That… that was the most I think I’d ever heard Mike talk in the entire time I’d known him, and I couldn’t stop smiling at him. His voice was low and gruff, the exact type of voice you’d imagine paired with a man who stood well over six feet tall and was as wide as a fucking mountain.
He had a nice voice. He should talk more often.
“Speaking of Bianca,” I spoke as I slid off the bed. “I have an idea.”
Viper’s jaw tensed, and he got up, moving around the bed to stand near me, and I couldn’t help but toss a glance in his brother’s direction, wondering how much he’d told him. Did Mike know Viper cared for me, or did he carefully leave that out of everything? I wouldn’t blame him if so, but it did make me curious all the same.
Man, it was funny how quickly things changed, huh? Not like ha-ha funny, but more like the ironic kind. It sure as hell didn’t feel like too long ago when they all looked at me with mistrust and utter hatred for killing Dickless.
“Why do I have the feeling your idea might just get you killed?” Viper muttered, brows coming together. He stood less than a foot in front of me, and yet he did not close the distance between us—maybe because of his brother on the bed, watching, or perhaps because he knew my idea, as he said, might just get me killed.
Better me than them, though.
“I guess you’ll just have to wait and hear it with everyone else,” I said, shrugging my shoulders once before turning and leaving the room. My bare feet bounced on the wooden floor of the cabin as I headed down the hallway, towards the living room, where voices echoed. Couldn’t tell what the hell they were talking about, but it didn’t matter. Whatever cockamamy plan they’d come up with was nowhere near as good as mine.
Viper was right behind me, but I ignored his questions as I walked. You see, after killing my brother, after finally finding my place in this world, I could feel it in the air: it was getting close to closing time. It was time to hang up the mask and let the world turn to a new chapter, and honestly, I didn’t see myself in this new chapter.
What future did I have, really? Sure, I could be with my men, but would they be happy with me forever? Would we live until ripe old age, the four of us a family? Or would they get tired of me… would they wish for the one thing I could never give them?
A child. Babies. Another generation with the Luciano name.
Something like that was out of the question.
They might say they loved me now, but would they feel that way forever? It almost seemed like too much to hope, too much to wish for, and after everything I’d done in my life, I was the last person who deserved to be happy. Sad, but true. Pitifully true.
“Lola—” Viper spoke my name, grabbing my arm just seconds before we emerged into the living room. Standing with him in the dark hall, I was slow to meet his gaze, which was so similar to his brother’s.
About the only thing that was similar on them, really. They were twins, but not the identical kind.
His hand around my arm was not tight, not uncomfortable in the slightest. It was not the way he would’ve grabbed me in the beginning, when he’d hated me just like everyone else, when he was curious as to who I was and why I did what I did. It was a gentle grab, his fingers warm and tender even if their hold was like steel.
“What?” I whispered. “If you think you can convince me against going hard at this, don’t bother. I’m the one with the least amount to lose here. Not you, not Mike, and definitely not Maddox or Sylvester. Carter and Roman have Zoey—”
“And we have you,” Viper murmured, pulling me closer to him, slamming my front against his. He didn’t appear too happy with what I’d said. “Don’t act like this is nothing. It’s not. If you think any of us would let you march off to your death while we stood back and hoped for the best, you’re stupid.”
That made me chuckle. “Stupid, eh? I guess so, but I mean it. You have your brother, Maddox and Sylvester have each other and their father still… all I have is you guys, and once I’m gone, I doubt you’ll think of me for long.”
That got him to let me go and take a step away from me. “Where is this coming from? Yesterday you couldn’t get enough of us, saying you loved us. Was that all a joke to you, then?”
“No,” I quickly said. A part of me knew there was nothing I could say to Viper to make everything okay. This just wasn’t one of those situations, unfortunately for all of us. We were here, and now we had to figure out a way to get out. If there had to be a sacrificial lamb, it should be me.
