Page 18 of Ice & Steel

“They’re paid off,” Cosimo said. He was leaning against the wall by the air conditioning unit with the window cracked to carry away the cigarette smoke.

“By whom?” I asked.

“That’s the question,” said Peregrine. “And I’m doing my best to find the answer.”

I considered it for a moment. Peregrine Calo was my most trusted advisor when it came to city politics, both in the mayoral office and underground. He had his finger on the city’s pulse and connections in every corner.

“What’s your reading on this?” I asked. “How fucked are we?”

His jaw worked. “We could be like…super fucked. Or not fucked at all.”

“Thanks,” I said wryly. “Cosimo, your thoughts?”

My brother-in-law sighed and pushed off the wall. “Look, if you feel shitty about this, if you feel like we’re not safe, we need to act like we’re not safe. We talked about reaching out to Borisyuk and I would do that.”

“Duran got guns off his old right hand in a pinch once,” Peregrine said.

“Leonid Orlov is a wildcard,” I said.

“We probably should have offered him an alliance when Viktor left their organization and retired with Sienna,” Peregrine said. “Surely there’s a girl we could have convinced him to marry somewhere in our outfit.”

“I’d thought of offering him Rosalia,” I said coolly. “She was unpromised at the time.”

Peregrine’s throat flushed and a flicker of anger moved through his amber eyes at the mention of his wife. He sank into the seat opposite me and crossed his ankle over his knee.

“Point taken,” he said.

“I’m not a fan of arranged marriage,” I said. “I never was, but I’m not doing it anymore.”

“Desperate times, desperate measures,” Peregrine said. “Is there an alliance we could make, with anyone, to get guns fast? Cosimo?”

“No,” Cosimo said. “We already have alliances and agreements with anyone who matters, but not anyone that we can trust with information about just how fragile the situation is. That’s why Borisyuk is a good idea. He’s unattached, but he knows people. He doesn’t have a motive to hurt us.”

“He doesn’t have a motive to help either,” said Peregrine.

They started arguing back and forth. I dug in my desk and found my reading glasses and opened the envelope. The documents swam before my eyes as I raked them over. Into my mind came the image of Olivia’s big dark eyes, her lashes wet, on the drive home from the banquet.

She was so disappointed.

I slid my glasses down and rubbed my eyes. There was nothing in the world that meant more to me than my wife and children. And I was fucking missing it. It felt like the twins had been born weeks ago and suddenly they were toddlers. Marco was almost a teenager and he needed my time now more than ever.

“Peregrine,” I said.

They stopped talking abruptly.

“Yes?”

I kept my eyes on the blue paper. “When did you see your kids last?”

“Last night,” he said. “I got home just as they were going to bed.”

“Not today?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I left early to prep for the banquet.”

I put my cigarette between my lids and folded the paper, shoving it back into the envelope. I held it out to him and he took it with a slight frown on his face.

“I’m not running for governor,” I said. “We’re going all in on the weapons issue. When that’s resolved, we’re going back to the way things were. We run our businesses, we keep the underground going and the weapons and product moving. We go home in time to see our kids. Alright?”