The Last City, page 7
Orlando looks away as he tucks in his shirt.
Worry creases my brow. “He would have called me if he was on his way home, or if there was good news to report. He texted you, and he left a note in your pocket.”
Orlando frowns, pulling out the letter that has tempted me for the last forty-five minutes. His eyes widen as he reads the hastily scrawled message, then crumples it in his fist, his bicep tight with anger.
“What?” I beg. “Orlando, what’s happening?”
Orlando presses his fist with the balled-up note to his forehead, his eyes closed. “Rome, you idiot.” He exhales through what I can tell is a list of things he needs to put in place to fix whatever has gone wrong.
“What happened? What did he do?” My stomach feels hollow and my body cold with fright.
When Orlando motions for me to come to him, I don’t hesitate. I beeline for his arms, my face buried in his burly chest.
He grips the back of my head, his mouth moving atop my hair. “You’ll stay here, understood? Right here. We take care of what’s out there, and you take care of the miracle. Those are the zones.”
I nod. “Where’s my purse? I’ll need a gun if I’m going to defend the house.”
“It won’t come to that,” Orlando assures me, but my frown directed up at him makes it clear that I am not going to be okay with chancing it. “Your purse is in the living room.”
I nod, leaning up on my toes to kiss his cheek. “Bring them home, Orlando my love.”
He rubs his hand up and down my back, communicating more worry that I can only guess at. “Stay here, Colette my dove.”
I agree because I have no other option. I agree because none of this makes a lick of sense. Paulo is at the hospital for his gunshot wound, along with Liesl.
I don’t know who Rome took with him to bring Nico home, but there must be someone. There is no way Rome would have gone after Nico without solid backup.
After Orlando leaves, I call through the vast home, realizing that I am alone with my Miracle.
I move into the living room, grabbing my gun out of my purse, readying for whatever comes next.
13
Fintan’s Deal
I try not to think about my father, but when I am alone and the world is quiet, my mind wanders into dark corners where it shouldn’t.
I don’t know what sort of grandfather the sheriff would have been. Staring up at the oil painting of Daddy Valentino hanging in the living room, I know he would have been the sort to take Miracle out for ice cream and come back with a sack full of toys they don’t need. That’s how he was with me. I had only to glance at something that I fancied, and he would send it to the cashier for us to take home. He played dolls with me, not just bought them. I loved his proper attempt at a female voice, and the way he gushed over the pretend tea I served at our tea parties.
I cannot picture the sheriff doing anything like that with Miracle, mostly because he never did that sort of thing with me.
Miracle coos against my chest, where they have been for the past hour.
No update. No word from any of them. No nothing for an hour.
Neither Daddy Valentino nor the sheriff would sit back and tolerate that.
But I gave my word that I would stay put, so here I am, sitting with my baby in the mansion without a clue as to what chaos is raining down on the men I love outside these doors.
I take a sip from the flask of Orlando’s blood and then place it back in the double-wide fridge. I hum to Miracle the song that Lucas sang me in the shower, but I think we both know the melody isn’t covering my nerves.
When my phone rings, I practically jump on the thing. I have Miracle cradled in one arm as I press the device to my ear with the other. “Rome, thank God.”
But it’s not Rome’s voice that answers. My spine straightens when Fintan’s voice hits my ear. “I wouldn’t go thanking God just yet, kiddo.”
“Fintan?” I breathe, clutching my baby tighter.
My heart skips several very important beats as my eldest brother speaks in a controlled and firm voice over the phone. “How’s my niece?”
“My baby is your nothing. Where is my husband?”
“Husband?” Fintan clucks his tongue. “You know vampires and humans can’t marry. If you are referring to the abomination I used to call Rome, he is none of your concern anymore.”
I remain silent, for fear of saying the wrong thing and making the situation worse for everyone I love who is trapped in Fintan’s sphere.
My brother controls the conversation. “You know it doesn’t have to go like this, right? I don’t have to take the Valentino boys to get to you if you just come willingly.”
Again, I say nothing, though I feel sick with rage and terror.
“I take it that’s a no? I take it you want to listen while I torture your childhood playmate?”
I say nothing because if Fintan knows how acutely I feel this anguish, he will never tire of torturing Nico.
I grip the phone when I hear Nico wailing in the background. I don’t know how to help him, other than give myself up. But I know that the first thing Fintan will do with my blood is murder Nico in front of me and make me watch while he dies.
No matter what I do, Nico is doomed.
I set Miracle down in the bassinet that I moved into the living room. I hate putting them down, but I fear Miracle will feel the rage vibrating through my bones.
Fintan takes a casual tone. “I hear congratulations are in order. Tell me what I need to know, Coco. Boy or girl? Are you the Last Deadblood, or do we have another blood donor?”
I say nothing, though I itch to curse him to the condemned afterlife for which I know he is destined. Nothing I say or do will accomplish a single thing. Fintan will not stop until every vampire is dead.
“Why?” I finally whisper. “Why do you hate them?”
Fintan chuckles, as if I am naïve, and too small for the greater truths of the world. “They are a danger to us, Coco. I’m sure you of all people know that more than most. You’ve seen their fangs up close.”
