Soph snickers. “Can’t say Jay supports my dumb bitch act either. You have the night off, Chief. Snuggle in with your niece, and stay inside so your snitches can bring their bloodpressure down. And since you have the time, pop an M&M and let me know what happens.”
“Not gonna take your pills.”
“Come on!” she groans. “You’re making this into something bigger than it needs to be. Jesus.”
“Soph—”
“Pussy.” She kills our call and disappears into whatever her life looks like in a town somewhere far from here.
It occurs to me that I’ve spent time with the woman in New York. In Copeland. In a Podunk town called Plainview. But none of those places is where she calls home, which means I don’t actually know what home looks like to her.
Rolling hills, or a bustling city?
Snow in the winter, or dry heat year-round?
“Is Sophia our friend, Auntie Minka?” Mia brings her feet up to the couch cushions and tilts her thighs so they lie across mine. Tipping her head back, she searches my eyes through a honeycomb pair she stole straight from her father’s side of the family tree. “Sometimes Ifinkshe is, and sometimes Ifinkshe’s not. Daddy says she’s our friend, but—” She lowers her voice and leans closer, “—Daddy cusses sometimes when he talks about her.”
I pull a sweet ringlet between my fingers, dragging it down and releasing it again so it bounces back up. “Soph is our friend. She’syourfriend for sure, so if you ever need help, you just have to ask.”
“Soph makes a lot of people cuss.” Cato comes around the couch and claps his hands, offering to take the little girl. The thought of losing her breaks my heart, but the way she snugglesinto my side and shakes her head mends every ache I’ve ever known.
Well, not really. Not all of them. But still…
“You choose her over me?” He presses a palm to his heart. “Really?”
“I didn’t see her for ages.” She wraps her arm around mine. “Felt like a whole year.”
“Felt like a whole year for me, too.” I bury my lips in the top of her hair and close my eyes. One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three. “Felt like my entire body was broken, because that’s how much not seeing you hurt. I’m really glad you’re here tonight, Moo.”
“I’m really glad I’m here, too.” She lays her cheek over my chest and happily sighs. “Daddy said I could stay as long as I want, and it didn’t even matter if I fell asleep. He said it’s Auntie Minka night and that we could have ice cream for dessert if we want.”
“We sure can. I wonder if we can order hot dogs on sticks from somewhere? Harrison can pick them up for us. He won’t even mind.”
“Who is Harrison anyway?” Mia sits tall again and peeks over the back of the couch. “Is he our friend?”
“Harrison is our friend for as long as we’re the most powerful person in the room.” I chuck her chin and grin as her eyes come back to mine. “He’s Felix’s friend, mostly. But he’s an excellent driver, and he doesn’t even make me very sick when I’m sitting in the back seat.”
“I get sick in the back seat sometimes.” She pops up to her knees and leans across my body, poking the inside of my elbow. “Do you have to have medicine tonight, Auntie Minka? Can I watch you do the needle?”
“Sure.” I reach into my pocket and take out my warming diluent, holding it up between my thumb and forefinger and allowing her to get a good look at the clear liquid. “Tonight is the night for my medicine, and yes, you can watch the needle. You can even help me mix it if you want to.”
“For real?” She snatches the bottle and plops back onto her butt. “You’d trust me?”
More than I trust the little pills currently Tell-Tale-Heart’ing me from the coffee table.
ARCHER
I’ve never known what it’s like to auction a pair of ten-year-old girls off, and fuck, I hope to never repeat the experience in the future. But for tonight, at least, to assuage my need for irrefutable evidence—for me, not the courts—I go through the process of signing four men in to my bullshit event, have them purchase a paddle for fifty-thousand dollars cash,each, and sign a waiver acknowledging their money is non-refundable.
Once that’s complete, I know they’re dead men. All four of them.
Their presence here is enough to condemn them to death. Their eager grins, enough to make me want to puke. But when I start the bidding at two hundred thousand dollars for the first child, and MihalisSalonen’s paddle shoots to the sky, a smug “five-hundred thousand” bursting from his tongue, he forces me to lock my whole fucking body in place.
Because I want to slit his filthy throat, and if I don’t maintain control of this shit show, Fletch might beat me to it.
“Six-hundred thousand!” A second guy, a face from the pile Minka already flapped in mine days ago, thrusts his paddle high above his head. “And I’ll keep going till it’s done.”
“Seven-hundred thousand.” HildebrandDirkse snarls. “And I make it known that tonight’s events arehighlyimproper.”
