The Kingmaker

25 - Weak

Eden and Cristian were sitting next to each other in a booth near the back now, far enough from the pounding bass of the dance floor that they could hear each other without speaking into the other's ears. The center of the VIP lounge was far to their left, occupied by sleek men and women who didn't give them a second look.

That was to be expected, though, and it was doubly beneficial for Eden. She could watch them while going unnoticed through no especial effort on her part, because everyone else was doing the same. The Salini were the center of attention on their thrones, dressed in slick, black suits and wearing matching shades.

Indoors.

Eden smiled.

"You were very aggressive with Goodwin. I was surprised." She ignored the flight of shot glasses that Cristian had ordered a server to bring to their table, stroking the rectangular, wooden platter it came on but nothing more. His eyes darted from her fingers to her face and back again, but she pretended not to notice that either.

"I don't hold back," he said. "But it seems you do."She gave him a sideways smile. "I like to play things close to the chest. It's safer to withhold than to be too open, Mr. DiAngelo."

"Even a name?"

She pretended to consider his growled question for a moment, and then leaned back into the booth seat with a downcast gaze. "I let Nathan call me Abigail while we worked together," she said. "For the time being...feel free to call me that as well."

She made sure to flinch when Cristian's hand darted over to wrap around her wrist on top of the table. Her fingers ceased their stroking of the wooden tray, and she looked back to find him glowering down at her.

"Don't toy with me," he rasped. "The chase was fun, but I'm not here to play more games. You've done enough of that."

He hadn't lasted nearly as long as she had hoped he would, but she had been half-expecting him to explode any second anyway. He had always been unstable from his youth on, but combined with the testosterone he was likely taking to have transformed his twiggy stature so much...

"I'm usually just called E wherever I go," she said, and she remained as still as stone even though she could feel the bones of her wrist creaking in his grasp. "I answer to both."

"But it's not your name," he muttered, and his eyes flashed with a dangerous, suspicious light. "You're hiding things from me."

She let him simmer for a few seconds, fixing him with a level stare despite her hand slowly growing numb. And then finally, she spoke:

"Mr. DiAngelo, I like being called E. I've preferred it for a long, long time now, and I'm very partial to it. In time, I hope it'll be a name that everyone in Alexandria recognizes....even if I never found it necessary to share that with Nathan while he was alive." That, and a subtly angry yet earnest look might assuage DiAngelo's paranoia for just a moment. This wasn't going to stop him from trying to chase down all of her secrets, but she could nudge and tap his attention toward other directions if she was careful about it.

And while it wouldn't last forever, she didn't intend to keep him for long anyway, either.

"How did you two find each other?" he demanded. "What did he tell you? What was he having you do?"

Ah, there there were, the questions she wanted him to ask. And in truth, these were the more important ones - what was in a name, anyway?

"He wanted to know how to expand," said Eden, and she shrugged in helpless resignation. "And...I wanted a foot in the door with Alexandria. He said he could help me, I believed him, and then I was trapped before I knew it. No way up, and the only way to stay afloat was to keep myself chained to him."

She was looking back down at the table now, affecting a stone-disappointed expression. But she thought she could see the beginning of a dark sneer on Cristian's face out of the corner of her eye.

"You made a mistake," he told her. "Nathan was always a dead end. He was useful back in the day, but -"

"- but no vision," she finished, and she rolled her eyes. "He even told me that he was friends with a heavy distributor and that the foundation of our circuit was already in the ground. I trusted him."

"And I was that friend?" he asked, but from his gloating tone, it was clear that he already believed it.

So she didn't give him an answer. Instead, she sighed again and grabbed a shot off of the wooden tray before downing it with a snap. She could still see Cristian watching her, could still see him trying to dissect every inch of her facade. But too bad. He had never been smart enough to understand people. That trait used to make him terrifying, made him unsympathetic and cruel to whomever he wished, and it had helped him rise through the ranks. But now?

It made him vulnerable. It made him see what he wanted to see, made him pick and choose with arbitrary favor instead of common sense. He was ruled by paranoia and violence, and while that was enough to control his people, it would do little to her.

Not when she knew how to ply his child-like mind. Maybe not all the way yet, but she had the basics down. An ego so heavy that it dragged him down, a temperament so unpredictable that, just as he trusted no one, no one trusted him, either. Alone and reveling on his throne, and yet always aware that there was no one to lean on, no one who would help lift him up to even greater heights -

Until now, that is. Fearsome and violent and accustomed to getting what he wanted through the abuse of others, Cristian DiAngelo was exactly the kind of weak man who would wilt the hardest when he got his first taste of nurturing warmth. Eden hadn't been able to be certain until she met him in person and tasted the kind of man he was in the flesh, but now she knew for sure that he had no malicious designs for her. If she had been a man, it would have been a different story, but she had t**s, and curves, and admittedly a very nice face...

An animal, that was all Cristian was. And Eden had wanted a pet for a while now.

"I don't think you were the one who sent those people after me this morning," she said suddenly, and Cristian c****d his head at her.

"I told you I wasn't."

"Well, I didn't know to trust you until now, did I?" She glanced over to give him a severe look before turning back around again. "I had to see you for myself."

His smile twitched down into a half-scowl, his eyes darkening in a flash. "You think I'm that easy to read?" he asked. "You think you can know me from just looking at me?"

Careful, she thought. Careful.

"No. I just - feel a connection. I think you are who you say you are, and you don't need to waste time pretending otherwise." Eden looked down at the flight. "I wish I'd told you that I'm a lightweight before you ordered this, Mr. DiAngelo. This doesn't feel very smart of me."

He didn't say anything, and she had to guess that his tiny little brain was warring with several conflicting emotions. And Cristian had never been capable of handling even a single one - if he kept that up, he would put himself in a stroke. Hurry up and fall for it, she thought impatiently. There's so little time -"

"But since I realize you had nothing to do with it, I can only guess at who would have done this to me, then. Maybe Goodwin, maybe another player. I'm not built for these kinds of games, though..."

And with slow movements, she hitched up the hem of her top and revealed her mottled, black-and-blue waist to him. His eyes that had been glittering with anticipation now narrowed at the sight. It was dim here, but there was light enough, and against her pale skin, there was no mistaking the signs of violence. Jumping in front of a car would do that.

"How?" he asked, staring at the ugly patchwork of bruises along her ribs.

"They tried to throw me off a building," she lied. Didn't miss a beat. She had been waiting to deliver it since this morning, after all. "Just like they did with Nathan. I think they mean to send a message."

"But you lived."

"There was a little one with them, maybe getting initiated? I don't know. He fumbled me, and I ended up landing on something on the way down. That was the only thing that saved my life, but I don't know how long that's going to last. They know what I look like, and I can't run far. I lost all my resources with Nathan..."

She waited with bated breath, imagining that she could hear Cristian's ecstasy-addled neurons firing all the while.

"You can stay at one of my safehouses," he said finally. "But this doesn't mean we work together. You, work for me. Prove yourself useful, and maybe I'll change my mind."

She pursed her lips, pretending to consider it.

"...Fine."