“Those are yours until I’ve figured out a way to earn them,” I replied. “That’s the way things will have to be with me.”
Shadow looked at the keys and pass card with a furrowed brow.
“Huh,” he muttered.
“Again with the huh?” I replied.
“You’re a stubborn one.”
“I don’t want to be your trophy-two date girlfriend,” I replied. “I earn whatever you give me; period.”
Shadow leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. “Okay,” he said with a glimmer in his dark eyes. “There is one thing I’d love from you.”
“Choose wisely,” I said. “Otherwise this vodka soda and two limes are going right in your face.”
“Relax,” Shadow said. “What I want is nothing sexual in nature.”
“Good,” I said with a stern nod. Though I had to admit, I was slightly disappointed. I had hot flashes picturing his naked body on top of me. However I wasn’t the type of girl to accept bribes for the prize in between my legs. Sex without feelings was pointless to me.
“There are five piano pieces that have always infatuated me,” Shadow said. “I would love an original recording of all five pieces from the Golden Virgin.”
“That’s it? That’s hardly worth the price of a condo.”
“Wait until I tell you what the pieces are,” Shadow said as he grabbed a napkin and removed a pen from his side pocket. After he finished scribbling on the napkin, he handed it to me.
“Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, Boulez’s Second Sonata, Stavinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka, Prokofiev’s Eighth Sonata, and Beethoven’s Sonata Hammerklavier,” I read aloud. I set down the napkin and gave him an evil scowl. “You’re kidding right?”
“No, I want for you to perfect these five songs and record them. Not one mistake allowed in the recordings.”
“You picked the five fucking hardest pieces in all of piano. People spend years trying to master one of them,” I said.
“You have to admit, my request is equal to the worth of a condo, isn’t it?”
He was right, it was. I was still surprised Shadow was so well versed in classical music to be able to choose the five toughest songs to master technically.
“So we have a deal?” Shadow asked, extending his hand towards me.
“Deal,” I replied. I was intrigued by this arrangement. Those pieces had always been on my list of songs to learn and perfect. I had attempted Gaspard de la Nuit once before but my fingers weren’t as well trained at the time, and I ended up giving up. I was now three years wiser and more confident in my abilities. If mastering this song along with the others would pay for the condo and my single-day lunatic shopping spree, then so be it.”
“Call Abraham whenever you’re ready to record the songs and he can arrange a time at Lincoln’s studio.”
I couldn’t help but smile when Shadow mentioned Abraham’s name. I was curious about their relationship. It seemed like Abraham was always there to do whatever Shadow requested, despite not being under his employment.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about Abraham,” I said. “He’s not your servant, he’s not your butler, but he’ll clearly do anything you ask of him. His loyalty to you is astounding.”
“He’s been a good friend to my family over the years,” Shadow said. “I can never repay him for all that he’s done for my sister and me.”
“He loves you. You can tell just from the way he talks about you,” I said. “He’s very fatherly. I miss having someone like that in my life.”
Every time I thought about dad, the pipes attached to my tear ducts threatened to burst. I had to get a grip. Unleashing waterworks on our first fake date was inappropriate.
As I glanced over at Shadow’s face, I noticed his eyes were glistening, sympathetic to the strong emotions I was feeling. He too had lost his own father, and I was being a fool by digging up sad memories.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sour the mood of our date,” I said.
“It’s alright,” Shadow replied. “Sometimes you can’t help but think about the past.”
I decided to divert the conversation away from our fathers and the pain that went along with their memories. “Tell me how you got to know Abraham?”
The sadness on Shadow’s face faded away as he spoke affectionately about the man. “For generations, the family names of Tremaine and Constantine have been linked closely together, though not as friends but as rivals. The Midnight Society had always been ruled by either a Tremaine or a Constantine.”
“That’s another thing I wanted to ask you about, this entire Midnight Society business. Who are you people?”
Shadow shook his head. “You know that saying ignorance is bliss?”
“What if I don’t want to be ignorant?”
“Do you want me to continue my story or are you going to interrupt me with questions I’m not going to answer?”
I sighed. “Fine, continue.”
Shadow downed the last of his drink and leaned back in his chair, his dark alluring eyes fixated on me. I felt exposed underneath his gaze and grabbed my vodka soda, taking a healthy swig. I was starting to regret that this date was a façade. “Now where was I, before your premature interjection?” Shadow asked.
He was an egotistical blockhead.
“The Midnight Society was ruled by either a Tremaine or a Constantine,” I reminded him, doing my best to hide my annoyance.
“There have always been political rivalries between our families within the Society, stemming way back to when swords and steel were still in fashion,” Shadow continued. ‘The family who sat on the Midnight Society’s throne had control of the world. Our organization anointed Kings and Queens, influenced wars, and placed key figureheads into the public eye. We were the secret empire that governed the civilized world and the head of the Society had the absolute authority over all.
