The Serpent's Curse by Lisa Maxwell (read an ebook week .TXT) 📕

persist,” Nibsy pressed. “You were at their gala, so you know that they aren’t completely powerless, and the entire city knows that their plans for the Conclave continue. That doesn’t sound like an organization that has lost everything.” He paused, picking at some dirt beneath his nails, but Viola knew he was baiting her. “I hear they have plans for a new headquarters. They’ll be moving what was left of Khafre Hall there soon.”

She lowered her knife, her mind spinning with the implications. “Why are you telling me this?”

Nibsy held her gaze. “Because the Order is still a threat.”

“So am I,” she growled, knowing there was something more Nibsy wasn’t saying, some trick or trap he was setting for her.

“I’ve always appreciated that, Viola. Even if the rest of them didn’t.”

She huffed her disbelief.

“You don’t think I understand?” Nibsy asked, far too innocently. “I know how they looked at you, what they must have thought was between you and Dolph—”

“Nothing was between us but friendship,” she said.

“As you insist…” Nibsy merely shrugged. “You think I don’t know what it’s like to have the Devil’s Own suspect that you don’t truly belong.” He adjusted his grip on the cane—on Dolph’s cane. “I know all too well. I can only imagine what it must be like for you now, though, to be under the thumb of your brother, a man who could not see your promise if it bit him on the nose. It doesn’t have to be this way, Viola.”

She was shaking her head, denying everything he said even as his words wrapped around her mind. “You know nothing.”

“I know that your brother is planning on attacking the Order,” Nibsy said, and when Viola couldn’t stop her eyes from widening, his mouth twitched. “So Paul hasn’t told you.”

Of course he hadn’t told her. Paolo never told Viola anything but what he wanted for dinner or how much of an embarrassment she was to him and to their family.

“Why would he do something so stupid?” she asked, trying to dismiss this tale even as her instincts jangled that it smacked of the truth. Paul might have saved her from the gala, but Viola had suspected that her brother still didn’t trust her. Now she knew for sure.

“Jack Grew tried to kill him,” Nibsy said with a shrug. “That alone makes it personal. But your brother’s not a stupid man, Viola. Right now he enjoys the protection of Tammany, but he knows how inhospitable the city could become for him and his Five Pointers if the Order is able to rebuild their power. If the Order takes power away from Tammany, he would be at risk. He’s asked me to help him destroy them.”

“What should I care if he goes after the Order? Why should you?” Viola asked. She couldn’t be drawn into his games. Not when she couldn’t trust a word he said. “If Paolo wants to go after rich men, he’s un idiota. One who will deserve whatever he gets.”

“I have to admit, it wouldn’t break my heart if the Order took care of Paul Kelly,” Nibsy said. “But I’m afraid I can’t stand by and not get involved. Not when your brother believes that the Order retrieved the ring at the gala.”

“You don’t mean…” She frowned. “Paul, he doesn’t have it?” She’d assumed her brother or one of his men had taken it when the great stone beast had nearly killed her. Everything she’d done—every order she’d followed and meal she cooked for him—was because she’d been trying to figure out what Paul had done with the ring. But if Nibsy was to be believed, it had been for nothing.

“No,” Nibsy said. “I don’t believe he does.”

Viola’s thoughts were swirling, careening. “What do you want from me, Nibsy?” she asked, barely leashing her impatience.

“I want you to help me get the ring back,” Nibsy said. “I don’t trust Kelly to simply hand it over, as he’s promised. I expect that he’ll try to get rid of me instead. If he does, what will happen to the Strega? What will happen to the Devil’s Own?”

Viola knew exactly what would happen—her brother would take everything Dolph Saunders had built. He would bend the Devil’s Own until they broke, like he did to everything he touched.

“What do you think I can do?” Viola asked, wary.

“You can give me information,” Nibsy told her. “I need to know what he’s planning and what he’s withholding. You can help me protect the Devil’s Own from your brother’s control.”

Viola considered his proposal.

“I need your help, Viola,” Nibsy said, looking somehow younger than he had a few minutes ago. Suddenly he wasn’t the conniving snake that had greeted her but the boy she’d once known. “I know what you think of me. I know you don’t trust my motives, but the Order cannot be allowed to keep the artifact. And your brother must not get the ring instead. An item like that holds power, even for Sundren. Think of what he would do with it.”

It was far too easy to picture it. Even false magic in Paul’s hands would be a nightmare, for Viola and for the entire city. “You are asking me to betray my family—my own blood.”

“What has your blood ever done for you?” Nibsy asked. “They tossed you out and treated you like some scullery maid when you’re more powerful by far. Because they have never understood you, and they will never accept you. Not like we do. Come back to the Devil’s Own, Viola. If you’re willing to put our past differences aside and start anew, we can end the Order once and for all. We can hit them now, before they’re able to regroup for their Conclave. We can retrieve the artifact, like Dolph wanted us to, and in the process, you can save whoever it is you’ve hurt this time. Agree to pledge yourself to the Devil’s Own once again, and I will hand over Dolph’s notes. Help me, and I will