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When I step away and throw the severed ears on to the floor at the man’s feet, I see Javier’s eyes flit over my torso where the blood stains my skin. His jaw clenches and something passes in his eyes so quickly I don’t have time to identify it. Disgust? Lust? That thought sends lightning through my veins and my mouth parts on a gasp at my own reaction. His eyes catch the movement, falling to my lips before dragging up to meet my gaze. He swallows hard and steps back into line, a dark look on his face.

“Now,” I say, clearing my head of all thoughts of Javier. “Either your boss doesn’t know that you’ve breached boundaries and stumbled into my world, meaning you’re going to have to go back to him and explain why you now look the way that you do.” I hold the Kukri’s jaw so his watery eyes hold mine. “Or he sent you to me and you can go back to show him what happens to Kukri in my little part of the city. I’ve been lenient with you, do you understand?”

He whimpers.

“Say it,” I snap, squeezing his face tighter so my nails dig in.

“You’ve been lenient with me,” he sobs.

“Good. Make sure Volkov knows that too.” I let him go and stand straight, heading to the small sink at the side of the room and washing my hands. Diamond walks in without knocking because she doesn’t ever knock and she’s the only one who can get away with it. She takes one look at the earless mess in the chair and barely reacts beyond the tiny grimace at all the blood.

“Honey, you’ve got to motor if you’re going to be on time to meet the mayor.” She picks up my cream Donna Karen blouse from the table and holds it out for me. I let her help me into it and button it up, not worried about the blood on my skin as it’s already dried. Next, she holds out my jacket and I sweep my hair out from under my collar. Once again I’m a professional businesswoman and no one would know about the figurative blood on my hands or the literal blood on my chest as they pass me in the street.

A quiet chime alerts Stuart to a notification and he frowns as he checks his phone, typing a response in rapid fire before pocketing it again and giving me no information. That could only mean it was from Lorraine. Anything to do with Talon business he would have said something.

“Javier is with me. Stuart, go home.” I head to the door as he tries to protest.

“Ah, it’s alright lass, I’ll—”

“Go home. It’s just the Mayor. I doubt very much he has some nefarious plan to kidnap me. And if he does, I’m sure Javier will be there to save the day with his sword and shield.” I shoot the detective a sarcastic look and his mouth tips in amusement before he turns to Stuart.

“She’ll be safe with me; you have my word.”

“Fine,” Stuart concedes, but the sag of his shoulders tells me he is relieved and that I made the right choice. “Let me just clear up this mess first.” He gestures to the man still whimpering and crying in the chair. “Oh, and you’ll be needing this,” he says to Javier, handing him over a handgun. “Can’t leave you in charge without the proper equipment.”

Javier takes the weapon and tucks it in to the back of his jeans with a nod. I hadn’t really thought about giving the cop a gun. Seems a little counterproductive but I suppose as my security, he should be armed.

“Get the doctor in to patch him up and send him on his way.” I look down my nose on the trespassing gangster before wrenching my knife from his thigh and heading out the door.

“Stuart’s wife is sick, isn’t she?” Javier keeps his eyes trained on the road as he speaks to me, and I mentally berate myself for sitting in the front with him. If I’d just sat in the back, conversation would have been more difficult to initiate, although I have a feeling he’d still try.

“It’s not my place to discuss,” I answer coolly, looking out my window in an attempt to ignore the weird bubbling sensation in my stomach when I look at the man next to me.

I see him nod out of the corner of my eye. “So, you need me here so he can go be with her.” He doesn’t ask, he states it as fact.

“I don’t need you,” I grumble.

He snorts. “No, you plan of firing me as soon as he‘s out of the way, but you know he won’t leave you unprotected.”

I swing my head to face him, blinking in shock; half impressed, half irritated that he figured it out.

He laughs at my bewilderment. “I’m good at reading people.”

I huff and turn back to the window, watching the city pass by in a wash of people hurrying to go about their every day.

“It’s nice what you’re doing for him,” he says, almost softly.

“A distracted employee is no good to me,” I retort, for some reason wanting him to believe that I’m heartless, just like everyone says. The truth is, when Lorraine was diagnosed with cancer, I saw a little of the light leave Stuart’s eyes and it tore me up. I want him to be with her. I want her to be okay.

He hums, unconvinced by my story.

When Mayor Ernest Rollins meets with large, public benefactors with squeaky clean images such as Byron Maxwell, he meets them in lavish venues in the heart of the city. Places where it would be impossible for them not to be spotted by somebody. Paparazzi get shots of them walking in together or someone tweets from inside to say that they’ve just seen the mayor socialising with the crème de la crème of the capital’s society. When he meets with me, he chooses a nice but quiet restaurant in the boroughs where few people will notice us and even less will care. Ernest sits at an intimate table for two and smiles warmly when he sees me approach. His suit is expensive, as is his watch, and his white hair is trimmed neatly around the sides with a god-awful comb over on top.

“Miss Wolfe, so glad we could do this.” He stands, holding his hand out to me, which I accept. Mayor Rollins learnt very early on that I would not be kissed on the cheek like the wives and girlfriends of the powerful men he usually meets.

“Mr Mayor, thank you for meeting with me.” I sit opposite him and order a glass of water from the waitress who approaches. I notice Harvey taking a seat at a nearby table, his clasped hands rest on the table, watching us with a detached interest. He probably thinks, because I’m meeting with the mayor, that I have some influence over him, that he is on my payroll and doing my bidding. But that’s simply not true. A truce drawn out between the four organisations of this city, the Talons, Daos, Tantos, and Kukris, agreed to set definitive boundaries between each other, and that the mayor was not to be compromised. The general population vote them in, and they run independently from us; none of us are allowed to have the mayor in our pockets. Doesn’t mean we cannot discuss important business matters.

He sits opposite me, resting his elbows on the table and steepling his fingers. I quite like this mayor, definitely better than his predecessor. He tries to stay away from the syndicates as much as possible, which is the way it should be; I respect him for it. Unfortunately for him, between all the syndicates we own the majority of the businesses within the city, which means he can’t ignore us completely. “What can I do for you Miss Wolfe?”