Like he was ever leaving this room.
He wasn’t, but letting him hang onto that slim, nonexistent sliver of hope was a better motivator than shoving splinters of wood under his fingernails. Less messy, too, and I had no wish to get bloodied up tonight.
Dressed in head-to-toe black, Nico looked eternally bored in the shadows, broad-shouldered and silent, the kind of quiet that made frightened criminals confess, just to fill the air with sound other than their screams.
“Name.” I finished rolling up my sleeves, the male eyeing my inked forearms, tilting his head to try to read the words, paling when he finally did. ‘Blood for Blood’ didn’t usually instill confidence when you were walking out of an interrogation.
The prisoner swallowed. “Marco.”
“Full names,stronzo.”
His gaze flicked briefly to Nico, then snapped back to me. “Marco Trevisan.”
I let the name hang between us, letting him sweat and fidget on the hard seat as I cracked my neck again. Even nestled in the heart of the building, the heat of the day still lingered. I couldn’t help smiling, my fangs showing as I said, “One week ago, you were seen on CCTV in Cannaregio.”
“That… I didn’t… I wasn’t…” His voice cracked. “That’s notpossible,” he whined.
Impatience rippled through me. Why the fuck did they always lie? And lie so poorly? You’d think if they did it all the time, they’d be fucking better at it.
“HumanCCTV,” Nico clarified. “You probably didn’t even know the Polizia installed them recently. Saw the footage myself, unless you’re calling me a liar?”
Marco went dead silent, didn’t so much as blink as I went on, “You were seen near Enzo DiRavello’s palazzo three nights ago. You stopped outside Il Duca di Venezia’s private villa, went up to his front door, waited for exactly five minutes, and...”
“Poof. You dematerialized.” Nico finished, leaning so close, our prisoner jumped.
“Then you ran when my friend found you today.” I took a slow step closer. “Only the guilty run, Marco. So, why would you, cuffed to a chair in the Don’s own home, lie tome? Unless you have a death wish?”
He sucked in a breath through his nose. “I wasn’t there. I swear on my mother’s...”
“Don’t you fucking dare,” I cut in, soft as silk. “Don’t say something that will offend me enough to kill you where you sit. You’re the one who called attention to yourself; you got yourself caught. Tell me who hired you. Give me names, and you might walk away from this. Or…”
I dropped a thin metal pin onto the table with a hollow plink.
Harmless to most eyes. Too small for a weapon, too tiny to do much damage. Most upstanding vampires wouldn’t even know what it was, but Marco… Marco began to shake, the metal cuff rattling, breaths turning to desperate gasps.
Silence widened between us, heavy and ripe with fear.
I reached down into my jacket pocket and drew out a gold cigarette case. Usually only a prop, but after the day I’d had, I actuallyneededa smoke. I rolled the cigarette between my fingers, lit it, and drew the curl of smoke deep into mylungs, savoring the flavor of imported tobacco, the slight bitterness of the paper.
Nico tipped his head to the side, and I blew out a smoke ring in answer.
Yes, you can kill him when we’re finished here, you bloodthirsty bastard.
“I don’t know what you want,” Marco pleaded, tears and snot running down his chin. “I’m a good thief. If you just tell me what you want, I’ll get it for you. Anything you want. You don’t need to keep me tied up, you don’t...”
“These are very simple questions, Marco. You seem like a smart male.” I paused while a chuckling Nico shook his head. “So you must know the only way out of this room is the truth. Tell me what I need to know, and you’ll walk out of here.” My smile didn’t reach my eyes. “Lie, and you will never walk again. Nico decides which bones get broken. With that cold iron pin in you,nothingwill heal.”
Nico didn’t move from his spot.
All he had to do was smile.
Marco’s voice went thin. “I don’t know anything, I swear. I just… I received instructions to go to that location and deliver a note. Told me to stop at the edge of the canal, wait for exactly five minutes, then go up to the palazzo. Knock on the doors. If no one answered, I could leave.”
The edge of the canal. Right where the security cameras would get a clear shot.
I flicked my gaze to Nico. A silent question.
Nico shrugged. “He didn’t have the note on him.” His low voice turned thoughtful. “But I don’t smell a lie on him.Truth.”
