by Stasia Black
And now here she was. Caught like a fly in a spider’s web.
“Call off the attack,” Cora said. “You have me.”
Demi laughed. She looked nothing like the woman Cora had grown up with, who wore overalls and rarely conditioned her hair.
Now Demi’s dark brown hair was styled in big curls, she wore dramatic makeup, and she had on a power skirt-suit. “Not that you aren’t special, darling, but this is about so much more than you. This is about history. And righting wrongs. Ubeli stole this city from me and I mean to have it back.”
“Righting wrongs?” Cora scoffed. “Sixteen years ago, you murdered an innocent girl. After my father and uncles raped her.”
Demi’s face went cold. “I thought I knew what I was getting into when I married a Titan brother. But I was young. Karl was handsome and said he loved me. I never had a real home or real family so marrying into his seemed like a dream come true. But he was weak.”
Demi took a step towards her. “So I did what needed doing while he drank and whored his way across town. Then he finally managed to do something right—he caught the Ubeli girl, but of course he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.”
Demi shook her head in disgust. “So again I had to come in and clean up his mess.”
“You stabbed her over and over!” Cora shouted. “You’re as much a monster as he was.”
Demi crossed the last of the space between them and grabbed Cora’s wrist in a painful, bruising grip. “You will not disrespect me in front of my men. You’ve embarrassed me long enough, running around and consorting with the enemy. It ends here. Today.”
“What are you going to do?” Cora glared hatefully, only inches from her mother’s face. “Kill me in cold blood? That’s what you’re good at, right?”
“I do what has to be done,” Demi said through gritted teeth. “Something a girl like you would never understand. But you will. I’ll take you home and you will get an introduction to the way the real world works. You are my daughter and one way or another, you will behave as such.”
“Never—” Cora started to shout, right as the back door to the theater swung open and a deep voice called, “Cora!”
“No!” Cora shouted but it was too late. The shooting had already begun.
“Sharo!” Cora cried.
He had his weapon out and managed to take down three of Demi’s guards before falling to his knees, blood gushing from several wounds on his chest.
“No, Sharo!”
Cora fought to get away from her mother but Demi caught her from behind in a chokehold and started dragging her towards the SUV parked several feet away.
Cora wheezed and tried to scream, but she couldn’t get any breath, her mother’s hold on her was too tight.
How many times do I have to tell you to turn your head to the side to free your airway?
The self-defense lessons with Marcus.
Cora swung her head to the right, immediately freeing her airway, just like Marcus said. She sucked in a deep breath, then she elbowed her mother hard in the side, once, twice, three times, until Demi’s hold loosened. For good measure, Cora stomped on her instep, then, when Demi was wheezing, Cora grabbed one of Demi’s arms and planted her feet, using her firm stance as a fulcrum to launch Demi to the ground.
Demi screamed as her face slammed into the pavement and she rolled over once. She landed right by Sharo. He’d been immobile, Cora feared dead, but he suddenly reared up and slammed a knife straight through Demi’s heart. And then he collapsed.
“Sharo!” Cora cried, right as the back door of the theater opened and a handful of more Shades poured out. They made quick work of the rest of Demi’s guards, but all Cora could see was Sharo.
“Sharo, please,” she sobbed, crouched at his side, pressing her hands to the wound on his chest. They had to stop the bleeding. There was so much blood. It was like Iris all over again. “You’re going to be all right.”
He lifted his hand to caress her face. “Loved—”
“You loved her, I know. You told me. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to love again, you’ll see.” She choked on her tears as the big man’s eyes closed. “No. No! Help me! Someone! Help me!”
Marcus was beside her, prying her hands away as several Shades moved in to put pressure on Sharo’s wounds.
“Marcus?” She grabbed him with bloody hands. “You’re alive?”
At the same time, an ambulance pulled into the back alley and sped their direction. Its lights weren’t flashing and the sirens didn’t sound, but as soon as it came to a stop, several EMTs poured from the back and Marcus barked orders at them.
