Revolution (Replica) (17 page)

Through the peephole, Nadia saw that Kitty was carrying what appeared to be a bottle of wine, and that she was blinking quickly as if to stave off tears. If Maiden had ordered her to talk to them, Nadia had no trouble believing he’d mistreat her if she failed.

A floorboard creaked behind her, and Nadia saw that Dante had risen from the sofa. She also saw that he had a gun in his hand. It wasn’t the big automatic Nate and Nadia had brought back after their disastrous confrontation with Dorothy. This was something smaller and easier to conceal. Shrimp must have given it to him, which again made Nadia wonder just how safe their host really thought they were.

Nadia checked out the peephole one more time, but Kitty was still the only person she saw. And she also saw by the flashlight Kitty held that her outfit was way too skimpy and formfitting to hide a weapon. She motioned for Dante to put the gun away, sure he would keep it in easy reach anyway, then opened the door.

Kitty smiled brightly, and there was an almost manic gleam in her eyes. Nadia wondered if she was high or if it was just the result of too much adrenaline. Kitty’s life couldn’t be an easy one, and Nadia wished she could help her somehow. But for tonight at least, the best she could do was open the door and let Kitty in. No doubt Maiden had sent her—hard to believe this was a social call—but Nadia had no idea what he might want.

“Come on in,” she invited, making room.

Kitty took her up on the invitation, her eyes scanning the room. “Where are the rest of your crew?” she asked.

Nadia wasn’t sure why the question made her uncomfortable, but it did, and she answered accordingly. “Not here.”

Kitty blinked, surprised by the shortness of Nadia’s response, but she didn’t let it throw her for long. She held up the wine bottle again. Nadia noticed that the bottle was open, and that there was a smear of lipstick around its mouth. Lipstick that must have come from Kitty’s overdone lips when she swigged directly from the bottle. Nadia sniffed the air, but she didn’t smell any alcohol fumes coming off the woman, and the bottle was still mostly full.

“Somebody want to get some glasses?” she asked. “Maiden’s being generous. This is the good stuff. He said it was like a hundred years old or something.”

Agnes went to get the glasses as Nadia led the way into the living room. She noticed that Dante had tucked his gun into his belt, keeping it accessible—and visible. The slight narrowing of Kitty’s eyes said she saw it, too, and recognized it for the warning it was. He remained on his feet and at a slight distance as Kitty and Nadia sat.

Agnes hurried in with four tumblers in her hands. “Shrimp doesn’t seem to have wineglasses,” she explained as she put the tumblers down on the coffee table.

Kitty smiled. “He thinks wine is for sissies. Real men drink the hard stuff. Course he’d never say that where Maiden could hear.” She gave a nervous little laugh, then uncorked the bottle and poured them each a healthy dose of red wine. Her movements were just a tad hurried, betraying her nerves. Maiden might have sent her here for a friendly chat with his guests, and the thought that they might not let her in had obviously scared her, but that wasn’t the only reason she was nervous, or she’d have calmed by now.

Nadia debated whether to come right out and ask Kitty why Maiden had sent her down here but decided against it. Kitty would get around to it eventually.

Kitty distributed the glasses of wine, leaving Dante’s on the far end of the coffee table and then moving away. Obviously, she was aware that Dante was being very watchful and was unwilling to get too close to her. Nadia wondered if he suspected she might go for his gun. It was hard to see Kitty as much of a threat in general, much less as a threat to three people, but she couldn’t fault Dante for keeping his guard up.

Even with the safe distance, Dante didn’t pick up his glass. “I don’t mean to be rude or anything,” he said, “but Kitty, would you switch glasses with Nadia?”

Kitty gave another one of her nervous laughs. “You think I’m trying to poison you?”

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But I’d hate to be wrong, so if you wouldn’t mind…”

Nadia thought Dante might be taking his security concerns a bit far, but there seemed to be no harm in swapping glasses just to be safe. Unless Kitty told Maiden about it later and he held it against them.

Kitty shrugged, showing no sign that she was terribly insulted by Dante’s implication. She exchanged glasses with Nadia with no further comment, quickly taking a big gulp.

When Kitty didn’t keel over or start choking, Nadia took a more tentative sip of her own wine. If the bottle was as old as Kitty had said, they were already doing the stuff an injustice by drinking it out of tumblers. The least she could do was sip it with the respect it deserved.

