Valeria's pov
I parked my beat-up car three blocks from the clinic. It was a basement buried beneath the defunct textile mill. The neighborhood smelled of damp trash and grease but I didn't mind the smell, it felt good being back.
Inside the dark cabin, I peeled off my stockings. My finger snagged on the silk, the fabric giving way with a quiet, expensive pop.
"Motherfucker."
I cursed Alaric's name with every jagged thread. I kicked off the heels, feeling the cold relief of the floorboards against my arches. I swapped the corporate skirt for grease-stained cargo pants and an oversized hoodie.
"Goodbye, Miss Onyx. Hello, Angel."
I opened the trunk and grabbed the bag of laundered cash and the crates of black-market EDTA I'd secured. I entered through a rusted service door.
Silas, an ex-combat medic with one eye and a permanent scowl, didn't lower the shotgun until he recognized me.
"You look like you just came from a funeral, kid. Or a wedding."
I tossed the bag of cash at his chest. "Neither, Silas. I just need a drink and a patient that doesn't talk back."
"The back room is full. Some kids from the Sterling refineries are in. They've got the silver cough again."
My jaw tightened until my teeth ached. "Silver cough. Lead poisoning. Call it what it is, Silas. Corporate murder."
I pushed past him, the air turning thick with the smell of cheap antiseptic and unwashed bodies.
Grace met me at the entrance to the bunks. "You smell like money, Angel. It's going to make the patients sick."
I pulled my hoodie over my head, pinning my hair back with a stray pencil.
"Nice to see you too, Grace. Give me the charts."
I didn't need the charts to find the crisis. The sound of a ten-year-old's rattling lungs led me straight to the back corner.
I stopped at Leo's cot, the boy was shaking with fever. I leaned down, smelling his breath. It was sweet, cloying like rotting fruit. I pulled back his lip, revealing the dark, bruised blue line along his gums. Classic lead. Marcus Sterling's refineries were dumping waste into the water again.
"Hold him down, Grace. He's going to fight the IV."
"Is it the bad air, Doc? Did the smoke get me?" Leo whispered.
My hands stayed steady as I found the vein. "The smoke didn't get you, Leo. The greed did."
I moved to the next cot, where a man was reeling from an overdose. Ben. I didn't offer a gentle hand. I shoved a cup of charcoal mix into his face.
"Keep your mouth shut and swallow, Ben. Drink. Now. And no complaining afterwards. I wonder why you keep doing this to yourself."
Hours later, I headed toward the small supply closet to lock up the remaining medicine, but the door was already ajar.
A low, rhythmic sound drifted out, not the labored gasp of a patient, but something you wouldn't normally expect in a hospital.
I pushed the door open and froze.
In the dim, flickering light, a man stood with his back against the metal shelving, his head thrown back and his eyes half-closed in a haze of pleasure.
Grace was on her knees between his legs. Her hands were gripped tight around his thighs as she worked, her mouth buried deep, sucking his length with a rhythmic, desperate hunger.
The wet, unmistakable sound of her focus filled the small room, her body swaying with the effort as she took him in.
"Grace?"
They bolted apart, breathless and flushed. The man fumbled to fix his clothes, his eyes defiant. Grace scrambled to her feet, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, her face a deep, burning crimson as she smoothed her scrubs.
"Angel, I—"
"When?" I cut her off. "When did this happen?"
Grace hesitated. "Six months," she whispered. "Since the night you almost got caught at the docks. We didn't want to distract you."
"Distract me?" I laughed, a sharp, hysterical sound. "You're losing your minds in a closet while I'm out there keeping this place alive?"
"We're human," she whispered. "Something you should try remembering."
I didn't answer. I retreated to the sterile room to wash the grime off my hands.
Mama J was there, chewing on dry bread. "You're playing a dangerous game.You're even starting to smell like them."
"I have to be near the fire to burn the house down, Mama J." I scrubbed my skin until it turned raw. And Alaric Von is a goddamn forest fire.
"Your father didn't want this life for you. He wanted the prestige."
"My father died because of that prestige. It got him burnt like scrap wood."
Mama J slapped my shoulder, a sharp, stinging reminder. "Child, your father was a good person."
I turned, my eyes flashing with jagged, bitter light. "That was his mistake. You don't get rewarded for being good. You get rewarded for being the biggest shark in the tank."
Mama J sighed. "Just don't forget who you're biting for, little shark."
At 3:00 AM, I finally stepped out. My muscles screamed for sleep. I walked toward my car, keys clutched between my knuckles but stopped dead.
A black SUV was idling at the end of the alley. My heart stopped. Alaric? Had he followed me?
The SUV moved forward. It wasn't the Von vehicle, it was a Sterling Global Security patrol. I dove behind a dumpster, the smell of rotting cardboard filling my lungs.
My heart hammered against my ribs, I haven't prayed in a long while but I started praying to not to be found out, hoping that any God would answer.
I watched the SUV roll past and waited for the silence to return before I reached for my car door. I pulled the handle, but the door was already ajar.
I looked inside. Resting on the driver's seat was a single, expensive silk stocking, perfectly intact and a business card for Von Enterprises pinned to the headrest with a surgical needle.
There was no time to handle what that meant, i had to be somewhere more important. Do something more important.
I drove straight to Alaric's penthouse, parking in the shadows of the service entrance. My contact was already there, pacing near the private elevator bay, his eyes darting toward the street.
He grabbed my arm as I approached, his voice a low, frantic whisper.
"You're late, Angel. Are you sure you can do this?"
I looked at the black glass tower stretching into the clouds.
"I'm sure. Let's go."
"Then be fast," he hissed, swiping his keycard. "Before the man in the suit comes back."