King of the Cage: A Dark Irish Mafia Romance (Devil’s Own)
King of the Cage: Chapter 41

Inside the apartment it was quiet. I moved down the long hallway, trying to figure out where the hell Regina might be hiding. Not only that, but I’d love to get my hands on her laptop, or computer, whatever she used to keep track of her drug formulas and production locations.

I passed through the living room where I’d first seen Alice and been injected. Her bedroom seemed like a long shot, so instead I looked for a study of some kind.

I found it halfway along the hall toward the kitchen. The handle of the door turned easily under my hand, and I stepped in. I took my trusty knife from a garter on my thigh. Thanks to Aldo and his little power play, I hadn’t had to pass through the metal detectors earlier. When I’d put it on, I’d had no idea there would be scanners. Regina had taken that information away from me, but now, I had it back.

And that bitch was going to pay.

I walked quietly over the thick, dark Persian rug toward a desk. A laptop sat front and center, and my fingers itched to get it. It didn’t matter if I had her passwords or what kind of security she had, sooner or later, I’d crack it and see the real insides of The Enclave.

“So, Giada. You’ve finally decided to join me. I take it you remember me?” A light came on. Regina sat in a leather wingback chair by the unlit fire.

A girl sat opposite her. Alice. Alice No Last Name. The girl who’d started it all.

She stared blankly at the wall. My heart thumped hard.

Regina waved her scotch glass at Alice. “Don’t mind her. She doesn’t even know you’re here.”

“What have you given her?” I edged into the room.

“Z Juice, of course. This one is an upgrade. It’s a hybrid of what you took, and classic, biddable Z Juice. The ultimate plan would be for the patient to be perfectly biddable and blank… and then after, remember nothing.”

“Why would anyone want to do that to someone?” I shook my head. “Never mind, don’t answer that. You’re just a crazy bitch. I forgot.”

Regina smirked at me. “Look at your confidence. Is that because you’ve remembered your hunky husband? You think he’ll survive out there?”

“If you wanted to kill us, we’d be dead.”

Regina inclined her head. “True. The Enclave might not approve of modern weapons like guns, but that doesn’t mean we don’t use them if we have to. But honestly, he’s too good of a physical specimen to waste. I think I’ll test my serum on him. When he wakes up afterward, I’ll tell him we’re madly in love and having an affair behind my husband’s back… He won’t even remember your name.”

I had nothing to say to that horrifying image.

“Or maybe I’ll dose him with the same stuff Archie is on. Men are so much more pleasant when they’re properly medicated. Is he as good in bed as he is at fighting?” Regina leaned forward eagerly. She wet her lips and seemed like she actually expected me to answer.

When I didn’t, she tossed her head. “Fine, don’t give me any spoilers. I’ll replace out for myself soon enough. While your husband and I are going to have lots of fun, you and me, are done. You’ve failed to be interesting, Giada, and worst of all, you shrugged off the serum much faster than anyone before you. So willful and stubborn. I don’t think we’d ever have been real friends. Such a shame.” She turned to Alice. “Subdue her.”

Alice stood, her face still blank. She held a long hypodermic needle.

No, no, no. I backed away when she turned to me.

Alice started forward, and I danced away from her, my back hitting the bookcase. I scrambled for a weapon out of sheer survival instinct. My knife! It was still strapped to my thigh. I grabbed it and tried to move the table between me and Alice.

“Alice, you remember me, from the wedding. I tried to help you,” I panted.

Alice’s face didn’t twitch. She wasn’t there.

She advanced, and I backtracked.

“You fucking coward!” I shouted at Regina. “You could at least attack me yourself.”

“Why would I do that when it’s so entertaining to watch you try to not hurt an innocent girl? If it helps, this innocent girl was bold enough to go to the cops and try to bring this whole place down after I tested my new serum on you. She’s slated for death. She’ll be experimented on in our lab until she dies. You’d be doing her a favor by killing her.”

“Not happening!” I snarled, jumping out of the way as Alice got too close and swiped at me with the needle. I needed to get it out of her hands, but I didn’t want to hurt her.

Then, I slipped. The damn rug was folded at the corner, and I went down. Alice was on me in an instant. Regina stood, clapping her hands together with glee.

