The Viper My Angel of Death spooked easily. I couldn’t help smiling with every meaningless thing she threw into her cart to secretly find me. The problem was, she couldn’t. Not unless I wanted her to. When she headed straight for the parking lot, I had to hold back a snicker. She was a daring little devil, yet so predictable. I would have to take her back with me sometime and remind her what predictability did to her dear Mama and Papa. While it would be fun to play this game for a while, I had bigger fish to fry so I took off the mask I had slipped on when I got to the parking lot. Her sharp intake of breath was something I could live for. If I was anyone else, she would have fought—even knowing she would lose spectacularly. But although she was so scared of me, she knew I couldn’t hurt her. At least not until she was done with those pesky Arcieros. Their destruction was the only thing I ever looked forward to and she was the only one who hated them as much as I did. Maybe even m
Angelica If The Viper didn’t put a bullet in my head, he would kill me by revealing my connection with him to Curtis. Putting aside his own grudge against the Arciero family, everyone who knew him knew what he prided himself in—revenge. He helped people dole out their vengeance against their enemies if he found the feud interesting enough. Hell knew what criteria he used. He actually had an entire syndicate for it. If Giancarlo caught wind of me talking to him and he happened to know about the syndicate, I would be dead. But he didn’t care about that. Of course he didn’t. He had a gazillion identities and safe houses he could run to if things went haywire. He wouldn’t be in half as much danger as I would be in. The only good thing that came out of his unwelcome visit was the realization that he thought I had set Inferno ablaze. That would placate him for now. At least I wouldn’t have to deal with both him and Miles at the same time. When I got back home, I knew what I had to do b
Angelica Curtis could have chosen a million other ways to die but he chose the worst of them all. He lied to me. He actually dared to bring up my dead sister and disrespect her memory. "I'm gonna kill him." I hissed. I didn't realize I was crumbling the blueprint until Spider pried it out of my hand. "Take deep breaths," he urged, taking deep breaths himself so I would mimic him. I was in no mood to calm down. "What's The Viper doing in Silverwood?" I asked in an attempt to change the topic, but it only reminded me of the rush of fear I had felt when The Viper implied he wanted to kill Curtis.. The man had played me for a fool and like an idiot, I fell for it. I even tried to save his nightclub. I wasn't able to, but that was my precious time and effort wasted and that made me fucking furious. Spider stammered, probably sensing my fury. "The Viper is here?" "He cornered me in the grocery store." Before I could ask him to find out, he went off on tangents. "Grocery? Please tell
Curtis A Blazing Inferno. I glared at the top headline on the Silverwood Daily newspaper. The damn media. I had paid a king's ransom to make sure Inferno's plight didn't make headlines. The damn media had double-crossed me. Of course they would. They didn't care about feeding the public the truth. There was no such thing. All they cared about was fattening their bank accounts. That's why I had made sure to give them more than they could possibly get in sales if they splattered pictures of Inferno across their pages—attempted to, at least. Because clearly, I'd failed. The headlines infuriated me but that was only until I read the actual news. "The infamous owner of Inferno, Curtis Arciero, suspected of torching his own nightclub to evade police investigation. According to anonymous sources, the police and National Crime Investigation Agency have had Curtis under their radar for years for uncountable organized crimes including illegal arms deals and massive drug trafficking. The ho
The women were getting along better than I thought. Klara had only been in Silverwood for a few hours but she had charmed my wife away. The two of them were currently lost in some discussion about some celebrity women had a huge crush on. I may not know much about Angelica but I knew my sister, which is how I knew what she was doing. She was roping my wife into discussions about men to make me jealous. What I hated most was the fact that it was working. It was already enough that she had disappeared for hours last night and I had to battle the urge to go looking for her. I didn't even know when she returned, she'd been out so late. It was infuriating that I didn't even have the right to know where she was or who she was talking to. And just when I thought I couldn't possibly be angrier, my evil nephew climbed onto Angelica's lap and wrapped his arms around her neck. I would have thought he was only doing it because he liked her but when Angelica showered him with attention and fon
Angelica Klara was a darling. I couldn’t believe I would ever think that way of any Arciero but there was no other way to describe her. For a woman of her beauty and qualifications, I had expected a grumpy boss lady—maybe those only existed in movies? Whatever this was, the last thing I needed was a reason to think an Arciero could be nice. I had already made that mistake once and no matter what, I couldn’t lose myself this time. Not even to the charm of the two cutest kids I’d ever met. To be fair, I had never really allowed myself to be this close to kids. Maybe they were always cute and I just didn’t have the chance to find out. Lizzie was currently painting something at the table while I subtly drilled Klara for as much information about Curtis as I could get. I would have learned to learn more about the rest of the family but I would be treading on dangerous grounds. “What’s the deal with Curtis and the kids, anyway?” I pried. I had realized how stiff their relationship was.
One year ago. “What’s a woman’s greatest weapon?” The Viper asked me, hovering over me with his intimidating frame. It wasn’t how tall or bulky he was that terrified me, but the thought of what he would do if I got his question wrong. I had to think about it for a while. If he had asked that question a year ago, the answer would have been different. But after spending two and a half years getting me ready for an inevitable battle, he soent the last six months teaching me how to learn a man and get under his skin. He certainly wasn’t looking for answers like “her skill” or “her wits”. “Her beauty?” I tried, trying not to cower away when he inched closer. “Her tears, silly.” He brushed past me and sat down in the seat exclusively reserved for him, which looked more like a burgundy throne and was also the only chair in the room. “It’s time for you to master the art of crying. I want you to be so good at it that you can cry on command and stop on command.” That was the most ridiculou
Curtis“I knew it.” I cursed when I caught sight of my open bedroom door. I knew Giancarlo wouldn’t be able to stop himself from confronting Angelica. Was he out of his mind?Sure enough, by the time I entered my room, Angelica looked like she was seconds away from passing out while Giancarlo had his arms crossed before her. He turned and eyed the fruit platter I was carrying in my hands with a mocking grin. I glared at him, daring him to say a word.It wasn’t what it looked like—I wasn’t taking his advice about the way to a woman’s heart. I was only feeding my wife because it was the least I could do after what she’d been through.While he didn’t say a word, his reaction was in sync with Klara’s when she caught me trying my best to make the prettiest platter I could come up with.“Get lost.” I shooed him off and placed the platter on the bedside table beside which Angelica was standing. When he finally left, I nudged Angelica to sit back on the bed, stabbed a mango piece and brought