Page 52 of Sapphires and Snakes
“We’ll wait here.” Marcus rests his feet on Rita’s lap, a show of intimidation and a promise to finish what he started if I don’t follow through. “Danny, call when you and Zarina arrive at the Gallo estate.”
“Got it,” Danny says from the door.
“See you soon, Zarina.” Marcus blows a kiss at the camera, and I mime gagging. Then the line goes dead.
Pat’s already on their phone calling for the pickup. I want to yank it out of their hand and throw it at Tamayo’s goons across the bar. I want to drive over to Alphabet House and strangle Marcus Accardi to death with my bare hands. I want to cry and rage and roll into a ball on the floor and not move an inch for hours. But I don’t have the luxury of time or space. At least not until I’m locked in my room at my family’s estate.
Right now, I have about a half-hour before I’m under surveillance almost every minute of every day until Christmas. I yank off my ruby engagement ring and flag down the server to ask for pen and paper and one last glass of wine. As they scurry off to grab those, I tap on my screen, sending an encrypted message before it will be replaced with Accardi tech and I won’t be able to so much as check my email without Marcus knowing about it.
[Zarina Gallo 20:14] I need a favor.
[DA Asshat 20:14] How can I help?
TAMAYO
Zarina’s ruby engagement ring sits heavy in my palm.
The gold band reflects the lamplight, but the gem itself swallows it whole, darkening to almost black. The note she left behind lies on the side table, folded in half next to my untouched drink. I roll the ring down to my fingers, holding it between my thumb and pointer, and stare.
My capo, Juno, shifts in his seat, his face unfocused in my vision. I haven’t spoken to him since he dropped the ring and note in my hand. I had frowned at him with confusion, dread heavy on my shoulders. And when I opened the paper, my knees threatened to buckle before I could sink into my chair.
Don’t come for me. Keep them safe.
Moments later, Darius burst into the room above the dance floor in Den of Inequity to clarify exactly what the hell Zarina meant?—
The door is barely shut before the news spills out of Darius on shortened breath—“They hit Alphabet House.”
The weight of Zarina’s words sits heavy in my palm.Keep them safe. I stare at Darius, the reality of what he and Zarina are telling me sinking deeper and deeper like a paralyzing toxinrolling from my fingers, up my arm, to my brain stem, and freezing me in place.
Darius continues, “Marcus and his men just left. They held Rita in her office. She’s banged up but okay.”
My capo looks between us, caution written upon his face as he opens his mouth. “The kids?—”
“They’re unharmed.” Darius speaks to me as if the capo isn’t here, isn’t asking the questions I should ask. “Mais said he didn’t know what was happening until Pat called him.”
That shoves me into action, shattering the numbing panic that holds me. “If Pat called?—”
“It was a play for Zarina,” Darius confirms.
I open my hand, staring at the ring, the note, the sacrifice they represent resting innocuously against the lines of my palm. The full scope of the day fills the room until I can hardly breathe. I hurt Zarina Gallo, devastated her, and saw the destruction I wrought as she wrecked my office, me. And even then, she chose to help them. To help me.
And now I’m waiting for another capo to arrive as the embers always ready to burst into flaming rage lick up my limbs. It’s been weeks since it danced so hot, since I was so close to losing control of it, to unleashing it on the nearest target without consideration of how it might burn me up, too. I close my fist around the ring and wonder how it doesn’t melt.
It should. Aren’t I as hot as a furnace? Heat dialed up so high I could melt metal, incinerate flesh, burn a hole through the Earth. I want to. I want to feel destruction under the pads of my fingers, because if I don’t aim it elsewhere, it will devour me from the inside out.
How wouldyousave me?
Zarina’s echoed words are like oil, encouraging the fire higher, hotter. Nothing cuts deeper than the truth. I had no plan to save her. She knew that, saw it evidenced in the patientprocurement of her family’s property. And now, she’s sacrificed herself to save my family as if it was her own. Where I failed, she swooped in. And there’s nothing I can do to return the favor, to save her from the fate I all but pushed her into. Except maybe kill Marcus Accardi.
If it didn’t sentence my family to death, I would.
The door opens, music crashing into the room. I don’t look toward the newcomer, but I catch my capo flinch at the intrusion as he looks over with a grimace. I open my hand again, the ring undamaged despite the destruction it signifies. Despite the heat raging under my skin. The door shuts, and a second capo sits beside the first, this one’s head bowed and hands tight on her thighs.
“Gemma.” I place the ring atop the note and grab my drink. “What happened?”
She doesn’t look up as she speaks, her shoulders curled inward and her high, copper ponytail brushing against her cheek. “They took down half my guys and slipped through the crack.”
My drink is cold as it slides down my throat. “How many?”