Page 94 of King of the Cage

I escaped the endless round of introductions as quickly as I could and grabbed a neat scotch from the kid behind the bar. I sipped and observed the crowd. Did these investment bankers and board chairs know that their organization was drugging women and taking away their free will? Had they done it themselves? What darkness lay under their polished manners and small talk? Archibald was a strange man. There was something off with him. He wasn’t what I expected as head of The Enclave, that was for sure. He seemed like his brain was on another planet most of the time, and without the mask on, it was really fucking noticeable. Which begged the question… who did Archie get his orders from?

“So, I see you made it through the trial? I suppose brute force is your forte, after all, or so I’ve heard. Lost Boy of Hell’s Kitchen. It’s a hell of a nickname.”

I turned to see who’d decided to come and pick a fight.

Aldo Sepriano stood beside me, staring at a huge, depressingly dark oil painting hung on the wall. Ah, yes, the man whose brother I’d ordered to dismember himself. The one who hadn’t even reported Enrico’s disappearance to the cops, in case it damaged his own political career. I knew him by sight, but this was our first interaction.

“You’re Aldo, right?”

He nodded. “And you are Brandon O’Connor, soon to be the newest member of The Enclave. I suppose we have more in common than we think.”

I chuckled. “I doubt that.”

“I heard congratulations are in order,” Aldo continued. “You realize that Elio Santori will kill you for marrying his sister, right?”

I shrugged. “The heart wants what it wants.”

Aldo turned to face me. “Why are you here? What do you want with The Enclave, and don’t give me bullshit about money. I know you don’t care about it.”

I turned a steady gaze on him. “I didn’t realize you were such a fan of mine, Aldo. I’m flattered.”

“You — my brother —” he cut himself off with a curse.

Maybe he did care about his brother, after all. Interesting.

“Is on a leave of absence from office, right? I heard that he had a family emergency,” I drawled.

Aldo was silent. The fury came off him in waves, and I enjoyed every second. Aldo was a member of The Enclave, and therefore, a reprehensible piece of shit. This scumbag had also hit Giada the night of the Hunt; I couldn’t wait to fucking kill him.

“Why are you here, O’Connor?”

“You’ll see, in good time.” I looked around for Giada, registering that she’d disappeared in the time Aldo had been talking to me. Had he been distracting me on purpose?

“Why do you care? Why bother with any of this? You’re hardly a good person,” Aldo spit out.

“Oh, Aldo, a man’s life should mean something, didn’t you hear? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to find my wife.”

26

GIADA

“It’s so lovely to meet another member of The Enclave who I could really be friends with. Joining this group — it’s been an adjustment,” Regina said.

I barely listened. I watched Bran and Aldo talk across the room.

“I’m sure it has,” I murmured, and then her words registered. “You mean, Archibald was already a member when you got married?”

Regina nodded. “I didn’t know about any of this until—” She blew out an unsteady breath.

“It was too late?” I finished for her.

She blinked at me, a flash of emotion I knew well in her eyes. Desperation.

She shook her head and looked to the left where her husband stood, making small talk about politics.

“I… If you could excuse me,” she muttered and turned on her heel, quickly making her way out of the room.

Archibald’s wife seemed like she was barely holding it together. I got it. If I’d married a member of this shit show and found out afterward that my husband’s friends all liked to dress up in masks and hurt people, literally hunting them down to abuse them, I’d be pretty on edge, too.

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