Page 5 of Potent Desire 5
I can’t imagine Father’s demands are going to be to my liking.
“The girl for the crown. Simple.”
“The girl for the crown?”
“I’m not repeating myself, Maddox. I know this comes as some surprise to you. Your big bad dad is holding something over your head. Well, you chose to live this life, boy. You chose to stand here among us, among men. All grown up and leading the damned, are you? Well, you’re playing with fire in the face of the Devil.”
I hear him puff on his cigar. It crackles in the phone’s receiver, before he lets the breath out in a wheezy sigh.
“This game we play, my boy; this game of dice and death really shows a man’s character. The strong eat the weak. Hell, if it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, what do you reckon that makes us? Wolves. Apex predators. You either live hard, hold fast, and fight strong to make it, or you die in obscurity. You took the only thing I care about. You took my God damned seat at the table, and all because of that senile fool. Bruno Romani didn’t know any better. But now, I’m taking it back. I’m taking what belongs to me. And there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
“Moving,” I say. In some ways it really is. But I’m not feeling sentimental enough to decipher what. “Tonight, seven, I’ll be there.”
“I’ll have Benjamin get something nice for dinner. We can celebrate my ascension and your retirement all at once,” Father says. And before I have a chance to reply, he hangs up the phone.
Within seconds of disconnecting, I’m dialing numbers again. Quincy Harrison and Larry Slater. Both of them get the same message, short and sweet, no room for conversation:
Meet at the Palace and bring men. All your men. Tonight, we live by the sword and die by it too.
Neither declines and both tell me they’ll be over as soon as they can. This gives me just enough time to round up the Romains, who swore themselves to The King’s loyalty. For tonight, three Families unite to eradicate a scourge. Father said it himself, I’m playing with fire in the face of the Devil. It’s time we send him back to hell.
And the best part is, I get to save my damsel in distress as well.