Chapter 5 FIVE

༺ KAELITH ༻

I turned the corner and found Tasso waiting for me. Tasso is my only underboss, my shadow, and the only man in this godforsaken city I would trust to stand behind me with a loaded weapon. He was leaning against the wall, tossing a silver Zippo lighter in the air with the casual ease of a man who had killed more people than he had eaten hot meals. 

"You look like you're about to murder someone slowly, Kael," Tasso said, catching his lighter with a sharp clink. "Go relax. She's secure. Titus is on the door. Once she wakes up, we'll let you know."

I stared at him. "She's not awake yet?"

"Not yet. But she will be very soon. The sedative Saki used was strong, but she's a Corvanis. Their blood runs hot." Tasso smirked, stepping forward and clapping a heavy hand on my shoulder. "Go upstairs. Go fuck one of the whores. Get the tension out of your system before you snap someone's neck in the hallway. You're wound tighter than a fucking garrote wire, and it's making me nervous." 

I didn't argue, because somehow he was right. I just turned and walked toward the private elevator but my mind was in a chaotic storm of strategy.

Ten minutes later, I was sitting on the edge of my desk in the office. A whore named Chloe was on her knees in front of me, her mouth were working deftly at my belt. She was beautiful in the way a freshly sharpened knife is beautiful, so sleek, expensive, and entirely disposable. I looked down at the top of her head, feeling absolutely fucking nothing. No heat. No desire. No connection. Just the cold need to relieve the pressure building in my groin so I could think clearly when I faced the girl downstairs. 

Then the door of my office flew open without a knock.

Tasso stepped in. "Boss."

Chloe froze, looking up at me with wide, panicked eyes, her lipstick smeared. I held up a single hand. "Get the fuck out of my sight," I said flatly.

Chloe scrambled to her feet, yanking her dress down, grabbing her purse, and fleeing the room like the building was on fire. The door clicked shut behind her. 

"Tasso," I said, without turning. "I swear to God —"

"She's awake," he said.

"And she won't eat," Tasso spoke again, this time, his smirk was gone. It was replaced by a sharp focus. "The whore brought her soup. Vaelia took one look at the bowl and smashed the bowl against the fucking wall, though she was not completely conscious. The ceramic is everywhere and soup is dripping down the brick."

A slow dark chuckle came from my chest. "She smashed the soup? Good. I would have been deeply fucking disappointed if she had eaten it like a tame little sheep."

I walked over to the wet bar, pouring myself two fingers of amber scotch. I took a slow sip, letting the burn settle deep in my chest, fueling the cold fire that was already consuming me.

"A pure, delicate fucking flower," I mused, staring at the swirling liquid in my crystal glass. I turned to Tasso with a cruel, devastating smile curving my lips. "How about I make sure she isn't quite so delicate anymore? It's no fun breaking something if it's already in pieces. I think I'll take her purity myself. Her father, Viktor Corvanis... that stubborn, archaic bastard who thinks he can cause a mess in my domain anytime he likes. I want him to feel the agonizing, visceral pain of knowing his pristine, untouched little girl was ruined by the man he hates most in this fucking world. I want him to choke on his own blood when the news reaches him. I want the Besa he clings to so desperately to shatter into a million fucking pieces."

Tasso’s eyes darkened with a savage approval. "It will break him, Boss. It will break the entire fucking syndicate from the inside out, I am hundred percent sure of this."

"Exactly." I set the glass down, wiping my hands meticulously with a warm, damp towel, folding it in half, then in half again. "Keep the men on high alert. I'm going downstairs."

❖ ❖ ❖

The prison chamber was down three levels from the club. It was a relic of the building's Prohibition-era roots, built with thick brick walls, iron-barred doors, and a ventilation system that smelled like dirt and old blood. It was soundproof, inescapable and was where men came to disappear. Vaelia had been moved here earlier because I didn't want her causing scenes when she wakes up.

I did not make an announcement when I arrived. I simply unlocked the iron door and pushed it open. The door let out a groaning sound as it moved on its hinges. 

The room had little light just like before. Just a single bulb was hanging from the ceiling, covered in a cage. Vaelia was in the far corner, carefully huddled on the cold floor, her hands frantically, desperately patting down her own body. She was checking her clothes, running her trembling fingers along her waistband, her thighs, her chest. Her breathing was ragged, shallow, panicked. She was terrified, making sure no one had broken into her in the dark, making sure her virginity, the one thing her father's twisted code demanded she protect, was still intact. 

I stood with my back against the iron doorframe, my arms crossed over my chest, watching her panic in the shadows with the cold, detached fascination of a predator studying its prey. 

"Don't bother." I finally said after a while of watching and enjoying how hopeless she was.

She froze instantly, her hands stopping mid-motion on her waist. 

“If any of my men had fucked you," I continued, stepping slowly into the dim light, with my eyes locked on her trembling form, "trust me, you would fucking know. You wouldn't need to check. You would feel it in every part of your body." 

Vaelia's head snapped up immediately. 

The breath left my lungs in a sharp, silent hiss that I would never admit to anyone. Her eyes, those dark, stormy espresso eyes I had studied in surveillance photographs for eight relentless months were wide with absolute, bone-deep shock. Her face was pale, still smeared with a streak of dirt and dried blood on her cheekbone, her lips parted in a silent gasp. She looked at me as if I were a ghost, or a demon summoned from the deepest, most unforgiving pit of hell. 

We locked eyes. The air in the room suddenly felt heavy. There was an electric feeling that made every part of my body feel alive. She was terrified, yes. Her hands were shaking, her breath coming in shallow bursts... I could see something else too. It was a spark. It was the Corvanis blood, in her. It was a unbreakable spirit that refused to give up.

I took another step forward, closing the distance until I towered over her, until she had to tilt her head back to hold my gaze. I looked down at her with a dark, possessive hunger that I made absolutely no effort to hide.

"Took you long enough to wake up, Corvanis's pride."