You can do this, Alex.
With each breath I took, I convinced myself this was true. But as I hooked my leg over the side, my foot slipped on the spire, and my sweaty fingers slid down the cold metal, throwing me off balance.
At least I will die trying.
Iwas still working from the night before when Marcello called. I never slept. My demons kept me awake at night, taunting me. Besides, the Devil didn’t need sleep.
I answered the call and put it on speakerphone. “I’m in the middle of mapping the trade routes for the cartel. This better be fucking important, Marcello.”
“Alex is more important than our business associates.”
“Let me guess. She’s mad that you locked her in the room. So fucking what?” I leaned forward, elbows rested on the desk. “It’s much less than what she deserves for trying to run. If I wasn’t so busy, I would have gone down there and spanked her ass for pulling that stunt.”
Marcello breathed into the receiver. “She’s having night terrors. Maybe it’s too soon to take Aiden away from her. If we push her too hard, she’ll break.”
“Good. I like her broken. She’s more fun to play with that way.”
“You know what the doctor said,” he snapped with venom in his tone. “She can’t handle the distance from her brother. Initiation is six months without contacting anyone other than the Knights. When Alex realizes her brother disappeared, this whole plan is going to fall apart.”
“She can handle it,” I assured him.
“She needs a doctor,” he muttered. “I’m telling you, Luca, she’s not fucking okay. Alex is just like Mom. Trust me. I know what I’m talking about.”
Why does he always have to bring up our mother?She was the reason Alex was here, the reason I wanted to choke her to death every time I had to look at her.
“I got it under control, Marcello.”
I had a contingency plan for my contingency plan. With Alex and her health, I covered all of my bases. I wasn’t a man who left anything to chance. We needed her sane and compliant. The Devil’s Knights needed their queen, and it was time for Alex to serve her true purpose.
“Fine, but if this goes sideways, we’ll lose our status with The F Society.”
“Marcello, calm the fuck down. That girl has been ours from the moment we laid eyes on her. She pretends to hate us. But we all know she secretly enjoys playing the game.”
“You love the game. Not so much the rest of us.”
“Please, Bash and Damian are like cats chasing a mouse. She enjoys the thrill oftheirhunt.”
“She’s trashing her bedroom as we speak.”
Marcello groaned, and even without seeing him, I figured he was tugging at the ends of his hair in frustration. He did that so often his black hair often drooped onto his forehead like he didn’t care enough to look presentable.
“Fuck. What do you want to do with her? She’s out of her mind.”
I shot up from the chair and approached the flat-screen monitors on the wall. We had every angle of the property, every bedroom, even a feed in Alex’s old apartment that was now empty.
Damian was in his room, one hand on his cock, the other on the wall. He stared down at a laptop, jerking off to what looked like really hardcore porn. He couldn’t get enough of that shit.
Bastian was in his bedroom, fingers on the piano keys, working on the new song he was writing. Marcello sat on the top step of the second landing with his cell phone in hand, eyes pointed down at the screen.
I scanned the cameras until I found Alex’s bedroom. “Has she taken her medicine today?”
“I gave it to her this morning with her breakfast.”
“Give her a sedative, something to calm her down.”
I watched Alex throw a twenty thousand dollar vase across the room. Punted an irreplaceable Faberge egg like it was a football. I won that in a game of poker from a Russian mobster.
I shook my head. “It’s like she’s possessed.”