Page 120 of Black Reign

“That was spectacularly stupid.”

Vale laughs.

I glare.

Drew claps a hand against my shoulder.

“But she’s not here to assassinate anybody.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Neither do you.”

“She breached my perimeter.”

“She sent you Sergei with gold teeth.”

Sergei lifts his Scotch.

At some point he acquired Scotch.

Drew gestures toward him.

“This is comedy. Highly committed comedy.”

I look back at the photograph.

“She planned this.”

“Yeah.”

“Sergei draws attention at the gate.”

“Yeah.”

“While she enters somewhere else.”

“Yeah.”

“Then she sends the photograph so I know.”

Drew grins.

“Now you’re getting it.”

The anger changes.

Slowly.

Into something else.

Admiration is an inconvenient emotion when directed toward someone currently humiliating you.

Drew sees it.

“There he is.”

“Who?”