“You sound upset about that.” Rubi spared me a brief glance. “Pissed off you got all dressed up for nothing?”
“I am curious,” Viktor retorted, his tone deceptively mild for a man I knew to be a ruthless mercenary. “A conversation I had with your nomad leader—”
“Ranger,” Nash supplied.
“Yes.Rangerled me to believe the Rebel Kings had no interest in the situation we have at the northern ports. Was he lying?”
“No.” Nash spoke with conviction. “Cam already told all the charters they can’t get involved as Rebel Kings.”
“What does this mean... exactly?”
“It means we’re still committed to transitioning to legitimate business, but we can’t force every brother in our organisation to come with us.”
Viktor waited.
Rubi elaborated. “We have dozens of charters and hundreds of members. They’re used to a certain way of life. If a charter wants to stay on the dark side, we’re not going to stand in their way.”
“Would they still operate as Rebel Kings?”
“No. They’d give up their colours and rebrand as something else.”
“Rebrand...” Viktor’s amusement seemed to deepen before his gaze hardened again. “How many charters have chosen to follow you to legitimacy?”
“Most. I’m sure it’ll shock you all over again to learn the ones that haven’t are based up north.”
“I am very shocked,” Viktor deadpanned.
It was almost funny, but there was too much at stake for laughter.
Viktor set his water bottle down. “Let me tell you how I see it. You are not fighting the war in the north and that will not change, no?”
“That’s right,” Nash said.
“Is it?” Viktor leaned forward and fresh tension flooded the room. “So tell me again,whydid two of your soldiers annihilate eight Sambini men last night. Make it make sense, or I will have to believe you are lying to me.”
Nash had no answers.
Alexei let him squirm for a moment. Then he stepped forward. “It was a defensive action. We came across them by chance.”
“You were in Suffolk by chance? It seems a long way out of your territory to travel by mistake.”
Alexei tilted his head, danger flashing in his grey eyes, and his next words were Russian, too clipped and too fast for me to catch.
Viktor’s fake humour faltered. “You are a Rebel King, Alexei. Over the last few years, you have made that very clear.”
“And what are you? All this time and I still do not know.”
Nash cleared his throat. “Whatever reason they were out that way is our business, not yours. Same goes for what happened.”
“No, it does notgo.” Viktor tore his gaze from Alexei. “But I appreciate that you do not understand why, so let me explain it to you. The Albanian cartels wish to control the ports in the north, yes? Until a few days ago, this was a problem for usandthe Sambini family. Now it is just a problem for me, and the men I had turned within their organisation are dead.”
The fuzzy picture began to clear.
For the first time, Embry spoke. “Are you suggesting that we killed your double agents...forthe Albanians? That makes no sense. We have no relationship with them, good or bad.”
“Maybe you killed them for Sambini.”
“Why would we do that? We need you more than we need them.”