Sharo was immediately put on a gurney and wheeled inside where the EMTs started working on him.
Cora looked on in stark shock.
Marcus finally took her hand as the ambulance sped away, this time with lights flashing.
“I had an ambulance nearby in case things went wrong. And I was wearing a vest,” Marcus said gently as she finally turned to him, parting his shirt and touching the Kevlar. “I should have insisted Sharo wear one, too.”
Cora heard the pain in his voice but she was too raw to be able to comfort him.
“Come with me, now, Cora—”
He tried to put his arm around her but she wrenched away. “Will they be able to save him? Sharo saved me, he killed my mother. He has to be okay—”
“It’s over. Honey, it’s over now.”
She glared up at him, fury and grief warring within her. “No, it’s not. But it will be.”
Thirty-Nine
Cora sat on the edge of the limo seat, tense as they passed a long line of drab, squat buildings marked with graffiti. If New Olympus was the glittering belle of the ball, Metropolis was its ugly step-sister.
“Almost there,” Fats said from the driver’s seat.
“Any sign they’re on to us?” Cora straightened her wig.
“Not if we’ve come this far.” Philip Waters shooed Cora’s hands away and fixed her dark brown curls. Andrea had given Cora a makeup lesson after all. Heavy makeup designed to make her look older.
Like her mother.
“How do I look?” Cora smiled at Philip carefully so the thick makeup wouldn’t crack.
“Like a mob mistress.”
“Good. Because that’s what I am.”
“Checkpoint ahead. Get your game faces on,” Fats instructed as he slowed the car. Two men with machine guns blocked the road as a third approached the driver’s side.
“Confidence,” Waters murmured to Cora as Fats rolled his window down.
“Mrs. Titan and guest,” Fats announced.
“Mrs. Titan?” the guard asked.
Cora leaned forward so the Titan’s men saw her. “Of course it’s me,” she snapped in her mother’s voice.
“What’s with the tail?” The man motioned to the three cars following them.
“They’re mine.” Cora waved a hand.
“I don’t recognize them.”
“They’re new. My personal guard died in New Olympus. Once we forged our alliance, Mr. Waters was kind enough to loan me a few of his.” Cora’s heart pounded as she waited for the guard to call her on her lie.
“I got orders not to let anyone I don’t recognize through. The Titan brothers won’t like it.”
“They really won’t like it when they find out Philip Waters withdrew his offer of alliance because you wouldn’t let him through to the meet.”
On cue, Philip Waters rolled his window down.
“You’re wasting my time,” Waters informed the man in his deep, grave voice. The checkpoint guard paled.
Cora sat back, sliding a large pair of sunglasses on and looking straight ahead as if the checkpoint didn’t exist.
“Hurry up and drive,” she barked at Fats. “Alex and Ivan are waiting.”
Cora remained in ‘Demi Titan’ mode as the guard waved them on. As soon as Fats drove past the machine guns, Philip chuckled. “That was perfect.”
/> Cora squeezed his big hand. The next stage of the plan wouldn’t be so easy.
“We’re here,” Fats reported as the car stopped in front of an old church. “The Titans holed up here three days ago. Both are inside, expecting Demi and Waters. They’re meeting with their capos in an hour.”
“Plenty of time to take out the trash.” Philip straightened his collar and exited the car, offering a hand to help ‘Demi’ out.
As they strode ahead, arm and arm, three more black cars pulled up to the church. Men poured out—some Shades, some Waters’ men. They’d infiltrate the church, quietly taking out any of the Titan’s men and assuming their places.
Cora and Waters waited in the foyer until Slim strode in. “All clear. Your uncles are in the basement, oblivious. Alone.”
This is it. Cora kept the big sunglasses on and let Waters guide her with a hand on her back down the stairs.
“Ready?” he rumbled when she paused to stare at the doors leading to the basement hall. In a second she’d meet both her uncles for the first and last time.
“Ready,” she said finally, and pushed the doors open.