It’s the same ignorant rhetoric that gets spewed in the media whenever there is a rare vampire attack. I don’t know why I expected something more original, but there it is. “I didn’t realize you’d gone predictable. I thought all this time there was a deeper reason for you being this way. Money and fearmongering? That’s all you’ve got? You’ll turn into a monster over average vices? That’s who you are: average?”
Fintan’s voice turns grim. I can tell he is walking away from other people so he can have a more private venue in which to take my good medicine and promptly spit it back out.
“You know I lost Liz to a rabid vampire. You know they’re dangerous.”
I scoff at his flimsy logic. “First off, you cheated on Liz more than you were actually with her. Don’t get all precious about her memory when you were a crap boyfriend while she was alive. It was a tragedy what happened to her, but every vampire in the world does not deserve to have to pay for one rabid vampire’s crime.”
Fintan doesn’t want to hear anything close to the truth. “Listen, Coco, you don’t know what it’s like to be the firstborn. I have the family’s legacy to protect. I had to deal with Dad’s temper when he couldn’t control the vampire problem anymore. You have it easy with your free designer clothes and your business that people flock to all so they can gawk at you. Some people actually have to work for a living.”
“And this is work? Abducting people and trying to commit mass-murder? This is your grand plan for life?” My upper lip curls as I pace the living room. “And I don’t know if you recall, but you have a brother, Fintan. Your brother works for a living without having to do anything illegal. Imagine that. These are your choices, not ones you had no autonomy over.”
I shouldn’t be talking. I should let my brother ramble to buy Orlando and Rome more time, if that is what they need so they can escape.
Fintan’s voice turns sadistic. “Nico is good sport. He never tires, no matter what we do to him.”
My stomach churns. “You’re sick. Why are you so afraid of vampires when you are the one hurting people?”
Fintan growls into the phone. “They’re not people! Don’t you get that? The baby you gave birth to isn’t a person; it’s an abomination.”
My blood runs cold as some baser emotion rises up in me. I have felt the need to defend my territory and my loved ones before, but this is different. There is a savage note to my temper now.
I rock Miracle’s cradle with my foot when they start fussing, though the motion is more to calm myself than my baby.
“Quite the uncle you are, talking like that. My baby is only a tool to you, then? You’re so bigoted and small-minded that you can’t see your niece or nephew for the family they are?”
“Stop dancing around it, Coco. What is it? Boy or girl?”
“My baby is none of your concern,” I spout, parroting back his earlier words. “Send Nico home and we can talk, but you will never meet my baby after calling them an abomination.”
Fintan clucks his tongue at my obstinance. “Shame you won’t cooperate. Tell me, how long do you think it will take a vampire to heal from a bullet to the brain? Shorter than it took for you to heal from your head injury, sure, but do you think Rome will be aware of what’s going on when I kill his brother in front of him?”
I go silent once more, closing my eyes because I cannot believe this is my brother. This is the family nature saw fit to give me.
I guess they can’t all be Declan.
“I’m betting it’s an hour before Rome is coherent. It’s a good thing for you that we’re out of your blood, but maybe a bad thing for the Valentino brothers. Now we get to play for hours. Days. Maybe even years. As soon as they get up, they get another bullet. You would think I would get tired of it, but it’s fantastic entertainment.”
My entire body quakes with rage as tears wet my eyes. “You’re a monster!” I whisper through gritted teeth.
“No, Coco. They are the monsters. They are animals, and nothing more.”
“Rome was your best friend! What did he ever do to you? My baby deserves their father!”
Fintan’s voice loses all traces of merriment. “He left me behind. When Rome came into his family’s fortune, I went to him for help. I needed money to get my loan business off the ground. Just seed money I would give him back once the business started turning a profit. You wouldn’t guess that your boyfriend is a tightfisted bastard, would you.”
I can’t believe my brother is talking like this. Or maybe I can believe it, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to think anyone, save for some man with a curled mustache and a villainous laugh, could behave so appallingly.
I close my eyes, grasping at any tool at my disposal that might bring the Valentinos home. “Fintan, please. I need you to stop this.” I clench my fist at my side. “I’ll give you money. You can have the trust Mom left to me. Give me back Rome and Nico. Please, Fintan. The money is yours.”
Fintan pauses, clearly not having considered that I might be good for something other than my blood. “I wouldn’t mind that. How much is in there?”
“A million,” I promise without a blink.
“Huh,” he remarks, as if not expecting me to have saved anything from our mother for this long. “I think I might be able to trade Nico for a million, though he’s not worth a tenth of it.”
“For both of them, Fintan. You know I want them both home safe.”
“No dice. Rome is the one you think you love. He’s worth ten times what you’ll pay for Nico.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose as I pace the living room. “You know I don’t have that!”
Fintan chortles at my frustration. “You will find it if you want to see Rome again. I’ll part with Nico for a million, but it’ll be ten for Rome. Wire transfer. Every hour I don’t see the money in my account, one of them gets a bullet. It’s on you how much blood they lose.” His tone feigns innocence just to mock me. “I hear it’s bad for a vampire to lose blood. I hear that’s how they turn rabid.” He tsks me. “I would hurry if I were you. Wouldn’t want them to cause any deaths that the press would most certainly cover. Might set your ridiculous peace movement back a few decades.”
