Pretty in the Dark (Dark and Wild #2)

Chapter 27

27

JUNIPER

S alerno paled, a thin sheen of sweat breaking out across his forehead. “What's the meaning of this, Kage?” His voice was less sure, less arrogant-sounding with the barrel of a gun pressed to his temple. The music stopped as an eerie silence descended over the room, even as the pulsing beat from the nightclub below us reverberated through the floor beneath my feet. The girls who had draped themselves like human blankets across Salerno’s wide body slunk away like wraiths, their glazed expressions never changing even though they knew that their master's life hung by a thin thread. I watched as one of them turned a barely conscious gaze to Cade and nodded—just slightly, before slipping behind the same curtained wall he’d appeared from.

So that’s how he’d gotten in.

“Club Eros is officially under new management, Salerno.” It was Cade who answered, not Kage, and my eyes widened slightly at the edge I heard to his clipped words. This was a side of Cade I’d never seen before. Behind us, I could hear the shuffling of feet as the people who’d been in attendance were allowed to slip away. Not one patron said a word in protest. Not a single person stepped up to defend their so-called master. Something that Salerno seemed to have just realized as he cast his gaze around in a panic, searching for the bouncers who’d plagued us not twenty minutes prior.

When he finally realized that it was just the four of us alone in the private sanctuary, he snarled, his face turning purple as rage settled over his features. “You bastard, you think you can bring your dog in here and intimidate me into letting you into my club? You’re dead, Kage. You’ll never walk out of here alive.”

I expected Kage to respond, but it was Cade who came around to stand in front of the both of us, his gun still pressed to Salerno’s temple. “Pretty sure you’re the one who’s not walking away from this situation, Sal. I told you the next time a girl showed up on my doorstep claiming she’d been ‘chosen’ by you or one of your club members, we were going to have a little conversation about it. And it’s no longer your club. It’s mine.”

My eyes grew wide at the revelation. Cade owned Club Eros now? How on earth had he managed that? I knew Cade had money, but this was next-level wealth that I’d never expected him to possess.

Something flickered across Kage’s face—surprise? Before he masked it and smoothly said, “As I said before, Salerno, I came as an ambassador of goodwill. Not my goodwill—” He tipped his head toward Cade. “—but his. You crossed the line, Sal,” he said, using Cade’s nickname for him. “Not once, but twice. And now it’s time to pay the piper.”

"What do you want?" Salerno snarled, his defiant tone dripping venom despite the realization that no one would come to his rescue. Cade's smile was pure malevolence that sent chills down my spine. “—I want nothing," he calmly responded, pausing after each word, his tone carrying a sense of sinister intent. “But she—” he gave a barely perceptible nod in my direction. “...has a use for you, and that’s the only thing keeping you alive right now.”

Sal’s body twisted toward me, a look of disgusted disbelief flashing across his features as he reevaluated me under the new light of this information. “And who is she ?”

“She—“ Kage started, but I stepped forward, tired of hearing men speak as if I was nothing more than a prop in their power dynamics.

“ She can speak for herself.” I said calmly, as Cade moved aside just slightly to give me room to stand directly in front of Salerno, but still just out of his reach. “I’m Juniper Wild, Mr. Salerno. I believe you know my father.”

Salerno snorted. “The only Edmund Wild I know is six feet under rotting in a grave he dug himself.”

I shook my head softly. “I’m afraid your information is out of date, Mr. Salerno. Edmund is very much alive, and I need to know how to find him.”

Those beady eyes widened before narrowing just slightly, and I could see the wheels turning in his mind. He was taking in this information and calculating how to best use it to his advantage. “I’m not sure what makes you think I could help. Edmund is a snake. If he faked his death and slithered off to hide somewhere, you’re better off leaving him there to rot or leech off someone else.” He leaned forward and gave me a closer inspection. “Wait, did you say he was your father? I wasn’t aware that Edmund had any children.”

“He’s not my biological father.” I didn’t bother to elaborate or mention my younger brother. The fewer people who knew about Dean and his relation to Edmund or myself, the better. But it was interesting to hear that someone who had intimate knowledge of the Infernals and Edmund Wild would think he was childless. I fought the urge to question him about it. Right now, my focus was finding out where Edmund might have taken Stacy.

