Page 99 of Black Reign

I immediately regret answering.

Jade folds her arms.

“And?”

“She said she would consider it.”

Isa makes a sound like this is the greatest love story she’s ever heard.

Stella looks less impressed.

“That’s not yes.”

“Thank you.”

Jade gives me a hard look.

“Do you trust her?”

That stops me.

Trust.

Strange word.

“I trust what I know.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

“She’s never given me reason not to.”

Jade’s expression remains protective.

Not of Vesper.

Of me.

That realization is unexpectedly uncomfortable.

“If she screws with you,” Jade says, “I know people.”

Leo’s wife saying this should be amusing.

It isn’t.

“What people?”

“People.”

Isa laughs.

“I think she means us.”

Jade’s mouth barely moves.

“I wasn’t limiting it to us.”

I glance toward Stella.