Except it would pleasehimto know Estelle would no longer be a threat, because she’d be fucking dead.
“I’ll make a call,” Casale said, choosing to walk away rather than continue the conversation.
“Can we go home now?” Wade asked.
Jono wanted to stay and keep an eye on the New Rebels and Davenport packs, but he also wanted to lie down for a kip and let Victoria’s healing potions have their wicked way with him. He’d been spoiled over the years with his preternatural ability to heal quickly. Dealing with lingering pain made him short-tempered, something he couldn’t afford to be right now.
“We’ll be all right,” Amelia said from her spot on the one dining room chair that hadn’t been destroyed by the demon in Keira.
“The media isn’t going to leave this area for the rest of the day,” Sage warned.
Amelia shrugged one slim shoulder, the borrowed shirt not the best fit. They were all in clothes purloined from the closets of Austin’s pack members. “I don’t mind guarding Austin’s territory for him while his pack heals.”
It wasn’t an offer she would have ever made while under Estelle and Youssef’s rule in the past. Jono was glad the packs who’d switched loyalties were settling into a new normal that allowed them to be friendly with other packs and not look for claws in their back.
“We need to get going. You need rest,” Patrick said as he stood.
He offered his hand to Jono, who took it without hesitation. Jono looked at Sage. “We should give a statement to the press.”
“No. Absolutely not,” Sage said.
“We’ve never presented our side to the public in person. I think it’s time.”
“We have a PR company for areason.”
“Yes, and if we fuck it up, we’ll pay them to fix it.”
Sage glared at him, arms crossed over her chest. “As your lawyer, I’m entirely against this course of action.”
“Duly noted. We’re still going to have a chat with the press.”
They made an odd-looking group on their way out of the apartment building and to the perimeter of the crime scene. Patrick and Sage were still in their clothes from yesterday, dirty and torn from the fight at the Library of Congress. Wade was in jeans and a T-shirt, and Jono was barefoot in scrubs. It wasn’t the put-together look Sage would’ve wanted, but Jono thought it made them look less polished and more human overall.
The hastily put-together podium for updates given by the police was absolutely overflowing with microphones. Jono’s enhanced hearing picked up the way the media voices got louder as all the reporters realized who was coming their way.
“Do you even know what you’re going to say?” Patrick asked quietly.
“No,” Jono said, but he had an inkling.
The cameras were all pointed their way as the officers keeping watch let their pack pass under the Police Line – Do Not Cross tape. The questions started before they were even at the podium, and Jono ignored them all.
He braced himself against the wooden riser and leaned over slightly as the other three fanned out around him. “Can you lot hear me? Brilliant. First, I want to say I’m sorry everyone on the street here were woken up this morning by the attack on innocent people, but I won’t apologize for the way the packs under my protection defended themselves against hunters, demons, and Estelle’s people.
“Every single attack against me and mine over the last few months have been perpetuated by her god pack. Estelle, and Youssef when he was alive, never had the decency to come at us face-to-face. They always sent proxies from their own people or hunters. There’s a bounty on my head she’s funded since earlier this year. She’s sold her own people to vampires to stay in power before. She’s made deals with demons and is too much of a coward to face us herself. That ends now.”
Jono swept his gaze over the assembled crowd of reporters, sunlight reflecting over the cameras. “I issued her a challenge, as is my legal right. So, if you’re listening, Estelle? We’ll settle the claim for New York City once and for all so its citizens can quit walking about in fear. No one will mourn you when I put you in a grave, the same way no one’s mourned Youssef.”
He could hear Sage’s indrawn breath, even if it was too soft for the microphones to pick up. Not that her annoyance mattered. Murder in a challenge ring wasn’t considered a crime, and Jono had every intent of leaving her body in the ring.
Jono pushed away from the podium, ignoring the veritable wall of sound that erupted around them as the reporters started shouting questions at him again. A few were even for Patrick, who ignored them with a cool, neutral expression on his face. They turned their backs on the media, heading back the way they’d come.
“Announcing you’re going to murder Estelle on national television is not the best way to get the general public on the side of our pack,” Sage said through gritted teeth.
“Sod what the public wants. I want Estelle dead. She’s done enough damage to us and this city. If the police won’t put her down, I will,” Jono replied.
“Maybe it’s the month of bad news,” Wade mused as he pulled a candy bar out of his back pocket.
“For Estelle.”