“Every five years, an election was held to see who would lead the organization—either a Constantine or Tremaine, which sets the stage for the next part of my story. Eighteen years ago, my father and Abraham were campaigning to determine the next leader of the Midnight Society. From what I recall, it was a close and heated race. Both my father and Abraham were influential powerhouses and both had all the qualities of great leaders. It was like choosing between Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln—two extraordinary men but, unfortunately, one seat at the head of the table.”
“So did your families hate each other then?” I asked. Shadow shook his head.
“No, despite centuries of rivalry between the Constantine’s and the Tremaine’s, there was mutual respect. In fact, my sister and I often played with Abraham’s only child, Julia. With our father gone during these year-long campaigns and our mother taking care of the Tremaine corporations, Calisto and I bonded with Julia, who suffered from abandonment as well,” Shadow said. “Some of the fondest memories I have are exploring our family estate with Julia, getting ourselves into all sorts of trouble and keeping it a secret from everyone.”
Shadow stared into the remnants of his drink as he took a deep breath before releasing a hushed sigh.
“Julia loved the daffodils that grew in our family’s garden. She always pissed off our personal landscapers by stealing the heads of the flowers,” he chuckled.
“So where is Julia now?” I asked, despite knowing the answer. Abraham had mentioned his daughter was no longer a part of this world.
“This is where the story of our families takes a tragic turn,” Shadow said. “On Julia’s fifth birthday, she was kidnapped, raped, and murdered.”
Chapter Eleven
The revelation was horrifying. It was always a tragedy for a parent to outlive their child, but to have your own child experience something so violent…so traumatic—I couldn’t even imagine what Abraham must have went through. When I had asked Abraham about Julia, he became distant. Now I knew the reason why.
“What happened?” I asked. My heart sank into my stomach and hot tears collecte
d at the corners of my eyes knowing Abraham suffered through such a tragic event.
“Three days before the election, Julia disappeared from her home late in the evening. She was playing outside on their large family estate and when the servants went outside to call her in for supper, she was gone,” Shadow said. “The Constantine estate was searched thoroughly but there was no trace of her. She had vanished.”
He paused and looked into his empty glass. “There was a mutual agreement between Abraham and my father to suspend the elections until Julia was found. Using the vast network of the Midnight Society, almost every police officer in the city was tasked to find her. It was a grueling search and emotions were running high. Everyone clung onto that small glimmer of hope that she would be found, alive and well, including Calisto and I.”
“Two days later, her body was discovered in an abandoned shed on the farmlands in the outskirts of the city,” Shadow swallowed hard. “I remember eavesdropping on a conversation my father had with my mother the night Julia’s body was found. I’ll never forget what he said—‘I never knew a human could scream like that,’ referring to Abraham after seeing the body. That night was the first time I ever saw my father cry.”
“Shadow…” I began to say, but I found that all words escaped me at the moment.
“When the autopsy report came back, they said that her larynx was crushed and she had been sexually violated by a metal instrument. There were no traces of any DNA, which made it difficult to identify the sick piece of shit that raped and murdered her.
“My father agreed to suspend the elections completely until this matter was dealt with. He vowed to hunt down Julia’s killer and make him suffer for what he did to the Constantine family. My father led his own personal investigation into Julia’s murder and it became an obsession for him.
“Weeks later, another tragedy struck the Constantine family. Abraham’s wife was suffering from depression, wracked with guilt over her daughter’s death. One night, she took her own life. Abraham found her in the bathtub, wrists sliced open with a steak knife, her eyes open and still red from tears.
“This was enough to drive Abraham to madness. For the next six months, he was a recluse. He didn’t leave his house. He was horrified and devastated. Lord only knows what went through his head during this time—what ghosts haunted his thoughts.
“My mother and father were there every night to check on him, worried that Abraham would follow in his wife’s footsteps. Understandably no one could help ease his pain.
“Meanwhile, the investigation continued. Nine dark months passed without a single break. My father was giving up hope. His obsession to find Julia’s killer was taking a toll on both his physical and mental health. He had trouble sleeping, and often spent long, bleary-eyed nights staring at Julia’s picture and scouring over case files, which he had scrutinized thoroughly. As well, he had grown distant to us, his children.
“I suspected that he was afraid to look at us, terrified by the idea of us becoming victims like Julia.”
“Please tell me this isn’t one of those unsolved mysteries,” I said. “Poor Abraham.”
Shadow nodded.
“Nine months after Julia’s body was discovered, there was another rape, a seven year old girl similar to Julia’s physical profile—brunette hair, blue eyes, delicate white skin. Luckily this girl managed to escape, scraping some of the bastard’s skin underneath her fingernails during the initial struggle. The girl’s physical descriptions of the man fit the picture that the criminal profilers painted: a forty-year old white male, heavyset and with a speech impediment. The sick fuck tried to rape her with a brass cane. The DNA results lifted from underneath the girl’s nails confirmed his identity as well.
“His name was John Taluzzi, a contract worker that did yard maintenance for not only Abraham’s estate, but my father’s as well. When my dad found out, he used all his influence down at city hall to persuade the police to turn a blind eye to this pedophile while the Midnight Society extracted its own brand of justice on him.”
“Why not let the police handle it?” I asked. “Send this degenerate to prison where he’ll never bother anyone again?”
