Page 52 of The Crimson Lily

T he Mafia Capitale quarters: an underground shelter of hallways and chambers controlled by the crime kings of Rome.

I left my hospital bed early this morning, awoken by the lack of morphine in my blood.

I was shot in the arm, punched in the jaw.

A nurse convinced me my bandage needed changing.

A doctor came by to check my broken hand.

They patched me up before they allowed me out of bed, my arm hanging in a sling.

Maksim stayed with me this whole time, his eyes never leaving me.

His face looks painful, both his eyes darkened by a night in William’s claws.

I feel a slight pinch to my heart, thinking of what my Maksim could have endured.

I bring my hand to his face and caress it.

The electricity of the touch of his skin sends shivers down my spine.

“What did he do to you?” I dare to ask, my hand still there, refusing to let him go.

“Don’t worry about it,” he hushes me and kisses my hand.

I have tears hiding in my throat. “Are you going to be okay?”

He delicately takes my hand in his and lowers it. “Believe me, I’ve been through worse.”

Cold. That’s how his words make me feel. I don’t want to hear more about it. The idea of Maksim getting hurt simply breaks my heart.

“So, what happened last night?” I ask him instead, struggling to put on sneakers with one hand.

Maksim brought some of my clothes here along with a new pair of sneakers. I have to accept the fact I’ll never see my boots again.

He watches me fiddle with the laces with an amused yet relieved smile. “I tracked you.”

Yes, Maksim, I figured that part out. He helps me put on my University of Columbia sweater, but I still have more questions.

“What about that whole show with…the police?” I straighten my posture, shoving my foot into the other shoe while still holding on to it so it won’t slip away.

“How did you even get the police involved?”

“It was Giovanni’s idea,” Maksim reveals.

Speaking of the devil, before Maksim can say more, Giovanni enters the room. “Liliana!” He gives me a warm yet careful hug. “ Grazie a Dio , we found you! I told your boyfriend I never doubted your genius!”

My boyfriend . I smile at that last part.

“And speaking of which…” Giovanni starts, then his tone switches to something reluctant. “Hey, Russo .” He catches Maksim’s attention, who’s still looking at me. “We might need your interrogation tactics, after all.”

“He’s still not talking?” Maksim asks Giovanni directly.

Giovanni shakes his head. I don’t know for sure who they’re talking about, but I have a pretty good idea.

“William’s not dead?” I check, and they both pause. “Where is he?”

Giovanni points a finger down. “He’s in the cage.”

I cross my arms, still dying to hear the details of yesterday’s stratagem. “Tell me how you got the police mixed up in all this.”

“It was a very simple calculation,” Giovanni smirks. “You see, the list we got from the Token Man had some value for us, but for the police, it was a goldmine. And even more so when we told them a Syndicate lord was around.”

“You told them?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. I didn’t take the mafia for people who talk to the police.

“Our little Chiara did,” Giovanni reveals. “They brought the firepower we needed, and we got what we wanted in exchange.”

I raise a second eyebrow. “What deal did you make?”

Giovanni’s boastful smirk widens. “Chiara gave them the list and told them where to find Margaret Rose. Turns out, that woman is on Europol’s Most Wanted list.” He pauses to savor his victory. “They got her, and we got you and de Loit, no questions asked.”

“So the police were fine with…”—I point at the Mafia Capitale soldier in front of me—“you?”

“We gave them something they wanted, and they stayed out of our way.”

I nod distantly, remembering the events of last night little by little.

William’s furious and consternated glare remains imprinted in my mind.

I really did the unexpected, that’s for sure.

I glance at Maksim, searching for a little spark of pride in his eyes.

I did good, smuggling that tracker with me. I hope Maksim recognizes that.

“ Russo ?” Giovanni pokes, retracing his steps and heading for the exit.

Maksim reluctantly follows. “Fine,” he sighs.

I tail them both. “Can I join?”

They both examine me with frowns, probably wondering if I still have all my senses. It’s not going to get pretty down there; I can sense it. Maksim isn’t going to give William a good time, far from it.

But I want to see it. To be honest, part of me wants to see what Maksim’s going to do to him. I have flashbacks of Mr. Zhang, back in Paris, and of Maksim’s fists the first day we met. His eyes, the way they glow as he does his work, I want to see my Belarusian man in that savage state again.

