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Poppy says calmly, “With all due respect, you think I’m the one to reel him in? Not my job.”

I let my shit slip. I can’t hold this in anymore. “Today, we kill him. Today it fucking ends. Fuck you, your case, and your vendetta, Mark. Enzo dies today.”

“It’s not so much a vendetta as my job. My ass is on the line to pull in one of the largest organized crime rings ever. Because that’s what Cady is. And just like you, the only thing that can stop him is prison or death.”

Then he nods at me and I raise my eyebrows. “Death?”

“Ok.” Mark raises his hand again and Becca steps to my wife.

“Poppy.”

She shakes her head and her voice is directed and strong. “No, Bex. You don’t live in the shadows of what life could be. And you sure as shit don’t know what it feels like to lose your heart, soul, and mind in grief.” I take her hand, and correct her on one thing only.

I pull her to me and put my gun down. I kiss the top of her fucking lovely head as I say, “I’ve done a lot of mis-stepping in my life and made a lot of amends. Lots of how do you dos and waiting for my moments. But that shit ends here. Dumbest fucking thing I ever did was go dark on you. I’ll spend the rest of my fucking life making it up to you. And that starts today. So, G-man, back up off me.” I stand tall and face him.

“I no longer answer to you, and if you come for me. You better fucking be ready for the fight of your motherfucking life. Because it will take a goddamned army of you assholes to take me from her side again. When I said until death do we part, I meant it. What I didn’t know was that promise goes to goddamned eternity and back.”

“Becca, go back to Sonoma. My husband and I have somewhere to be.”

From the back of the room, Brick speaks, “Not without us. I’ve done a lot of foolhardy things in my life but setting about hunting a man, that needs to be done with less emotion than what you got. You need me.” His voice drips with his southern accent as Brick cuts through my rage.

Mark stands with his feet planted wide and his arms over his chest. “He’s right. I do not condone you killing a man, even this piece of garbage. But if it’s going to happen, then let’s call this plausible deniability since you literally just told me your plans. You need to get a hold of yourself.”

“Give me one compelling reason why this man shouldn’t go on a blackout murderous rage right now?” Poppy says, and I can see she’s a bit more emotional than me.

Brick finds a reason. “Because, Ms. Poppy, Enzo’s a symptom. You don’t kill a virus by treating a symptom. He’d just get another Enzo. And we won’t know how to get to that one.

There’s a tense, long silence. I feel the room shift from rage to rational.

She says words I’ve said to her a million times, “Be the strategist, not the weapon. You know how to do this.”

I walk around some of the tables. I mutter to myself, “Be the mind that’s three steps ahead and leave the battering ram to someone else.” Mark mutters his approval with a grunt.

Poppy puts her hand on my bicep. “Then you have to stay hidden.”

Mark agrees by saying, “If we can come up with an actual plan, not your fucking sitcom wacky bullshit, then you stay hidden.”

“Fuck no. I’m in this.”

“Let your reveal be used as a weapon. They won’t see you coming. Shock.”

Becca shifts. I see that broad’s mind reeling. She’s a good woman, an even better lawyer. Her calculating brain is exactly what we need. “Sal, be the man who built the Trojan Horse, not the one who manned it.”

“Who the fuck was that guy?”

“Exactly.”

“Hummingbird, you’re not making a whole heap of sense,” Brick says.

Mark steps up and puts his hand on her shoulder in solidarity.

I give her some side eye. “Seriously, who the fuck was that guy? Who the fuck am I supposed to be modeling my attack on?”

“The winner,” Becca says.

Mark takes a chair and sits backwards. I join him at the table. “What was your dumbass plan?”

“LA Food and Wine. Dangle Poppy like a fancy carrot.”