“How many lines are a few?”
“Less than an A4 piece of paper?”
She pondered that, blew out a breath.“I think I can handle that.”
“Course you can,” Trip told her brightly.“You can handle anything.”
El snorted.“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” she teased.
He winked.“Any time.”
“Okay, so that’s the next item on the agenda, but what about what just happened, guys?Where does that leave us?”
Shawn’s voice was a low, early-morning rumble as he murmured, “He wasn’t lying.Didn’t need to be able to smell the truth to figure that one out.Enrique and Jaime, dumbasses extraordinaire, acted without sanction.Considering they were in debt and were aware that standard protocol in your family is to pay a ransom, it’s an easy option for them.Don’t have to like it for it to be so,” he finished softly, peering at her once in the rearview mirror as though trying to soften the blow of his words.
She wasn’t sure why Jaime and Enrique’s betrayal no longer hurt.But the fact was, it didn’t.Before, she’d been upset.Now?She was furious.
In fact, she was finding that whenever the El of before had felt saddened or disappointed by someone’s behavior, now, when she looked back, she felt only rage.
There was a lot of anger burning away inside her, she realized uneasily.
“If they were just trying to clear their debts,” Marc reasoned, “then that means the threat has gone.Enrique still hasn’t been captured but we didn’t expect him to be.He’ll have fled to South America.Even if he acted without sanction, the Pantera wouldn’t turn their backs on him.They have a network.Whenever someone engages in one of their business deals, and I use the term very lightly, they’re immediately transferred across the border to remain outside of local jurisdiction.Enrique will be no different and is, therefore, of no threat to us now.”
Considering her train of thought had run along the same lines, their commentary didn’t exactly come as a surprise to her.She pursed her lips then asked, “What’s my rightful place in the Pantera, Ryan?”
Silence fell at her question, then he sighed.“You picked up on that, huh?”
“What do you think?”she asked wryly.“My ears are better than they were before and I’d have to be a dumbass to fail to spot the implications of what you were saying…”
“The Pantera tends to be patrilineal.They’re surprisingly egalitarian, too.Don’t discriminate between the sexes.If a woman is strong enough to lead, then lead she will.”
“You mean, because my grandfather was leader, I’d have been in line for leader too if I’d been a part of the collective?”
“Yup,” Trip said on a grimace.“That would have been a barrel of laughs trying to explain that to the Pride.”
“I don’t know,” she jibed, “You’d have had a guaranteed ‘in’ with your enemies.”
“And an out, too,” Ryan retorted.
“In, out, in out, in fact,” Marc teased.
“We get the picture,” Shawn inserted drily.
“Okay, so the reason he was cowed by that still eludes me?”
“Because if you wanted to, you’d have the right to challenge Luis and take over as leader.Which is a big deal.Look, we know very little about the Pantera.Just as they know little about us, but what we do know is… In the Pride, anyone can challenge me.That’s how it works, and it’s a major pain in the ass.
“The Pantera has it right.You have to earn your place in the Council first, then garner political support to challenge the leader.It’s not just a goddamn free-for-all.”
“You’re saying that by right of my lineage, I could swerve past all that.”
“Yeah.Exactly.Swerve past what he’s worked hard to achieve over the years.”
“Wow.”She whistled under her breath.
“Uhhuh.”Trip pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.“Seems like you’re destined to be important in whatever world you’re a part of, El.”
She frowned at that, realizing he was right, and not particularly appreciating it.Rich and wealthy beyond people’s imaginings in the human world, granddaughter of the Pantera leader, and mated to the Pride’s leader… That was a definite home run by anyone’s standards.