“The system is flawed,” Shadow spat. “They protect child molesters in prison, giving them private cells so that the other inmates can’t get to them. Tell me this; in what lifetime do these sick pieces of shit deserve to be protected?”
I had no answer for him.
“My father, along with some of the more unruly members of the Midnight Society, hunted Taluzzi down, beat him senseless, and brought him to an abandoned factory where he was chained up like a dog. They tortured the pedophile some more, until he finally confessed his crimes. The filth described every detail of Julia’s rape to my father.”
“The Midnight Society tortured him?” I asked, frowning.
“Yes,” Shadow replied, his voice full of conviction. “He deserved far worse than he received. Julia was innocent. Julia was a ray of light in a grey, overcast sky. Julia was the first person outside my family to care about me.”
“I’m sorry Shadow,” I said. “Sometimes it’s hard to dig up the past. You don’t have to finish the story if you don’t want to.”
Shadow shook his head. “It took a long time for me to get over Julia’s death, but knowing that John Taluzzi was captured and dealt with helped me through the grieving process. I’m thankful that the demons that haunt me now don’t include Julia’s restless spirit. Sometimes, only death can make things right.”
“It’s sad that you think like that,” I said, disagreeing with Shadow’s skewed sense of justice. It had always been my belief that no single person could make the decision to end a person’s life, no matter how much they deserved to die. Law and order just didn’t work that way.
“The legal system has failed too many times,” Shadow said, swirling a single drop of whiskey inside the empty glass before setting it down on the table. There was a brief pause while he collected his thoughts. “When Abraham was told that his daughter’s killer was caught and chained like an animal, he finally decided to leave his house for the first time in over six months. I still have the newspaper clippings with photos taken of him stepping outside. His hair and beard, once a chestnut brown, was now grey and brittle. He looked frail.
“I’ll never know what happened that day in the abandoned factory. I do remember my father coming home and telling my mother that it was finally over. It is every father’s right to avenge the murder of their child, and he was glad to give that precious gift to Abraham.”
“Abraham killed that man, didn’t he?” I asked, despite knowing the answer already. I just couldn’t picture that sweet old man harming anyone. However I could sympathize with the rage he must have felt towards Julia’s killer.
Shadow ignored my question and continued on with his story.
“With Julia’s death finally avenged, it was inevitable that the lingering question about the Midnight Society’s leadership would resurface. When my father met with Abraham to discuss reopening the elections, Abraham responded by withdrawing his right to the Society’s throne. He told my father that with Julia and his wife’s death, the Constantine line was coming to an end. From that point on, the Tremaine’s would have complete leadership over the organization and that Abraham would stand by my father’s side as his trusted advisor, his loyal friend, and as his brother. We were the only family he had now.”
I was flabbergasted as I took in the entire story.
“I guess that explains the bond between Abraham and yourself,” I said.
“He’s family to me,” Shadow replied. “It’s just unfortunate that it took the death of Julia to unite the Constantine’s and the Tremaine’s so closely together.”
“You were five at the time. How do you remember all the details?” I asked.
“I found the case file when I was nine and read every word in it and studied every picture. It’s impossible to keep secrets buried within the organization. Someone a
lways has a file of secrets to share.” Shadow rose from his chair, picking up his empty glass. “You look like you can use another drink,” Shadow said. “How about we have one more and then we head out for dinner. We have reservations at one of the most exclusive restaurants in the entire city, the Black Swan. Everyone’s talking about it.”
“It’s not on the tip of my tongue,” I stated.
“Anyone who pays six figures in taxes is talking about it,” Shadow corrected himself as he walked over to the bar. He waved Collin over and placed his order.
As we waited for our drinks, Shadow turned to me and whispered into my ear, his gentle breath sending shivers throughout my body. I felt myself go wet as I breathed in his scent.
“Everything I told you about Abraham, keep it to yourself. Though everyone knows about his past, we’ve kept it long buried. The old man seems happy now, though you can still see that from time-to-time he feels the hurt all over again.”
I nodded, “Of course.”
Collin returned and handed me vodka with two limes.
“You remembered,” I smiled at Shadow.
“Some things I can never forget,” he stated. Though his voice was calm and playful, he looked at me with dark, haunted eyes.
I knew he wasn’t referring to my drink.
Chapter Twelve
The drive to the Black Swan was made in silence, but not the awkward kind where I usually struggled to think of things to say. It was a comfortable silence where I sat back in the luxurious leather seats of Shadow’s silver Aston Martin DB9 and enjoyed the fiery sounds of Miles Davis’s trumpet resonating from the car’s crystal clear speakers.
I still couldn’t get Shadow’s tale out of my mind. It made me see Abraham in a different light--a loving father who lost his only daughter.
I suddenly had the urge to find the old man and give him a giant hug, but that would violate the promise I just made to Shadow.
Instead I closed my eyes and freed my mind from all negative thoughts.
It was a perfect night.
I examined Shadow’s profile as he drove, his pensive eyes fixed on the road. He was stunning to look at and the mystery surrounding him was nothing short of intriguing.
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