Chapter Twenty-Two #2
I slowly pulled back, wiping under her eyes with my thumbs. “We show no weakness,” I said. “In here, behind closed doors, we cry. When we step outside, we are the head of the Rossi family.”
She blinked, and I watched Olivia transform from victim to survivor. She lifted her head, her jaw tightening as she slowly nodded.
“You ready?” I asked.
Olivia pushed herself to her feet, and pride bloomed in my chest. This woman was my queen. Her strength infused into me as we stepped out of the bedroom and into the hallway. Doctor Ben Nugent was speaking to Dad in the entrance hall downstairs.
“There they are,” Dad said, indicating toward us. “I’ll go and tell Athena you’re here.”
Mum would have known he was here, but it was Dad’s way of removing himself from the situation.
“Thanks for coming, Ben,” I said, taking over the conversation. “Let’s go into the library.” I moved across the entrance hall, and into the only private room in the house since it was where Dad tended to do business.
Ben sat on the edge of Dad’s desk. “So what have you been getting up to?” he asked. “You look like you’ve been through the wars.”
“Something like that,” Olivia replied. “I seem to have fallen in the toilet tonight.”
“Did the sink attack you? The toilet decide to hit you over the head?” Ben queried.
“Hmmm.” Olivia gave a small smile.
“An assassin followed her into the toilet at the opera tonight,” I replied. “I found Olivia fighting back to save herself.”
“Good, good. Best to stand up to these bullies. I remember in school, they used to flush people’s heads down the toilet. It’s bad form to attack in the toilet.” Ben wrinkled his nose in disgust.
“I’ll try that next time,” Olivia replied. “Right after I try not to get murdered.”
Ben nodded encouragingly. “Best to have a plan.”
I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. “There isn’t going to be a next time. After I make sure Olivia is okay, I will be hunting the perpetrators of this down.”
“I don’t deal with the dead,” Ben said automatically. “Don’t be sending any bodies to me.”
“That was one time, Ben, and only because we needed something cut out of him,” I replied. “The dead have the same anatomy as the living.”
He shot me one of his lowered eyebrow stares. “I only treat the living.”
I rolled my eyes in despair since some people had no sense of humour. Ben was one of those people because he saved lives, and that took a lot more ability and responsibility than my skill to kill them.
“The dead have feelings too,” Olivia said. “My grandmama used to say to respect the dead as they judge you on the other side.”
“That’s me fucked then,” I replied, thinking of the number of souls I had personally sent to the other side. There were a lot of people waiting to judge me.
“You’re an honest criminal, Max,” Olivia said. “I doubt you stab your victims in the back.”
Ben sat back to look between the two of us. “Speaking of grandma sayings, mine said as god makes them he matches them, and in your case, I think that’s true.” He blew a breath out for a moment. “Two little psychos together.”
My eyebrows flew up at his words. I had never considered Olivia in the same category as me since she was innocent in my head. My hands were covered in blood like the devil, but she was my angel.
My stomach fell as Ben asked Olivia about her attack, checking her movements and injuries. She was damaged because she was my wife, and that sat heavily on my shoulders weighing me down. It was my job to keep her safe, and I had failed.
Her neck was marked from the attack, bruises developing on her back. Yet Olivia sat there like the queen she was, regally holding her head up while the world burned around her feet.
“Does that hurt?” Ben asked, moving her head gently from side to side.
“Yeah, but at least my head is still attached,” Olivia replied. “It could be detached and down the toilet right now. I’m sure that would have been terrifying for the next user.” Her laugh sounded fake, almost maniacal.
I stood, my hand finding hers. Olivia’s grip threatened the blood supply to my fingers, and I felt her tremble through our contact. For once, instead of choosing violence, I stood here and offered comfort.
“What’s the verdict, doc?” I asked.
“She’s suffering signs of shock, but she’ll survive.” Ben stared at me for a moment. “I’d hazard a guess unlike the person who attacked her.”
“You don’t treat the dead,” I commented.
“Indeed. The less I know the better, I can’t give evidence on something I know nothing about.” Ben rolled his eyes at me, returning his attention to Olivia to complete his examination. “I prescribe rest for a few days, and some pain relief to help with the bruising.”
“And tonight?” I asked, seeing the shadows in her beautiful green eyes.
Ben studied Olivia. “I can give her something to help her sleep,” he replied, moving to his bag on the desk.
Olivia rested her head against my stomach, my arm wrapping around her in reply.
Ben placed a small bottle on the table. “One at night for the next few days until the shock subsides. Just keep an eye on her, and let me know how Olivia’s doing.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Olivia said. “I’m sorry you had to be bothered.”