I never thought myself a selfless gal. Everything I did in my life, I did for me—killing my parents, becoming the Night Slayer, killing my brother… it was all for me. It made me feel good to make the streets and clubs safer. It helped me sleep at night knowing that I had found my voice again, in the form of a shiny steel knife.
“I meant every word I said,” I went on, hoping Viper believed me. “But this… none of this is going to be easy, Viper. Do you think I’d willingly do this for anyone else? Fuck no. I wouldn’t even dream of it. I wouldn’t care enough to, but I want to see you guys back in your rightful place. I’d do anything to see it.”
He ground his teeth. “You still haven’t told me what your plan is.”
“Then we best get to the others, so I can,” I said, spinning on my heel and walking out of the hall, leaving Viper behind for only a few moments. I emerged into the living room, finding Maddox and Sylvester standing near their father by the window, near the door. Richard was gazing out while Maddox and Sylvester talked amongst themselves.
For a split-second, all I could do was stare at the brothers. One light and one dark, both monsters of their own making. Neither was scared to get his hands dirty, neither was innocent. They’d grown up in a family of crime, and they were not afraid to stare the devil in the eyes and flick him off, much like me.
I did love them. I did. As much as someone like me could love, I felt for them, and that was purely why I was about to suggest what I was seconds from saying.
“So,” I spoke, causing Maddox and Sylvester to look at me. Richard, on the other hand, kept his gaze firmly on the outside world, refusing to look at me because, you know, I killed his youngest boy and he still wanted to strangle me for it.
The man could get angry, that’s for sure. But even so… he looked a little different right now. Couldn’t say why or how, but he did. Maybe it was the way he was standing or something. Eh, whatever. My focus was not on Daddy Luciano, but on the plan.
My plan.
“I have a plan,” I stated boldly, holding my head high as I placed both hands on my hips. What I should’ve done was run a brush through my hair and brush my teeth, because I was sure I looked like I just rolled out of bed. Oops. It was obvious I wasn’t a planner, not usually. I was more of a spontaneous kind of gal, someone who liked winging it every opportunity I could.
“We already have a plan,” Sylvester spoke, leaving his brother’s side to come to me.
“No, you’ll hear me out,” I told him, stopping him in his tracks. “Because, no matter what plan you guys came up with, I can promise you mine is so much better, and it might actually save some bloodshed.” That got Maddox and Sylvester to stare at me like I was crazy, and Viper to crease his brows like he didn’t understand.
I know: me, wanting the less bloody way? Did we step into opposite day when we weren’t looking or something?
Before I could say anything else, I laughed. It was the stereotypical Lola laugh—meaning it was laced with crazy. “Can I first just say, you guys are fucking idiots.” Okay, if there was a way to earn the wrath of multiple people at once, I’d just learned it. Call them all idiots and laugh at them. Noted for future reference, if there was a future for me. “Now, before you go ballistic on me, listen. You guys were on the top for years—that’s because you were family. You always thought there was more of you than them.”
I moved to the couch, plopping myself down right in the middle of it, lifting my legs and placing my feet on the
wooden coffee table before it. “And then you learned the DeLucas—and by that, I mean Bianca—had been slowly turning your people against you. When they learned of Dick—I mean, Mario’s passing, Bianca shifted her plan into gear. She was waiting for an opportunity to swoop in and take hold of the city. By killing Mario, I showed you guys were weak and ripe for the picking.”
Since I could tell Big Daddy wanted to shoot me with the gun on his side, I made sure to add, “Sorry about that, by the way. But, back to the point: she was able to bully you out of town pretty quickly, and she wanted me to be her assassin.”
“You don’t need to recap everything,” Sylvester spoke, folding his arms over his chest. He wore a suit, much like his father, and also much like his father, he looked drop dead sexy in it. Square shoulders beneath the dark grey fabric, he was everything any girl could ever want. “This plan of yours, what is it?”
