Let’s get down to business,” I say to Karin Vieth.
“I want six months.”
“For what?” I look down at the plate of desserts set in front of me and wonder if they’re poisoned and whether I want to risk it over a piece of lemon meringue pie that has a cloud of meringue so high that it defies gravity.
“Don’t play coy.”
Would Karin Vieth poison her son-in-law? Yes, the answer is an absolute yes. I allow my fork to clatter to the tabletop before addressing Vieth. “I have no clue what you’re talking about. I’m here to talk territory and free passage for your girls. My region is bigger, but you have a plum spot here in Midtown that everyone wants a piece of since it’s a nice shortcut from my compound to the bay. I don’t need but a small collection of buildings—say four or five. No one’s going to stay here permanently,” I add as she is about to object. “It’ll be a safe house for my men if they need it during a run. You won’t even notice they’re around.”
“I highly doubt that, but a single safe house is acceptable, not four or five. You can have an apartment in the Henry Building. It has good sight lines from the fifth floor up to the tenth. There are only four entrances, and each room is equipped with exterior access. As for my girls, we want use of the Anders Center, weaponry training for the few that have asked, full information share, and six months.”
“The first one is fine. Have fun at the Center.” The Center is a boys’ club built for the men. They train there. They fuck there. They bond there. Kailler hated it and said that it smelled like a men’s locker room that hadn’t been cleaned for a year. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t stepped foot inside that space since Chu handed me his kingdom. No one wants their boss in a private space. “No on the full information share, but if you want to know something, ask and I’ll probably tell you. I have no problem passing on shit that might affect your business. Now what the fuck is this six months all about?”
“How do you know if your information affects my business? It’s best you give me all the data so that I can make the decision, and six months is how long Cora will stay with me here in Midtown.” Acting as if she didn’t just drop a bomb on my nuts, Karin Vieth pours me a cup of coffee and then adds a lump of sugar to “sweeten me up.”
“The hell you say.” I get to my feet, but before I can tell Vieth exactly where she can stick her meringue pie, the door to the sitting room flies open. The girl that greeted Cora races inside. Breathless and nearly hysterical, she screams, “Cora’s gone. She’s gone.”
“What?” Karin and I both shout.
“Sara was going to take her to Cora’s room but when I went to deliver this—” The girl raises a tray of pie and coffee that I notice that she’s carrying for the first time. It’s the same damn pie that’s on my plate, too. Maybe Vieth wasn’t trying to poison me. Sara, though, why does her name sound—my jaw hardens.
“Sara’s the one who killed Poppy.” I grab the fork and have it against Vieth’s throat in less time than it takes for her to draw a breath. I squeeze the thin woman’s windpipe tight. “Where the fuck is my wife?”
“I don’t know, you asshole,” Vieth gasps. “Let me go so I can find my daughter.”
I press the tines under her chin so sharp that the skin is starting to whiten around the pressure. One hard jab and this is going into her jaw and she’ll be drinking her meals for the rest of her fucking life. “I’ll find her. Where the hell is she?”
“I don’t know.” Vieth claws at my grip. A game of strength is not one that Vieth can win. She’ll be dead before she hits the floor. “I sent Cora to seduce you in hopes that you would fall in love with her and we could unite our organizations. Why would I take her away from you? All I want in exchange is six months—half the year. She’s my daughter, for fuck’s sake. She needs us, and we need her.”
There’s a lot of sincerity in Vieth’s eyes, but she’s a con woman who has held power for nearly twenty years.
“What will Cora say if you kill her mother? She’ll never let you touch her again,” Vieth argues.
She’s not wrong. “Fuck,” I curse and release Vieth. She drops to the floor, hacking her lungs out. I draw my gun out and point it at the tray-holding girl. “Where is my wife? I’m only asking once more. Any delays and I start killing everyone here.”
“Sara has a hideaway at Piper’s Park,” the girl blubbers. “It’s on the edge of our territory that borders Ashford. She’s been going there a lot for the last couple of months.”
“Ashford,” I repeat. I tuck the gun away. “Kailler!” I bellow. My second materializes at the door, gun in hand. “We need the car. Send someone to Piper’s Park. A Vieth orphan has Cora. They’re plotting with Ashford.”
Kailler nods and starts off at a run. I follow. Bran pulls up just as Kailler and I break through the front of Vieth’s townhome. The side door of the van zips open, and we dive inside. Bran’s accelerating before we have the door shut. “Pole will be at Piper’s Park in five minutes. Do you want him to go in?”
“Have him identify whether Cora is there. If she is, don’t go in. If she isn’t, take the whole building down.”
“Someone’s following us.”
“It’s Karin Vieth. Pay no attention to her.” Cora is mine, which means I protect her. I haven’t done a good job. I let my guard down. I thought Vieth wouldn’t allow this snake into her garden, but I was wrong. I won’t make that mistake again.
