Queen of Hearts

Chapter Eighteen

ROSIE

My heart thuds loudly in my chest as Creed’s man takes Cato away for further questioning, less hands-on questioning where they won’t be harmed. I know I can trust Julian when he promises me that Cato will be safe, but still, seeing them tied to the chair, their cheek bleeding as they cried over me…that wasn’t something I would forget any time soon.

I knew Jay would have a million questions for me later, he’d want to know how I knew Cato which would prompt a conversation about what I did when I ran away at eighteen and I wasn’t quite ready to delve into that yet. I didn’t know what was going to happen next, and to share those parts of myself was almost like a defeat in itself.

While we were interviewing Cato, Julian had received footage from a security camera a few blocks outside of the Church Quarter that put Daniel at the scene of the fire that morning. He was walking alone down the street, and the stills were grainy but it was clearly him. There were a few others around, but none of them were immediately recognizable, so Jay was having Creed’s security team analyze the images to see if we could discover his accomplices. There was no doubt any longer, Daniel had played us both. But why?

Julian gives me a warning look, as we step back into the shadows. He’d told me not to kill Daniel, that it was his choice and his responsibility. Didn’t he realize that he didn’t have to make every single decision alone? A family was a unit. They should share some of those burdens too.

Creed gives us both a nod, to indicate that he’s about to remove the earmuffs. Next he rips away the bag, then he roughly peels away the tape. Remind me to ask the Volkov’s to wrap my Christmas presents for me this year, they were pretty fucking thorough.

Daniel squints as his eyes adjust to the low lighting, looking around anxiously as he begins to tremble. “Elijah? I don’t understand…I don’t know why I’m here?”

Creed gets in close to his face and snarls, “So you don’t know anything about the church?”

This interrogation is already so much different. There’s a haze of rage in the room, pulsing, and swirling around us. We already know he’s guilty. We just need him to confirm it.

Daniel flinches and I can feel Jay tense up beside me. It’s hard seeing someone you trusted, someone you thought had your back, like this. Julian’s the type of man who takes on someone else’s failings, he’s too responsible to be any other way and so I know that he’s standing beside me, cursing himself for not doing better, for not seeing it sooner.

“That was Rosalyn Gambino,” Daniel whimpers pathetically, trying to place the blame on me. He doesn’t realize that we already know. A few crocodile tears fall down his cheeks as he shakes his head furiously. “How could you think it was me?”

Looking at him now, in this light, there’s something familiar about his face. Without the glasses dwarfing him, his features are more defined, more recognizable. The cheekbones, the nose…if I’m right, I might know who helped him play us both.

“Liar,” Creed says calmly. It appears he isn’t going for the screaming, loud tactics he used on me, nor the openly threatening ones he used on Cato. Instead, he’s unnerving Daniel, getting under his skin differently as he begins to circle around the shaking man with steady footsteps. It was fascinating seeing Creed like this, and I’ll admit he deserves more credit that I previously gave him. He may be a bottomless pit of a man with no manners, but he’s also a chameleon, adapting himself to what’s required of him.

Daniel sniffles and sobs, bringing my focus back on him. How can he be so spineless? Is it all an act? There’s something off about him and it’s making my skin tingle. I shift, moving so that I’m directly in front of him, even though he can’t see me. He looks scared, his body is quivering and trembling, but there’s a gleam in his eyes I don’t like. Every time Creed passes behind him, there’s a tiny change on his face and a slight hand movement. Blink and you’d miss it.

Jay comes up next to me in the darkness, that saltwater crisp smell that seems to linger around him enveloping me as his hand rests on the base of my spine. I can barely make him out in the shadows, but I think he tilts his head at me as the air changes around us. Sliding his hand into mine, we watch and wait.

When Creed is behind Daniel, I shake Jay’s hand. I do it again on the next lap, and I can feel him straighten up beside me. He understands what I’m showing him.

“I swear, it was that bitch! The fucking Queen of Hearts!” He sounds sincere. Honest. But there it is again, his little tells. “I had nothing to do with it! She must have tried to frame me before you killed her.”

Julian steps forward and Daniel’s eyes widen before he starts begging again. Big heaving, tearless sobs. “Julian, I thought…I thought we were friends!”

