Chapter 13
Elise woke to a concerned face staring down at her. Sterling immediately backed away as she sat up. Her brow, sweaty and hot, furrowed while she took in the familiar surroundings of Jamie’s apartment. All Elise could do was shake her head in confusion.
Sterling cleared his throat. “I threw out the venom. You were becoming dependent on it, and it was slowly killing you. You need to get it out of your system now. I figured you would want to do it away from your father—”
“I need it—”
“This is part of the drug people are using to feel bigger than they are, and it kills them, Elise. Let it go. Some of us don’t want you to die,” Sterling snapped.
Jamie folded his newspaper from where he sat at the kitchen counter across the room. “She has no healthy fear of death,” he muttered. “But I’m sure letting her bleed on my couch will fix that.”
“You’re not helping,” Sterling bit out.
“Neither are you,” Elise shot back.
His face twisted with anger. “Would you rather I have left you there? And let your father assume the worst? This doesn’t reflect well on the empire, Elise.”
“And you sidling up with a gangster does? Or do you only care about morals when they serve you?” Elise retorted.
Sterling glared. “It wasn’t my idea—”
“He’s right. I’ve been paid to look after you. Can’t have you dying on these streets, as much as I would love to give up some responsibility,” Jamie called.
Elise clenched her jaw. “I don’t give a fuck about the empire. If neither of you will do anything, then I will do it myself.”
“Why are you so impassioned by this all of a sudden?” Sterling demanded.
Elise’s throat tightened as angry tears filled her eyes. “Why are you not? Our home is dying. Even if I had no personal stake in this, I would care. You should too. My father founded the empire to help, but he’s done no such thing. You’re no better than him, and he’s the fucking worst, Sterling.”
Hurt darkened his expression as his face fell. “What personal stake?”
Elise swallowed. She contemplated keeping the truth from him, but if there was one thing that would get him to see her perspective, it would be her younger sister. “Josi. Josi is doing this. Or she’s involved with the beast somehow. I heard her voice in the hotel when that…thing attacked me.”
Silence draped the room in stiff tension.
Holding her breath, Elise waited for Sterling’s next words.
Even Jamie tensed in his seat. Elise’s patience dried up the longer she sat on the couch with blood soaking through the bandages on her wrist. “Karma has been around for as long as Josi has been missing. I need the name of the club that young woman got her venom from.”