“Séance,” he murmured. “Why don’t you tell the others exactly whatyou’vebeen planning?”
Enne cleared her throat. Levi expected her to kick him again for putting her on the spot like this, but she’d obviously come prepared. “During the Great Street War, the gangs lost because the North Side betrayed their lords.” She gave each of them a significant look. “I have a way of ensuring history doesn’t repeat itself.”
She explained the same plan she’d already shared with him.
“My gang is mine,” Jonas barked. “I work for no one but myself and the other Scarhands. I’m not putting my volts into the hands of some girl gang run by a South Sider.”
Enne squeezed her hands into fists. “I killed the Chancellor. And Sedric Torren.”
“And both of them preferred the South Side, didn’t they?” Scythe inspected her coolly. It was the first words he’d spoken unaddressed. “Until you’ve killed a worthier opponent, you’ve proven nothing.”
Clearly, Enne wasn’t going to win tonight. But she’d already hired her counter, and Levi wanted to hold true to his promise to help her. He needed to make this work.
“How about this?” he offered. “Each of you can make a wager. Letmetake our vengeance on Captain Hector. Letmeclaim the North Side as ours. If I manage it, then you’ll each open twenty percent of your gangs for investment. If I fail, then we return to how it was—every gang for themselves, every lord opposed to one another.”
“What are you planning on doing?” Jonas asked, his voice low enough to be a growl.
“That would ruin the fun of it,” he said, because even he couldn’t finish crafting such a plan on the spot. “But you’ll know it when it happens.”
The room remained quiet. Jonas took another puff of his cigar. Scythe stared at Levi like he was assessing him for a second time. Bryce still looked as though he’d swallowed a bug.
“No skin off my bones,” Jonas said finally. The others nodded, as well.
Levi stood, his heart hammering. That feeling of destiny stirred inside him. “Then excuse me—I have ruin to plan.”
LEVI
When Levi and Enne returned to the main level of the Catacombs, they found Jac, Tock, Lola, and Enne’s new counter sitting in a circular booth in the VIP section, bouncers blocking any view between them and the other patrons. Levi recognized some of the faces at the other tables—a Guillory Street heiress always gracing the tabloids, a few famous musicians, and, of course, Narinder. He greeted every guest by name, all charming smiles and small talk. Levi was beginning to realize exactly how humiliating it was that he hadn’t recognized Narinder at their first encounter. He really was as connected as Harrison had claimed.
Levi and Enne slid into the booth.
“How did it go?” Jac asked, and Levi immediately searched for signs of the symptoms he knew too well. Thankfully, he found none.
“Levi decided to stake all ofmyplans on a reckless wager,” Enne growled. “Apparently he’s planning some stunt on the whiteboot captain.”
The others’ eyes widened.
“Not enough wagers in your life already?” Jac asked darkly, as if Levi hadn’t thought to merely ask for the things he needed. As if Levi wasn’t constantly resorting to desperation. “What are you planning?”
“I’d tell you,” Levi assured him, “but I haven’t decided yet.”
“So all that was just talk?” Enne asked, her tone accusatory.
“I said I haven’t decided yet. Not that I didn’t have a plan at all.” No blood had been spilled, despite Jonas’s expectations, so Levi considered the meeting a success. And he didn’t appreciate everyone else dampening his mood.
Levi sent a pointed glance at Enne. “I don’t think you should be callingmereckless when you argued with Jonas like that.”
The new girl with the eyeliner shrugged. “Did you leave an impression?” she asked Enne.
“Oh, she left an impression, all right,” Levi grumbled. He met Enne’s eyes, and saw she had her nose crinkled in annoyance. Levi was all too used to that look, and he hated the way he’d grown to like it. He hated that the way Enne had talked back to Jonas only made her more attractive.
“Jonas has some information I’d rather he didn’t,” Enne said, unflinching as she held Levi’s gaze. “And I wasn’t about to let him use it.”
The new girl threw back her head and laughed. “You’re right. None of this is boring.”
“And who exactly are you?” Levi asked her.
“My name is Grace.” She wrapped an arm around Enne on her one side, Lola on her other. She offered no other introduction. Enne couldn’t have hired anyone more different from herself—her black dress held together by shredded fabric and little else, her jewelry doubling as a weapon or a prayer piece. “Who are you?” she asked.