Staring down at him as though he were nothing more than dirt on his shoe, Julian intones, “So did I. Funny that.”

Daniel forces out more fake tears, trembling and becoming a snotty mess as he tries to curl up on himself, make himself appear smaller, more harmless.

“Stop pretending to be pathetic,” Julian drawls, sounding bored. “Your fingers twitch every time your mask falls.”

Daniel freezes and blinks for a moment, a confused expression on his blotchy face.

“A traitor should really work on their tells, Danny boy,” Creed says as he punches him, and I can hear the sound of flesh meeting bone as he crunches against Daniel’s jaw.

“Julian, you have to listen…she made me do it.” He’s changing tact, interesting. “She was blackmailing me.”

The sobs have stopped. His self-preservation is kicking in a little sooner than I anticipated as he tries to mitigate his involvement since the denials aren’t working. He’s already established that Julian knows he’s lying and now his only way out is to diminish his role and his responsibility for the situation, it’s clever. However, it’s not clever enough.

“Rosalyn?” Jay says and it sends a shiver down my spine. Watching him work is like watching art. He’s so calm, so collected as he lures Daniel into a trap. He’s the smoothness to my rough and it’s addicting. I love how out here in the real world, he’s this responsible pillar of the community and head of The Family, and yet at home in our little bubble, he’s wild. Unrestrained. Untamable. I get to see a side to him that no one else does and that sets my skin on fire.

Daniel practically bounces with excitement; he thinks Julian believes him and I have to cover my mouth to stifle the noise that escapes me. What a little fool.

“Yes! She made me set up that dinner,” Daniel whined. I shrug to myself, that one was technically true and I watch as his fingers stay still. He carries on rambling. “She forced me to help her with the church, but I was going to tell you.”

Lie.

I don’t even need to say anything, Julian has already seen the fingers dance and we all catch the moment Daniel realizes. His eyes widen and he flinches before wriggling against his bindings in some sort of mad hope that they’ll just unravel and fall at his feet.

Julian nods and without warning, Creed breaks the offending digits. The snapping noise fills the room as Daniel cries out in pain. His fingers look disgusting, bent at odd angles, and unmoving as he breaks out in a sweat, his skin turning a waxy grey color.

It doesn’t last long though, it’s like a switch has been flicked inside him as he glares at Julian, hate and anger clear in his eyes. Gone is the meek assistant and in his place sits a twisted, jealous monster.

“You’re weak,” Daniel spits, his face twisted into a mask of rage. “Making your lackeys do your dirty work.”

Jay brushes off some imaginary lint from his shirt. “I don’t waste time and energy on scum like you. You should know that by now Daniel.”

Daniel tilts back his head and laughs. It’s so forced that it’s almost comical in itself. “You always were afraid of her. And we used that. We exploited your fears and your hatred. We’ll keep chipping away at you Julian until you crumble because you haven’t got the balls to do anything about it.”

Julian raises a brow, unimpressed. “I’m afraid of Rosalyn Gambino?”

I can tell by the look on his face he was thinking the same thing as me. He wasn’t afraid of me last night when he’d eaten me out like a starving man. Or when he fucked me up against the shower glass. Or when I rode him until we both came this morning?

“Petrified,” Daniel sneers. “She makes you quake in your posh Italian shoes.”

I bite back another laugh, I make him come while he’s wearing his posh Italian shoes, does that count? Daniel really is clueless about our twisted dynamic and how we work.

“There’s a difference between fear and respect.” Jay leans in. “Now tell me, who set the fire? Whose idea was it to murder innocent people?”

“You won’t get anything from me. I’m not afraid of you.” Daniel stares straight ahead, clearly mentally preparing himself for whatever was coming next.

Julian paces back and forth in front of him for a moment before asking, “Are you afraid of the Queen of Hearts?”

“Pfft, you’d have to be stupid not to be.” Smart boy. “Why do you think we wanted you to take care of her first?”

“Hmmm.” Julian steps back and holds out a hand to me. “Rosie? Want to come and play?”

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask,” I purr as I step forward, reveling in the way Daniel’s jaw drops as I emerge from the shadows like some motherfucking nightmare.

