INICIAR SESIÓNCompartir
Chapter 98: Loose Threads
Fecha de publicación:
2026-10-15 00:27:38
Último capítulo
THE SONGBIRDS CAGE Chapter 98: Loose Threads
WrenDario wanted to come in with me, and I wouldn't let him."It's my mother," I said at the door of the Don's suite. "Whatever he's going to say, I want to hear it alone.""And if it's bad?""Then you'll be right here."He didn't like it. I watched him swallow the argument the way you swallow a pill dry, and then he nodded and kissed my forehead as if he'd been doing it all his life, and leaned against the wall to wait. I had known him two years and never seen him wait for anything without pacing, and I took that small miracle with me through the door.The Don was still in his chair by the window, wearing yesterday's blanket. In daylight he looked worse, with a grey tint to his lips and one hand pressed over his chest, the way you'd press a bruise to check it was still there."Sit," he said."You're sick.""I'm eighty-one, it's allowed." He waved me down. "Sit. I'll be quick. I've been rehearsing this since two in the morning, and my courage is on a timer."I sat. On the little tabl
THE SONGBIRDS CAGE Chapter 97: Her Choice
WrenThe phone kept ringing, and neither of them said a word.I crossed the room and picked it up off the nightstand. The screen showed an unsaved number with a foreign prefix, and I knew who it was before I pressed the button."Yes.""Don't talk," Elena said. Her voice was low and fast and very close to the receiver. "I'm leaving at noon. There's something I need to give you before I go. It's not the ledger, it's something else.""Elena, what...""Not tonight, and not on a phone." There was a faint rustle, like paper. "Find me before noon, at the east gate."The line went dead. I stood there holding the phone while two men waited in the doorway without moving, and the hall behind them was so quiet I could hear the old building settle."Everything all right?" Dario asked."I think so." I set the phone down carefully, as if it might go off. "It was Elena. She wants to see me before she leaves.""She'll keep," Kiryan said."I know." I turned back to them and put my cold hands into my sw
THE SONGBIRDS CAGE Chapter 96: The New Order
WrenThe ballroom smelled of wet plaster and spilt wine the next morning, and nobody wanted to be the first to sit down.Someone had righted the long table. The cloth was gone, so the bare wood showed its scars, and the chairs had been dragged into a rough oval, mismatched, a few missing legs. Grey daylight came through the tall windows onto broken glass nobody had swept yet. I had slept two hours, and my hands still hadn't stopped trembling.I stood near the wall holding a paper cup of coffee I wasn't drinking and watched the most powerful people I knew pretend they weren't frightened. It was almost funny. Twelve hours earlier they had been ready to hang me, and now they kept glancing my way, quick and sidelong, the way you look at a dog you've just learned can talk."Don't," Talia murmured beside me."Don't what?""Look like that." She nudged my elbow. "Like you're waiting for someone to tell you it was a mistake.""I'm not.""You are. You do this thing with your jaw."I made my jaw
THE SONGBIRDS CAGE Chapter 96: Vas fall
KiryanI have killed men from closer than thirty feet.I want that understood. If I'd had a clear line, Vas would have been on the floor before he finished his sentence. But he had angled himself so the gun covered her, and the corridor was narrow, and Dario stood half a pace in front of me with blood running down his fingers. Anything I did put a bullet in the back of her skull, so I stood still, which is what I'm good at."One minute thirty," Vas said. "Tick, tick.""You'll die with us," Dario said hoarsely."Will I?" Vas tipped his head. "I know the door at the end of this cellar and the passage behind it. I helped build this place, Dario, and I'd be up the lane before the first brick fell.""Then why come down?" she said.She still hadn't turned. Her hands hovered over the keys and her voice was level and tired, almost curious, as if she were asking about the weather."Because I want the sequence," Vas said. "Stop playing. Type what I tell you and I'll let you all walk out.""You
THE SONGBIRDS CAGE Chapter 95: Vas Fall
KiryanI have killed men from closer than thirty feet.I want that understood. If I'd had a clear line, Vas would have been on the floor before he finished his sentence. But he had angled himself so the gun covered her, and the corridor was narrow, and Dario stood half a pace in front of me with blood running down his fingers. Anything I did put a bullet in the back of her skull, so I stood still, which is what I'm good at."One minute thirty," Vas said. "Tick, tick.""You'll die with us," Dario said hoarsely."Will I?" Vas tipped his head. "I know the door at the end of this cellar and the passage behind it. I helped build this place, Dario, and I'd be up the lane before the first brick fell.""Then why come down?" she said.She still hadn't turned. Her hands hovered over the keys and her voice was level and tired, almost curious, as if she were asking about the weather."Because I want the sequence," Vas said. "Stop playing. Type what I tell you and I'll let you all walk out.""You
THE SONGBIRDS CAGE Chapter 94: The Battle
DarioThe number on Vas's wrist said eleven minutes and four seconds, and my first thought was a stupid one. She's still holding her hands out.She was. She stood five feet from a man with a gun, a woman I'd have walked into fire for, with her palms open like she was waiting for someone to put something in them. I couldn't breathe, because I had never loved anything so much and had never wanted so badly to shake it by the shoulders."Elena," she said, calm enough to make my skin crawl. "How long to the cellar?""Ninety seconds, if the door's still open.""Marek." She didn't look at the shaved-headed kid. "You carried it down. Can you find it in the dark?"Marek swallowed. "Yes.""Then you're with us."Vas moved. I saw it half a second before it happened, the way you can feel a car about to skid. His left hand came up toward his belt, and the whole ballroom, all those frozen people, seemed to inhale.I hit him. I don't remember deciding to. One moment I was in the aisle and the next I
También te puede gustar
His Sweet Bella
BlueDreams621.0K vistasHer Obsessed Stepbrother
Taevya112.5K vistasRuined In Love
Taevya138.8K vistasMAFIA RULES
SweetGina103304.8K vistasThe Mafia Boss’s Secret Wife
Quen_Vhea441 vistasThe Mafia's Illicit Obsession
Diva Queen443 vistasGODFATHER'S ANTIDOTE
JAYPEN254 vistasSins of the Vor’s Daughter
D.C Nightwolf546 vistas
