Ezra didn’t even blink. “Good morning, Boss Glovefox. Please have your mate leave the room before we start.”
Aniyah’s smile faltered. Her eyes darted sideways, guilty as a cat caught mid-pounce. A heavy thud sounded under her desk, followed by the unmistakable shuffle of someone trying to make a quiet exit. A head of dark hair appeared just long enough to confirm what we all suspected before the door clicked shut.
Aniyah exhaled, straightening in her chair. “What mate?”
Oh, Aniyah.
Ezra gave her that look, the kind that didn’t need words, sharp and annoyed all at once. Within seconds, Aniyah’s shoulders slumped, the fight leaking right out of her. Ezra’s sigh came soft but final, the verbal equivalent of a closed case, then her gaze shifted to me.
“First off,” she said, “between ads, gambles, and the other revenue streams, your fight night brought in over two hundred and sixty-two million. Our total spend came in at fifty-eight. That’s over a seventy percent ROI. Excellent work.”
On the surface, Ezra’s expression didn’t move, staying as calm and unreadable as always, but I’d been around her long enough to catch the quiet signals most missed. The faint narrowing of her eyes when she focused on me. The almost invisible lift in the corner of her mouth. The slight tilt of her shoulder, easing into comfort.
Those tiny cracks in her armor were as close as Ezra ever came to a smile, and I felt the warmth of it like sunlight after a long night.
“Thanks,” I said, forcing a grin of my own. “I think this’ll be good for both sides of the business, above and below board.”
“And that Deslen—oh, man.” Aniyah fanned herself. “Wasn’t he just a snack and a half?”
Heat flared through me, and my fingers curled underneath the desk, gripping my thighs so tight it burned. Her eyes gleamed with that familiar taunting light, making me realize she was fucking with me on purpose… and I just fell for it. I’d given her the ammo she wanted.Fuck.
“I’ve gotta say, Nov,” Calix chimed in, voice laced with amusement, “I didnotsee you pulling a publicity stunt like that. That’s usually Aniyah’s department.” He threw his thumb toward her, and she shot him a death glare.
Of course, he just responded with a lazy smirk and a shrug. The two of them were always just one issue away from blowing up at each other.
“Was it?” Riot’s voice slid through the noise, soft and steady, cutting the room in half. Everyone turned toward me.
I’d never lied to my siblings before, and I wasn’t about to start now. “I didn’t know anything about it,” I said simply, throwing up my hands in a tired gesture. “Not until it happened. That’s why I reacted how I did. It was the only thing I could think of.”
Watching that moment later had made my stomach twist. On the feed, I looked like some back-alley thug, spitting in Deslen’s face at his grand gesture. It made me look horrible. At the time, it had felt like one more weight I couldn’t carry, so I’d exploded.
Calix leaned forward, elbows on his knees, that familiar protective look settling over his features. “You did the right thing. Guys like that see a woman in charge and think they can test her. You showed him who’s boss. Hell, youshould’vedecked him.”
“Oh, mygod,” Aniyah groaned, rolling her eyes hard. “Do you have a single romantic bone in your blood-addled mind? It was agesture, Cal. Devotion! She should’ve used his body, telling him to prove his words—all night long.”
Even Ezra’s composure wavered, her eyes flicking aside for half a second. In Ezra-speak, that was practically a nod of agreement. I was annoyed at the heat rising on my neck.
Aniyah grinned, soaking in the chaos. “I thought it was so hot I made Alic recreate it for me,” she said proudly. “Before I fucked his face off.”
“Aniyah!”
Calix’s horrified shout only made her laugh harder. Riot just rolled her eyes, clearly mourning the peace she’d had before joining this meeting.
Ezra’s voice sliced through the laughter, calm but sharp. “Enough.” She glanced at me, a knowing flicker in her eyes, before steering the conversation back to business.
While the others talked about project updates and business logistics, a soft buzz vibrated against my wrist. I glanced down—Ezra.
E:Talk to me when you’re ready. I’m all ears.
When I looked up, she had her head turned toward Calix, pretending to listen as he rambled about some new weaponsprototype. Her eyes flicked to me for a fraction of a second, a knowing glance, a quick wink, and then she was back to business, asking him a question like nothing had happened.
I didn’t know how she always managed toknowthings before anyone else did. Maybe it was intuition, or maybe she’d just learned to read all of us too well. Either way, I was grateful. She was giving me space to sort myself out before the inevitable storm that would come once I told my siblings. Because in our family, once something was spoken aloud, it was carved in stone.
That was why none of us mentioned boyfriends or girlfriends or the people we were seeing or fucking. Saying a name meant it was real, and if you brought someone to the table, that person had better be solid. Once you were introduced to the family, you only left in a body bag.
Once we got into the more criminal part of the conversation, I told them all about what happened in the cave, minus the whole Nick thing and who was with me.
“The bastard’s eyes glowed the same way as the others’,” I said, resting my forearms on the table. “When he was about to talk, to give me some actual information, his heart exploded.”
