The Kingmaker

23 - Ploys

 "Mr. DiAngelo."

"You took your time."

"Well, things...happened."

"Is that supposed to make me trust you any more than I did before?"

Eden pressed the phone a little harder to her ear and glanced around her in the failing light of approaching dusk. She had hopped on various buses and wandered around several routes along the outskirts of Alexandria, always keeping an eye out for too-familiar faces or vehicles that might have tailed the bus. But she saw nothing.

Didn't mean she was safe, but at this point, wasting time was a more immediate danger now. Whoever the man was who had followed her earlier today, whoever had sent him - they weren't an ally. Eden didn't have allies.

"To be honest, I thought you tried to get me killed today," she said. "I still don't know the answer."

"You've barely been on my mind. I'm a busy man, doing busy things."

"I heard." Eden recalled the flash of headlines at the newspaper stands, the muffled blaring of the television in the neighboring apartment. The so-called turf fights between rival gangs that were in fact something else entirely. "I understand that Goodwin isn't taking it well."

"She'll fold."

Of course she would. Unlike most of her fellow underworld barons, she actually had a day job to commit to. An important one in fact, because without it, she couldn't properly rebuild her empire. Goodwin wasn't a warrior - never had been, as far as Eden knew. She was an old woman far past her prime armed only with a business sense and immaculate credentials that gave her access to resources that darker, dirtier criminals couldn't touch. And at some point...those just weren't enough.

"I'm surprised you trusted me, Mr. DiAngelo," said Eden. She leaned back against the brick of the building that bordered one side of the alleyway. "All you had to go on was my word and a few out-of-line incidents on the part of a few of Goodwin's associates."

"Are you saying you were giving me bad information?"

"Far from it. But it did make me wonder if maybe you had other motives for being so eager to act on what I told you." Eden examined her fingernails with a smile. She already knew the truth, of course, in a way that Cristian DiAngelo absolutely did not. Like how she had capitalized on his existing greed and simply fueled him with a few prods in the right direction to make him lash out at his rivals.

It had been so easy. The crazy ones were always the most predictable.

"And what's your problem with that?"

"Nothing," she said. "Just wondering if you have any other reasons on the table, that's all. Just so you know, if you're trying to cover your tracks by getting rid of me, it's not necessary. I don't intend to muck up whatever plans you've put in motion. I just wanted whoever killed Nate to stop coming after me, too."

"You sound scared."

"Shouldn't I be? I thought out of all the people who might want me dead, that you're the one I've been in contact with the latest. I try to keep out of everyone's way, Mr. DiAngelo. Nate was always going to be the face of our partnership before he took that long fall...I don't mind slipping out of the picture here, too." Eden moved the phone to her other ear now, rubbing it with her fingers to warm it up as much as she could in the cold night air. "In case you thought that I might be some kind of obstacle. Or maybe I'm overestimating how much of an annoyance I am to you?"

Cristian's chuckle came through the line like a shadow, soft and dark. "You must have run into sizable trouble. You really do think I'm trying to kill you."

He sounded...amused. That didn't necessarily mean anything. Eden narrowed her eyes and looked around again, searching the streets and the rooftops for any lurking bodies.

"Like I said, Mr. DiAngelo. Things...happened. A man came after me today, broad daylight. Weren't a lot of people around but even still - takes guts to do something like that in full view. I thought maybe someone dumb, or maybe someone who's following orders from someone powerful enough to protect him even if he gets caught."

"And maybe that someone is me, you're thinking. You should have said that straight out instead of dancing around it."

"Didn't want to make you angry." Eden let traces of her smile slip through the sound of her voice. "I heard you're not a man to trifle with."

"You heard right."

"And...I'd never trifle with you. I'm sure you know that, but just in case you wanted a refresher."

"You're nothing to me. I have no interest in killing you. You can believe that or not, I don't care, but you don't need to go licking my boots like this to get on my good side."

But she heard an answering smile in his voice, too. A slow one. He liked what he was hearing - respectful fear, graceful caution. A crazy, paranoid man who liked having his ego stroked a little by a soft voice over the phone.

She could provide that. Eden could be all sorts of things, whatever she needed to be.

"Then maybe...you can let me help instead. I can be useful, you know."

"You can drop the begging. Already said you're nothing to me."

"It would make me feel better to know I'm on your good side, like you said. I really did think it was you who sent that man to take me. Letting me be helpful to you would ease my mind, since I'd find it easier to believe you don't want me dead then. Win-win."

"And you think you can help how? Last time you said you wanted to come work for me, but I've already got everything and everyone I need. I don't need dead weight."

