Chapter Three

Kane’s POV 

Kane poured himself a glass of whiskey, scowling when it was immediately snatched by Victor. 

The Capo drank it in a gulp and Kane limited his complaints to a scowl.

“My office, now,” he ordered, crushing the plastic cup and tossing it to the side. 

Out of sight, Kane rolled his eyes but dutifully covered the bottle and followed his Capo into his office. 

In the office, there were already three men seated at the table. Logan, the Capo’s enforcer, and Govern and Howie, two of the older underbosses. They all scowled when they saw him. He ignored them in favor of finding somewhere to sit that was as far away from Victor as possible. Less than two months ago, he’d have taken his seat as the Capo’s right hand but he’d lost that privilege, along with his dignity and pride. Now, he did everything he was commanded to do.

“Why is he here,” Govern grunted.

Victor just smiled, “I didn’t realize I needed your permission to invite someone to my fucking office, Govern.”

“But… I didn’t…” the foolish man stuttered.

Victor was a madman, and Govern was asking for death if he kept running his mouth.

“Just shut the fuck up.” the other man muttered, and he snapped his mouth shut.

Shame, Kane would have loved to see some blood flow.

“Great,” Victor eventually said after making Govern sweat in the tense silence for several minutes. “There’s been a new development. I’ve agreed to a pact of truce with the Moreni family.”

Kane was shocked. He hadn’t even known Victor had still been pursuing peace, he’d assumed his plan had been put on hold while he was being punished.

Around the table, only Logan didn’t look surprised. Instead, the young man looked bored. Kane hid his regret? Anger? There was a time when Logan looked up to him. He’d been the one to help him put things into perspective when he’d tortured his first victim, but now the boredom in those eyes was only broken by the look that appeared whenever their gazes met. That look meant triumph and retribution, all in one. He rejected the urge to rub his scarred arms. 

He shifted his eyes back to Victor’s, and sure enough, the other man’s gaze was already on him.

“I didn’t know we were still pursuing that.”

The man leaned back in his chair and smirked, “Well, I decided why not? A man once explained to me why that was the best approach. Such a pity he wouldn’t appreciate the effort today.”

“Victor…”

In a flash, Logan was out of his chair and trying to slam his head into the table. He let it happen, and his whole face hurt as the sound reverbrated round the room. 

“He’s Capo to you.” the enforcer snarled in his ear, jerking his head back up just as suddenly.

“Logan,” Victor said, the threat clear in his voice and the man let him go harshly. He just watched in silence as blood dripped from his nose to the table, making no attempt to stop the flow.

Victor allowed another poignant silence before he broke it with a laugh. Logan followed, and the other occupants looked at them in confusion before snorts of laughter alse escaped their lips. He was the only one left not laughing. 

“Kane, man. Lighten up a little would you?” Victor said expectantly, and he eventually let his lips curl up in a smile. Inside, he was boiling.

Satisfied that he’d gotten his wish, the man nodded and stopped laughing. We’ll be meeting them on neutral ground in the next few hours to confirm the negotiation. If we manage not to kill each other,” he said with a wolfish grin that confirmed how much that particular situation would please him, “and sign the document today, the period of truce will start. To ensure both parties obey the terms provided, there’ll be two unions. A man and a woman. They send a woman here to marry one of ours, and we send a woman there to marry one of theirs. Anything happens to that union, and we’ll revert beck to war.”

Kane stared at the table, but from the side of his eyes, saw the two elderly men look at each other with reluctance.

“Spit it out,” Logan commanded harshly, palming the knife on his chest for emphasis. 

They both paled, but Howie cleared his throat. “Not to question your rule Capo, but How will the marriage candidates be chosen?”

The man smiled broadly, full of teeth. “It will be communicated to those chosen, don’t worry. You just leave the worrying aspect for me.”

They both nodded. These two men had had higher positions before Victor killed the last Capo and took his place, but of all the underbosses, they were the luckiest. The others were all dead; they had all been found guilty of the silliest things and divested of their heads.

So, even though Victor’s last statement was insulting, they had no choice but to ignore it. The man wasn’t much given to explanations. He shot before he asked questions, and Kane knew that by virtue of experience and fresh scars on his body.

“The five of us will be in the meeting,” he said, nodding to the underbosses, “You two will be glorified doorkeepers whose job will be to inform me of whatever is happening outside our line of sight.” He turned to Kane with a smile on his face, “You’ll be accompanying Logan and me as the representatives.”

“What!” he blurted out unconsciously.

After his punishment ended, he’d been treated like a leper. It was strange that Victor wanted him to go with them. Except if his aim was really to get him killed while he’d already made arrangements to escape on time. 

“You don’t want to?" The man answered his question with a wider smile, “It’ll be just like old times.”

He caught a look of distaste on Logan’s face. So, this wither hadn’t been in the plan from the start, or Logan really hated the idea. His bet was on the second option. 

Before he could ask more questions and risk having his tongue plucked out for the fun of it, the Capo stood up and slammed his palm on the table. 

“That’s all. You can go. Not you,” he said when he also stood up from the table. He sank back down on his chair. Whatever the man wanted to do to him, it couldn’t be worse than the last two months of torture, right?

As soon as the room emptied, Victor’s eyes turned back to him. It wasn’t until he saw those eyes that he realized how much he’d gotten used to seeing the wrong smile on the man’s face. Because no matter how cruel or mocking his smiles had been, it didn’t herald pain like seeing the genuine smile on the man’s face. 

“Kane,” the man sighed his name out. 

“Why am I going with you?”

The man stared at him for a beat of time before he answered with a sigh. “Very well. No doubt the Moreni House knows of our close relationship. We need to present a unified front.”

“Why?” he asked. 

No matter what way he looked at it, there was no purpose to his being in the room with them during their investigation. If his earlier assumption was wrong, the only remaining option was that they planned to humiliate him publicly. But he was half certain they wouldn’t do that. The less the other house knew about their inner workings, the better. Secrets were a rare currency no leader would be willing to part with, because that often indicated the beginning of the end for that house.

The man stood up from the chair and sauntered to where he was seated at the opposite end of the table. There, he sat on the table close enough that he could place his legs in his laps if he so desired.