Page 41 of Till Death Do Us Part

Her pupils went small. “Organized crime ring…? Who?”

“They’re called the Whitecliff family. They operate mostly in information logistics, bribery, extortion, blackmail. And if they can’t build on the South Yard, they won’t be able to complete this project. Elaine can’t sell the South Yard, because of a stipulation in the contract. One meant to protect her from being extorted, because your granduncle knew this was coming. But I think they don’t care about buying it. I think they want to just build over it, and to make sure Elaine doesn’t leverage any legal proceedings to stop them, they’re going to kill her.”

She clasped her hands over her mouth. “Then all that commotion from Elaine’s apartment…”

“Vera saved her from Whitecliff assassins.”

“Assassins, for an organized crime ring, attacked my sister? So—who are you in all this?”

I chuckled. “Don’t freak out, but we’re also an organized crime ring.”

She choked on her coffee.

“We’re called the Blackbirds. In this case, we want to make sure the Whitecliffs don’t get their deal.”

“You’re mobsters?”

“More or less, yeah.”

“Oh my God.” She set her drink down, looking at it like it was poisoned. Fair call. Elaine should have been more careful too.

“That’s how we knew about the Whitecliff operation. But Vera’s impossible to kill. God knows the Whitecliffs have been trying. So Vera is going to marry Elaine, so that if they were to kill Elaine, Vera would inherit it instead. Remove their incentive to kill Elaine.”

“So that’s what it is…” She looked down at her hands. “That’s horrible. Elaine’s never done anything but help people. No matter what it’s cost her, she gives everything to help our family. To help the community at her work. What kind of project is this that they’re willing to kill her over?”

Every word stung, but it wasn’t like we didn’t know what we were doing. We just preferred not to face the details usually. “It’s a logistics powerhouse. To control shipping and freight in Merona. Mostly as a pass-through, but it’ll give them the tools and the cover to control the arms trade in the region.”

“That’s horrible. Killing my sister just so they can make more money off of weapons…”

I got a flash of pain in my chest, my mind wrenching viscerally back to memories I tried to avoid. Cracks of gunfire. Muzzle flashes in the night. The rain cold as metal on my face. My heart pounding as I played dead amongst the bodies, just a kid then.

I’d sworn I wouldn’t let anything like it happen again. I told myself the Blackbirds controlling the arms trade would mean fewer guns in the hands of everyone, fewer shootouts. Fewer senseless deaths.

But there were times when I wondered if maybe Glenn really did have our best interests at heart.

I squeezed Caitlyn’s shoulder. “Everything’s gonna be okay,” I said. “That’s a promise. We’re going to keep you safe.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” she said.

“We’ll make sure everyone’s safe. Now, I’ll let you get back to your game.”

That got her to smile. She opened the computer to a code interface, a flashing terminal. “I’m just getting this thing set up,” she said. “This computer is way more powerful than my last one. Thanks, Petra.”

“Oh, someone’s a techie,” I said. “Guess you can be our IT specialist. I’ll let you know next time I need to turn on the printer.”

She laughed, eyes sparkling. “I won’t even help you! As revenge for the stupid rainforest facts. I’m abandoning you to face the printer alone!”

“Aw, c’mon. Did you know that in the rainforest, the strangler fig actually sprouts in the canopy and grows downwards, and—”

She shoved me, laughing. “Go live in the rainforest instead, then, if you like it that much, but leave me out of it!”

I stood up, chuckling. “I’ll talk to you later, Caitlyn.”

Her eyes shone. “Thanks, Petra. I never thought I’d say this to a gang of mobsters, but… you’re really nice.”

I waited until I was out of the room to lean back against the wall with a heavy sigh.

Dammit. Some jobs were harder than others.