Chapter 11

Then I look to Micah and Tiia,codenames pending, and finally, to our Happy Meal and his beloved, Christabelle.

“What?” I scan the island counter as though expecting to find Mary doing her thing like she always does, but then I remember she’s not Felix’s at the moment. She’s ours, and she’s holed up behind the counter insideourhouse in Copeland, at least until Steve has recovered from his heart attack. Unraveling myself from Archer’s octopus-like grip, I cross the kitchen and search the cupboards until I find a stack of mugs. Taking two out, I grab the coffeepot and pour. “Why is everyone staring at me?”

“Because we agreed to a meeting this morning,” Felix grunts. “Because the whole fuckin’ world kinda imploded last night, but you were too tired to discuss it. So…”

“So…” I shrug and set the pot back where it belongs. “Cordoza dropped a bomb in our laps, but the world isn’t ending. And besides, I doubt there’s anything I can contribute to this conversation that the rest of you haven’t already.” I pick up my mug, sans creamer or milk, and swallow three heaped mouthfuls like they’re shots of Red Bull. I nod toward Aubree. “She was there for the plane meeting, the dinner meeting, and she has a wiretap straight into the old man’s brain. Ask her.”

“We already asked her!” Felix barks. Pre-coffee. Too loud. “Jesus, Mayet. He’s dying!? And he’s lining up his successors like this is a fuckin’ dictatorship.”

“Kinda is.” I hold the mug by my nose and inhale until I feel it in my lungs. Deep. Deeper. As deep as I can get it. Then I exhale again, glance toward an uncertain Archer, and nudge the second mug just an inch across the counter in invitation.

That’s all it takes. That’s all he needs. Because he breaks away from the exact spot I disconnected us, circles the stone counter, and snags his coffee.

Andme. He grabs me most possessively of all, wrapping a single arm across my back and anchoring his hand against my hip.

“Either Cordoza puts a plan in place before his death, or he simply taps out and leaves the city scrambling.” I shrug. “If it scrambles, every douchebag with entrepreneurial aspirations will try to claim they’re the new top dog, and even if that douchebag lacks the infrastructure needed to run the networks currently in place, he’ll still try, which means people will die. Personally, I vote the entire Malone family change their names to John and Jane Smith, walk away with the money in their bank accounts, live happy, fat lives somewhere far from here, and leave the scrambling to the douchebags.” I set my coffee on the counter and smile. “It makes perfect sense to me.”

“You sound awfully cheery about this mess, Chief. But I suppose that pedestal up in the sky is pretty comfy. You walk in,” Felix casts his unhappy glower Aubree’s way, “and you, too. Pretty faces, seductive charm. You convince the old man you’re the shit, and suddenly, you’re being handed a hundred years of everyone else’s labors stacked on a shiny platter.”

“Wait…” Stunned, I blink the confusion from my eyes and study everyone all over again. Angry Tim. Suspicious Micah. An entirely unbothered Cato. Furious Felix. “You’re mad because Cordoza dragged me and Aubree into this?”

Behind him, Aubree shakes her head.

“Jealous?”

She pauses for a beat, hesitant, then nods.

“You’re jealous?” I balk. “Becauseyou’reabout to sit in the most important friggin’ seat in the country, while the rest of us get wonky, stiff, uncomfortable chairs, a metric ton of paperwork, responsibility that could make or break a lot of shit… And we didn’t ask for any of it? Are you serious right now?”

“A hundred years of Malone,” he snarls. “A hundred fuckin’ years, Chief. I don’t get a choice, Ihaveto be one of the douchebags stepping up, and I have to do it before everyone else scrambles. But now I get the privilege of askingyoufor permission every time I wanna take a shit?”

