Chapter Fifty
Vishous was at his desk in his fishbowl office when the call came in to his cell. As he looked at who it was, he snatched the Samsung.
“You okay?”
At least he knew where Allhan was. The male hadn’t turned off his location ping tonight.
He’d been at Sal’s for the last hour and a half, and while that would have been great news under other circumstances, given the little news flash from the Shadows last night, there was no feeling good about anything involving the male and Denne.
“Yeah,” V said as he grabbed for his lighter. “I can come over to the restaurant. Now? Yup, I’ll be there right away, true.”
He was already getting to his feet before he hung up, and he took a whole palmful of smokes with him as he left. Striding out down the aisle between the work station desks, he had the feeling that something was stalking him. Something nasty.
The instinct was still with him as he re-formed out the back of Sal’s, in the parking lot. There were no vehicles around, except for that badass truck he’d seen the night before, and the second he was corporeal, the door opened.
Then again, he’d been the one to install the security cameras and his presence had obviously been anxiously waited for.
Dennesha did the duty with the steel panel, and she stood off to the side to hold things in place. She was not smiling. But in the few times he’d seen her, the female had never seemed particularly happy.
Except for when she’d been with Allhan last night.
The snow squeaked under his shitkickers as he went over to her, and he lit up as he strode along.
“Evening,” he said.
“Hi. I’m D—”
“I know who you are. Where’s our boy?”
Her eyes flared in surprise, but she recovered quickly. “He’s, ah, he’s down in the front of the house. I’m going to just chill here in my office while you two talk.”
“Good deal.”
He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and wanted to tell her not to worry, or some shit. He’d never been good at lying, though, and the vibes were way off on all this. The whole fucking thing.
The female looked like she was about to vibrate off the goddamn planet. And not in a good way.
“You mind if I smoke in here?”
“Not at all. Grab one of the dishes and use it as your ashtray if you want.”
“Thanks.”
V strode down the corridor, and when he passed through the kitchen, he did what she’d suggested, snagging a Sal’s branded soup bowl along the way. As he continued walking, he ashed into the thing, the little gray flakes speckling across the red logo.
He shouldered through a pair of flap doors and found himself in the bar area.
Everything was dimly lit, the red leather stools all lined up at the counter, the bottles sleeping on the illuminated shelves behind the serving area.
On the far side of the room, the dozen banquettes where the VIPs had sat for generations were already set for patrons, and the black-and-white pictures of old-fashioned Caldwell were like windows on the past you could step into.
He found Allhan sitting on the shallow stairs that led down to the closed double doors of the entrance. The male was totally self-contained, his arms wrapped around himself, his knees up to his chest, his head lowered.
V had always imagined him just like this when he’d been abandoned.
And when the male didn’t look up, he abruptly knew that there was more to the whole story. More to the extra phone. More to the location pings that had disappeared.
“Here,” V said as he went over. “Have one of these.”
The hand that came out and took the cigarette trembled. “Th-thank you.”
V did the duty with the Bic, and after Allhan leaned in and inhaled, the coughing that came next was pretty epic.
While the male caught his breath, V put the communal ash bowl down on the red carpeted stairs, and then went across and leaned back against the doors. For some reason, the fact that they could be used for both entrances and exits lingered in his mind as he watched Allhan smoke.
When the male was finally finished, he stabbed out the stump and looked up. Those pale blue eyes were dead, absolutely opaque.
“I lied to you.”
Vishous exhaled and eased out of his lean. The way Allhan shrank away, and lifted his arms as if to fend off blows, was a knee-jerk on the male’s part. Total instinct.
V just did some stabbing of his own in the bowl and then returned to where he’d been. “About what.”
There was a long, long silence after that. And then:
“Everything.”
As Allhan let the word out, he studied Vishous’s face, that harsh, hard face, with its goatee and its tattoos and its diamond eyes. He waited for rage. For accusations. For a physical attack. What he got was… far more chilling.
Nothing changed. There wasn’t even a blink that was out of sequence, no alteration in breathing, no response at all. Which meant that the Brother was so in command of himself, and his resources, and his mind, that nothing could throw him.
It was a reminder that true power came not from outward aggression, but from the inner knowledge that you could fuck someone up with your bare hands and have your heart rate remain the same as before you started.
And in the silent aftermath of Allhan’s confession, the Brother didn’t say anything.
Didn’t look away. Didn’t shift even a foot or a finger.
Vishous could have been furious or indifferent or thinking about what he was going to have for Last Meal.
Who the fuck knew, and Allhan was no expert in negotiations, but he’d heard that whoever spoke first lost.
And they both knew who that was going to be.
“I am the son of—” He ducked his own stare and coughed some more to clear his throat. “I am the son of Chritophe, a member of the glymera who died six months ago. I am the brother of his blooded daughter, Carmen, who is living in a safe house on the Hudson.”
Allhan glanced up. Still no change and no reaction.
“I, ah, I killed my father the night I left my family house. I tried to send my sister to the male she loved and his bloodline. And afterward, I went to Safe Place and…” He hesitated. “I…”
He couldn’t go any further.
That was when Vishous spoke, and the Brother’s voice, once so familiar, was cold as ice: “Why don’t we skip the narrative and just do the headlines.
Am I killing you where you sit right now?
Or not. You tell me.” Abruptly, those eyes flicked up over his shoulder.
“Do yourself a favor, Dennesha, and go back to your office. Better yet, you should leave altogether. I’ll lock up when I’m through. ”
Wrenching around, Allhan nodded his head. “You really should go, Denne.”
“Nope.” She planted her boots by the host stand. “I’m not leaving.”
Now Vishous moved, his weight shifting off the door, his black-gloved hand moving into the pocket of his black leather jacket.
“I respect the shit out of your parents, and more than that, there has been peace between the Black Dagger Brotherhood and the s’Hisbe for generations.
I have no intention of breaking that track record, but if you get in the way of whatever is about to happen here, I will not hesitate to kill you as well. ”
There was a subtle bing! Like a text going out or coming in.
And then a twin pair of guns popped up so fast, you couldn’t track them. One muzzle was pointed at Allhan and the other at Denne, with the Brother focusing on a middle point right between them so his peripheral vision no doubt had them both in focus.
So he could pull those triggers at the same time.
“Did you tell him about your sister, Al,” she said roughly.
“That’s not what he’s going to care about.” Allhan lowered his head again. “It’s the lesser. That’s what he needs to know.”