When Harrison Augustine stepped onto the sidewalk, every head in the crowd turned toward him—not because he was one of the candidates and thus a man of this occasion, but because everyone knew about the bad blood between him and his mother. For the first time in eighteen years, Harrison Augustine was returning home.
He spotted Levi and gestured for him to join him. Levi froze; if he wasn’t Harrison’s ally, did that make him his enemy? Lately the friends and foes in Levi’s life had grown harder to differentiate. But none of the whiteboots parading up and down Tropps Street with assault rifles strapped over their shoulders would dare give him trouble if he looked like Harrison’s companion. So Levi strode over and flashed his best smile.
“How are you feeling about the results being announced?” Levi asked him.
“I feel great,” Harrison answered smoothly. He studied the revolving doors of the casino, a ghost in the edges of his one eye. “The story finally ends tonight.”
Levi’s skin broke out in goose bumps as he remembered the words Zula Slyk had spoken months ago.
This story will end badly.
He chalked up his nerves to Enne’s disappearance. He needed to find her, but he, too, had a role to play tonight. Almost three hundred gangsters awaited his signal, divided between two nearby Tropps Street buildings Bryce and the Orphan Guild had secured. That was three hundred people who were depending on Levi, but he was beginning to realize how much he depended on Enne.
“Did you take my mother up on her offer?” Harrison asked.
“You told me yesterday that you want to grind this casino beneath your heels,” Levi said. “I know better than to bet against you.”
Harrison raised his eyebrows. “So no offer ended up being good enough for the Iron Lord.”
With the staff checking names for the guests just a few feet in front of them, Levi lowered his voice. “Just because we’re no longer partners doesn’t mean we’re working against each other. There’s a lot of ground between friends and enemies.”
Harrison absentmindedly handed the attendant his paperwork. “That’s a pretty thought.”
And then he walked inside, leaving Levi with an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
The inside of the casino was more crowded than he’d ever seen, and with the volts from Levi and Enne, Vianca had spared no expense. Servers carried crystal buckets of sparkling wine and every sort of North and South Side cocktail. Live music played in every room. The ceiling, usually covered in faux chandeliers, glowed from hundreds of twinkling lights, like the night-time New Reynes skyline.
This was the part of the plan when Levi was supposed to head to the ballroom, but Enne’s absence still made everything feel wrong. He searched the faces around him, weaving his way between shoulders, tripping over the trains of gowns.
“I’m sorry—”
“Watch where you’re—”
“Excuse me—”
Levi helplessly pushed his way through the casino. She could be here, lost amid the crowds and drinks and laughter, and he would never find her. She could be in a cell. In the trunk of a car. In the trash clogged at the bottom of the Brint.
He fought the urge to be sick.
An invisible force pulled him toward the Tropps Room, and though he’d like to call it destiny, it was purely habit. Anxious and heart racing, he was walking toward the most familiar place, even if that place had once been his cage.
“Don’t you look dashing,” a voice purred behind him, and Levi whipped around to face Vianca. She wore a floor-length emerald gown that matched her eyes, the eyes she and her son shared. She kissed him on both cheeks, as though he were truly a beloved guest. Then she gestured to the casino around her. “St. Morse has never looked so grand.”
It should, Levi thought bitterly,considering how much it cost us.
“I’d love to stay and talk,” he lied, “but I can’t—”
“It’s such a shame you rejected my offer,” she told him.
His mouth went dry. He hadn’t spoken to Vianca since their last meeting. How did she know he’d made his decision? “What makes you think that?”
“Because you don’t take this much time to decide things. We both know how you are—when an opportunity comes, you seize it. This would’ve been your night. But now it ismine.” When she leaned closer to him, her long earrings shook and clacked like rattlesnakes. “Where’s your date?”
There was something insidious in Vianca’s voice. The donna might’ve known Levi well, but he also knew her, and she delighted in being cruel. She’d given him a choice, and he should’ve realized his choice would have consequences.
Enne.
“What did you do?” he seethed.
