“Unfortunately not,” Mercedes sighed. She went around the table and gave a tight, friendly hug to each of them, stopping awkwardly when she got to Adam. He opened his arms, but she rolled her eyes and went to sit next to Carlos.
“She’ll come around eventually,” Paul said. “Give her time.”
Give her time?!
She shot a look at Paul and noticed Adam had done the same thing. His a look of amusement, and hers a look of disgust.
Paul responded with widened eyes that darted back and forth between the two of them. “...Tia. I mean, Tia will come around,” Paul said.
Mercedes shook her head and brushed the comment away. “Thought you’d all want to see this.” She pulled the ballot from her back pocket and slid it over the table.
Her friends leaned in to get a good look, where they’d find a list of candidate names with Dorian Blake’s box pre-selected.
“Ballots,” Dan said as he plucked it from the table to hold it to the light.
“He’s trying to rig the election,” Mercedes said.
“Well, he’s going to need to stuff a heap of ballots then,” Carlos said, flicking the mechanism on his lighter. “Diego Garcia is going to be hard to beat. The city loves him.”
“Looks like Blake is making sure that’s not a problem,” Paul said.
“Who’s Diego Garcia?” Adam asked.
Mercedes smirked. For all his bravado, he clearly didn’t fucking know everything, did he?
“He’s thecurrentmayor. If he gets back in, it would be his second term. He’d be the first mayor to ever do that here. He is actually very popular,” Carlos said as he leaned back in his chair.
Adam nodded. “This isn’t the worst thing Blake could do.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Mercedes narrowed her eyes. “If he’s focused on this, he’s not looking at the threat that’s readying to take him out.”
Dan, Carlos, and Paul exchanged a confused look. As much as she hated it now, she and Adam had always been on the same page. Very little words were needed in order to say a lot between them.
“He thinks he’s rigging an election, he doesn’t know he’ll be dead before he ever gets the chance,” Adam said.
“So you’re not going to do anything about this?” Dan prodded.
“No need to,” Paul said.
“Anyway... you’re here just in time,” Adam said. “Dan, continue with what you were saying.”
Dan looked slightly weary but continued on anyway. “Slight good news. All this mess we’ve been making has drawn the right kinds of attention. I’ve heard from some underground contacts. We’ve got some interested parties.”
“To work for us?” Mercedes leaned forward in interest.
“Yeah,” Dan said. “People who’ve been outed are ready to get back in. With all the drug-running, we’ve got more than enough money to pay who we need.”
Adam frowned and Mercedes rolled her eyes as she caught it. Like she said, very little words were needed between them. She knew what he was thinking.The people who worked with him would ally out of respect, and no amount of money could buy them.
Dan seemed to know it, too. “I know what you’re thinking.” Dan held up a palm to shut Adam down. “You want respect without a paycheck. That’s not going to happen right away.”
“You have to earn the respect first.” Mercedes flicked Adam in the ear from across the table.
“Okay, so... we’ll earn it then.” Adam shrugged, crossing his arms and sinking into his chair.
“Just start by gathering a group of people that are happy to be paid.” Paul patted his shoulder reassuringly. “I know you’re desperate to rush to the finish line–”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Adam pouted, waving his hand in dismissal. “Pay them off first, respect later.”
