I had a million questions and Spider knew that. He didn't keep me waiting. "When I went to Arcron, I found out she was alive." He said. I wanted to slap the hell out of him. "You told me she was dead." "The Viper made me, okay? I didn't have much choice." He defended himself. You always have a choice, I wanted to tell him, but I hadn't been making the best choices either. "She was adopted by a wealthy family. They call her Eloise now. She works here to calm herself down after the craziness of her home and school life. The customers all love her." I could totally see that. She was speaking to everyone with a friendly smile and although there were so many of us, she managed to make sure everyone's needs were met. She returned to our table and once again looked like she wanted to bolt away. "Would you like anything on today's special menu? We have a buy one get one free cappuccino offer." "Put it all in one cup for me," I asked. I needed a humongous amount of caffeine to deal wi
Curtis “Where have you been?” I asked when the front door finally opened. Angelica had been out since this afternoon and her phone had been off. I knew Spider had something to do with the fact that she somehow disappeared off the road and couldn’t be traced. She walked over to the couch where I was sitting waiting for her and leaned down to kiss me. “I went out for a walk.” “A walk? It hasn’t been two days since someone tried to shoot you!” I didn’t mean to yell at her. I just couldn’t believe how carefree she could be right now. Both the hitman and their mastermind had vanished into thin air. They could be following her every move for all we knew. She planted her butt on my lap and wrapped her arms around me. “Some things are inevitable, Curtis. Even if we find out who did it, they will still come after me. Why not enjoy what’s left of my life before it’s over?”She was serious and that was concerning. “Who is after your life?” “Many people.” She shrugged like it meant nothing.
We rushed to the hospital as soon as we heard the news, not because we cared about our father but because the whole family was under suspicion and no one wanted investigators crawling into their business. The only one crying about his death was Millie. It was s surprise. Didn’t she only want him for money? Was she heartbroken that there was no longer any chance of her getting any now that he was dead, or did she actually care about him? It didn’t matter. What mattered was what the doctor had to say to Giancarlo and me—he assumed us to be father’s closest relatives, being his eldest children and all. “He did not die from his injuries.” He told us when it was just the three of us in his office. “He had multiple new injuries but after looking into it, we believe they were inflicted post-mortem.”“Who would do that?” Giancarlo asked. The doctor studied us as if trying to gauge whether or not to tell us everything. “I have only heard rumors about this person before but…come with me.”
Angelica The events from the day before flooded my mind as soon as I woke up. First, I took Spider to the secret dungeon to meet Uncle Nikov, then I found out Lyra was alive and being used by The Viper, then I realized that meant Spider had been double-crossing me all along—all in one day. I groaned. Why did everything have to be so complicated? As much as I would have loved to crawl back under the covers and pretend none of it was happening, I was sure I had awoken to a gentle knock on the door. It took until I got out of bed to realize Curtis’s watch was not on the nightstand where he always left it when he came to bed. He didn’t come home last night—not that it was any of my business. Remembering the knock that had woken me up, I opened the door and smiled at the sight of Crystal, carrying a small tray with a bottle of wine and two stem glasses. “Hi, Crystal. Is it your birthday?” “No. I’m sorry if I woke you up. I just assumed you were awake seeing what time it is.” I had no
Angelica Things just kept getting more interesting. We all knew Uncle Nikov—or the man pretending to be him—was too young to be Spider’s grandfather and too old to be his nephew, half-brother or grandson. There was only one possible relationship between them. Spider was running himself crazy trying to figure it out. “Since when do I have an uncle? Why did he pretend to be Papa? What’s he gaining here?” “Maybe it’s similar to the situation with Uncle Robert?” I guessed. I knew I was grabbing at straws. This was not a situation where an uncle had to pretend to be a father to keep his nephew or niece safe. This man had deliberately tried to replace Spider’s father. The worst part was that if we didn’t find out the truth ourselves, he would never reveal it. While he paced a hole through his living room floor, I was going through a photo album I was thankful I had kept for all these years. It had pictures of both the Kastellanos and Giannelli families. I shook my head after studying a
Curtis A wake was supposed to be the moment when friends of the deceased’s family gathered to offer their condolences. Not for Father.This was a business meeting in the cathedral. I was certain half of the people who showed up knew little about father and had only come over to schmooze with everyone they knew would be in attendance. I couldn’t blame them. Father may have had people loyal to him but none of them were his friends. He wasn’t anyone’s friend himself. “How fitting.” Angelica remarked when we arrived at the cathedral. “What’s fitting?” “Fergus, dead in a cathedral?” She chuckled. Giancarlo shot a glare at her, earning an eye roll from her. “What? Are you going to pretend to be one of his loving sons? You’re happy he’s dead, admit it.” He didn’t deny that. None of us did. Showing up here was a formality. The only person who actually looked sad was Millie. She was crying her heart out by the casket. “How long until she moves on?” Giancarlo raised his chin in her di
Angelica The Viper must be getting to me. How else would I explain why I thought everything that felt like a trap was laid out by him? I had assumed he was hiring the hit on Autumn when it was Curtis all along. I didn’t know how long I had left to live but as soon as Curtis knew I had offered him advice on how to get through to me and then accepted his hit as though my advice had worked, I would be on my way to my grave. At least I got to enjoy the double incentive before that happened.I already knew a ton of things about Autumn and her husband including where they worked and their close friends. It was going to be a cinch. Although I had accepted Curtis’s hit, I didn’t intend to do it as he requested. I was going ahead with my plan. I spent the following week stalking him. I was certain Curtis wasn’t seeking a collaboration like he said he was. He was laying out a trap for me—for the Angel of Death—so I was thankful when Spider hacked into the security cameras across their street
Angelica “Do you always work on your days off?” I asked, trying to shift the topic back to her current life. When she raised a brow, I realized we had already talked about that. I feigned ignorance nonetheless. She straightened up. “I would rather be anywhere than at home.” Seeing my expression, she quickly explained, “don’t get me wrong. I love my family very much. It’s just…our views are quite different and it’s been making us fight a lot.” “Oh,” I didn’t know what to say. “Have you tried talking to them about it? We can’t all have the same views all the time, right?” Her laugh was the proof I needed to know whatever difference she was talking about was not a matter of when she wanted to move out or her career path. She disappeared into the dressing room and when she returned, she must have decided it was okay to talk about it with me. “I don’t want to marry for the family business.” She started, looking down at the dress in her hands. “But they took care of me, you know. The