Page 89 of Vicious Impulses (The Capo and Ballerina)
“Nevaeh—”
“It’s the only way this ends,” she says. “If I’m given back to Nero. He’ll destroy you, Caelian. You’re onecapowith a small crew. He’s the don of the family that controls the entire city. It’s… it’s no match.”
Though she speaks the truth, I don’t give a fuck. I’m prepared to go down fighting ’til my dying breath.
“The lady’s spoken,” Carmelo says, standing up. He makes sure to keep the remote within view as if warning he still possesses the ability to destroy the estate. “She’s coming with me, cousin. I’ll call off Nero’s men that are surrounding the place and the explosives will be dismantled. Nobody’s got to get hurt… well, except maybe her. Not really sure what he wants to do with her.”
“Nevaeh,” I growl like a beast. “Come here.”
She shakes her head. Tears shine in her eyes. “Caelian, I have to go. It’s what’s best for everyone. For you.”
“Nev… NEVAEH!”
The pain stabs straight through me and renders me immobile. My hand clutches at my chest as I husk out desperate breaths and grit my teeth, urging myself to move through the pain. I can’t fucking let it slow me down.
Not right now. Not as Carmelo grips Nevaeh by the arm and begins striding down the hall.
“Bye, cousin!” Carmelo calls. “You shouldn’t have drunk that brandy. I told you it was bad for you. It was bottled that way.”
“N-N-Nevi…” I croak, unable to complete a word much less a sentence.
I stumble sideways, then collapse onto the ground in a heavy thud. A numbing tingle ripples through my body as it jerks against the hardwood floor. The pain radiating from my chest is beyond comprehension. Something as simple as keeping my eyes open becomes a herculean effort. Still, I fucking fight. I grit my teeth and I howl like a fucking beast.
“Mr. C, what’s—oh my god!” Ms. Poitier screams.
The sight of her scurrying toward me as I lay paralyzed on the ground is the last thing I see before I can’t hold on any longer and let go.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Nevaeh
“You’re a real valuable bargaining chip,”Carmelo Ziccardi tells me in the limo. He’s shoved me inside and slammed the door.
The second his driver hits the gas, we’re speeding down the winding graveled terrain that leads up to Caelian’s remote home located in the mountains outside Dresden.
Carmelo pockets the remote he’s been clutching and lets out a relieved breath. “Glad I didn’t need to blow anybody up. Believe it or not, I didn’t want to kill my cousin.”
“You could’ve fooled me,” I mumble.
“Hey, hey, hey. You ever meet the rest of thegoombahsin my family? Cristian resembles porky the pig, and Coreno’s busy knocking old women over if it means he gets a step ahead. Caelian’s always been my favorite. I might’ve hurt him by getting him to drink that brandy, but it was necessary.” Carmelo presses one of the buttons on the sleek wooden dashboard in the back of the limo. A panel slides to the right to reveal a built-in minibar. He reaches in to grab a bottle of sparkling water and raises his brows at me. “Thirsty, ballerina?”
“I have a name.”
“Yes, you do. Ballerina.”
“What was wrong with the brandy?”
“Between me and you, it had a certain kind of poison in it. Caelian’s very susceptible considering his heart condition. All part of the experiment. He’s got no clue.”
“What experiment are you talking about?”
“You know. You used to perform for Nero and my uncle during the business dinners. Isn’t that why Caelian started dreaming about you? He might not remember it ‘cuz half the time he was drugged out of his mind… but the rest of us do. Caelian’s whole sickness has been used as a means for Zinc Co. to develop more medications. More treatments. His father sold him out. Why do you think we were trying so hard to get him to do that treatment in Zurich?”
“And when he left without doing it, you had the doctors come—”
Carmelo shrugs. “It’s business. Just like this move of mine is.”
I bite the inside of my cheek and force my gaze out the backseat window of the limo. I might’ve chosen to come with Carmelo, but it had nothing to do with him and everything to do with my hope I was resolving the situation as peacefully as possible.