Page 69 of A Vicious Love

Gideon stopped crying.

The silence after that was very clean.

I leaned back. “I want every Harrington shell pulled from Harlan by midnight. Bank accounts frozen. Property flags triggered. Gambling licenses challenged. Every club using their liquor routes gets a compliance visit from our friends in municipal review.”

Reeves nodded. “Done.”

“And Marrow?”

“Two known houses. One in low south, one river east.”

“Burn neither.”

Reeves glanced at me.

I tapped ash into the tray. “Fire is their language. I don’t repeat gutter dialects.”

His mouth twitched once. “What do you want?”

I looked at Gideon through the screen. Then at the hotel footage.

“Take every door they own.”

Reeves understood immediately. One of my guards near the back smiled faintly.

Gideon started begging again. I muted him. His mouth kept moving silently on the screen.

My phone buzzed on the table.

I ignored it.

It buzzed again.

Then again.

I picked it up, ready to throw it at a wall. Saw a message from Marcel.

Answer.

I didn’t.

A message came through immediately.

You have the benefit tonight. Do not miss it.

I laughed.

The Parkington benefit.

Some fucking thing with old families, and public speeches about restoring historical districts none of them gave a shit about unless there were voting rights attached.

I had also planned to ignore it.

Another message.

Emmie said Sienna will be there. Behave tonight.

Sienna had stopped giving me pieces of herself and I had no idea what to do with my hands now that she no longer reached for them.