Fair point.
“They don’t trust us yet. And I get that. But they can’t be left to fucking run riot through the countryside because we don’t want to hurt their fucking feelings.”
“What does happen to us?”
Chaos’s gaze snaps to the woman I brought back, Loki startling when he realizes she’d moved to stand behind his shoulder without his knowing.
“We figure that out as we go,” Chaos answers. He nods toward the kid. “Who’s she? Is she related to any of you?”
The runner turns to look behind her, where Kyra offers the child a drink. “Not that I know of. But she hasn’t spoken a word, so who knows? There were others down there we didn’t get to know well before they were moved on.”
“Or died,” one of the others mutters, knees drawn to her chest.
“Where’s Floss?” Chaos asks, referring to the oldest and most matronly old lady we have in the club.
“Bandit said they were on their way ten minutes ago, so they shouldn’t be far.” Loki sighs, hands on his waist as he stares down at the runner who barely reaches his shoulder. “You lot hungry?”
She raises an eyebrow as she stares up at him. “Does a brown bear shit in the woods?”
Amusement curls his mouth, and he slaps a hand to her back. “Come with me. We’ll get something sorted for the others, yeah?”
The room falls quiet, save for a gentle whisper while Kyra talks to the others, and the metallic tink when Circus drops his needle into a tray.
“Finally.” I roll the aching limb in small circles to test my range of movement. “Swear to God you get far too much satisfaction out of doing this shit.”
Circus shrugs, collects his tools, and leaves the room the same way Loki went.
Flinch returns to help Kyra, who appears to be trying to get the youngest one to talk. Chaos sits in his goddamn throne bythe fireplace, watching it all with steepled hands covering his grimace.
“Loki had a point,” I say, pulling on a clean shirt. “We need to get ready for retaliation.”
“I know,” Chaos mumbles. He tugs his phone out and checks the screen. “I need to go get Vanessa and bring her back here. I’ll send a group message and call everyone in tonight.”
“You think they’d strike that fast?”
“I would.” He leans back with a sigh. “If we’d left them there, we’d be no better than they are, Jinx.”
“I know.” I pick up the bloody tissue that Circus left behind and throw it into the flames behind him. “But they weren’t the first, and they won’t be the last. We’ve barely scratched the surface by bringing them back.”
“We’re gonna need more than Iowa’s help.”
“True. But we need to know how deep this runs, first.”
“Deep enough that Tyrant is having a sit-down with the Fallen Aces to see how we can work together on a common goal.”
I lift my brows at the mention of the Nebraska president. “He’s not the type to play nice.”
“Which is why I thought it would be a good test to see if we can pull this off. If King can walk out of there with a handshake agreement, we’re doing the right thing.”
I fold my arms and smile at the guy. “So you decided to set your pride aside for the sake of the club, huh?”
“Fuck up.” He smirks. “Like you’re any better.”
I look at Kyra, at the woman so damn ready to be a part of my life, and at what I could have lost if I hadn’t done the same—set my pride aside. “No, I ain’t,” I say. “But I know it’s worth the payoff.”
As though sensing the change in conversation, Kyra rises from the floor and crosses to where I stand near the fire. “All taken care of?”
“Pretty new stitches to give me a pretty new scar,” I say.
