Dark Heir by Faye Pierce
Chapter Twelve
Leo
Caspian is insane if he thinks that I’m going to come to any meeting with him alone. Of course, we agreed that we would both arrive unarmed and alone.
A meeting of gentlemen.
As if either of us are gentlemen.
A meeting like this isn’t the way I planned it. Over the last handful of years, I have fantasized over the destruction of Caspian and his new empire over and over again. The blow to his casino isn’t going to be taken lightly. I got the report of how everything happened yesterday and had to push my wedding back three hours because I took extra time preparing for the inevitable retaliation. I assumed Caspian would be so infuriated with the affront that he might reward me with some reckless behavior. I know how impulsive he can be when he feels personally attacked.
When I sent the invitation for this get together this morning, I honestly figured he would simply send back the head of my messenger to me as a response, but Cas added a time and place in scribbled writing underneath. Not the normal neat scrawl he usually used, so I know I’ve really gotten to him.
In my ideal situation, I would have systematically destroyed the lives of each and every person who ever pledged their loyalty to them. I know them all. I know their faces, their families, and for the mistake of placing their trust and love into the Knight family, I want them all dead. They would not be given the opportunity to switch sides or see the light in my ideal world, and at the end of it all, I would find Caspian sitting alone in his destroyed home, the body of his wife in front of him. I would steal Midnight away from him, and once she’s dragged out of the room I would confront him. I would explain everything so he fully understands that there is nobody to blame for this assault but himself, and then I would take his life with my own hands.
Only in actuality, everything happened backward. Midnight had been the easiest to get, so I got her first, and now the plan might as well be thrown out of the window. I want to make myself more upset about that fact, but I can’t. It’s my ring on her finger and my last name she claims.
I arrive to the building before Caspian, an industrial place—the sort of building that will someday be office spaces or similar. There’s still building materials inside, tape and thick sheets of plastic hanging from the exposed ceiling beams. At least if one of us does manage to kill the other, the cleanup will be simple. That’s why Caspian chose this building. He thinks he will kill me and save his sister from the devil he now knows I am. It will make line of sight difficult for the sharp shooters that I have in the building across the way, but we’ll make do.
I hear the service elevator ding and the whir of the doors to mark Caspian’s arrival. I’m unafraid. I don’t bother turning until I hear his steady footsteps close to me. I turn with an arrogant air, my hands casually in my pockets. “Cas,” I incline my head toward the man.
If looks could kill, I would wither where I stand.
He’s practically seething with rage, something unlike anything I’ve ever seen on him before. I’ve seen him personally murder dozens of men. I’ve killed for him. That was always business, always something that needed to happen for the cause or situation. This is personal.
“DePonte?” Caspian spits at my feet, keeping more than an arm’s length of space between us. “I have to commend you, hiding under my nose like that all of these years.” Caspian’s nose wrinkles, his teeth bared in a snarl. “I ought to kill you where you stand, but you’ve likely arranged for my sister to be murdered if you don’t walk out of here at a certain time, haven’t you? Where is she?”
“She’s fine.” I reconsider. “She’s more than fine, actually.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that she’s fine, healthy, in one piece.”
“What’s the goal here, asshole? You have my sister for ransom, so what are your demands? You simply want to betray me? Seems like a whole lot of trouble for a guttersnipe, don’t you think?”
It’s incredibly satisfying, watching him so upset. “Perhaps I just want to hurt you, Cas. Perhaps I have no other motive than wanting to wound you...to see you absolutely fucking miserable.”
Caspian blanches, his angry facade chipping for just a moment as he considers my words. “Why? The DePonte family had no named heir...and you do this for what? Some weak connection to a cousin and you thought you could claim the throne from...for what?”
“Weak connection?” Cas cannot truly be that stupid. “He was my father, Caspian! You murdered my father to walk into this world you knew nothing about, and then thought that nobody would have a problem with it? You have about the subtlety of a raging bull, bashing your way up a ladder as if nobody could come right behind you and shake you off of it. Well, that was your mistake.”
Caspian opens his mouth to speak, but I’m not done.
“I’m speaking now, you will wait your turn.” I glare at him, intently focused, and not trusting myself to move a single step forward. “You’re done. You’re finished.” Cas scoffs, but I continue. “From here on out I will make the moves. The DePonte family will have this city, ruled by me and my dear wife.”
Caspian snaps his attention back to me, and I smile, reveling in the way the dots connect for him.
“That’s right. Midnight and I were married yesterday, consummated and witnessed in all of the legal, religious, and official ways.”
Caspian lets out a feral snarl and closes the distance between us in the blink of an eye. Both of his hands wrap around my throat, and I can’t help but laugh. He tightens his grip and my hands leave my pockets, but I don’t fight back, not yet. He knows I’ve won. I’ve done it, and there’s nothing that he can do to undo it.
“You see,” I force out, oxygen thinning. “It’s because of my wife’s wishes that I’m here talking to you at all. I wanted to destroy you. I made it abundantly clear I could, but she pleaded. Begged me to see reason, and out of my respect for my new bride, I guess we have to find a way to play nice.”
