Page 107 of The Beast Who Bought Me
I’m still holding both his and Caligula’s arms, so I steer them both away with me as I start walking. “You know what, Jesse, you’re just the guy I wanted to see. I need a word with your owner. I’d like to make him a—a proposal.”
I try real hard to make it sound like something he might enjoy. And as usual with Jesse Foster, personal gain takes precedence over everything else. “That sounds delightful,” he purrs. “Mr. King is in his office. I’ll take you there right now.”
As for the Clemenza, he finally stops trying to fight me.
I try to remember which way Foster takes us, hoping for an easy escape route, but he leads us through back hallways that twist and turn until I’m hopelessly lost. Caligula, when I glance at him, doesn’t seem to be paying attention, since his eyes are fixed on Foster and then—when we finally arrive—on the door to King’s office.
Foster knocks three times and waits.
“What is it?” sounds a testy voice from within. It’s King. And he doesn’t get any friendlier when Foster pushes the door open and leads us inside. “What doyouwant, Orsini?”
“He wants me, sir,” Jesse simpers. “So we thought?—”
“No, I don’t,” I growl. “I want to talk, King. That’s all.”
Daniel King looks at me, and then the Clemenza next to me, who isn’t bothering to hide his anger now.
“Get out, Jesse,” King says. Foster doesn’t argue. He just turns and gets. “What is it?” King repeats, standing up from his seat. He stays behind his desk, though. Wants a barricade between me and him.
“We need information,” Caligula says, cool and autocratic. It doesn’t seem to me to be the right play, but King has kept his eyes on the Clemenza since Foster left, instead of me.
Like Caligula Clemenza is the one in charge.
“I have none to share,” King tells him. But I hear the caution in his voice.
“That’s a pity,” Caligula says, “since I’ll take either information or your life.”
It would’ve gone smoother if he’d given me some warning, but I’m fast enough. King reaches for the drawer of his desk, but I slam it closed on his wrist before he can get the gun out. With my other hand, I shove his head down to the desk. Not too hard, just enough to let him know I’m not fucking around.
“You are going to die for this, Orsini,” King says calmly.
“You should be more worried about your own life right now,” the Clemenza tells him, coming closer. “I want to know who bid on me at the auction—apart from Mr. Orsini, here, and apart from your buddy Grisha.”
King says nothing. I grind his head a little harder into the desk, reminding him that I can squash it like a rotten pumpkin if I really need to.
Caligula squats down at the side of the desk, tipping his head to the side to look into King’s face. “Mr. King, if you don’t tell me what I want to know, I will remove this ridiculous plug frommy ass and shove it down your throat. And then, while you’re choking on it, Dami here will crush your skull. We’ll leave you like that for your pet to find—and your men. Is that really how you want to be remembered?”
King didn’t get to where he is by taking risky bets. “How many names do you want?”
“Let’s start with the person who had a proxy bidding for him, that silver-haired man at the side of the room. He was taking orders from someone at the back of the room, sitting in the shadows. Long hair.”
King chuckles. He actually chuckles.
“Want to share with the class?” I ask, adding pressure until he grunts in pain.
“That was your cousin, Mr. Clemenza. Tiberius Vicario.”
CHAPTER 38
CALIGULA
“Tiberius Vicario,”I echo. I nod at Dami, who lets King up. “And you didn’t think to mention him to me when I came to you desperate and ready to sell myself?”
King, who has been adjusting his jacket with an irritated air, looks wary once more. “Our members’ privacy is paramount.”
“You wanted the money you could get for me,” I say softly. “And you wanted to see the last Clemenza tortured and punished by your Bratva friends. Didn’t you?”
At last the mask falls from his face. There’s true hatred in his eyes. “Do you know how many of my friends your grandfather had murdered? Yes. We wanted payback. Just like this—this ignorantoafhere, who somehow seems to be doing your bidding.”