“No…you killed her,” he stammers. “She’s supposed to be dead.”

“Sorry, sweetie.” I lean down and stroke his face. “Still very much alive, and don’t worry—once I’ve taken care of you, Mommy is next.”

“You know who his accomplice is?” Creed asks as he watches us carefully.

Taking my finger, I run it along Daniel’s profile, down his forehead and following his nose, over his lips and then his chin. He has a prominent, pointed nose that I’ve seen before and I can’t believe I never realized it, especially since she was the one to introduce us.

“Valentina Bruno. Am I right?” I ask, thinking about the elderly woman who’d sat at my table and spouted about the old ways. I move away, mentally cursing myself for not seeing her danger sooner. I knew she was unhappy with my direction; I knew she was restless but I didn’t think she’d plot to have me killed by my enemy.

“Antonio’s wife,” Creed murmurs. “But they don’t have children?”

“They don’t,” Jay explains, “but there was a rumor that she did before they married.” It was one of those secrets that had practically become an urban legend amongst The Family. Everyone knew about it, but we never really knew if it was really true.

“The woman in the nursing home?” Creed demands as he grabs Daniel’s shirt.

“She’s my aunt.” His mouth twists into a cruel grin as Creed shoves him away in disgust before moving away. I can see Creed’s anger building, so like me, he’s stepped back to collect himself. We’re planners, thinkers, we anticipate the next move and to do that we need space and to stay calm. Daniel was too keyed up, and not afraid enough. He was planning something.

Julian begins pacing again as he talks, “So you plotted with your birth mother to bring us both down and what? Rule instead? Take us back to the ‘old ways’? Are you delusional?”

Quick as a flash Daniel lunges at Julian with a small pocket knife clenched in his fist, murder clear in his eyes but he never gets to lay a finger on him. Before he can make contact, Creed jabs him in the throat, winding him. When he steps back, sputtering and trying to swallow in big breaths, I sneak behind him with my newly returned stiletto blade and cut his hamstrings. He drops to the floor with a thud like a bloody sack of potatoes.

“How did the Volkov’s leave him with a pocketknife? Sloppy,” I say as I nudge a wailing Daniel with my toe.

Jay looks at us, and frowns. “I could have handled that myself.”

“Did you know he was going to do that?” Creed asks, as he kicks Daniel’s writhing, moaning body. The cries and groans grow, the noise going through me and I roll my eyes.

“No. Did you?”

“Yes,” we say in unison. Julian was still too trusting, too hesitating, too busy wanting to do the right thing that sometimes, he ended up putting himself in danger. I mean, look how many times I could have killed him already.

“He had too much anger to sit still for long, we just gave him an opportunity,” I explain as I crouch down, grab his hair and pull his head up. Sliding my stiletto blade into his ear, I don’t stop until the hilt meets resistance. He goes limp almost instantly. “I’m sorry, but I needed to hurry this up. His moaning was annoying and I have a beef joint at home.”

Julian runs a hand through his hair and gives me a wry smile. “Why do I feel like I’ve been played?”

We hadn’t deliberately tricked Julian, but when he’d spoken earlier that day about needing to be the one who chose to kill Daniel, Creed and I had looked at one another and we had just known what needed to be done.

“Would you have let us hurt him otherwise?” Creed asks as he hands me a cloth to wipe my blade on.

Rubbing his chin, Jay admits, “I was thinking about it.”

“Exactly.” For Julian, violence was always a last resort instead of a necessary evil. This case definitely warranted some extra brutality. We needed to put an end to the restless whispers.

“We didn’t play you. We reacted and we eliminated the problem,” Creed justified but we both knew that either way, Daniel was never going to be coming out of this room. He was a danger to Julian and neither Creed or I could take that risk.

Creed turns Daniel over with his foot and hands me a serrated hunting knife from the bag he brought with him. I take it with a grin, loving that I didn’t even have to ask. Maybe the three mafia-teers could be a thing after all.

I shrug as I start unbuttoning Daniel’s shirt. “Well, half of the problem, but Valentina is next.”

Julian crouches down beside me as I line up the blade. “Rosie, what are you doing?”

Plunging it into the dead man’s chest I whisper, “Sending a message.”