Chapter 101
ONE HUNDRED ONE
ENZO
Isat in the coffee shop that Rosalie had worked at three days after Anson’s phone call. I didn’t know why I went in since I knew she wasn’t there anymore and was likely already on a plane headed to California.
Maybe it helped me feel closer to her.
It was killing me that she was leaving. Tearing my heart to fucking ribbons, but I wanted this for her. I wanted her to find herself and be happy.
My girl deserved the world.
A man slid into the booth across from me.
I blinked in confusion at him.
“Hello, Lorenzo. My name is Dante Church,” he said smoothly.
I stiffened as he smiled. He and Rosalie had a striking resemblance to one another. It was the eyes. The full lips. Hell, maybe even the way he said my name.
“Do not move,” he instructed as I made to grab my gun from my suit pocket. “You would die before you got your weapon out. My men are everywhere.”
I looked around the small diner, noting a man with tattoos and wearing a leather jacket at the counter. There were other customers in the restaurant, but it was hard to tell who his men were.
“Your Escalade? I have it rigged to explode. Your men waiting for you would die. The two cars down the street watching?” He made an explosion motion with his hands. “Poof. Gone. Cole Scott and Ethan Masters warm in their high-rise? Dead.”
“What do you want?” I snarled.
“Only to speak,” he said. “I have some things I need to get off my chest.”
“So speak.”
“I am the new ruler of the underground. I will be taking over.”
“Where is Everett?” I asked, glancing around and noticing a big guy with a man bun leaning against a parking meter outside.
“Good question. We’re working on the answer to that.”
“How do you not fucking know?”
“I do not work with my father. He is a piece of shit who deserves worse than death, and believe me, once I find him, it’s exactly what he will get.”
I stared at him. “You torture in the underground.”
“I do.”
“E said you helped him.”
“I did.”
“And Fox…?”
“Regrettable incident,” he said. “He wasn’t supposed to die. I tried to save him, too. For my sister.”
I said nothing, watching him.
“I am merely here to tell you that I will be cleaning up this city. I am not your enemy unless you want me to be.”
“I do not want a war with the underground unless it’s with Everett Church,” I said.
“Well, I am not my father. He is on the run. Once he is found, he will be dealt with.”
“I want to deal with him. For Fox. For E.”
“Yes, well, perhaps if you stay in line, I’ll allow you time in the underground with him. For a price, of course.” Dante’s eyes sparkled.
“And if I get him first?” I asked.
“If you get him first, you will bring him to me.”
“I don’t fucking work for you.”
“No, but if you don’t fall in line now, I may have to break a promise to my sister. I really don’t want to fucking do that, Lorenzo. I only just got her.”
“You had her,” I said thickly.
He inclined his head. “I did. We had a lot of catching up to do.”
“Did you fucking hurt her? Touch her? Anson said she was OK, but…”
“Oh, I didn’t hurt her. Touch her? Mm, a little, but I was only getting to know her.
And she was quite well when we parted ways.
I would even go as far as saying she was happy.
” He dug beneath his black shirt and pulled out a small vial of blood on a necklace.
“A parting gift from her. She bleeds so prettily.”
“You’re fucking sick,” I snarled.
“Yes. They say I’m a sociopath. A psychopath.
” He let out a loud laugh. “They’re all so funny with their labels.
I am worse than those things, though. I am a man who wants revenge for my mother.
For my brother. For my girl. For my sister.
And I won’t stop until I have it. Now you can fall in line or get buried beneath it. The choice is yours.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Stay in line,” he repeated. “I can let you pretend you own this city, or I can blatantly show my power. You choose. I must warn you, it can get bloody.”
“The city is mine,” I said fiercely. “I fought for it.”
“And what a fight.” He smiled. “Tell you what. I’ll allow you to run your business in my kingdom. But when I make a request, you comply. Easy enough?”
“What sort of request?”
He shrugged. “I want people brought to me. I want information. That’s all.
