Chapter 16
elaine
The ballroom was already dressed with wedding decorations in the morning, and I blushed furiously at the sight of it all. Vera had described it as just a welcome ceremony, but this… looked like a wedding ceremony.
The house was huge and had a big ballroom for events, right in the center, with ornate windows at the back. And right now, it looked like romance, with fresh morning sunlight coming in over white drapery.
“Morning!” Petra said from behind me, and I jumped, turning to her. She grinned. “Your bride-to-be slept in later than usual this morning. You tire her out last night?”
“P-Petra.”
She cackled, throwing her head back. “I’m kidding. Actually, it’s the Wolf we’re talking about, so maybe you did.”
“She was just having bad dreams!”
“And you comforted her from them…”
Well, yes. But I wasn’t about to tell Petra that. I folded my arms, and she relented with a laugh.
“Caitlyn’s an early riser too. She’s been enthusiastic, and we got her a new laptop, but she insists on an opportunity to get her own tablet. She says it’s important.”
“Ah… it was my birthday gift to her.”
“You’re a good one.” She squeezed my shoulder. “No wonder even the Wolf likes you.”
“Vera is…?”
“Just what some of us call her. Her last name, Farkas, means wolf. And she’s got the dark, broody, howling at the moon thing down.”
I looked down. “She’s just… gone through a lot. It’s natural she’d be closed off.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Yeah… sure.”
“Are you two even friends? You threatened to kill her and then got into a fight.”
“I hate her,” she said brightly. “She stole my job when she first joined the family. My chances of a promotion evaporated. I swore to get her back. I just haven’t managed to kill her yet. Besides that, she’s a psychopath and a threat to humanity. She’s just our threat to humanity.”
“I feel like I should be upset that you’re insulting my wife.”
Petra laughed. “Vera’s still out for preparation. Let’s grab you your breakfast.”
Preparation. To marry me.
To keep me alive.
I looked one more time up at the wedding decorations. “Yeah,” I said. “Breakfast sounds nice.”
petra
Vera Farkas was going to screw this up.
I couldn’t blame her. Talking to Elaine, I didn’t want to hurt her, either. She was that kind of radiant personality where you could tell all she did was care for people.
But we did what we had to do. The Blackbirds were family.
I finished getting Elaine her breakfast, and I grabbed another snack too—I’d eaten breakfast when I woke up just two hours ago, but I was always ready for another meal—and I got her the itinerary for the day, leaving out the part that she was going to die tonight.
I hated seeing the girl look almost excited for this wedding. Vera was good at what she did.
The fucking Wolf. I was going to kill her.
Caitlyn closed her laptop once I’d finished with Elaine and went to join her in the living room, looking up at me with concern in her eyes. Concern for her big sister who she loved dearly. What were we going to do with this one, anyway?
“Are we done for the morning?” she said.
“We get a nice break. Although you don’t need to do anything, you’re a guest.” I set down an iced coffee for her, and she lit up as she took it, closing her eyes with a long sip.
“It’s nice here,” she said. “You all are so kind… I never thought I’d feel so welcome in a place.”
I sat down on the sofa with her, putting a hand on her shoulder. She was so small, so delicate, even more so than her sister. “Your mother didn’t deserve you,” I said. “Don’t worry. You’ll be okay.”
“Can you tell me now what’s happening?” she said. “With my sister and everything?”
Vera and I had talked about this, and we decided it made sense to plant the seeds of Whitecliff assassination before the murder actually happened. “It’s some heavy stuff,” I said. “You sure you want to know?”
“She’s my sister. And my best friend. I’m worried about her.”
“Yeah, well, you’d be right to be,” I said. “Your sister inherited a small property in the industrial district. Not very important in of itself. But an organized crime ring needs that property to complete its project.”
Her pupils went small. “Organized crime ring…? Who?”
“They’re called the Whitecliff family. They operate mostly in information logistics, bribery, extortion, blackmail.
And if they can’t build on the South Yard, they won’t be able to complete this project.
Elaine can’t sell the South Yard, because of a stipulation in the contract.
One meant to protect her from being extorted, because your granduncle knew this was coming.
But I think they don’t care about buying it.
I think they want to just build over it, and to make sure Elaine doesn’t leverage any legal proceedings to stop them, they’re going to kill her. ”
She clasped her hands over her mouth. “Then all that commotion from Elaine’s apartment…”
“Vera saved her from Whitecliff assassins.”
“Assassins, for an organized crime ring, attacked my sister? So—who are you in all this?”
I chuckled. “Don’t freak out, but we’re also an organized crime ring.”
She choked on her coffee.
“We’re called the Blackbirds. In this case, we want to make sure the Whitecliffs don’t get their deal.”
“You’re mobsters?”
“More or less, yeah.”
“Oh my God.” She set her drink down, looking at it like it was poisoned. Fair call. Elaine should have been more careful too.
“That’s how we knew about the Whitecliff operation. But Vera’s impossible to kill. God knows the Whitecliffs have been trying. So Vera is going to marry Elaine, so that if they were to kill Elaine, Vera would inherit it instead. Remove their incentive to kill Elaine.”
“So that’s what it is…” She looked down at her hands. “That’s horrible. Elaine’s never done anything but help people. No matter what it’s cost her, she gives everything to help our family. To help the community at her work. What kind of project is this that they’re willing to kill her over?”
Every word stung, but it wasn’t like we didn’t know what we were doing.
We just preferred not to face the details usually.
“It’s a logistics powerhouse. To control shipping and freight in Merona.
Mostly as a pass-through, but it’ll give them the tools and the cover to control the arms trade in the region. ”
“That’s horrible. Killing my sister just so they can make more money off of weapons…”
I got a flash of pain in my chest, my mind wrenching viscerally back to memories I tried to avoid. Cracks of gunfire. Muzzle flashes in the night. The rain cold as metal on my face. My heart pounding as I played dead amongst the bodies, just a kid then.
I’d sworn I wouldn’t let anything like it happen again. I told myself the Blackbirds controlling the arms trade would mean fewer guns in the hands of everyone, fewer shootouts. Fewer senseless deaths.
But there were times when I wondered if maybe Glenn really did have our best interests at heart.
I squeezed Caitlyn’s shoulder. “Everything’s gonna be okay,” I said. “That’s a promise. We’re going to keep you safe.”
“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she said.
“We’ll make sure everyone’s safe. Now, I’ll let you get back to your game.”
That got her to smile. She opened the computer to a code interface, a flashing terminal. “I’m just getting this thing set up,” she said. “This computer is way more powerful than my last one. Thanks, Petra.”
“Oh, someone’s a techie,” I said. “Guess you can be our IT specialist. I’ll let you know next time I need to turn on the printer.”
She laughed, eyes sparkling. “I won’t even help you! As revenge for the stupid rainforest facts. I’m abandoning you to face the printer alone!”
“Aw, c’mon. Did you know that in the rainforest, the strangler fig actually sprouts in the canopy and grows downwards, and—”
She shoved me, laughing. “Go live in the rainforest instead, then, if you like it that much, but leave me out of it!”
I stood up, chuckling. “I’ll talk to you later, Caitlyn.”
Her eyes shone. “Thanks, Petra. I never thought I’d say this to a gang of mobsters, but… you’re really nice.”
I waited until I was out of the room to lean back against the wall with a heavy sigh.
Dammit. Some jobs were harder than others.
I drew the knife from inside my jacket—an authentic Whitecliff blade, marked with their seal. I’d been on procurement before this, getting the weapon Vera would use to kill Elaine, make it look like the Whitecliffs’ doing.
This job might have been the hardest of all.