One sip was all it took to tell Nadia that this really was the good stuff. She was hardly a wine expert—technically, she wasn’t old enough to drink yet, but in preparation for her future life, her parents had started introducing her to fine wine when she was thirteen, never giving her enough to let her feel any but the mildest effects. It had taken a while to acquire a taste for it, but by now her palate was sophisticated enough to recognize quality of this level.

“This is wonderful,” Agnes said, taking another sip and rolling it around her mouth before she swallowed. She looked over at Dante, whose glass still sat untouched on the table. “You should try it.”

“Thanks, but no thanks,” he said. “I’m more of a beer kind of guy. I’ll leave the fine wine to people who can appreciate it.”

For the first time, Kitty looked genuinely annoyed. “Maiden has sent you a gift. This wine probably costs more than your average Employee earns in a year.”

Dante was unmoved. “I’m sure the gift was meant for Nate and Nadia and Agnes, not for me or Bishop. We weren’t invited to Maiden’s fancy dinner, remember?”

Kitty’s eyes glittered, and she tried to stare him down. However, she wasn’t very good at it, and she quickly looked away. “Fine,” she muttered. “Have it your way and insult Maiden. Good idea.” She finished the rest of her wine in one long swallow, then grabbed his glass. “You don’t want it, I’ll drink it for you.”

Nadia wasn’t entirely sure what was going on in Dante’s head. Kitty had already demonstrated that the wine wasn’t poisoned. Maybe he just didn’t want to risk alcohol when he was on self-appointed guard duty.

Kitty took a sip from Dante’s glass, then put it back down, pushing it away from her. “Whew,” she said, fanning her face. “The good stuff really has a kick.” She reached up and put her hands in her hair, pulling it up off the nape of her neck as if she was hot. Nadia felt no effects from the alcohol yet, but then she’d only been taking delicate sips from her glass—and she hadn’t chugged straight from the bottle before entering the apartment, as Kitty had.

“It
is
rather … potent,” Agnes agreed, having polished off her glass already. “But very good. Maybe just a little more.” She leaned forward to put her glass down on the table. And missed. She gave a startled exclamation and tried to catch the tumbler before it hit the floor, but instead of grabbing the glass, she ended up banging her hand against the edge of the table.

Out of the corner of her eye, Nadia saw Kitty’s lips turn up just the slightest bit. A chill raced through her body as she looked down at the wine in her hand. Strong it might be, but there was no way it was strong enough to make Agnes that uncoordinated after one glass.

A whole bunch of things happened at once then.

Agnes tried to stand up, and her knees buckled beneath her.

Dante shouted and drew his gun.

And Kitty grabbed for Nadia’s throat. Nadia meant to leap to her feet, but her body reacted sluggishly. All she managed to do was drop her glass and spill the remains of her wine. Before she knew it, something was wrapped around her neck, biting into her skin.

“Put the fucking gun down,” Kitty ordered, tightening whatever she had around Nadia’s neck. Nadia tried to reach up and pull it away, but she couldn’t feel her hands, and her arms flopped uselessly.

Dante’s eyes were huge and startled in his shadow-darkened face. He was crouched in a shooter’s stance, his arms rock-steady as he kept the gun trained on Kitty. Unfortunately, they all knew he couldn’t shoot, not with Nadia so close.

“You ever seen what a garrote can do, kid?” Kitty snarled. “I can take her head clean off with this thing. Put the gun down now, or I’ll show you.”

Nadia cursed herself for her lack of foresight. She’d seen how little Kitty was wearing and assumed that meant she couldn’t hide a weapon, but she’d never considered the woman’s long, lustrous hair as a potential hiding place. She wanted to tell Dante not to do what Kitty ordered, but whatever was in the wine had taken firm control of her body and she couldn’t make her lips obey her. Her mind, however, stayed entirely clear. She shuddered to think what this drug was generally used for on the streets of Debasement.

Slowly, reluctantly, Dante lowered his gun.

“I said put it
down
!” Kitty shouted, tightening the garrote until Nadia felt a trickle of blood run down her throat.

Dante hastily dropped the gun, then kicked it away. “Please don’t hurt her.”

“That’s better,” she said with smug satisfaction. “Now drink your wine like a good boy. And don’t even
think
of trying anything.”

“Why didn’t the wine affect you?” Dante asked, moving forward slowly, his hands raised. Nadia could practically see the way he was coming up with plans in his head, then rejecting them one by one.