The basement was hot and stuffy, smelling of onions and sausage. Two blond men sat at a plastic table, playing cards in their shirt sleeves. They stopped when she marched in, a phalanx of guards fanning out around her, and Philip at her side.
“Demi? About fuckin’ time.” One of the blond men turned. Ivan. She recognized him from an old photo. “Philip,” he said, getting to his feet. “Glad to see you here. It’s good that you’ve come to see reason. Your product will be safe in our hands.”
Cora stopped just inside the door, keeping to the shadows, and let her and Waters’ guards surround the room. “Yes, he and I have come to an agreement,” she said.
“The alliance is a done deal, then?” the second Titan asked, also standing. Her uncle Alexander. He glared at Fats and Slim and the rest, obviously suspecting something, but not going for his gun.
He wouldn’t dare in front of Philip Waters.
“The alliance is done.” Cora said. “But you two and I have unfinished business.” She slowly pulled her sunglasses off and put them in her pocket.
Alex scowled. “What’s that supposed to—” He stopped short when Philip pulled a gun from his pocket and, before he could even blink, shot him. He slumped forward.
“What the fuck?” Ivan shouted and went for his gun, but every man in the room pulled a gun on him before he could.
“Stand down,” Cora said coolly.
There was a riot of action as the Shades swarmed the table, securing Ivan and Alex, who was moaning in pain.
“You’re not Demi,” Ivan snarled.
“Hello, uncle,” she greeted him, tugging off the wig. “Nice of you to join me for this family reunion.”
Her uncle’s eyes bulged. “Where’s Demi?”
“My mother is busy at the moment.” Busy being dead. “She sent me.”
“You bitch—” Ivan started, only to choke when Slim looped a belt around his neck and tightened it.
Meanwhile two Shades had bound and gagged Alex. “What should we do with this one?”
“Is he dead?” Waters asked, coming to join Cora.
“Nope,” Fats reported. “You got him in the stomach.”
“I’m getting rusty.” Waters grinned. “But then again, belly shots are so perfectly painful.”
“Make sure he gets to my husband in one piece,” Cora instructed and turned to Slim and the Shades who held Ivan. “Him too.”
Ivan gurgled something and Cora motioned for his throat to be freed.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Ivan rasped. On his knees, surrounded by her thugs with guns, he didn’t look so big.
“In a minute, I’ll explain everything,” she informed him sweetly. “But not to you. Your reign is over. You’re going away for a while. At least, until Sharo can hold a knife again. I’m sure he’ll recover faster, knowing he has you waiting for him to take his revenge out on.”
Before Ivan could shout anything else, Slim stuffed a gag into his mouth and dragged him off with his brother.
The doors closed, leaving her and Waters alone. Cora let her shoulders slump.
“Well done,” Waters said. “That went quicker than I expected.” He bent to study her face. “You didn’t want to talk to your uncles?”
She shook her head. “Honestly, I had nothing to say to them.”
The doors opened and one of Waters’ men reported, “The Titan capos are starting to gather in the sanctuary. Do you want us to relieve them of their weapons?”
Waters nodded and the man disappeared. He watched Cora wander around the room, lost in thought, touching the table where her uncles had sat.
“You talk to Marcus yet?”
Cora blinked as if coming awake. “Not yet. Time was of the essence. We had to get here before they got too suspicious when Demi didn’t get into contact.”
Philip tilted his head. “He wants to talk to you.”
“He will. I have to do this first.”
Waters’ man returned. “We’re ready for you.”
“The capos are unarmed?” Waters asked.
“Not all of them were happy but we used that Aurum pulse thing Mrs. Ubeli picked up for us on the way, and their guns jammed. Excuse me, I meant Mrs. Titan.”
“Ms. Titan,” Cora corrected. “Tell them the Titans are now allied with Philip Waters and loyalty will be greatly rewarded. We’ll be with them shortly.”
The man scuttled off and Cora smiled. Turned out she liked giving orders.
