Page 211 of A Vicious Love

Reeves lifted his eyes from the tablet. “Weather grids do not control storms with that level of simplicity.”

“That sounds evasive.”

“It’ sounds factual.”

“Facts are often evasive when delivered by people trying to ruin my mood.”

Thunder cracked again.

Sienna had gone upstairs to change after the doctor left. The official instruction had been rest, warmth, fluids, and monitoring. The doctor had also said she should avoid stress. I had chosen to interpret that as an order to keep every Bellemere away from her until sunrise.

Possibly longer.

Ideally, forever.

My phone sat on the coffee table with three missed calls from her father, two from Adrian, one from Julian. A message from the retreat coordinator containing the words rescheduled welcome dinner.

I deleted it without opening the rest.

Reeves saw.

“Sir.”

“What?”

“You cannot remove the dinner from existence by deleting the message.”

“Watch me.”

“You are a guest here.”

“I am a hostage, Reeves.”

“A hostage that arrived unwanted and stayed willingly, sir.”

Reeves’s expression shifted by one degree. With him, that counted as mutiny.

Fucking Bellemeres. Ruining my life one managed event at a time.

“Sir, Crows are forbidden from manipulating weather infrastructure because they dislike archery and long-table dining.”

“Forbidden by whom?”

“Crow internal law.”

I frowned. “Since when do we have internal law against useful weather?”

“Since Damius used hail to ruin a Caplan marriage.”

I turned my head slowly. “He did what?”

“Allegedly,” Reeves said. “The hail began during the vows, destroyed the floral canopy, injured a bishop, terrified the horses, and delayed the merger by eight years.”

My cigarette paused near my mouth.

For once, Damius had provided a model of leadership.

“That old bastard has range.”