“There’s an antidote,” she said. “I took it before I came in.”

“What is it you want, exactly?” he asked, but Kitty wasn’t about to let him stall.

“Drink the wine, and I’ll tell you. Do it fast unless you like seeing her bleed.”

Dante had no choice, and he knew it. The agony in his eyes made Nadia heartsick, but there was nothing she could do or say to comfort him when her mouth wouldn’t move. She wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault. Wanted to point out that he’d done everything he could to protect her, even gone above and beyond what seemed reasonable.

Dante stared at the contents of his glass for a long moment, then forced himself to drink it down. He closed his eyes afterward, his throat working convulsively. Trying not to gag on something he knew was drugged, Nadia supposed.

Kitty’s hold loosened slightly, but not enough for Dante to take advantage of it, and Nadia had all the fight of a rag doll. “I was never gonna get away from Maiden,” Kitty said. “Once he put the slave bands on me, I was his for life. No one else would touch me, and anywhere I could go in Debasement, he would find me.”

Moving carefully, though it was too soon for the drug to take effect yet, Dante lowered himself into the nearest armchair. “So you’re going to turn her in for the reward?” he asked.

Nadia felt her nod. “Nothing personal, and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry. But they’re offering Employee status along with the money. They’ll get me out of Debasement, out of Maiden’s reach.”

Nadia suspected Kitty was underestimating Maiden if she thought he couldn’t get to her outside of the Basement. Gang lords tended to have long arms. Not to mention the fact that Dorothy didn’t actually
want
Nate or Nadia to be captured. Nadia was damn sure that when Kitty tried to turn her in, something was going to go horribly wrong—by design—and Kitty was going to wind up dead. Just like Nadia.

“It won’t work,” Dante slurred. “You … Y…” His mouth stopped working and the words died in his throat. He had probably meant to explain the big flaw in Kitty’s brilliant plan, but thanks to the drug, he couldn’t do it. She probably wouldn’t have believed him anyway.

Kitty waited a couple of minutes after Dante’s last words before she finally unwound the garrote from around Nadia’s neck.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Nadia
half expected Dante to leap out of his chair the moment Kitty released her, but unfortunately, he wasn’t faking his paralysis. There was nothing he or Agnes could do to help, and Nadia was in no shape to help herself. So much for the safety they’d bought and paid for.

Kitty shoved Nadia down onto the couch and kept a wary eye on Dante as she retrieved his gun from the floor. She examined it quickly, then gave a nod of approval and stuffed it into the back of her miniskirt. Nadia wondered how the woman was planning to get her down all those flights of stairs, sneak her past Maiden’s patrolling enforcers, and get her all the way to one of the checkpoints to turn her in. Nadia would be dead weight, and Kitty didn’t look like the athletic type. Nadia wasn’t even sure if the other woman could
lift
her, much less carry her all that way.

“You all just sit tight,” Kitty said with a self-satisfied smile. She’d claimed she was sorry about what she was doing, but as far as Nadia could tell, she was enjoying herself quite a bit. Her eyes in the candlelight gleamed with excitement, though the perspiration that beaded on her upper lip said she was still scared under it all. She was far from home free, and she knew it.

With what felt like a Herculean effort, Nadia managed to turn her head so she could keep an eye on Kitty. She hadn’t drunk much of the wine, and she probably didn’t have a full dose in her system. Unfortunately, the partial dose was more than enough.

Kitty’s high heels clicked as she stepped off the living room rug and onto the hardwood floor of the entryway. The woman must have at least one accomplice, someone who could help transport Nadia out of the building and out of Red Death territory. Someone who had stayed well out of sight when Nadia was looking through the peephole and was patiently waiting for Kitty to let him in.

Kitty flung the door open, and Nadia’s heart leapt up into her throat.

The man standing in the hallway, waiting for Kitty’s signal, the man who was going to turn Nadia in to get the reward money … was Shrimp.

At least, that was Nadia’s first thought when she saw him standing there. She made a choked sound of protest, but Kitty cried out in terror, her hand reaching frantically for the gun. Her fingers had barely even touched the butt before Shrimp’s fist made solid contact with her face and sent her sprawling to the floor. He followed up with a kick to her belly that sent her curling into fetal position—making it easy for him to bend over and pluck the gun out of her skirt.