I guess I know where a few of the bodies are buried now, too.
Tiberius leans against the trunk of the car to admire our work. Somewhere in the distance, a coyote howls.
Even though I’m wearing a hoodie, I’m cold down to my bones. I don’t think I’ll ever be warm again.
“Plenty more space in this hole for Claws’ enemies,” Tiberius grins at me as he tugs off the gloves. We’ll dispose of them back at the house.
My head buzzes as I climb back into the car beside him. He’s right. Things have been so wild over the last few months that I keep thinking if we can just get to a safe place, this will all be over. But there will never be a place of safety. Claws runs a criminal empire. There will always be wolves at the door and bodies to dispose of.
I will do anything to keep Claudia safe, but the life I imagined for myself after high school – an Ivy League track team, the corner office, the wife, the two-point-five children – wobbles and fades, burning away in an inferno of vendettas and bloodshed.
* * *
“Where have you been?”Livvie demands as I trudge into the Vault offices. “I’ve been calling you for hours.”
“Sorry. Something came up with—”
“He sold Casper. I thought you’d want to know.” Her lower lip trembles.
I stop short, barely registering her words. I’ve never,everseen Livvie lose her composure. But she loves the animals, especially Casper, the mischievous white tiger cub.
No. Nero can’t sell Casper.
He can. He’s Nero fucking Lucian and he brought and paid for every one of those beautiful, wretched animals. And I promised I’d help them, and I can’t do shit to stop this.
My head spins. “I thought he was going to keep the cubs for entertaining his club guests?”
Livvie shakes her head. “Now that your Imperator is closing the skin business and disrupting his contracts, Dad needs cash more than he needs a bunch of animals to feed. He found a buyer – some rat-ass Arkansas hillbilly with a private zoo. He’s going to take Casper and his brothers, feed them terrible food, make them pose with tourists ten fucking hours of the day, then kill them when they get too large to manage.”
“Over my dead fucking body.” I have to fix this. It’s the most important thing in the world that I fix this. Everything in my life has spun completely out of control. I have Odette’s dried blood under my fingernails. But if I can save these animals, there’s still hope. “Is Nero in his office? I’ll talk to him—”
“It’s too late. The hillbilly is already on his way. He’s going to take the monkeys, the bear, and some of the snakes, too.” She hugs her snake Essie to her neck.
I make a split-second decision – I know it’s a terrible decision even as I’m making it, but it’s also the only possible answer. “That’s not happening. We’re getting them out of here. All of them.”
Livvie’s head snaps up. Her eyes are rimmed in red, her mascara streaming down her cheeks. “Don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t as simple as rehoming a cat. They require proper facilities, a budget for food, specialist veterinary care. There’s no one in this state who will be able to take these animals that I’d consider selling them to. And Nero will never consider a shelter—”
My mind whirs. There is a way to solve this. It’s going to bring a mountain of trouble down on my head, but what else is new? “I have an idea.”
I get on the phone to Claws. She sounds groggy, and I know I’ve woken her up. At least she’s in bed, not pacing in her office or out trying to hunt down Mackenzie on her own. I hear Gabriel’s voice in the background. I feel a rush of gratitude. It’s weird – I never thought I’d want to share a girl with a couple of other dudes, but just knowing someone’s always able to be with Claudia gives me the breathing space to leave her side and do other shit… like completely fuck up her life, as I’m about to do.
“Eli, what is it?” She sounds breathless. “Did Nero do something?”
In a breathless rush, I explain what’s happening to the animals and what I want to do. She sighs. “You know this is going to bring a mountain of shit down on my head that we don’t need right now?”
“I know.”
But she doesn’t say no. Because she’s like me – she knows that humans are scum but these animals are innocent, and she won’t let them become some attractions in a roadside zoo or playthings for a rich asshole. She listens as I outline the plan, and as I hang up I can hear her scrambling out of bed and barking orders.
“Well?” Livvie shakes my shoulders. “What did she say?”
“She’ll do it. She’s pulling her dockworkers in to help. We just need to talk to Nero.”
Her jaw tightens. “He’ll never go for it.”
“We need to find the right angle. Don’t pitch it as bad news. Nero doesn’t care about these animals. To him, they’re assets to be brought and sold. He’s still getting exactly what he wanted. We don’t want him to look too closely at the deal – we just need him to get the hillbilly to back off. Do you want me to do it?”
Livvie tears a tissue from her desk and starts blotting at her makeup. That familiar fiery determination lights up her eyes. “No offense, Captain America, but you are dating Nero’s fiancee, who’s currently in the midst of fucking up yet another one of his business lines. He’s gonna suspect an ulterior motive. I think I know how to play my daddy.”