Ben laughed, shaking his head. “Maximus pays me enough to ensure I am available twenty-four hours a day.” He lifted his bag from the desk, waving at us over his shoulder.
“You’re leaving,” Olivia said when the door closed.
“They sent an assassin after you, they deserve to die,” I replied.
“What if they sent an assassin after me knowing your reaction, and are waiting to kill you.” Her gaze met mine. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“This is my world, Olivia. If I do nothing, it is a sign of weakness.”
“No one knows what happened tonight except us. If I hadn’t gone to the rest room, then that assassin would still be waiting for an opportunity to attack me.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Explain.”
She shrugged one shoulder. “These people know you, they’ve studied you, and will be prepared for your reaction. I’m you’re wife, my assassination would only ever end in one result from you.” She stared at me. “Retribution.”
I sighed, cracking my aching neck from side to side. “Are you suggesting I ignore what they did tonight?” I demanded.
“No.” She sat her ass on the desk. “I suggest you become the big, fat spider sitting in the middle of the web. He doesn’t go out and hunt the fly. He waits for that fly to come to him, and when it does, his web traps him which allows the spider to attack.”
“You want me to be a spider,” I repeated.
“I want you to be a cunning predator,” she replied. “By drawing our enemies to us, you control the game.”
I slowly ground my teeth together, considering her words. “Could you not have made me into something dangerous like a panther?” I queried.
“Nope.” She made the word pop. “Spiders are strong, agile, dangerous predators who not only decimate their prey, but also keep the places they live in safe from disease-bringing parasites.” She raised her eyebrow at me, as if defying me to argue with her.
“Mum will be waiting to fuss over you, and make you drink copious amounts of her special blend of tea,” I replied, grabbing her hand and tugging her up to lead the way to the kitchen. “We’ll stay here tonight as Dad has a mini army on his estate.”
As predicted, Mum automatically defaulted into her fussing mode, aided by Willow.
Apparently tea with plenty of sugar in it was the answer to everything.
I watched Olivia in the middle of my family, her face pale with red marks where she had been hit.
How she had survived that attack, I had no idea, but she sat here smiling and reassuring everyone that she was fine even though she clearly wasn’t.
Jake appeared at the kitchen door, and I moved out when I saw the expression on his face.
“The issue at the opera is sorted,” he said, meaning the body no longer existed. “I’ve called all our men to gather.”
I glanced at Olivia through the door. “Cancel them,” I replied, earning a disbelieving look from Jake as Gabriel joined us. He stood against the door with his hands in his pockets.
“It’s a smart move,” Gabriel said. “There’s a reason I have worked as a top assassin for years. Strike when people least expect the attack, and they’ll never see it coming.”
Jake glared at him. “All our people are ready and waiting.”
Gabriel shrugged. “So give them a bullshit story in case you have a mole. No one has seen Willow, so it’s easy to assume they got the target wrong since both women arrived upstairs at the same time. Tell them that someone tried to attack Willow, and they were scared away.”
“I’d rather not bring the girls into it,” I replied. “Tell them another of our clubs were attacked, and make them increase security. Someone will have noticed the incinerator on tonight.”
None of my generals were stupid, and they all had eyes on the ground, and ears to every wall. The fact that we had disposed of a body tonight would not have gone unnoticed.
“I’ll tell them an assailant was caught in my club,” Jake said. “You and I are the only ones with access to the security for that place. You sure you want to do this?”
The short answer was no. My instinct was to annihilate everything in my path, but I had always trusted Olivia’s advice over the years. There was no point in ignoring it now.
“Yeah,” I replied. “Right now we don’t know who our enemies are. Let’s set a few traps, and see what we catch.”
Jake nodded slowly. “Okay, I’ll see what information I can start to filter through to everyone. This could backfire on us, so we need to get our ducks in a row, before they wander off and get put in a Hoisin sauce.”
Gabriel laughed in a low tone that was creepier than a loud laugh.
“Let your ducks go and pretend it’s open season.
If it was me, I’d give everyone the same information with a small detail changed for each team.
I worked too long with Darius Ramirez not to be cautious. The man made paranoid into an artform.”
“Let’s do this,” I said. “The target is Olivia, so I need people on the ground who look like her to throw up a smoke screen. Whoever is behind this, I want their heads, and everyone knows I have no problem gift-wrapping that shit, and sending it to their nearest and dearest.”
“We could be starting a war,” Jake warned.
“The war has already begun,” I replied, watching Olivia. “It started when some smartass put a mark on my wife. Now they’ll have to suffer the consequences of their actions.”
Olivia turned toward me, her gaze meeting mine. She didn’t know it, but I would burn this city to the ground to keep her safe. She held my worthless heart in the palm of her small hand, and that made her my queen in Hell.