“Ahh…” He sat back and flicked a glance at Cade, who’d no longer had his gun trained on him, but still crowded his space. His aura was a dark and menacing presence that told me he didn’t need a weapon to intimidate Salerno if he proved to be uncooperative. “And what’s in it for me if I cooperate?”

“You get to live, for one.” I held up a finger, annoyed that despite the threat from both Cade and Kage at my side, this man was still arrogant enough to think he could make a deal. “Second, you get to live with all your extremities intact.” I dropped my gaze pointedly to his crotch as I raised a second finger. “And lastly, you’ll be allowed to continue your private parties here with a few amendments to the rules.” Kage and Cade both whipped their heads toward me at that last statement, and I shrugged a half-hearted apology for butting into their territory. “Since I'm sure it’s good for business.” I added, sarcasm twisting my lips into a half-hearted smile.

Salerno studied me for a moment before giving a nod. “Fine, although I still don’t know how you expect me to be able to help you. Edmund and I aren’t exactly friendly with each other, and I certainly never sought him out willingly.”

“But you know how to find him if you need to, don’t you? You both have the same connections. You run in the same circles.”

He snorted and curled his lips in disgust. “Edmund wishes he ran in the same circles as I do. He was always sniffing around the edges like a coyote looking for carrion. Once, he got close…close enough to taste what it was like. But then he was rejected, and he spent the rest of his miserable life trying to gain access again. I heard he’d aligned himself with some lower-level crime bosses to replace what he’d lost. But of course,” He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming and full of power-lust. “...on??ce you taste ambrosia, nothing else can compare.”

The Infernals. That had to be what Salerno was talking about, but I needed to be sure. “Let’s say I wanted to taste this ambrosia for myself. What would I need to do?”

A single bushy eyebrow raised a bit, while he shook his head in response. “I’m afraid there’s no way for someone like you to do that. You see, th??ese circles have a hierarchy. Membership in the order is limited to those who are born into it, or those who pass a highly stringent selection process. Sadly, you don’t have the correct last name, nor does your anatomy allow you to be considered as a candidate for their selection.”

“You mean it’s a boys only club?” My thoughts immediately flew to the polaroid I’d found with Edmund, my mother, father and David all wearing the strange masks. Had they all been vying for entry into the Infernals? All but my mother, of course. It was hers by birthright, according to Kage.

“No. But the women have a role to play just as the men do. I’ve already said too much,” He grumbled, adjusting the front of his toga as if just now realizing how exposed he was to me, to us. “If you want to find Edmund, I’d suggest starting with some of the low-level thugs he hung out with.”

“You’ve said just enough, Mr. Salerno.” I forced a tight smile as his brows furrowed in confusion. “Because now I know exactly how you can help me.”

It was a dangerous game we were playing now. And it all rested on trusting Kage to know what he was doing and who we were dealing with. “You’re going to introduce me to this order that you speak of, and then you’re going to help me track down any connections that Edmund might have.”

“I already told you!” He stammered. “There’s no way to gain entrance unless—” I cut him off. “Except through life and death. Unless you complete the circle. Well, guess what, Mr. Salerno? I am the circle. I can either be your life or I can be your death. Which do you choose?”

My words hung in the air like daggers, poised to slice and cut. To make him bleed. They were the words I’d remember Jax screaming as he was dying by Kage’s hands and, as Salerno had spoken, I suddenly knew what they had meant. What my mother’s words in her diary had meant. His eyes grew wide. The jowls of Salerno’s cheeks shook as he gaped at me—in shock and recognition. “My god. I should have seen it. You look just like her…I just, we thought…my god.” He repeated, and then suddenly he was kneeling, his thick body sliding off the lounge until he was on the floor at my feet.

“The Heir. The Heir has returned.”

“So it seems she has.” A deep, raspy voice that I hadn’t heard in a long, long time came from the doorway behind us, and all of our heads whipped in the speaker’s direction.

Nothing could have prepared me for the punch-to-the-gut feeling I got when I saw who was standing there, his thin frame lit by the glow of fake sunlight coming from the room beyond. “You’re— dead…” I breathed on an exhale.

“Not quite as dead as some would like me to be, Juniper.” There was a sorrowfulness in his tone, even as he said it in jest. Then hazel-green eyes turned to Cade, and I turned along with him to see Cade’s face—frozen in a mix of stunned and silent rage. “Hello, son.” David Black acknowledged.