I speak through gritted teeth. “Give me time to get the money, dumbass.”
“I don’t care how long it takes you, Coco. I’m in no rush. I could watch the Valentino brothers scream on their knees for days. Call me when you have the money ready to transfer.”
I am sweating when the phone call ends. I circle the living room, pacing nervously while I call my bank and make the necessary arrangements. A million is nothing for Nico’s life, but I have no idea where I could possibly get ten million dollars.
Bile rises in my esophagus when I call Orlando. “Fintan has them both,” I announce with no finesse. “He wants a million for Nico and ten million for Rome. He’s going to shoot one of them every hour until he has his money.”
Orlando cusses. “Your brother is sick.”
“Granted. I have the million that I can transfer for Nico, but I’m guessing you’d be upset if I handled the pickup.”
“You’d be right. You’re still in the mansion, doors locked?”
“Yes.” I chew on my lower lip and pick up Miracle from their cradle. My movements are careful as I take them into the nearest bedroom.
Premature. That’s what the doctors said. Miracle should be tended to in a hospital, in case something isn’t quite developed yet. The doctor praised Miracle’s organs, and other than jaundice, said they were a perfectly healthy, albeit small, baby. Blame it on resilient vampire genetics or blame it on fate cutting us a break.
Still, I know my baby should be around nurses, not dealing with abductions.
I can hear Orlando’s car’s engine. I know he is trying to find his way to his cousins.
“Orlando, I don’t know how to get my hands on ten million dollars.”
“It’s in your account. Or, it will be in the next five minutes. Tell Fintan the drop-off needs to happen now. You make the transfer when I tell you. Tell him you’ve got the money and you’re ready to make the trade. Once I see Rome and Nico alive and in person, I’ll call you in front of Fintan to have you complete the wire transfer.”
“That’s how this sort of thing is done? What if I make the transfer and they don’t give them up?”
“Then we’re out eleven million dollars. I don’t care about the money. We need to get them back.”
“Agreed. This will do that? You’re sure?”
“I’m not sure about anything, except that Rome is a father. He needs to come home.”
I nod, holding back any obvious emotion in my tone. “Fintan told me he’s out of my blood. He needs more. So if he shoots, more likely than not, it’s not lethal.”
“That’s good to know. You’re safe? You’re staying put?”
“You told me to stay here and watch over Miracle, so that’s where I am. Fintan won’t get his hands on my baby.”
“Good. Never forget that’s what he wants. He wants your blood. I’m surprised he’s willing to give up the guys so easily.”
“You call eleven million dollars easy?”
“I call it shortsighted, if Fintan’s true goal is to eradicate us.”
“But Fintan doesn’t want Rome or Nico. Not really. He wants my blood.” I grimace. “My brother wants my blood because he needs to sell it for money. He’s in a lot of debt.”
“Right. So this trade is going to get him what he needs.”
I lower my chin. “He called my baby an abomination.”
Orlando’s growl is low in his throat, but no less predatory. “I’ll make sure he eats those words before I kill him.” He pauses and then delivers the hard truth. “That’s my way of telling you that your brother is not going to live through this exchange. I’m sorry, Coco. No one snatches at a Valentino and lives to brag about it. He has to be put down.”
I chew on my lip. “I know. Do what you have to. Bring the guys home, Orlando my love.”
“Hold tight, Colette my dove.”
Though no part of me wants to go through with this trade, I call Fintan, hoping I have enough collateral for him to send the Valentino men home alive.
14
Miracle’s Father
Half hour passes after I put in the call to Fintan, and there is still no word from anyone on the status of the exchange. My phone is charged and my nerves have hit their peak, but still, I have received no word from Orlando that the trade is happening.
Declan promised to come over after work, and Lucas said the same, but they still have an hour more before I can expect them to be here.
On top of that, I have an infant who needs me.
I don’t know how to take care of a baby. I’ve never even babysat before. I read loads of books during my pregnancy, but I recall none of their wisdom now.
Miracle wants to be held. If they are in my arms, they are fine. But it seems that now if I put Miracle down for the briefest of seconds, they start fussing and then screaming.
I can’t say I blame them. Their first two days of life have been nonstop panic. This is the time I am supposed to be Mother Earth on a lily pad, basking in the glow of just having birthed the most perfect baby in the universe.
Instead, I am huddled in the corner of a guest bedroom, frightened my brother is going to murder the father and the uncle of my baby.
“You will not grow up without your daddy,” I promise Miracle as I hold them in my arms. I cannot imagine my thumping heart’s erratic beating is soothing to my baby, but whenever I put them down, they don’t like it.
I can already tell I’m going to be a sucker for this child.
Fine by me.
I sing Lucas’ lullaby to Miracle, my voice pinched as a lump rises in my throat. I am terrified I won’t get any call at all, or that I will get the last call I could ever want to hear.
I am used to being the one who is abducted, not the one praying for news that my family has been found alive.
