Page 60 of Our Vicious Descent
“I told you not to call your men for help unless you brought a bomb, by the way,” Elise mumbled. She peered out from behind the cartons, and once she noticed that the port’s guards had moved out of her line of sight, she stood, brushing her dress off before starting toward the dock.
Jamie hurried beside her and whispered roughly, “I do not have bombs. No one just has bombs. Grenades maybe. But bombs? You’d have better luck asking your father for some.”
Elise ignored his quip. “Just have your men ready at my signal.”
“Which is?” Jamie asked.
“You will know.” Elise waved as the guards spotted them. Shestood calmly despite them pulling their guns on her and Jamie when they approached.
One worked more aggressively, shoving his gun into her sternum, while the other eyed Jamie with suspicion and pointed the gun at him from a distance. “Who the hell are you?” the first man demanded. “What business do you have here?”
“She’s a Saint, you idiot,” the other man whispered.
Elise’s brow furrowed at the ease he made his claim with. Was it that she looked like a Saint, or was it that they had committed her face to memory? Either reasoning made her spine tingle with relative distress. She held her hands up and spoke in a calm voice. “There is no need for any of this. I have a delivery.”
“I don’t see a package,” one guard said, glancing around her and Jamie.
“It’s monetary. One need not walk around with hundreds of dollars in view,” Elise said. “I have business with Nicoletta. I suggest you stop that ship so she can get paid, or it will be hell for everyone involved in keeping her from her money.”
Both guards stared at each other for far longer than Elise thought was necessary. Her jaw ached from the irritated grinding of her teeth before they finally split apart. One ran down the dock to converse with another man in charge, while the other stayed back, still pointing his gun between Jamie and Elise. After what felt like ages, the first man finally returned, winded and breathing hard.
“We will take you to the ship. May I ask what this delivery is for?” he asked.
Elise shared a look with Jamie. He gave her an almost imperceptible shake of his head, and she turned back to the man, sighing. “If I told Nicoletta you inquired about her money, would she be happy? Because I can tell her as soon as I board the ship, and we can all be privy to her thoughts on the matter.”
The man’s mouth gaped. “I…I—well, we would…”
Elise shook her head before he could stutter his way into a trap. “I understand. Why don’t we keep our business affairs private then? You work for the port. I work with her.” She nodded to the ship, which had stopped only a few yards away from the dock they stood near. “Take me to her.”
***
The boat ride to the ship was swift and somewhat unnerving. Elise had asked Jamie to stay on land so that he might keep watch in case anything went awry. Really, she needed him ready with his own arsenal. Elise knew he had much better resources than her. The moment Nicoletta saw her, the ship would erupt into chaos. And that was if she was lucky. There was always a chance Nicoletta could shoot her on sight. After the mess she had left at the Nest Club, Elise had her doubts.
As the small motorboat pulled up to the larger ship, Elise’s body buzzed with anticipation and residual anger. The closer they got to the ship, the more she tuned her surroundings out and only thought of what it would be like to finally confirm that Layla lived. She had tohave survived the attack at the Nest Club. There was no other way for things to continue if she had not. Elise was not even sure she could return to her family with Layla alive after the way she had exploded on her own sister. There had been no love in how she had screamed or what she had said. All this time Elise had been missing her sister and assumed all would be right when she reunited with her family, but that could not have been further from the truth. That, she had come to realize, was the most difficult part of all this. Understanding that the truth often caused more grief than it did relief. And that no matter how intensely she planned anything out, life would always take her fate into its own hands. Elise did not want to believe she had been born a tragedy, but the world had taught her that in fewer instances in only eighteen years than most people experienced in their lifetime. When, she wondered, would she ever catch the relief of a normal life that most people complained about?
One of the crew members helped her onto the ship, and she turned away from the waves lapping up against the rusting metal as the smaller boat pulled back toward the docks.
“You can wait here. I will bring Nicoletta to you,” he said before hurrying down the side of the ship.
Already, Elise knew she had walked into a trap. The only thing that kept her upright and calm was the knowledge that she had planned at least half of it. Nicoletta did not intend to let her leave this ship, dead or alive. Not when the boat that brought her was already yards away, halfway to its journey back to land. Not when she knew Layla remained in one of the many rooms that made upthis massive ship. Elise would be stuck until she found her or until Nicoletta managed to kill them. Whichever one came first.
She ignored the man’s instructions and made her way down the corridor opposite from the one he had left through. With her gun in hand and her quick steps, she felt comfortable moving through an enemy’s territory. Once she arrived at the first block of rooms, Elise pushed the doors open one by one. The first couple of holding rooms were empty, with chains still littering the floor. A couple of rooms down, she opened the door to find a few reapers slumped against the walls. Bound and starved to the point where their fangs remained out and eyes had gone black, they could barely lift their heads when they saw her, despite the evident shock jumping across their pale expressions.
Elise glanced around the ship’s corridor quickly to make sure no one had spotted her before walking into the holding room. “Were you all captured by Nicoletta?”
“Who?” the reaper closest to her asked.
“The woman leading this ship. She’s tall, dark hair, Italian—”
“She tricked us. I…I was going for a hunt, and she said she had bodies that needed moving. We offered to take care of them for her. But when we arrived at the scene, she attacked us. Then we woke up here.” The reaper looked around at his comrades. One of them leaned to the side so heavily with his eyes closed, Elise thought he might have already been gone.
She shuddered and knelt before the reaper nearby. “What did she do to you?”
He shook his head, sighing while he rested his head against the wall. “I only remember her having a Saint knife and using it to bleed us. Maybe she thought it would be better if we were weak.”
Elise fumbled with her hairpin, trying to figure out how to open it so she could pick the lock holding the chains around his wrists. “But a blood fury—” she began.
“It’s only triggered by fresh blood,” he interrupted. His eyes flashed while they roamed her face. “You look familiar.”
