Dina digs her fingernails into my arm.
I chuckle, although nothing is funny. “I hope you have a clear glass shower, Mr. Glass, so you can see me coming.”
He doesn’t like that. He narrows his eyes and tucks his hand under his suit. I can tell he’s unaccustomed to people telling him no, and that he’s holding onto his temper by a thread.
Dina looks from me to the man, then back to me, and crosses her arms. “I’m not leaving.”
I sigh. “If you have a brother who knows me and what I do and can do, then you are a very stupid man to have come here and threaten my people. If you don’t leave in the next five seconds, water will flood your lungs.”
The man walks past me and hisses, “You’ll regret this.”
Chapter 26
Let me in
Dina
Declan walks back to sit at the table. He joins his hands as if in prayer, something I see him do often.
“That was nerve-racking.” I sit with him and take a bite of croissant. The moment the buttery crispness melts on my tongue, I moan. “Excuse me, but what kind of amazing is this?”
“Mary,” Connor says. “Endo’s pastry chef.”
Can I keep her? “How long is she staying?”
Connor hands Declan a black card. When Declan stares into space, not accepting it, Connor flicks it toward him. It lands on the table. Clearly, the brothers aren’t in the mood for small talk or my unnecessary diversions. I guess I’m staying for the food.
Declan leans back and stares at the black business card with an hourglass on it. I didn’t think people still traded business cards, and I’ve never seen one without a name. Just an hourglass.
I wipe my mouth with a napkin. “Who was that man?”
“Nobody,” the twins answer at the same time.
“Since we’re doing more thinking than talking this morning, I’m thinking I need to run some errands.”
Declan looks up from the card. “What needs doing?”
I take a sip of water. “The police said I’ve been released, pending investigation. That I should probably get a lawyer in case there are legal ramifications for driving with an illegal rifle in my car. They’re saying if those are your prints on the rifle and you go down, I go down with you as an accessory.”
“Let me handle that entire shitshow,” Declan says.
“I could help, if you want me to.”
Declan shakes his head.
Connor nods. “Okay. How can you help?”
“Connor,” Declan says in a warning tone.
“How? Tell me.”
“I know most of these cops, and if I don’t, I know someone who does. Selnoa is a city of millions, but we’re like one big fucked-up village, and it takes a village mentality to deal with us. I can help…us. But you have to tell me what’s going on.”
“You are already involved beyond what I intended for you, so no more.” Declan ends the conversation.
“What I’m saying is I know how people here work. They want to eat and drink and enjoy life. Men want to leave their families and come to the mansion to indulge themselves. Your father understood that. He provided those men with a fantasy that they couldn’t otherwise have on their own. It…it takes lots of effort for a man to sneak around with a mistress.” I swallow. “It drains the pocket. Fancy dinners, getaways, all the wooing costs money most of these men have but don’t like to spend. Your father made the fantasy life accessible. Even to the middle class of Selnoa. Like the cops.”
That gets their attention.