“Now,” I said, “hear me out, because this plan hinges on the fact that you guys are idiots and going about this all wrong. Bianca was planning her ascension this whole time. She killed her father after I poisoned him, which leaves her as the heir to the DeLuca throne—but that’s just it. It’s just her. She has no kids, right?”
Sylvester shook his head. “None that we know about, anyway.”
“Bullshit,” Maddox growled out, frowning. “We’ve never even heard about any boyfriends. She’s kept to herself her whole life.”
“I used to have a teacher in high school,” I said, remembering the man well. He was an odd, eccentric man whose classes were often full of stories that had nothing to do with what he was actually teaching. I hardly paid attention in any class, mostly because I was so miserable, but I remembered the man himself almost perfectly.
Ninth grade. Grey hair. Wrinkly face. Thin, wiry, tall frame. A weirdo through and through.
“He said to win a war, there are four things you can do. The first is to kill them all—that’s just not possible here, because we don’t even know who they all are. Bianca has been turning people for a while, long before you got wind of it. The second way is to kill just the right number for them to surrender—which, again, I don’t see happening. The third is to capture the flag, but they don’t have a capital or anything like that, so that definitely doesn’t fit—”
Richard grumbled, “If you don’t get to the point, girl, I’m going to lose my patience and shoot you.” His words caused both his sons and Viper to glare at him. Viper even moved to stand between us so Richard would have to shoot through his body to get to me.
Awe, how sweet.
“The fourth,” I went on, “was to kill the leader. That’s what we need to do here. You guys think you’re waning in power? Bianca is the last DeLuca left—she is alone in her bloodline, and once we take her out, who will lead them? Who will feed her men the crazy ideas she had? No one. Without her, they’ll crumble.”
“Or another family will fill the void,” Sylvester suggested.
“We can deal with that when it happens,” Maddox said, narrowing his stare on his brother. “For now, she’s right. We need to get that bitch out the picture.”
“And how do you suppose we’ll get to her?” Richard asked. “She won’t be walking the streets, waiting for you to stab her in the neck. I doubt she’ll be in public at all until she gets word we’re gone.”
He was right, of course, which was why I was ready to say, “No, but she’ll be tucked away at home, waiting to hear back from me.”
“The only way they’ll let you into their house is with our heads,” Sylvester said, and he wasn’t wrong. But, at the same time, he was just a bit.
I leaned forward on the couch, grinning ear to ear. “Oh, I’ll bring her heads… they just won’t be yours. I would like them to belong to whoever shot up Viper and Mike’s apartment, but I’d settle for anyone.” I’d never cut a head off before. The thought was probably too enticing, but that was just because I was a little on the crazy side.
Sylvester sighed. “When she sees they’re not our heads, she’ll have you killed on the spot.”
“Not if we’re alone,” I shot back. “Bianca is confident—too confident. The Bloody Princess thinks no one is her equal. I can get her alone, I’m sure of it.”
“And then?” Maddox questioned.
“And then I kill her,” I said, figuring that much should’ve been obvious. It was the whole point of this talk. Kill the opposing army’s leader, and there was no one left to take her place; Bianca had made sure of that as she killed her family one by one.
Kind of like me, but different, because her family had never hurt her. Her family had never abused her. The only thing they’d done to her was be weak in her eyes, unworthy of the power and the status position being a DeLuca came with.
“Going to war will only end up killing every one of us,” I said. “This way, we might actually have a chance at beating her ass.”
Viper spoke, “And if you don’t beat her? Then what?”
“Then you try again, only without me, because if I fail, I’ll be dead.”
“And if you succeed, you’ll be dead,” Viper couldn’t let it go. “Do you think her people will let you walk out of that house if they know you killed their boss?” I knew he was thinking that if someone tried to kill Richard, he would act the same.
But Richard and Bianca were not the same. They didn’t inspire the same feelings in those that followed. Bianca led with fear, and it would be to her detriment, because fear was an ever-changing thing.
