Chapter 2 - The Mask of Glass
The sponge was warm against his shoulder.
My hands shook as I pressed the wet cloth against Victor’s back, wiping away the light sheen of sweat. He sat perfectly still in the oversized marble bath, the water coming up to his chest. Up close, his body was a terrifying roadmap of violence—thick, corded muscle crossed by pale lines of old knife wounds and the jagged, puckered starburst of a bullet hole near his ribs.
He was forty-two years old, built like a gladiator, yet forced to maintain the illusion of absolute physical ruin to the outside world.
"Who did this to you?" I asked quietly, keeping my head down as I rinsed his arm.
"My cousin, Julian," Victor replied calmly, his eyes closed as the warm water soaked into his skin. "Three years ago, on the night my father died. Julian arranged an 'accident' on the West Side Highway. A semi-truck swerved across the barrier. My driver died instantly. I survived with six fractured vertebrae and a crushed pelvis."
"The medical records say you're permanently paralyzed from the waist down," I noted, my clinical training briefly taking over my fear. "I read your file before I came up."
Victor let out a low, dark chuckle. "My doctor is a very wealthy man, Elena. He writes whatever medical reports I tell him to write. For three years, Julian has believed I am a vegetable sitting in a golden cage, waiting to die so he can assume full control of the Castellano ports."
"And you let him believe it?"
"A wolf who pretends to be sheep meat gets invited to the table," Victor said, opening his dark eyes to look at me. "Julian has been consolidating his power, bringing his allies out into the open, revealing every corrupt judge, detective, and union boss in his pocket. He thinks he is taking the throne. In reality, he is building his own gallows."
I stopped wiping his arm, staring at him. "And where do I fit into this?"
"Julian knows I hired a new nursing assistant," Victor said. "He has already bribed two of the perimeter guards to monitor your movements. By tomorrow, his men will approach you."
My blood ran cold. "Approach me?"
"They will offer you money," Victor explained softly. "A great deal of money. Enough to pay off your mother’s medical bills, clear your sister’s tuition, and buy a house in Florida. In exchange, they will ask you to place a small vial of clear liquid into my afternoon IV drip."
I stumbled back, my hands flying to my mouth. "Poison? You want me to let them give me poison?!"
"I want you to take their money," Victor said, his tone unyielding. "I want you to bring the vial to this room. And then I want you to watch me drink it."
"Are you crazy?!" I yelled, forgetting for a moment where I was and who I was talking to. "I took an oath! I am not going to help you commit suicide!"
"It isn't poison, Elena," Victor said gently, as if explaining a simple arithmetic problem to a child. "It is a synthetic paralytic developed by a lab in Zurich. It simulates cardiac arrest for approximately ninety minutes before neutralizing in the bloodstream. When Julian’s doctor examines my body, he will pronounce me dead. Julian will call a meeting of the Commission at the harbor docks to celebrate his victory."
He reached out, his wet fingers catching my wrist with a grip so firm, so completely unbreakable, that I gasped.
"And while Julian is standing at those docks, claiming my empire," Victor whispered, his eyes blazing with a cold, terrifying fire, "I will rise from my coffin and erase his entire line from this city."
I stared at him, my heart hammering like a trapped bird against my ribs. The sheer scope of his deception was breathtaking, insane, and monstrously brilliant.
"And if it goes wrong?" I whispered, my wrist still trapped in his strong grip. "If the paralytic doesn't clear? If Julian shoots you in the head just to be sure?"
Victor pulled me an inch closer, his wet thumb brushing against the fast-beating pulse point on my inner wrist.
"Then your mother’s accounts will still be funded, your sister will still go to university, and you will be free of Marcus Vance forever," Victor said softly. "I have already signed the irrevocable trust papers. The money is yours, Elena. Whether I live through next week or not."
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes. "Why are you doing this for me? I'm a stranger."
Victor looked down at my wrist, his thumb gently caressing my skin before he slowly released his grip.
"Your father was Thomas Reyes," Victor said quietly.
I froze. "My... my dad? He died in a factory fire twenty years ago."
"It wasn't a factory fire," Victor said, his voice laced with an ancient, heavy regret. "It was an arson attack ordered by my father during a union strike. Your father stayed inside the burning building to pull three trapped workers out. He saved them, but he didn't make it out himself."
May you like
Victor looked up into my eyes, his dark gaze raw and stripped of all hubris.
"My father left a stain of blood on your family, Elena. I spent twenty years searching for Thomas Reyes's daughters. I cannot bring your father back. But I can make sure his daughters never suffer again."