Chapter 21
Cora
I can’t believe Sara is doing this. I’m so not getting to go out on date night with Aidon. I think what upsets me more than anything is that my mom has always been so good to her. The same way she is to all the girls. I’ve heard so many of the girls’ stories over the years. Everything from the places they’ve come from to the things they had to endure before my mom found them. It had often made me wonder if I ever wanted out of the cage my mom kept me in.
Sara must be having some sort of break. That’s the only explanation as to why she would betray my mother. I try to remember what Sara’s story is. For some reason I can’t seem to come up with anything. I’m close to a lot of the girls, but as far as Sara’s backstory, I seem to be drawing a blank.
Her face has turned from angry to excited as the car we’re in gets farther away from my mom's warehouse. She thinks she’s gotten away with taking me. But I know better. Not only will my mom be coming for me, but Aidon will burn down this entire town in order to find me.
“Mom is not going to be happy about this.” I say the one thing that gets everyone to sit up a little straighter. It’s not only out of fear, but many don’t want to disappoint her either. She practically raised most of these girls since they were teenagers. They really do look at her as a mother figu
re.
“Fuck her.” That excitement falls from her face. “You’re so stupid thinking you’re special. All the girls think it really. I don’t get it.” She rolls her eyes. “Cora is so sweet. Whenever I’m not feeling great Cora can always make me smile.” She mimics the other girls. “Did you see that Cora made sprinkle cookies for all of us!?” She screams the last part in my face.
“Someone doesn't like sprinkle cookies.”
She smacks me. I reach up, cupping my throbbing cheek. I know in this moment there is no saving Sara. I can tell from the look in her eyes that she knows it too.
“Your mom used you. Don’t you get that? She made you into this little virgin sacrifice to get herself more land. To save her own skin when the great Aidon came knocking. You’ve been her insurance. She used you the same way she uses us all. She’s no different from the men. At least at a man’s side you could be their queen.”
We stare at each other for a long moment. Did my mom use me? Maybe, I suppose. I was happy for once to try and do my part. To be a part of the rest of the girls. I would have done it to save any of them. The truth is my husband could have burned the whole warehouse down with all of us inside of it, including myself.
“I swear there is nothing in that brain of yours.” She grabs a bag, pulling it down over my head as a phone starts to ring. “I got her! I told you I could do it.” She coos the last part. I have no idea who she is talking to. Not that it matters. Whoever it is will be dead soon too, courtesy of my mother and husband. Let’s not forget Kailler. I’m sure she’s itching to off somebody, and this will give her an excuse.
The only thing I pray is that this doesn't somehow have my husband and mother trying to kill each other. If something did happen to me, many would die.
“Why are you yelling at me?” Sara starts to pout to whoever she is talking to. I’m guessing it’s the man that is going to make her his queen. I think she should have picked herself another king. “We’re here. See you soon. I love-” She pauses. “He hung up on me. Jerk.”
I hear the sound of the door opening seconds before I’m pulled out of the back of the car. I stumble and fall over my feet, my knees hitting the concrete. I cry out in pain. Someone is going to pay for that. Sara jerks me back to my feet, dragging me quickly until I’m standing upright again. She continues to push me until we get inside. I fall onto a sofa.
“Secure the area,” she orders.
“Someone is coming in fast,” is the last thing I can make out before the world explodes around me.
The next thing I know I’m being grabbed and pulled. I know someone is carrying me. I don’t know if I should fight or not. Then I hear my mother’s voice and know it’s her. The bag is ripped off my head. I look up to see my husband. His eyes run up and down me, not missing a thing. I see nothing of the man I love right now. His eyes are dark, and his jaw is set in a hard line.
“Get her out of here.” His words send a chill down my spine because I know they mean he’s about to bring down his wrath. I watch as Aidon turns, storming off. My heart drops.
“Sara is mine,” my mom says before she’s moving again. She puts me in the back of an SUV, getting in with me.
“He’s mad.”
“Good,” Mom clips back. “He’ll do what needs to be done.” She turns to look at me. Her face goes soft as she takes my hand. “I’m sorry.” Whoever is driving actually jerks the SUV, getting a growl from my mom.
“You didn’t know Sara was going to do that,” I reason.
“Not for that.” She’s quiet for a long moment. “I never planned you.”
“I kind of figured that,” I tease her, squeezing her hand. It gets me another soft smile.
“I had no plans to keep you. Then I heard your heartbeat. It was the first pure thing I’d heard in my life. Then you were here. You remind me every day that we aren’t born with cruelty. You were half me and half Jason, but still the sweetest creature, proving cruelty is taught.” My heart hurts for her.
“Mom.”
“I gave you to him.”
“You had to. He would have killed us all.”
“I was stupid. I should have seen this coming. If I’d never taken Sara in, then Poppy never would have died. Then-”
“Stop,” I shout. “We all make sacrifices being a part of a family. We all play roles. You might be angry with yourself, but I’ve never loved you more. I’ve never been loved more.” She grabs me, pulling me in for a long hug. “Now we’ll go home and I’ll make sprinkle cookies and wait for my husband to return,” I say.