The underground is going to change. It will be where the wicked suffer, not the innocent.
It’s a new world, Lorenzo, and I’m the new monster in town.
Be a good guy and don’t piss me off. Don’t hurt innocent people.
Everything will work out fine if you follow the rules. ”
“I don’t hurt innocent people.”
“I think my sister would disagree, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m trying to see what she saw in you. Maybe it’s the suit. That’s nice. Armani?”
I ground my teeth at him. He was a fucking asshole.
“Do we have a deal?” He smiled at me.
I had no idea what else the madman could want, but if all he was doing was cleaning up the pricks off the street, then I could abide by those rules.
“Fine,” I said.
“Perfect. Sign here.” He pulled a contract from his jacket and pushed it across the table at me.
I stared down at it, reading the exact same things he’d said. There wasn’t much in the contract past that. He’d get to pay me a visit whenever he wanted. I’d give him information if I had it, or I’d die. Pretty standard, fucked up shit.
I grabbed the pen the waitress had left behind, but he tutted at me.
“What?” I frowned at him.
“I only do deals in blood.” He brought a knife out and looked pointedly at me.
Sighing, I gave him my hand. He twirled the knife before piercing the tip of my finger. I watched his eyes darken as he stared down at the bead of blood that came out.
I quickly tugged my finger away, knowing damn well the stories I’d heard about him eating people were true.
I pressed my finger to the contract, and he cut his finger and marked the page next to mine in his blood.
“Excellent. We have a deal. Might want to get a bandage on that finger of yours. Wouldn’t want the world to know you bleed like every other man out there on the streets.” Dante got to his feet and tucked the contract into his jacket.
“Was Rosalie happy?” I ventured.
He paused and looked down at me. “You broke her heart. I hope it was worth it.”
“Me too,” I whispered.
“I’ll be seeing you, Lorenzo. Take care.” He walked away from me whistling. The guy with the tattoos followed him out, along with a built guy with copper colored curls. They met the man bun guy on the street before getting into a blacked-out SUV.
“Such a tangled web, isn’t it?”
I looked up at the man who was standing at my table.
“Sylar.” He offered me his hand.
I shook it, frowning at him. He looked like Fox. Like Anson.
“De Santis?” I asked.
“Technically. My last name is Cain. My mother hated my old man and thought she was fucking with him by using her maiden name. She’s a funny woman, that Jackie Carrie. Bit nuts, but hey, who isn’t, right?”
“You’re the puppetmaster.”
“Ooh, fancy name. I like it.” He grinned. “Everyone else calls me Asylum on account of the voices and all that.” He pointed to his head.
“You kissed my girl.”
“I did. What a marvelous mouth on her. You really lost out.”
“What do you want?” I demanded. I’d had enough of this shit today.
“Nothing really. Just introducing myself. Saw you talking to Dante and figured what the hell.”
“Noted. Now fuck off,” I said.
He slid into the booth across from me, and I stared at him like he’d lost his damn mind.
“I have a message,” he said in a hushed voice. “I must deliver it.”
I stared at him, waiting for him to speak.
“A child will be born in eight months’ time.
Not yours. Not mine. A mistake that will hurt, but on a mountain is a fact, that you can indeed, go back.
A wish granted, a promise met, shattered lies, and a destiny set.
All you need to do, Lorenzo the great, is dial this number on a specific date.
You want it to look real. You want it to look clean.
Let the monster and her minions set the scene.
A fire in the sky, a child who bleeds. This will be the end of the evil she feeds.
” He pushed a card at me with a phone number on it.
“What the fuck?” I whispered, not having any idea what he just rattled off to me.
He smirked. “Call me when you need to clean up the mess you’re about to make.
Your wife will try to kill the baby. Save the boy so he can save the girl because Cole won’t be able to.
Have a nice afternoon. Check out Twisty Cone.
They’re doing two for one.” He got up and walked away without another word, leaving me to wonder what the fuck just happened.