“Sedric will be at Luckluster Casino early tonight, waiting for Levi to arrive with the volts. You must find Sedric before Levi does.”
That only gave Enne a few hours. It was already six o’clock.
“If you do it openly, I cannot protect you,” Vianca said. “You must kill Sedric quickly, and you must do it discreetly.”
Enne waited for the donna to provide her another poison, another dress. But when the silence stretched on, Enne asked nervously, “What will I use, Madame? How will I get there? Should I—”
“I cannot help you this time,” Vianca rasped, and Enne’s mouth gaped. She would be performing this entirely on her own? “Unlike last time, this will have repercussions, and I will be the first they question. The whiteboots know my methods. They know my men. Like I said, I cannot have this traced back to me. Can you accomplish this for me?”
Enne took a deep, shaky breath. She wasn’t sure if she would succeed, but she would certainly try—under Vianca’s command or not. She’d already decided that she would risk danger if it meant saving Levi, and now the city was asking her to prove it.
“I will do it for him,” Enne said, “not for you.”
Vianca pursed her lips. “Everything you do, Miss Salta, you do for me.” Enne felt ghostly fingers scrape across her throat, the omerta teasing her. Enne lifted her chin higher, unwilling to succumb to the witch’s torment. “Nowgo.”
* * *
For the past nine days spent in New Reynes, Enne had thought that falling for Levi would mean losing herself: her final act of surrender to the City of Sin.
But she’d been wrong. Naïvely, utterly wrong.
When she burst into Levi’s apartment, breathless and heart-pounding and nauseated, Enne searched every drawer, every hiding spot for weapons. Her only gun was out of bullets.
She found none.
Frustrated, she turned to the collection of forgotten things in his closet. She found another weapon of sort—the perfect dress. Clinging, silky and black.
Then she returned to her own bedroom and tried on the costume. She barely recognized herself. For once, that felt a very good thing. This time, she would be no one’s doll.
Vianca had intended her to exploit Sedric’s weakness, and as repulsive as that seemed to Enne, she would play that role if she had to. However, attraction might be dangerous, but it wasn’t deadly. In order to kill him, she’d first need to visit Lola, to retrieve her stolen bullets, to take whatever advice or weapons Lola had to offer.
And so she formulated her plan.
She put on her crimson-noir lipstick.
She pocketed her revolver.
When Enne arrived at Luckluster Casino, she would hunt down the wolf of the City of Sin, and she would slay him.
That was her surrender.
* * *
Lola’s green eyes peered through the bullet holes in her cellar door. “I didn’t think you’d be back.”
“I need your help.”
The urgency in Enne’s voice must’ve been obvious, because Lola quickly thrust open the door. She scanned Enne’s outfit. Rather than complimenting her or questioning the formality of her attire, she commented, “You could hide a lot of daggers in that.”
“Actually, that’s exactly why I’m here.” Enne pulled the revolver out of her pocket. “I need the bullets back.”
Lola ushered her inside. “What’s going on?”
“Sedric Torren is planning to kill Levi at midnight, and I might already be too late to save him.” Enne ran to the desk drawer where Lola had kept Enne’s revolver on her initial visit. Inside was a pile of knives and miniature weapons, but no bullets.
“And what exactly areyougoing to do about it?” Lola asked. “The Torren Family owns half the North Side.”
“I’m going to kill Sedric Torren.”
