Potere | Book II ✓

xvii | don't call me angel

xvii | don't call me angel

a/n: i know i said sunday on ig well .... I lied.

[ mention of rape ]

•• ━━━━━ ••●•• ━━━━━ ••

Veleno, whose birthname is Immanuel Joel Santamaría, is a father.

I had all of twenty seconds to inform Carmen of everything that went down after we returned home with the mysterious woman – along with security for extra protection – in tow. Her hands were cuffed and wrenched behind her back when she was led inside our personal home. It was a bold and unsecure move, and I made sure Liam knew that before we transported her here, but he seemed confident – based on Veleno's odd silence and lack of eye contact – that she wasn't much of a threat, at least not to us.

Carmen had flown down the stairs to greet us, her smile wavering when her attention caught the rough appearance of the mysterious woman, and that's when I grabbed her by the arm and explained everything that happened from the moment the alarms were activated.

Now we sit side by side on the loveseat in Liam's crammed office, overlooking the ongoing interrogation. Two soldiers stand guard by the door, staring off into space, keen on what they hear and don't. Selective hearing is a must for men like them, that I've come to understand.

Veleno and the woman, who appears to have had better days, sit across from Liam like a married couple in therapy. Liam, on the other hand, leans forward in his seat, studying Veleno more than anybody else. He's discarded his suit jacket and has rolled the sleeves of his black dress shirt up his forearms. That's how I know he means business.

"Immanuel Joel Santamaría." Liam repeats the name the assassin has just revealed mere seconds ago. A name that rolls off the tongue of my favorite Italian in a manner so smooth I think Carmen and I forget to breathe for half a second. We glance at each other, and I can feel the silent appreciation pass between us.

I catch her smile out the corner of my eye.

I like her.

Liam turns his body toward the woman in the chair beside Immanuel, and I know she all about catches fire at the intensity of the gaze she's under. It also doesn't help that Liam's voice has dropped a full octave. "And your name?"

Her hand tightens around the same tissue she's been using since our soldiers threw her inside the SUV. "Savaughna."

"And how do you two know each other?"

"I met her at a club." I think everyone is surprised when Veleno speaks again. I wasn't expecting to hear his voice until this question and answer session with Savaughna was over. He's quiet though, an uncharacteristic version of him. He jams the stubs of his fingertips into the wood of the chair's armrest and casts his gaze to the floor. "She was there for some...party, I think, right? Model people, or whatever?"

Savaughna almost smiles when Veleno looks up in confirmation. "Yeah—" She turns back to Liam, "I used to runway model. I was in Italy for a show, and we went to a club afterwards. I met Immanuel, and..." She doesn't have to finish, for the rest is history.

Savaughna's model past doesn't surprise me. I didn't realize how tall she was until they escorted her into the SUV. She stood by Liam for only a second, but it was long enough to note that there wasn't much of a height discrepancy between the two. Liam's approximately 6'2, and Savaughna stood only a few inches shorter than that. She had to be about 5'11, 6'0 in heels, easily.