Page 40 of Sapphires and Snakes

I kiss her forehead. “Sorry, princess.”

“Better.” She snuggles back down under my chin.

I frown as I brush her hair back from her face. I don’t know how we got here, how we went from her hating my nickname for her, what it implied, to her preferring it. How we went from guarding against each other to sinking into each other’s warmth at the end of a difficult day. She’s Zarina Gallo, heiress to the Southern districts and princess of the family that ruined my life, and I’m holding her in my arms like I need her there. Like I would lose something important if she left. When did the flip switch? How?

I don’t know, but it scares the shit out of me.

TAMAYO

Darius leans against the conference table in my office, hands in his pockets and the furrow between his brows deepening with each report from Angie and Wyrm. Or lack of a report, really.

“That’s it?” Cold sunlight shines through the windows behind me, brushing Angie and Wyrm with stark highlights and deep shadows. “That’s all you have?”

Angie has one knee thrown over the chair’s armrest, the other folded under it in typical bisexual fashion. “Yep.”

“No activity since the week of Thanksgiving.” Wyrm, the capo for the district surrounding the Den of Inequity, sits more properly, their back straight and both feet planted on the floor. They keep flipping their neon-green hair off their forehead, a sign of nerves. “That Wednesday, to be exact.”

“Why the fuck would the Accardis pull back?” I murmur.

“That’s above my pay grade.” Angie stretches her hands over her head. “I’m just glad things are back to normal.”

“Normal.” I turn the word over in my mouth. Is it the mediations? Did Jimmy or David talk to them? Even if they had, would the Accardis actually cease and desist all fuckery? I look out the window onto our inner grounds, the combinedbackyards of our residential block turned fortress estate. The trees are almost bare, crows taking their place, like black blots of murder. I watch one swoop down to the back deck and cock its head, as if it’s looking back up at me.

“What’s the total damage?” Wyrm asks.

“Vandalism, robberies, decreased revenue”—Angie ticks each one off on her fingers, her dark painted lips slashing across her face—“and not to mention lost trust, which is invaluable.” She closes her hand into a fist. “It all adds up to more than we can afford.”

“Financially, we’ll be okay.” Darius stares at a wall of bookshelves on the left side of the room, the furrow still between his brows. “We can afford the repairs and recompense.”

“Barely,” Angie mutters. I want to throw her a baleful look, but I refrain because she’s not wrong. And these are the people who need to know.

“We’ll need to hit our debtors. Hard,” Darius says.

“And move that load of guns,” Wyrm says.

“We’ve got a buyer already.” I swivel my chair away from the gloomy day and that watchful crow to face the room again. David Capone has yet to return the signed agreement, but he seemed more than eager to get his hands on my weapons. I assume because of the threat of an Accardi-Gallo merger despite the lack of a marriage between the two.

Which brings me back around to the question at-hand: Why did the Accardis suspend their assault?

“So, we’re good?” Angie drops her feet to the floor. “I can go?”

“Got a dick appointment?” Wyrm teases.

Angie slugs them in the arm with a roll of her eyes. “If by dick you mean inventory, then yeah.”

“What happened to what’s-his-face?” They rub their arm.

She cracks her neck. “He got attached.”

“Poor simp.”

“Poor simp? Poorme.” She lays a hand over her heart, lip curling in annoyance. Or disgust. Or both. “Can anyone get laid without catching feelings in this town?”

Darius snorts, and I shoot him a glare, knowing exactly why he finds this amusing. I rap my knuckles on the desk. “You’re free to go. Stay smart.”

“Keep safe,” they finish the farewell as they both rise from their chairs.

Darius pushes off the table to shake their hands before they leave, asking that they keep him in the loop. Most often, he’s the one bringing me these reports as my second-in-command, but with all the bullshit surrounding the Den, its district, and this engagement with Zarina, I wanted a direct report. For all the good it did me.