Bad Medicine (Underworld Kings)

“Awww, poor girl. You thought I wouldn’t find out?” he taunts, and I see her hands flex.

“What does it matter, Ferro? Just let us go. You’ve got what you wanted. I heard congratulations are in order,” she says calmly, and I have to wonder where this façade is coming from. She looked downright panicked in the car only minutes ago. Now, she’s having a conversation, with a barrel aimed at her head like he’s holding a bouquet of flowers instead.

“Because it’s the principle of it all. Our families will go to war because you couldn’t do your goddamn job,” he says angrily, his eyes sending daggers my way while his gun stays on Bella. “I will lose my seat in the hierarchy of the Cosa Nostra, in The Ruin, and I’ll be left with nothing. So why the fuck do you think I’d leave the two of you alone to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after?”

“At least you got what you always craved. You finally have your heir on the way. Why don’t you just… leave, take your child and its mother with you?” she asks, and the wild look returns to his eyes as he turns them toward her.

“What the fuck do I need an heir for when I have nothing to leave to him? It was never about having a child of my own to raise and… love,” he sneers the word like it tastes bad. “It was about my legacy. The legacy of the Fetulli family. It’s up to me alone to carry on our name, but what the hell is there to carry on, now that you’ve ruined everything because you just. Couldn’t. Die!” He shakes the gun at her, gritting his teeth, before he lets out a long breath, a spark of unhidden insanity showing through when he cracks a smile and lets out a chuckle. He pulls the gun back and taps the end to his temple, seeming to have a conversation with himself inside his head.

I speak up to distract him. “Who was it? Who was the rat? It’s the one thing I can’t figure out in all this. How did you know to go into hiding? How did they know it was me at the ball?”

He grins, and I fight to keep my expression neutral. “Well, that’s a fun story. Where do I begin?” He thinks for a moment, then comes to a conclusion. “Ah, I know. When you informed me the job was done, I put eyes on Marcello, knowing he’d soon wonder where you were”—he waves the gun at Arabella—"since he’s always up your fucking ass, calling day in and day out. Not even a day later, the Father of the Year himself made a fuss, wanting to know where his bitch daughter was. And not long after he left, we discovered him getting into your car. Now… why in the world would he be hanging out with the very man who I hired to kill his daughter?” He pauses a moment, but it’s clearly a rhetorical question.

“I wasn’t positive why that would be. For a while there, I thought it was because you were going to lead him to her body, because I know he would’ve paid handsomely for that information. You would’ve gotten some extra cash without betraying me, and all would’ve been well and good. He made a stink the following day about his beloved child being dead, and when he didn’t come after me, I figured I was in the clear.”

The entire time he’s talking, the driver keeps a steady speed toward whatever destination we’re heading for. Wherever it is, it’s in the complete opposite direction of my home, far away from my own territory and any hope of me having backup.

“So, I sent Ofa to see the OB/GYN finally, since we’d kept her pregnancy a secret for weeks and she hadn’t been to the doctor yet. By then, news had spread of my wife’s untimely demise.” He chuckles darkly. “Imagine my lady’s surprise when the doctor said, and I quote, ‘So he got his heir after all. I’ll certainly miss Mrs. Fetulli padding my pockets.’”

His eyes flash with rage. “I guess she didn’t feel the need to keep your secrets any longer, since she thought you were dead. All it took was a gun to her temple for her to elaborate what she meant, after Ofa came home and told me the strange comment her new doctor made. She told me all about the birth control pills, and the only reason she isn’t dead and buried as we speak is because she’s under the protection of The Ruin. But that didn’t mean I didn’t threaten to make her go missing as well if she told anyone details about either the birth control pills or how far along Ofa is in her pregnancy.”