Page 139 of King of the Cage

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.

42

BRAN

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