“Maybe,” I admitted, pretty fucking calm considering what we were discussing. Me, possibly marching to my own death. It was something that might not have meant much months ago—I’d desperately wanted capital punishment in the form of the electric chair—but here and now? It meant a hell of a lot more. “Or maybe they’ll have nothing and no one left to fight for.” I gestured to myself. “Maybe they’ll crown me their new leader.” The thought was too much, and I couldn’t stop the laugh from bubbling up my throat.
The room fell silent for a long while, everyone caught up in their own thoughts. My guys probably didn’t fully agree with my plan, but it had to be better than whatever they’d cooked up themselves. Going to war, you couldn’t be haphazard or slapdash. You had to know who your enemy was and how to hit them hardest, and going after Bianca herself was, in my opinion, the quickest way to end this and take back the city.
The ones loyal to her would either find someone else to flock to, or they’d realize their mistake in bowing down to a crazy psycho bitch. Either way, things would change. They would change, and the DeLuca name would be no more.
God, it almost sounded too good to be true.
“It’s a better plan than what we had,” Sylvester was the first to speak, although he didn’t sound particularly thrilled with it. “I can call Fang, see if he can do a little digging around. If he can find who shot up Mike…”
“Then we can go in and kill them, and Lola can deliver their heads to Bianca in a bloody sack,” Maddox hissed, fists clenching, as if he was ready for a fight. He probably was. The bloodlust in his gaze was not an unfamiliar thing.
“She gave me a week to kill you guys,” I said. “I want to be on time. No running late. If Fang can’t find out who it was, then we’ll just go to a DeLuca hideout and find other heads. Shouldn’t be too hard.” That was in theory, although in practice, things might turn out differently. Guess we’d have to wait and see.
Still, I couldn’t wait. Things were finally coming together.
Forget the Bloody Princess. This city needed a queen.
Chapter Eleven – Lola
Days passed, and the days were long and practically unbearable. Sylvester had gone into town and used a payphone to call Fang—a fucking payphone, because they’d all abandoned their cell phones when they’d made the escape here.
I know. What fucking town had a payphone these days? This wasn’t the nineties. This wasn’t some cheesy horror movie from fifteen years ago. Apparently payphones were still
a thing in the middle of nowhere. Beyond fucking strange to me, but whatever.
Ugh, I could not wait to get out of this place. This fucking cabin and the trees and the nature and all the fucking dirt. Just not my thing, okay? To each his own, sure, but this was not my thing at all. I much rather preferred cities and their paved paradises.
Roman and Carter were game for the plan, although I think Roman was only going along with it because he thought I would end up dead. The man still kind of hated me, and I couldn’t blame him. Still kind of hated myself too, you know. That self-loathing was going nowhere, and if I died, it would haunt me in my grave.
Assuming I had a grave, if I died. Maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe they’d throw my body in the river or bury me in the DeLuca’s backyard.
We were cutting it close, that’s for sure. And then, the night before our last day, when we’d have to give it up and find other heads, Fang appeared, swooping into the cabin like our savior.
The man was just as intimidating as I remembered him being, and when he spoke, I kept seeing flashes of the sharp silvery metal in his mouth. He wore all black, as I imagined he usually did, and in the shadows, you could hardly see the silver tuft of hair near his left temple.
We gathered around the kitchen—Viper, Maddox, Sylvester, Richard, Roman and Carter… and even Mike, who refused to sit in bed all day. He wouldn’t be joining us, as much as he hated it. He moved too slow, the wound in his gut still hurting him. He was lucky to be alive, and I couldn’t imagine how different things would be if he would’ve died that night.
Terrible. Things would’ve been ten times worse.
Fang reached into his pocket, pulling out a few things. Pictures, crumpled up and folded to fit in his pocket. “It wasn’t easy, but I found them,” he said, working to unfold the first picture. “No one wanted to talk to me, since they think I’m a Luciano dog, but I found some chatty people.”
Violent Heart: A Dark Reverse Harem (A Death So Sweet Book 3) Page 20
