Page 45

I’m working on a functional modification to Cleopatra’s cobra ring—one deemed necessary after recent events—when Ray calls from the storeroom. I drop the piece. It’s near completion, near perfection.

“Can ya give me a hand, kid?” Ray grunts as he moves a few boxes around.

I move to help him. “What are you doing?”

“Just a little black-market inventory. Which reminds me…” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out one of his white envelopes. “Can you pass this along to Paul?”

I take it and peek inside. More cash. A lot. Way more than there should be, considering we aren’t getting Magpie tribute anymore.

I shake my head. “What are you moving for him, Ray? Where is this scratch coming from?”

He rubs the back of his neck. “Just give him the money, Kat. Questions aren’t a part of the deal.”

“Is it drugs? Guns? Something worse?”

“Kat.” He looks at me hard. “I’m just the bagman. You want answers? Go to the supplier.”

I sigh and walk away, tucking the envelope into my jacket. I won’t get anywhere with Paul. Especially not now. I should have tried to fuck it out of him months ago, when I had the chance .

Even still, I make a run to the bayou loft that evening to drop off the cash. I’m surprised but pleased to find Paul up and moving around the kitchen.

“Hey, how’re you doing?” I ask, dropping my bag at the table. “You look good.”

“I’ve been up for a few days, Kat. I even went outside with Tony yesterday. Which you’d know if you’d been around.”

“Sorry.” I drop my gaze to the table. “I wasn’t sure how I’d be received if I just stopped by. But I come bearing gifts.” I dig through my pockets and pull out the envelope.

“Thanks.” He swipes the cash and heads for the bedroom.

I cautiously follow him. The bed is unmade, and I automatically start fixing it, tucking in sheets and fanning out the duvet.

He watches me with amusement before heading to the safe in his closet.

I wander around the room, absentmindedly tidying.

My gaze lands on his bedside table, his signet ring still atop it.

When Paul emerges from the closet, he sighs. “Yeah, it’s still there. Right where you left it. In case you ever decide to pick it back up.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Paul. We were ripping each other apart. I have questions you refuse to answer, and Matthew makes me happy. I’m sorry for how it happened, but you were right. I’m in love with him.”

“You’re in love with me too,” Paul replies. “You’re just choosing the easier life. The prettier one.”

“I’m not. It’s not that simple, Paul. The way you and I love each other…

it’s not a healthy kind of love. It’s consuming and captivating, but it’s not built to last. One way or another, it will end in flames.

Whether it’s like this—with me walking away—or with you bleeding out from another bullet in the street…

I don’t know how exactly, but this way is for the best. We’re dangerous together. ”

“Maybe,” he says, “but if I don’t get to have you, I don’t want him to have you either. ”

I laugh. “That’s probably the most honest thing you’ve said to me in months. But the time to say it has come and gone. You should put the ring away, Paul, and we can lay this to rest.”

He sighs but doesn’t budge. “What are the new rules? Are you even allowed to be here? Does he know?”

“Not yet. But I’ll tell him, and he won’t mind. He’s good like that.”

“He’s really willing to look the other way?” Paul scoffs. “We’ll see how long that lasts.”

“Stop.” I put out a hand. “Stop right now. We’re not going down this road, not ever again.

Do you hear me? You don’t know anything about Matthew, and you don’t know anything about my relationship with him.

You can either shut your mouth and be respectful so we can continue being friends, or you can keep talking, and I’ll walk out that door and never return.

I mean it, Paul. I’ll leave, and I won’t look back. ”

“I can keep my mouth shut,” Paul mumbles.

“Really?”

He chews his lip, then sighs. “Yes.”

“Okay, then let’s play a few hands of poker. I’m in the mood to kick your ass.”

It’s about two weeks later, near the end of January, that I finally crack the case of Paul, Ray, and the cash envelopes.

It starts out as just another Tuesday. Breakfast, classes, lunch with Mellie, off to Ray’s for the afternoon.

When I let myself in through the back door, I call out a greeting but don’t get a response.

I assume Ray is on the floor, so I head to my desk to deposit my things.

Once I do, though, I notice a familiar satchel on the corner of my desk.

“Paul?” I call .

“Back here, Kat,” he says from the storage room. “I’ll be out in a sec.”

“Okay.” I go about setting up my things, bending over my desk, getting out my tools. I’m laying out my soldering equipment when it happens.

“Hey, Kitty-Kat,” Paul says. He must have snuck up behind me, and his unexpected squeeze to my shoulder catches me off guard.