"I'm...sure you can think of something I can do for you once we meet. I'm of various talents, Mr. DiAngelo. I'm that kind of person."

There was a prolonged silence over the line, and then a squeaking rustle like the sound of someone shifting around in a leather chair. Comfortable, luxurious. Eden dissected it, closing her eyes for a brief second to commit it to memory. This was not the sound of a man huddling in a c***k house somewhere, or a warehouse - he was cooped up somewhere with expensive furnishings.

Cristian DiAngelo had changed a great deal. When he only used to be an angry, scurrying, rabid rodent of a street kid, everyone had seen him on the streets. The Slum Belt had been his unofficial territory long before he ever became a fully fledged criminal baron, and the city prison had been his home just as much as the streets had been. He had never been the kind of boy to sit back and marinate in his success, Eden thought. All those times she had spied on him and his goons from rooftops whenever she sneaked into the Slum Belt, he had always been too nervous to trust comfort.

My, how times had changed.

"You're eager to help, too. Makes me wonder whether you've got your own reasons to be so willing."

Of course. The paranoia. DiAngelo was smart to not trust her, and he never would - but she could make him underestimate her. She was good at that, appearing smaller than she was. Less noticeable, less flashy.

Eden knew how to play the aggressive tactics, but she also knew how to lure the back pieces out into the open, past the wall of pawns. How to make them expose their weaknesses...how to dig until she got to them.

She'd do the same to Cristian, too. He wasn't the king piece, but the check would come later after she stripped the board first. Clear the path.

"I do have my reasons. I'd like to join a winning team, and between you and Goodwin, I know who'll come out on top. I think everyone does."

"How about I send someone to come get you. Maybe you can prove how useful you are in person after all."

She smiled. "Mr. DiAngelo, I just had a big fright this morning. Maybe we can meet somewhere in public so that there's a slightly lower chance you'll throw me over your shoulder and cart me off somewhere dark and dangerous."

"I could do that anyway. Public or not."

She lowered her hand to caress the brick wall behind her, ran her fingertips over the rough, pitted surface.

"You could. Maybe you'll decide to do just that when we meet at The Ricochet tonight. It's loud, crowded. I hear every newcomer to Alexandria should try it once, is that true?"

She received a guttural chuckle in response.

"I own it. I'd agree."

...Oh. That had changed, too. Eden would never have thought that wild child, skinny little Cristian would grow up to own nightclubs too. Did he own other properties? If he was doing more than cornering the market on h****n this side of the city, she knew nothing about it. This was her chance to learn more, but on the other hand, it meant walking straight into his clutches if she insisted on the same location anyway.

"....To be honest, that makes me nervous, Mr. DiAngelo."

"Do you think I'm going to do something to you?"

"Maybe."

"You might like it."

Typical. Talking with his d**k. Eden rolled her eyes, but that was a good sign.

"Maybe. Or maybe you'll just frighten me off. I'm only one woman, you know. I wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. I'm still awfully shaken up about this morning, too..."

"And I said I wasn't a part of it."

He was going to get testy soon; she needed to back down. What wouldn't she give for a truth-detecting ability right now? He sounded sincere, and yet anyone could fake sincerity. She was prime proof of that.

"What if I asked you to meet me elsewhere instead then?" she asked. "Not The Ricochet. Maybe somewhere on more neutral ground, if you could humor me. I'm assuming the central district fits that description. Nate told me that's a bit of a special kind of territory, is that right?"

Of course it was right. She hadn't heard it from Nathan at all; she'd known it because she was a native here and knew a little of the rituals. The central district of Alexandria was the most prosperous. It always went to the dominant family or cartel - and that would be the Salini now. Which meant, in turn, that DiAngelo had no sway there.

"You want me to go on someone else's turf?"

"I'm just exercising caution, Mr. DiAngelo. I do want to see you...I just have to watch out for myself. You can understand that, can't you? We'll be discreet, and they won't know a thing."

Silence. For a moment, Eden thought he would say no, thought he might tell her to go to hell and end the call. To pay a visit to someone else's territory uninvited was asking for violence, after all.

If he wanted to see her in the central district, he would have to keep a low profile too. Fewer men. Fewer weapons. He had to come...less dangerously. Which suited Eden's purposes quite nicely, if he would only agree.

Had she succeeded? Had she made him curious enough to chance it? She had wanted to make him dangle in suspense for a couple more days at least, but now that she had to move the timetable up, she had to hope that her ploy would make him desperately curious and paranoid enough to seek her out no matter what it took.

She clenched her hand into a fist.

"Fine. Where do we meet?"