Page 40 of Love & Power

Realization slammed into place as I finally connected the dots. “You’re Armond’s daughter.”

“The one and only,” she confirmed, holding out a hand to me. “Call me Von.”

“Astin,” I offered, gripping her hand firmly, a sign of respect rather than a challenge of dominance.

“So what brings you two down here to the ass crack of the world?” Von inquired.

“Like you don’t already know the answer, sweets,” Ivy countered. “You’ve been playing cat and mouse games instead of just putting an end to this whole situation. That man you’ve been supposedly looking for just lost his hand. Tell me… was your plan to simply chop him up into little bits over time, or did you have another goal in mind?”

Von laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them, sighing. “That rat bastard stole a shipment from me. When he caught wind I knew about it, he came up with this foolish plan to get thrown in jail here, assuming I couldn’t get to him. Turns out he was very wrong about that.”

My brows shot up, impressed at the lengths this woman would go to make a point. “You’re here to make an example out of him to keep anyone else from thinking they can do the same thing.”

“Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner,” Von cheered. “I’ve been here a week because that fucking thief had friends here offering to protect the little weasel. So I had to take care of those guys first, along with some others who thought they were the top dogs around here. Today was part one of his punishment. I planned to take the other hand in a few days when he was released from the med ward. Hard to steal shit without your hands, wouldn’t you say?”

“Hearing you say things like that shouldn’t make me like you, but damn, girl.” I laughed.

Von flashed me a toothy grin, revealing that she’d had her canine teeth sharpened to soft points with tooth gems glinting in the light. Where most people kept the crazy under wraps, Von wore it like a badge of honor. Why the hell this idiot thought it was a good idea to fuck with this woman only proves that he deserved the fate of natural selection.

“While I love seeing you two bonding, do you think we can do that somewhere else? I made reservations for us, and we need to have Astin back in time for a Family meeting,” Ivy pointed out.

Von sighed and shoved up from the table. “Give me a sec to finish Argon’s punishment, then we can leave.”

“Delightful. Did you want me to pack up these biscuits?” Ivy asked, gesturing to the pile of them on the tray.

“Nah, every day is biscuit day. It’s all they fucking serve here,” Von admitted. “I just needed a reason to jump the idiot and keep my cover for the cameras. Like I taught you, Poison, the fewer people who know your face, the easier it is to sneak up on the rest. Sit tight, I won’t need more than five minutes.”

I watched Von as she walked away pulling her hair up in a ponytail, revealing the head of a snarling wolf tattooed on her back. From what I could tell, it was part of a piece that covered her entire back. It reminded me that Ivy had referred to her as The Wolf, a fitting name if there ever was one for the woman.

“Are they just going to let her waltz right in and chop off his other hand?” I asked. “Speaking of, what did she even use to remove the first one?”

Ivy glanced at me then turned the tray for me to see the other side. The edge of the metal tray had been filed down and sharpened into a honed, polished blade with blood still dripping onto the table.

“Huh… that’s resourceful,” I commented, testing the edge and hissing as it nicked the tip of my finger.

“Von is who Cedro sent me to the night he helped smuggle me out of the De Santis Estate,” Ivy said, pulling out a compact and powdering her nose like we weren’t sitting in an underground prison.

“I don’t know what he offered her to get me out of Nepreea, but Von doesn’t do anything out of the kindness of her heart…” She snapped the compact close and turned her gaze to me. “Or at least that’s what Von wants people to believe. However, she took one look at me and pulled me under her wing. It’s kind of funny when you think about the fact she was only eighteen and two years younger than me. But when it came to surviving in the underbelly of the criminal world, she was the master, and I was the student.”

“How long did it take you to create the Ivy I know now?” I questioned, knowing how large the learning curve Ivy had to overcome.

“A year,” she admitted. “Although I would have happily stayed and worked with Von. The second I told her my plan to stay, my ass was out on the streets faster than I could blink, then informed that The Wolf doesn’t deal in charity. God, that made me so fucking angry to think Von saw me as charity, but it lit the fire under my ass I needed to make a name for myself.”

Turning so I could rest my back and elbows against the table, I stared up at the ceiling. “Anger and spite, a lethal combination if I’ve ever heard of one.”

“Understatement of the century,” Ivy muttered. “Ah, looks like she’s ready to go.”

Leaning farther back to see past Ivy, I spotted Von approaching us, blood splattering her torso. “Good thing I have a shower on the plane.”

“There are extra clothes I brought for her in the duffle,” Ivy shared as she stood and glanced at her watch. “Oh good, with the time change heading back to Nepreea, we’ll make our reservation.”

“It’s a miracle none of us are committed with how fucked we are in the head.” I chuckled.

As if to prove my point, Von held up a pair of severed hands tied together by the thumbs. “Doc said they wouldn’t waste the prison’s limited resources to reattach them, so I figured why not put them to good use. This way, I have a visual example for those who don’t seem to understand words.”

“Since that’s most men, I’m sure they’ll appreciate the clear warning,” Ivy reasoned.

We all laughed at how true that was as we made our way to the exit. Part of me was skeptical that they’d really let us walk right out with Von in tow, but that’s exactly what happened. Not being a person who enjoyed being underground, I took a deep breath of the fresh, cold air the moment we exited the prison. Before I could register what was happening, Thad grabbed my arm, yanking me behind him as he trained his gun on a man standing before us.