“Ah… no?” My brows furrow and dig a line between my eyes. “My plan is to stay as far from this mess as I can manage. I have a job, remember? I don’t sleep enough as it is. I run myself into the ground with the responsibilities I already have, and Aubree’s career is exactly the same, which means I’m about to spend the next year yes-sir’ing every time Cordoza speaks to me, I’ll pretend I actually give a shit about this city, and then I intend to leave it to you. Don’t fuck people over, don’t profit from the misery of innocents, don’t become like your father, and I won’t ever have an opinion on your toileting schedule.”

“So you’ll abandon your role and leave all that power with the Solomon sisters? That’s worse!”

“What the hell do you want from me, Felix? You’re mad I’m involved, but you’re even madder if I walk?”

“I’m pissed he felt the need to assign me a fuckin’ babysitter! Four of them. Never in the history ofeverhas this city functioned this way, but Cordoza fancies himself besotted by a foursome of mouthy women, and now I’m nothing more than a face on display, an ass in a chair, but I’ve been neutered, Mayet. I can’t run the city without a majority vote from four women whose periods will probably sync soon. Does that mean my job one week a month includes tossing candy bars at your faces and achieving literally nothing else? Will I mediate catfights and stomp out the wars your hormones wanna start?”

I choke out a cathartic laugh. A throat-scratching, head-pounding, he’s-lucky-I-know-he’s-decent-under-the-attitude laugh. But then I cut it off with a growl and snap my teeth. “Sounds to me like those Malone the first and second genes have made an appearance today, since the FelixIknow respects the intelligent, logical thinking women in his life. The FelixIknow would never be so friggin’ small-minded and chauvinistic.”

“I—”

“Have youeverhad to throw candy bars at us? Have you had tomediate an issue between me and Aubree? Between me and Soph? Between literally any group of women, ever?”

“No, I?—”

“No. Butyou’vestormed the homes of your enemies with nothing more than firepower, and‘I’ve got big balls, hear me roar.’ To reunite with Archer, you left dead bodies littered across Copeland, kidnapped a child, and almost started a twin-city war. Instead of dealing with your father’s death in a healthy, legal way, you dug a hole in the backyard, dropped him in it, and walked away. Micah lost his ever-loving mind and took Tiia to a torture hut in the woods because he didn’t know how else to manage his emotions. Cato’s completely incapable of identifying and fostering healthy, non-toxic relationships with women. He considers himself in love withmebecause he knows it’s safe. Because I married Archer.” Finally, I point toward Tim. “He married Aubree without telling her! Without her consent. Without her knowledge… or so he thought.”

He opens his mouth to argue.

“Shush!” I swing cranky, he-ruined-my-sex-buzz eyes back to Felix. “Don’t come at me about how men are superior decision-makers, or how women are too soft or too emotional to function. Cordoza’s gonna do whatever the hell he’s gonna do. I can’t control it, I can’t change it, and according to Estefan, I can’t walk away from it. My interest goes only as far as making sureyoudon’t jump into the skin trade just like every other asshole who came before you. There’s money to be made selling little girls, weallknow it, and of the hundred richest assholes in the world, only fifteen of them are women. That’s not because women are less capable or too emotional. It’s because men are notoriously greedy, and even those we might’ve considered decent once upon a time fall victim to ‘but I want more, more, more.’”

“Not sure how I got dragged into this,” Cato grumbles, his lips dropped into a pout, and his muscles bulging as he wraps himself lovingly around Zora. “I’ve been good lately.”

“I intend to be one of those hands-off,silentkinds of silent partners, which basically means my life will continue how it always has, assumingyourmoral code remains onthisside of what I consider acceptable. You’ll stay here and do your thing, you’ll pout because Cordoza dinged your ego, but you’ll get over it, because you married an intelligent, logical-thinking woman, and together, you created a future intelligent, logical-thinking woman. When you’ve had your tantrum, and you’re feeling a little lessemotional, you’ll realize everything is okay.”

“And the Solomon sisters?” he sneers. “Cordoza proposes a four-woman board of advisers, but if two of you bounce, leaving me with Soph and Ellie? That means I no longer control this city. They do.”