The council meetinghas been dragging on for two hours, and I can feel my patience wearing thin in that particular way that usually means I need either coffee or violence, and we're fresh out of targets that deserve the latter.
"The Vipers have held up their end of the treaty for six months," Jackie is saying, her fingers tapping against the table in that rhythm that means she's stated this fact at least three times already and is getting irritated at having to repeat herself. "No incursions into our territory. No hits on our people. They've been clean."
"Because Talia's keeping them in line," George mutters, and there's something in his tone that I don't like, something that edges toward resentment. "We're basing our entire security on an eighteen-year-old girl's ability to control two Viper leaders through pussy."
The temperature in the room drops about twenty degrees.
Xavier's hands go still on the arms of his chair—the regular chair now, not the wheelchair that sat in the corner unused forthe past four months since he regained full mobility. When he speaks, his voice is soft in the way that means someone is about to have a very bad day.
"Say that again," he suggests. "I want to make sure I heard you correctly before I break your jaw."
George has enough survival instinct to backtrack. "I just mean—the treaty is dependent on a relationship. Relationships end. What happens when?—"
"When what?" Valentina interrupts, and I watch her lean forward with that predatory grace she has, the one that reminds everyone in the room that she was trained as an assassin before she was anything else. "When Talia stops loving them? When they stop loving her? You want to plan for hypotheticals that haven't happened instead of accepting that we have peace for the first time in two years?"
"Val's right," Zay adds from his position leaning against the wall. "We've had zero casualties in six months. Zero. Our protection rackets are running smoothly again. Our territory is secure. All because Talia loves her family enough to broker peace between two organizations that should hate each other."
"She loves both," I say, keeping my voice level even though my irritation is building toward something I'm going to have to manage before it becomes a problem. "Her family with us. The Raiders who raised her, who she's known since she was ten. And the Vipers—specifically Killian and Axel, who she's built a life with. That's not a weakness. That's the strongest possible foundation for a treaty."
Jackie nods, gratitude clear in her expression. "Talia's happy. Safe. In love. And because of that, we have peace. I don't see the downside here."
"The downside is dependency," George argues, though he's being more careful now, aware that he's on thin ice. "What happens if?—"
"If anything happens to Talia, we go to war," Xavier says flatly. "Same as we would if anything happened to any member of this club. She's Jackie's daughter. She's family. The Vipers know that touching her means annihilation. That's the treaty. Love and mutually assured destruction. It works."
I watch the room process this, watch the remaining dissent drain away as people realize Xavier isn't budging on this point. Good. I'm tired of having this same argument every council meeting, tired of people questioning a peace that's working just because it doesn't fit their conventional understanding of how treaties should function.
"Meeting adjourned," Xavier says, standing with the easy grace of someone who's put in a year of physical therapy and come out stronger for it. "Unless anyone has actual business instead of hypothetical concerns about our agreement with Talia and the Vipers?”
Silence.
"Thought so. Get out."
The council files out with varying degrees of relief and lingering suspicion. Jackie squeezes my shoulder as she passes—a silent thank you for backing her daughter—and I nod in acknowledgment. Talia's arrangement is unconventional, but then again, so is ours. Who are we to judge?
The door closes behind the last council member and Xavier immediately drops back into his chair with a sigh. "I'm so fucking tired of that argument."
"Six months and they're still not over it," Valentina observes, moving to perch on the edge of the desk. "You'd think by now?—"
The door opens again and my irritation spikes before I register who's entering.
I blink, my brain taking a moment to process the appearance of Xavier's sister, Georgia, who we haven't seen in years because she's been busy with her own journalism career and generally avoiding Raider business whenever possible. She's wearing a red dress that hugs every curve with the kind of precision that suggests it was tailored specifically for her body, her dark hair falling in waves over her shoulders, makeup subtle but effective.
She looks nothing like the college student who used to show up to the compound in jeans and hoodies, and everything like a woman who knows exactly the effect she has on people.
"We're running late for dinner," she announces, checking her phone with the kind of casual authority that reminds me she's Xavier's sister through and through. "Reservations are in twenty minutes and you know how Marcel's gets if we're not on time."
"Marcel's?" Valentina perks up immediately. "The French place downtown? Xavier, you didn't tell me we had reservations."
"Surprise," Xavier says dryly. "Happy six-month anniversary of not killing each other."
"Romantic," I observe, but I'm already standing, already mentally calculating the drive time and whether we can make it if we leave now.
"I'm about to make us later," Zay says, and there's something in his voice that makes me look at him sharply.
He's staring at Valentina with an intensity that I recognize, that makes my own interest spike even though we just had sex this morning before the meeting. But there's something about her in the late afternoon light, the way she's sitting on Xavier's desk with her legs crossed and that small smile playing at her lips, that makes me understand exactly what Zay is thinking.
"Zay," Valentina warns, but she's already smiling, already anticipating. "We have dinner reservations."