“Oh my god!” I cry, startled. I jump and accidentally knock his bag to the floor, scattering its contents. “Paul, you gave me a fright.”

I bend over to help clean up the mess. He’s very quick to sweep everything back in the bag, but not before I’ve seen something.

Something I know I wasn’t supposed to.

“What’s that?” My eyes burn with accusation. I yank the satchel from him and rip out the bag of powder.

“Kat…” He says my name like it’s a warning, and I explode.

“What the hell is this?” I demand. “I told Matthew we don’t move drugs. Are you making a liar out of me? Is this something we do now?”

“Kat,” he tries again, but I take him out at the knees.

“We don’t move drugs, Paul. That’s always been our deal.

We don’t mess with this shit.” I shake the tiny bag at him, madder than a wet hen.

“We’ve never supported this part of the black market.

It’s twisted and it’s dark and it ruins lives.

So tell me—why do you have this? I’d think very carefully before answering if I were you. ”

“Come on, Kat. Don’t be so damn naive. If I don’t move ’em, someone else will.” His eyes are hard. “And we can’t have that. It’s my bayou. I control it all.”

“Not this,” I hiss. “We don’t control this. How long has it been going on?”

Paul is silent.

I nod, biting my cheek. “That long, huh?” I throw the bag at his feet. “All the extra cash that’s been coming in from Ray—it’s been for this ? All year? ”

“Yes,” he finally answers.

“Who else knows?”

“Why does it matter?”

“I want to know if Abe knows.”

“Oh, you mean boy toy number two? Or is he number three now? It’s hard for me to keep them straight. Maybe you should ask him yourself.”

“I will. And you’re going to stop doing this. It cannot continue. This is so dangerous, Paul. So incredibly dangerous. Thefts and heists are one thing, this is a different beast entirely. One we can’t control.”

“Unfortunately, Kat, you’re not my girl anymore. You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do.”

“I’m just trying to look out for you. This won’t lead to anything good.” I can’t believe how short his memory has proven to be. Mine is as indelible as ever. My mother…face down in the Catacombs…

“You’re overreacting, doll.”

“I don’t think I am. You know who else was moving drugs?” I ask. “The Magpies. I saw it in their storeroom. The night you got shot.”

“They were,” he confirms.

I bite my cheek again as pieces fall into place. I’m so angry I could reach out and choke him. “I imagine you didn’t like that, them encroaching on your turf?”

“No. I didn’t like it at all. And I didn’t like the guns either. They were getting very dangerous. And they hurt you. And Abe. And Farley. They deserved what happened.”

“And you? Did you deserve to get shot? Was that the price you were willing to pay?”

“Better me than you or one of the other guys.”

“So gallant,” I mock.

“We’ve always had a code of honor, Kat. It’s what makes us different from the other gangs. We look out for each other, no matter what. I’d take another bullet for any one of you. I’d take three, one each, if I had to.”

I sigh, frustrated he can’t see what I see.

It’s so simple. “Nobody has to take bullets for anyone anymore. Why don’t you get that?

We’ve made our money, enough for a lifetime.

Enough for two lifetimes. We’ve done what we set out to do—made the splash we wanted, received the respect we were after.

Now it’s time to get out. There’s nowhere to go from the top except down. ”

“We don’t have to go anywhere. We can stay where we are. I’m handling it.”

“Do you know how you win at gambling, Paul? By knowing when it’s time to walk away.”

He stares at me.

I wish I could get through to him, but I don’t know how. I don’t know how to reel him in this time. I look at the drugs on the floor between us and sigh again.

“I think you should stop this. I think this is a mistake,” I whisper. “I’m asking you to stop.”

He swallows as he considers me.

“Why do you feel like you need this?” I ask, searching deep in his dark eyes.

“Because, Kat, if I don’t have this, what do I have? Not you, not anymore. What’s been the point of all these years if I let it go now, with nothing to show for it?”

“You have plenty to show for it. And you still have me and Abe and Tony.”

“I don’t have you the way I want you. ”

I have no answer for that, so I bend over and scoop up the drugs. I put them in my pocket and pull my jacket on. Slowly. “You got any more drugs in that bag?”

“No.”

“Let me see.” I take it from him. “Fool me once Paul, shame on you. Fool me twice…”

I pull out a second bag and dangle it in front of him. He smiles at my use of his catchphrase.

“Nobody fools me, right? I’m taking these. You’re not selling them.”

He shrugs as I pocket the second bag. When I’m confident there’s no more, I hand his satchel back.

“Satisfied, commandant?” He arches an eyebrow.