“Inject her!” Regina ordered.

Alice brought the needle toward me. I couldn’t let her inject me. I had no idea what was in the syringe, but Regina was clearly trying to kill me.

I gripped her wrist, but Alice was insanely strong. She wasn’t afraid to hurt me, so she wasn’t holding back. I had to work to keep the knife away from her wrist.

I was on the floor, and Alice moved across me, trying to drive the needle into my arm the whole way. She shifted so her entire body weight bore down on me.

I was going to lose. I could feel it. I needed to hurt her. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

A tear escaped my eye.

I’d never see my brother again.

I’d never see Renato tame his crazy bride or have dinner as one big family at Casa Nera. I’d never get to be a mother or have the chance and honor of trying to bring up kids completely differently than I’d been. I’d never eat dinner at The Selkie’s Rest or see Aoife and Fergus. I’d never kiss my husband again.

A lump so big I couldn’t swallow it lodged in my throat.

I felt time slow.

The seconds seemed like hours, the needle coming closer. This was it. That moment when your life flashed before your eyes, and you saw the real meaning behind it all. The coincidences, or fate, that had brought me right here had always been inescapable. And at that moment, I realized how I wanted to live. It was the strongest feeling I’d ever experienced. I wanted to be too loud and too opinionated and cause a fucking scene for decades to come. I wanted to be me and live my life and tell anyone who didn’t like me to fuck off. I wanted to be Mrs. O’Connor and live with a raucous bunch of troublemaking Irish until I died a peaceful death, surrounded by kids and grandkids. I wanted to live an unapologetic life with the man that fate had brought to me. I wanted it more than anything.

Alice’s emotionless eyes stared down at me. Regina hovered close. She wanted to see my end. Her eyes were huge, showing her excitement. Sick. I got it then. Despite the world I lived in, and the work I did, despite being a part of Cosa Nostra, a criminal… there were lines. Regina had none. An upstanding citizen, a painter, wife of a millionaire, a pillar of society… and a cold-blooded psychopath. While my husband, the ex-con mobster, was out there, fighting to the death to save the world from Regina’s unspeakable vision.

Regina was close now, hanging over Alice’s shoulder.

“Inject her, now,” she said, stepping forward to put one spiked heel on my shoulder and grind it in.

I gasped, pain flooding me. My grip on Alice’s arm faltered, and her weight bore the needle down.

It came toward me. I couldn’t look at it. I closed my eyes, and for the first time since I was seven years old, I prayed. Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep…

It was the only prayer I still remembered the words of.

Then, like someone, somewhere, had really listened, something miraculous happened.

Alice twisted at the last minute and flung her arm upward, jabbing the needle into Regina’s leg. She shrieked and fell back, but Alice lunged after her, keeping the syringe in place and pushing it hard into Regina’s thigh until the plunger was completely depressed.

“What are you doing?!” Regina screamed. She knocked the empty syringe from her thigh and scuttled backward like an overturned crab.

Alice slowly stood from where she’d been kneeling beside me.

“Giving my notice. I don’t want to work for you anymore, Mrs. Calloway.”

I watched, speechless, as Alice turned to me. She was so thin and fragile, I’d never have believed the ironlike will that was lying beneath. She crouched in front of me.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “I didn’t hurt you?”

I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak.

She eyed the knife I still had in my hands. “And you didn’t hurt me, even when you should have. I don’t know anyone else who would have done that.”

“How?” I managed to get out. “Didn’t you take Z Juice?”

Alice shrugged. “If you test something on someone enough times, I guess they get a tolerance for it. I realized about an hour ago that I had free will. I decided to wait and see how it played out.”

“You — you saved me,” I breathed and hugged her hard. Her back was just bones.

“You saved me, too. You kept looking for me when no one else did. I didn’t think I’d ever leave this place.”

I hugged her again and peered over her shoulder, wary of what Regina was doing. I had no idea how Regina’s new superpowered version of Z Juice worked.

Except Regina — was gone.

“She’ll have taken the stairs up. There’s a helicopter on its way for her. I heard her call.” Alice stood.

“Show me,” I urged her.