“I think I remember you saying something about my people.”
Olsen looks completely out of it, so I smack his face a few times.
“Wake up, Mr. Veteran, we have to finish our talk.”
Another incoherent sound. Tsk tsk.
I point the gun into his flat palm and pull the trigger and Olsen’s eyes sharpen up as he recoils from the pain, gritting his teeth.
“Fucking bastard.” He glowers at me through the pain and I smile.
“Much better.”
“Guns aren’t allowed in the ring,” An unfamiliar voice pulls me out of ourconversation.
I know who she is the moment I see her.
Mal Taiga.
The Don’s wife and the lady of the house.
Her almost white hair falls over her bosom in a long braid to her waist and her brown eyes are cold and unfeeling, just like the rumours said when they coined her the ‘ice queen’. Her presence commands authority and attention, her features are sharp and beautiful, just like Reuben’s, and a black jumpsuit covers her body, with a long brown jacket—not worn—but thrown over her shoulders.
I tilt my head. Why wear it if you’re not going to wear it?
Day 1,355 and people fashion remains a mystery.
“He looks just like you,” I say softly.
Her eyes widen a fraction, but her surprise is masked by her practiced cold exterior so quickly, I could be convinced I imagined it.
“It’s unreasonable to demand his life just for this.”
“Just for this?” I repeat and she regards me with cold precision.
“If I can’t keep my place here it’s no better than killing me,” I repeat my earlier words, holding her gaze while speaking slowly. “He knew that. You knew that.”
Her silence tells me she did.
“He asked for this fight before my recovery, and we agreed on the terms. His life is mine.” I hold the gun up for her to see, “It’s only fair that anything goes.”
Olsen sputters, “You crazy piece of—”
“The adults are talking, Olsen,” I point the barrel of the gun at his temple. “Don't think I've forgotten. What was it you said? You’d break in the kid gently? That you’d like how tight she was?”
I didn’t think Olsen’s face could get any paler.
I tuck the gun under his chin, “That you’d use Lucia until she bled.” I’ll kill him for that if nothing else. I've seen up close how hard Lucia is trying to heal. How desperately she's trying to gather the scattered pieces of herself. I'll give him that courtesy and put a knife in his throat just like I did with those two. To show the others they better not fuck with mine. Not with Lucia.
And not with Evie.
“He wouldn’t have done any of those things,” Reuben’s mother barely stops me from pulling the trigger. “He was under my orders to goad you into a fight.”
“So now you’re saying he shouldn’t take responsibility for his words?” My eyes narrow as I stuff the gun into Olsen’s mouth, who makes a muffled protest. “That I let Reuben fuck me for a spot on the team? That I’m better off returning to my dead? Is this how I’m repaid for saving your son’s life?”
Her nose flares and she pulls a gun of her own to point at my head, removing the safety. “I am the woman of this house.” Her words are sharp and loud in the space. “If I say put away your gun, you put it away.”
“Respectfully, Mrs. Taiga,” I answer slowly, “I answer to your son. Not you.”
