Anything.
“This is like dealing with a teenager,” Edmonton grumbles.
I ignore him.
BunnytheKiller
I like shifter romances. With wolves and packs.
Blake
See, that wasn’t so difficult to admit, was it?
Good Bunny.
Conversation continues around me while I wait to see if she’ll respond, and think about how I can use this new information about how my bunny likes wolves. Or books about wolves.
“Norwood!”
I look up, reluctantly.
“What’s your vote?” Westminster asks. “If you want to do the assassinations of the leadership of Essex, you have enough support.” He doesn’t sound happy about it.
I think about the disruption—at best—that my team projected would be caused for everyday Londoners if we took out the heads of the Essex Cartel, and how it might not have the effect we want, anyway. People like Nina—Bunny.
“It pains me to say it,” I mutter. “But what if violence isn’t the way to deal with this?”
“Has he been taken over by aliens?” Westminster says to Mayfair, who shrugs.
“Dalston, you have a man in the Essex Cartel?” I say.
He nods. “Akim. My former second-in-command. They know about him. He had an arranged marriage with the Braintree mafia princess to settle a uh—” he coughs. “Dispute I had with them.”
“He stole his wife from one of the Essex Cartel’s virgin auctions,” says Edmonton dryly. “Complete with public?—”
“Bought,” Dalston corrects. “That part was legit. The murder afterwards was regrettable, but he touched Nicole.”
“And hardly anyone knows about it. Minimal bloodshed, no disruption.” I tap my fingers on the table. “What if we got more people into Essex? Change them from the inside out. Loans, and trade, and bringing their young members into London. Mafia marriages. Killing them with kindness until they realise that every hit against London hurts them more than us, because they rely on what we give them.”
Westminster sighs. “It’s more expensive than just taking out their kingpins.”
“Turn them against each other, too.” Edmonton has a cunning expression.
“Exactly.”
I think I’ve become a sap who believes in… Love?
12
NINA
I take the long way back from work.
No reason.
Okay, a big reason.
The app for Paddington Station notified me that there’s a new package. My stomach flipped when I saw the little flag.