“Ms. Titan?” Waters asked. “You taking back your maiden name?”
“I’ve never been a Titan, actually.” Cora took his offered arm. “But it’s my birthright, so I better get used to it. So will everyone else.”
With a smile of his own, Waters nodded. Cora let him escort her to the sanctuary before pulling away.
“I have to do this alone.”
He nodded again. She reached up and touched his cheek. “Thank you,” she said simply, before dropping her hand and striding into the sanctuary. Waters covered his cheek with his hand.
The capos sat in the front pews like oversized, disgruntled altar boys in ill-fitting suits. Above them, in the balcony and choir loft, Shades and Waters’ men stood guard, outfitted with special guns that Olivia had designed to withstand her patented weapon-jamming device. Turned out Olivia had been up to more on her West Coast adventures than just pestering suppliers. She’d come home bearing new toys.
With a nod to Fats and Slim, Cora climbed the stage to address her new capos.
“Welcome,” she called and waited while they all took her in.
“Who da fuck are you?” one man called.
“We’ve never met. I’m Cora Titan. You will treat me with respect.”
“Or?”
“You die,” Slim shot back.
Cora smiled. “I understand you have questions,” she said. “In a minute I will answer them, but for now know this. There’s a new Titan in town. As of now, I’m running the show.”
The capos murmured to each other. “Who died and put you in charge?” another asked.
“My mother and uncles, actually. If they’re not dead, they will be soon.” Beeping sounds filled the room and the capos patted their pockets, pulling out their vibrating cellphones en masse.
Thank you, Olivia.
“You’ve just been texted pictures of my deceased mother. Note the resemblance.” Cora tilted her head to the side, giving them a profile.
“Fucking spittin’ image,” an older capo murmured. “Demi and the old man, what’s his face, Karl.”
“You’ll find I have a lot in common with both my parents,” Cora said. “With one difference. While they enjoyed war, I prefer the alternative. Peace.”
“Peace,” a capo echoed.
“Indeed. After all, it’s so much better for business.” Cora spread her hands. “Imagine this. A city at peace. Men and women
visiting your brothels. Hordes of partygoers sampling Ambrosia, returning again and again to buy from your distributors. We have a new alliance with our good friend, Philip Waters.”
She turned to smile at Philip as he ambled in. She paused a moment to let him greet the capos and shake a few hands. He took a seat at the end of one pew, his great height dwarfing the rest.
“With Waters at our side and unlimited access to overseas imports, profits will roll in. Imagine the streets alive with people who’ve come for the party. New Olympus is where they do business. Metropolis is where they come to have fun.”
“I like it,” the older capo said. “Especially the part about the profits, and alliance with ole Waters here. I knew your father,” he said to Waters.
“What about the cops?” another capo called.
Cora dropped her next bombshell. “Tomorrow the mayor of New Olympus introduces a proposal to make Ambrosia legal. A controlled substance. It’ll be the new Viagra, but recreational, and for both men and women. We can expect the mayor of Metropolis to follow suit.”
Yep, the mayor was on her side too, and she saw the impact the news had on the crowd. It hadn’t taken much convincing to get Sturm and Waters to throw in behind her, once she explained that her assuming control of the Titan gang was the quickest way to bring lasting peace to the streets. “With a few bribes, we’ll buy all the rights to distribute. Legally.”
“This true?” a capo demanded of Waters.
“Every word,” he confirmed, and the murmurs got louder.
“Damn. Never thought I’d go straight in my old age,” the gray-haired capo muttered. “But if there’s profit in it, who cares?”
“This is bull.” One capo shot to his feet. “You’re a lying whore.” His shout echoed to the rafters. So did the sound of a hundred guns trained on him.
Cora raised a hand. “Stand down,” she drawled. “I like a rigorous debate among my leaders. As long as they remember their place.”
Fats and Slim grabbed the man and brought him cursing before her, forcing him to his knees. “But there’s no room for men who don’t see my vision.”