“Actually, that wasn’t a question,” I conclude, bobbing my head side to side like a teasing cobra as I pass both of them and slither into the hallway.

Giovanni shrugs, and Maksim chuckles at me.

The latter bears the gaze of a man who could exclaim: “Cute!” I like those eyes.

Blue gems of delight. He follows me closely as Giovanni catches up with me and proceeds to lead the way.

Maksim’s hand makes its way down my back, settling there, possessing me.

I couldn’t be happier he’s here, reunited with me.

Three floors below is a hollow block of concrete down a dark hallway. One flickering lamp lights the room where William sits, gagged and cuffed, on a crude wooden chair. Two men open the reinforced prison door and let Maksim, Giovanni, and me into the room.

I gasp inaudibly when I see the amount of blood on William’s face. It’s like his nose is missing, crushed into his bones by Maksim’s fists last night.

When he sees me, William snickers and spits on the floor. “How could you?” he muffles, unable to speak with the cloth in his mouth.

I cross my arms, making eye contact and not losing it.

Giovanni steps in front of me. “Hi, William, it’s me again,” he greets, exaggeratedly hospitable. He even claps once in his hand. “Perhaps you recognize my friend here.” Giovanni spins on his heels and lets Maksim pass him.

William maintains his gaze on me; he couldn’t care less about Maksim.

“Maybe it’ll be easier for you to talk to him,” Giovanni continues. He then turns to me and leans closer to my ear. “You don’t want to see this, bella ,” he warns with a stern whisper. “We know how the Russians do it. It’s not…enjoyable.”

I bite my lip in apprehension. “I want to see,” I swear.

Giovanni frowns for a split second before giving me an as-you-wish shrug. He exits the room and leaves William alone with Maksim and me. The door clicks behind me, and my spine stiffens.

Maksim doesn’t even look at me. He comes to a standstill before William, so my cousin is forced to look at Maksim’s crotch instead of me, and removes the gag.

“I already told your friends,” William immediately blurts. It’s as if he’s chewing his own words. “The whole Syndicate knows of the dagger’s key, and they know how to decode it! I gave them everything —The Crimson Lily, everything!”

“I doubt that,” Maksim declares.

William coughs and cackles at the same time. “Do your worst.”

Maksim doesn’t wait. One sudden movement and I see William’s head cock to the left, a jet of spit ejecting out of his mouth.

I step to the side to see more. Maksim now has his big hand around William’s jaw and seems to be clenching the bone.

William howls a shriek that makes me shut my eyelids and purse my lips compulsively.

One, two, three—I count five loud thumps and bones breaking. William grunts and spits blood or vomit at Maksim’s feet. One last knee to the chest with his claws in William’s shoulders and Maksim is done.

“Is that really all you can do, pidor ?” William expels muffled yelps, coughing and coughing some more.

Maksim turns around, and our eyes make four. He has a vile and sharp grin on his face, one I’ve never seen before. His eyes are no longer blue and have passed the threshold of silver. I swear they’re white.

In the dimly lit room, my eyes catch a sharp object in Maksim’s hand. The reflection of the light shooting into my eyes is what draws my attention to it. A knife or a razor blade that my Belarusian man holds between his fingers.

Maksim turns back to his target and seizes William by the collar, holding the blade to the side of his face.

“Did you really give the key to anyone else?” Maksim asks, his voice dark, but his timbre serene.

William looks up, not being able to see much through the blood and tears over his face, though he can see Maksim’s face and the scars of what he did to him but a few nights ago.

“Revenge tastes good, doesn’t it?” William mocks.

Maksim sneers. “This is not revenge,” he declares. “This is work.”

He uses the razor blade to pierce through the flesh below William’s eye.

The next scream doesn’t even sound real.

Its echo screeches between my ears like iron claws on a school’s blackboard.

There’s no other audible din but the dirge of William’s pain.

I know I’ll hear that scream in my next nightmare.

When I dare to look closer, I see Maksim with a blade in his hand, operating on William’s skull, excising a piece of his victim’s right eye. He uses his thumb to hold William’s face steady, the white fluid bursting around Maksim’s nail.

I just want to puke, but I keep on looking.

“Liliana!” William eventually cries for me, pulling me out of my trance.

I clear my throat when I come back to my senses. “Maksim, stop,” I say with a motion for my lover to pause.