Caspian snarls, and I almost move to stop him. I can feel the air in my lungs depleting, the pressure increasing on my neck, tightening…and just as suddenly it’s gone. The pressure releases, and I cough to force air back inside my body. He surrendered. I have the upper hand, yet again.
I lift a hand to rub at the tender spot, turning my head from one side to the other to crack the joint, and roll my shoulders back. “So here’s what I propose. Like I said before, this half of the city is mine now. You will not have business dealings here, you will not interfere with my trade routes, you will have nothing to do with my family business whatsoever. We will split the businesses and police based on street jurisdiction, and of course, you will leave the hospital and all the involved clinics to Midnight regardless of where they fall.”
That part, Midnight hadn’t asked for, but it’s something I’m throwing in there for her. She will want to move freely from both her brother and myself. She’s not going to want to be restricted, and she’s made it very clear how she feels on this whole thing. I don’t have to like Caspian, but I can’t kill him. Not anymore.
“Or of course, you can surrender everything and simply work for me. I have a small street corner I can place you and your wife on. It will be lovely, and personally gratifying for me at least.” I can’t resist the jab at him, knowing that’s not even partially an option. Adjusting the way my collar sits, I force my pride low in my chest and center my weight between both feet. “I am willing to consider some negotiations, so that our names will not clash moving forward.”
Caspian says nothing for a long time. “I suppose I should be proud of my damned self for grooming you to be so ruthless.” He rolls his eyes, more at himself than me. “Leave it to your stubborn ass to grow something out of nothing, to pick and pull at starving dogs that should have scattered to the wind and force them together into some semblance of the empire they once were.”
“I think that might be a compliment.”
“You would.” Caspian is pacing now. Clearly he hates everything that I’m saying. I know he’s going to want proof that Midnight is unharmed and that everything else I’ve said is true before he promises anything. At least I’ve done my duty in keeping my word to my wife by coming here, by being near Caspian and not killing him. Perhaps tonight can be her first lesson in thanking me with her mouth for doing the things she asked.
“Regardless of how this plays out, Midnight will be well cared for and cherished.”
This makes Caspian stop pacing. He turns and looks at me carefully. “I always had an inkling that you liked her.” He points a finger at me, and for half a moment it feels like how things used to be. That was always the hardest part of being so close to him, the times that I forgot, even for a moment, that we were enemies. “Antonio told me everything after the guns warehouse...it was smart to lure me in with fake guns like that.”
“I knew he would.”
“And yet, you let him live.”
The implication of that truth passes between us. He can accuse me of going soft. He can say any number of things to me right now, and they might even be true. As much of a power move as marrying Midnight is, the way we were last night, waking up with her in my arms, there’s no way that I can go back to the life I used to live. “I thought—”
My thought is cut off, interrupted by both of our phones ringing at the same time, urgent, three messages back-to-back. We both move for them at the same time.
A bastard imposter and a stolen princess should know better than to steal a throne.
You were warned that this union made you look weak, and now you will pay for it with Midnight’s life.
Come to the coordinates alone and unarmed by dusk to sign your claims to the DePonte name away if you ever want to see your new bride alive.
What I read infuriates me, and Caspian looks at me. The bubble of neutrality we stand in pops, and the world returns. “You fool.”
I can’t deny it, not now.
“I bet that’s a bitter pill in your mouth right now, Leo.” Caspian seethes. His fist closes so firmly around the phone in his hand that the screen makes a sick crunch before he drops the broken thing to the ground. He got the same message I did. “You left her where she could be taken? Double crossing the double crosser…how fucking poetic.”
My hand shakes. A cocktail of rage, fear, and something primal in me awakens. “Stuff it.” We don’t have time to argue. I know his first impulse will be to take it out on me, but now we have a common enemy and a common goal. Everything else between us will just have to wait. I will not risk Midnight for this, not for anything. I told her yesterday everything has changed, and I meant it.
Who?Is the important question. Who did this to me? Who could claim that they had more of a right to the ‘throne’ than I do?
Angelo.He informed me of rumors that might spark mutiny, but he also assured me that it was taken care of. Apparently not. Now, he has the audacity to take my wife?
Angelo said that marrying Midnight was a bad idea. He tried to stop me.
“How stupid do you have to be? How ignorant? How blind to not see that you have snakes in your ranks!”
My laugh is cruel, “Coming from you? That’s rich...or was I not your right-hand man for so many years Knight?”
“These are coordinates to the old DePonte mansion...the one that I…” Cas trials off.
“Killed my father in? Yes, I’ve noticed.”
Our phones chime again, but Cas’s is broken so he looks at mine.
Come alone, or Midnight dies.
“Oh, fuck that,” Caspian spits, looking to me as if daring me to try to stop him from coming with me, but it hadn’t even crossed my mind. “Don’t you dare try to keep me away from this.”
“My thoughts exactly. Now we just need a plan.”
Caspian debates, but it’s obvious how resolved I am on the subject, so he nods.
“Good thing I know that manor inside and out then, isn’t it?” Cas comments, and I agree silently. One way or another, we’re going to save her.