Page 48 of The Last True Hero

"You look like you want to be in control." Jake smiled his own insincere smile, though the look in his eyes was faintly murderous. "So do I."

Vex sighed. "Pity. But you're right. We'd either end up killing each other, or I'd break you."

Jake flinched a little.

The smile on Vex's face vanished, almost as if it had never been there. "Rust City is mine. Which means I make 50 percent off each sale here."

"Twenty," Adam countered quickly, playing his part. He knew what she would be expecting.

"Forty," she bit out. "We're the closest slave market to the Great Divide. You're looking at an extra day's ride to find another, and you've already found Fort Phoenix is not as generous as I am."

"Hell if I'm paying forty," Mia said, nudging his foot. "Sixty split between the three of us is piss weak."

Adam frowned. "Thirty. There are at least five slave towns within a day's drive of here. And they're selling direct to New Merida."

"Not for prime stock, they're not," Vex pointed out. "They want field laborers to tend the plantations and farms down south." She tapped her nose. "I have a direct route forprimestock. It leads to someone who'll pay a lot of money. Forty percent."

"Who out here can pay that kind of money?" Mia blurted.

"I never said it was someone 'out here.'"

The implications shocked him. No wonder Vex Cypher was in control here, if she had some Confederacy general or higher-up in her pocket. Jesus. That was a dangerous supply line, and he had to wonder what she was getting out of it. The Eastern Confederacy had access to technology and medicines that were worth more than gold in this new world.

"It's better than nothing," Jake muttered. "Take the deal."

Adam rubbed Mia's thigh while she considered it. She finally gave a curt nod.

"Done," he said. "Forty percent."

"You try and cheat me, and I'll cut your throat. You bring me less than the best, and our deal goes south." Vex leaned closer, catching his gaze. "And if you steal from me, I'll take your balls and sell you myself. Understood?" That viper gaze extended to Mia. "Her I keep. I like her."

"I don't shit on my business contracts. If I give my word, then I mean it." Adam fanned himself abstractedly. Man, it was hot. "But I'm also not the type of man you should cross."

"Ooh, you are an interesting pair." Vex sized him up again.

"And I don't mix business with pleasure," he pointed out.

Vex drained her cup. She hadn't offered any of them anything to drink, which made it clear who ran this business discussion. But to roll over and show her his belly would be the end of them. "That doesn't sound like much fun, but I respect your thinking. Do we have a deal?"

He stood, and offered her his hand. "We have a deal."

Vex's hand was callused and firm. "Good. Then I want young women and men who look pretty and can handle the transition. Fit, healthy livestock. My buyer wants girls who can breed, primarily. The boys are for pleasure."

"We'll do our best." Fuck. He'd heard rumors that the Confederacy struggled with fertility. Something about radiation poisoning passing from generation to generation.

But kidnapping young women just to bear children for them?

That had to be stopped.

All of a sudden, this wasn't just about Mia's sister and the rest of the people who'd been stolen from Salvation Creek.

"Zarina, show these three to some quarters." Vex stood, dragging one of the wolf furs off the back of her chair. She draped it over her shoulders. "Then bring them to the arena. My box. We should celebrate our new partnership."

Snapping her fingers at Nero, she headed for the door. "Zarina will see you fed and watered. And then I expect you to attend me. I have some War Games to open."