Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 468(@250wpm)___ 390(@300wpm)
“A pleasure,” I say and offer my hand. He makes a big show of kissing it. I feel his lips over the glove. Kaiser moves closer.
“Careful.” I smile and thread my arm with Kaiser. “My fiancé gets jealous.”
“I was so sorry to hear your father couldn’t make it.”
This is news to me. But it’ll make things easier. “He sends his regards,” I lie.
“He sent me an eighteen-year-old Bordeaux. Shall we open it later?” He winks at me, laying it on thick, and I play right along.
“Oh, we must,” I say and join him in a fake laugh. The senator takes me around and introduces me to a million people. Kaiser hovers, stone-faced at my side, while I shake hands and talk and flirt. I use all my charm. I can hear myself talking, and I know I don’t sound like myself. But I’m not pretending I’m in an episode of Vampire Varsity. No, that’d be childish.
I’m not a child anymore.
This party is full of beautiful people. They glitter together like a chandelier made of glass sharp enough to cut. At least Fraternitas is honest about being violent. These people would smile in my face and stab me in the back.
That’s okay. If they were truly my enemies, I could poison their wine before they even got close.
After cocktails on the lawn, we sit down to dinner. There’s a violin quartet playing softly beside us, and every scrape of the strings sets my teeth on edge. After dinner, a few couples take to the dance floor. Kaiser takes me on a tour of the house, and we end up on a balcony overlooking the drunken crowd.
“I thought you said the Vesuvios would be here,” I say to Kaiser.
“They sent a few capos.” He points out a few burly men in badly fitted suits.
“That’s it?” I was hoping there’d be someone from the head family. Dominus or his two remaining sons, Francesco and Salvatore. I want to meet them. Shake their hands.
“Sal and Frankie Vesuvio were supposed to be here. The senator told us they’d be coming. We begin truce talks at midnight. But you won’t be there.” I half expected this, but it’s still disappointing.
“Afraid I’ll poison someone?”
“Yes.”
“Then why’d you let me come?”
33
Kaiser
* * *
I frown. “It’s our engagement party.”
“You don’t think I’m a threat.” She runs a finger around the rim of her wineglass. “That’s why my father isn’t here. You think he’s a threat to the Vesuvios?”
“The Vesuvios told us they wouldn’t come if he were here.”
“Ah. But I’m just the daughter. No one’s afraid of me.”
I am. I’m afraid of what you’ve become. “This truce is important. It will keep you safe.”
“Hmmm. There’s no such thing as safe. Everyone dies, Kaiser. You know that. You’ve killed enough.”
I stiffen. It’s not the reminder of my past that hurts. It’s the careless way she tosses it out, like she doesn’t care if it hurts me. “You’re pushing me away. Bella, I’m not your enemy.”
“Of course not. You’re my future husband.” Her voice is flat. No emotion. It’s like she’s numbed herself to everything. All her beautiful, wild emotions, she snuffed them out. It’s like seeing a garden destroyed.
Don’t do this, I want to plead with her on my knees. Don’t become like me. I know what it’s like to be numb to everything. To watch the world around you like it’s a movie filled with happy people and wonder what it would be like to feel things again. You are meant to burn bright. My light burned out long ago. I might as well be in the grave but not you. Never you. You are so full of life.
I don’t want this darkness for you.
I open my mouth, but the words stick in my throat.
She turns away. “Take me back inside. I need to powder my nose.”
I escort her to a small bathroom and hold her glass of wine. As soon as she disappears, I pour a vial of sleeping potion into the wine and swirl it until it dissolves.
Then I wait, feeling like the walls are closing in around me. This mansion is huge, but the hallways are narrow and covered with awful paintings. A big wooden clock ticks down the seconds. It’s almost midnight.
The senator is coming up the stairs, heading for his study, where we’ll meet the Vesuvios.
Bella exits the bathroom just as he passes.
“Senator, I just have to thank you for a lovely party.” She sounds like someone else. A stranger.
“The pleasure was mine,” the senator says.
She moves closer to him, offering her hand. That’s when I notice… she’s no longer wearing gloves, and the ring I gave her sparkles on her ring finger. “Wait—” I say, but she’s already shaking his hand. I move closer, and the senator makes space for me. “And here’s your jealous fiancé. I remember.”