“No need to mobilize your crew, Miss Bailey, or is it Captain Bailey?” he nodded once to the serving girl as she placed his drink in front of him, the sound grating on my ears.
I was an idiot. A proper, monumental idiot. How little I’d evolved over the last year. Still jumping headfirst without a second thought for the consequences. Plans were ripped to shreds at the first chance.
“I want my brother back, and I want Bash back,” I said, leaning forward.
The moment you show you know you’ve lost is the moment your opponent wins.
Flynn’s voice in my head made my heart stutter. I was closer to him than I’d been in months. Now, instead of a sea monster-infested sea between us, there were only iron bars and the man sitting across from me.
“It might encourage you to know that I’ve already agreed to release your brother. The eldest Bailey is quite persistent, and we’ve come to an agreement of our own. As for Flynn, have you considered that he might not wish to be freed?”
Oliver. My oldest brother was a genius. He never had our father and Oscar’s charisma, but no one knew the meaning of persistence like him. It was what made him so successful in parliament. He never knew when no was the answer. The only problem with that was that I hadn’t accounted for Oscar already being free.
“If I am being honest, Captain, I don’t give a rat’s ass what Bash wants. So what do we need to agree on so that I get my captain back?” I said, willing steel into my words.
Don’t show any weakness. Be confident.
His back must have ached from how straight he kept it, but I got the feeling this was a man who was going to scrub himself clean at the mere thought of dirt on him.
“Excellent, I do love it when we skip to the point. I believe we can indeed help each other. You want Flynn released, Flynn wants to ruin the house of Smith, and I need someone to retrieve an item for me,” he said, perfectly white teeth showing through his smile.
“How do you know-” I began, mouth agape.
I had nothing. Absolutely nothing that he didn’t know. Well, all except one thing that was very quickly becoming a problem.
“Yes, Miss Bailey, I even know that as we speak, your little friend is attempting to rescue Mr. Flynn and Mr. Bailey.”
I stood up, knocking over my drink with a crash. With unnatural speed, Edmonds stood just in time to miss the steady stream of brown liquor that poured onto the ground.
My heart beat against my chest like crashing waves threatening to pull me under. A click of a pistol behind me, and Val was standing next to me, weapon ready to end the captain. Murmurs and shouts erupted around us, and a woman screamed.
“No, if you all be wanting to fight, you can take it outside, but we won’t be tolerating that shit here at the Siren.” A stout woman with greasy hair spoke a few feet away.
Captain Edmonds held up his hands, eyes glued to mine.
They were all in danger. Everyone I cared about was in danger because of my stupid plans. All because I thought myself clever.
“I will not hinder their escape. In fact, you will be happy to know I simplified it for them. We are not enemies, at the end of the day, we are each other’s best allies,” he said.
“I should shoot him,” Val said beside me.
Probably.
A smart person would.
Instead, I sat back down and righted my now-empty glass.
“My apologies for the disturbance. If we could please have another round of drinks and a clean seat for myfriend.”
I could have sworn gold glinted in his eyes when he nodded his head to me.
“An excellent notion. Now let’s make a deal,” he said.
My ancient grandmother always said that making a deal with the devil was to burn twice as much in hell.
It didn’t seem like a terrible trade for getting what I wanted.
So I did.