I know he will return. I’ll never forget that chilling look in his eyes. The man I love was no longer there for a moment. I know only my love can restore him when he returns to me tonight. He was right. He really is more deadly with me at his side.
Chapter 22
Aidon
“I don’t know what that bitch told you,” Ashford sputters through the black burlap tied around his head. His feet clatter against the stairs as he tries to gain some kind of physical leverage. Ever since we snatched him trying to enter the house, he’s not had his feet firmly on the ground. We’ve carried or dragged the man around by his hair. Clumps of it are coming off from the force of his resistance. Too bad.
At the bottom of the stairs, I pull the two hundred pound man across the concrete and throw him onto the ground. Kailler and Bran quickly secure his tied legs and hands to metal rings bolted into the concrete. Ashford tries to move but finds no give in the Zipties. Plastic is surprisingly resilient.
“No one had to tell us anything, Ashford. You showing up after one of the Vieth orphans kidnapped my wife is all I needed to see to know that you deserved a visit here.” I give a chin nod, and Kailler pulls off Ashford’s hood.
He blinks like an owl and tries to make out the figures in the room. It’s dark, and there are only a few lights in the corners, making it hard for anyone to make out much but the stone walls and the low ceiling.
“The basement, Aidon?” Ashford clicks his tongue. “Seems a bit predictable, no?”
“Why reinvent the wheel?” I knock my fist against the wall. “We’re two floors down from the street, and no one will be able to hear you cry like a baby. It’s really for your benefit, Ashford.”
In the distance, I hear the sounds of a grate being opened followed by the roar of a fire. Ashford flinches.
“I see you’re familiar with the sound of a furnace. No organization is fully functional without one.”
Fear skates across his face, but he manages to paste on a smile. “I wonder what Karin Vieth uses. Acid seems like a woman’s tool.”
“From what I heard, the Vieth orphans let their victims rot away in their own filth.”
“Working smarter not harder, am I right?” Ashford laughs. It’s a little high-pitched at the end. He’s growing hysterical as the realization sets about how few options he has. He struggles against the bonds for a few worthless seconds before addressing me. “What do you want?”
“There’s no point in bargaining with me. I can take whatever you have.”
“You must want me alive for some reason,” Ashford argues. “Tell me the reason, and I’ll find the answer for you.”
“Tell me the story of you, Sara, and Poppy.”
“Untie my hands, and I will,” he tries to bargain.
I nod my head at Bran, who walks over to Ashford, his heavy boots thumping loudly against the cement. Ashford tries to scramble away when he sees Bran unzip his pants. “What the f—" is all he gets out before Bran unloads a shower of piss onto Ashford’s head. The man screams and tries to move out of the way. Some of Bran’s piss gets into Ashford’s mouth, and he starts to spit and gag. Kailler coughs into her fist, trying to cover a laugh. Ashford’s gelled-back hair starts to lose some of its perfect shape under the urine shower.
Bran melts away into the shadows.
“Fuck you, Aidon Kasteros” Ashford curses. “That’s a low blow.”
“You don’t deserve more. Tell
me the story.”
“Or what? You’ll piss on me again?”
This time when Bran appears, he’s gloved and masked, carrying a bucket. Ashford’s eyes widen, and he again tries to fruitlessly struggle. Bran kneels near Ashford and uncovers the pail. The man recoils from the smell. This time, Kailler uses her fist to cover her nose. The noxious gas of the shit bucket fills the air. Bran covers the bucket up, but the scent still lingers.
“Bran will force feed you this until you’re ready to talk.”
Ashford falls silent. I know he’s debating whether I’m serious. I could let the wheels in his brain churn until he comes up with an answer, but I’m not confident he’s done bargaining, and I want to get upstairs to Cora, so I give the silent order for Bran to continue. He shoves the cover aside and dips a gloved hand into the pail.
“This bucket is courtesy of the mounted police unit on the west side. They have an excess of horseshit and are always happy to give some of it away. I felt it was appropriate for you since there always seems to be shit falling out of your mouth.”
I nod and Bran shoves his coated palm against Ashford’s face. He tries to keep his mouth shut, but Bran jabs a finger inside it. Ashford tries to retaliate by biting down, but Bran’s gloves are made of flexible metal, the kind that line cooks wear to chop shit. Ashford’s more likely to break a tooth than hurt Bran.
“Another, Bran,” I order.
“Wait. Wait.” Ashford gags. “I’ll talk. Give me some fucking water.”
Kailler picks up a hose, and when Bran moves out of the way, she opens up on Ashford. He’s happy at first and then when the force of the water hits him like a fist, he shakes his head violently. “Stop,” he screams. “Stop. Fucking stop!”
Kailler looks at me, and I give her the go ahead to cut off the water. Ashford slumps forward. It’s hard to say whether his face is wet from tears or Kailler’s fire hose.
“Go on,” I say because this is tiresome shit.