27. Pandora
PANDORA
I open the front door of Blaze’s place, see Kratos and Ares standing on the front step, and immediately slam it shut again.
“Pandora!” Ares shouts through the door. “We already know something is up. You can’t ignore us forever!”
One of them starts ringing the doorbell, like a fucking savage.
“Also, if you want Stasya’s help, you need to let us in too,” Kratos adds.
I peer through the peephole. It’s hard to tell, but I see the family minivan parked on the street, along with Kratos’s motorcycle. Reaper is there too, and… okay, yep, that’s Anastasia’s trademark red hair.
Right next to her is somebody completely unexpected.
I fling the door open and point at my sister. “What the fuck is Mel doing here?”
Mel regards me steadily. “You need help,” she says. Her mismatched eyes flick away from me, but then return. “I can’t do much, but I wanted to come.”
Anastasia pats her shoulder. “She’s good people,” she says.
“Really good people,” Kratos says earnestly.
“Daddy is going to fucking kill you,” I hiss at Kratos and Ares. “She’s sixteen. If she gets murdered because she can’t wield a knife or aim a gun, we’re all looking at ten years of solitary confinement and torture.”
“Are you going to let us in?” Anastasia asks, ignoring me. “It’s freezing out here, and your sister’s coat is more decorative than actually useful.”
It is. Mel is wearing one of her usual goth getups, a black dress with lace and ribbons at the chest, and she’s wearing a cloak instead of a sweater or something even remotely helpful against the cold.
Reaper finishes locking up his motorcycle and strides up to me. He doesn’t complain about the cold, even though his leather jacket is open in the front and he’s only wearing a t-shirt underneath.
“You want my help? Let us in,” he says. Then he pushes past me.
Literally pushes past me, sending me stumbling two steps into the entrance wall.
Rude.
“Fine, come in,” I say. “Make yourself at home. I mean, it’s not my home, but everybody’s already in the dining room with snacks and slideshows and stuff.”
Everybody piles in, and I take one last look outside before I shut and lock the door.
“Hey, dickbags,” I say to Ares and Kratos. “Come here for a second.”
It says something that they both stop and turn to me, because they absolutely know that they’re dickbags.
Mel only pauses for a second before continuing on to the living room with the others.
“What?” Ares asks. “Seriously, we’re here to help. We figured you can’t stuff both of us into a box to send us home.”
“You know the more you tell us not to do something, the more we want to help,” Kratos says, flashing me a smug grin that makes him look way too much like Uncle Slayer. “We’re just like that.”
I scowl. “I don’t care about you. But Mel? Seriously? She doesn’t do this stuff.”
Mel is the good girl. Quiet, demure, one hundred percent sane and normal and doesn’t need cards with phone numbers of discreet people.
Ares grimaces and leans closer. “She caught us sneaking out, okay? She said if we didn’t take her along, she’d snitch about where we were going.”
“And that snitch can’t get murdered,” Kratos adds. “So we didn’t have much of a choice.” He crosses his arms against his chest. “Are you gonna keep nagging us, or can we get to it?”
I can’t believe Mel threatened to snitch. Doesn’t she know our family motto?
“Fine,” I grumble. “But you’ll have to keep an eye on her. Don’t let anyone touch her, okay?”
“Duh,” Ares answers. “She’ll probably get scared and hide the moment anything violent happens anyway.”
“Why do you think something violent is going to happen?” I mutter as I lead the way to the dining room.
Kratos snorts. “Because we aren’t stupid.”
“Also, your main complaint was that she can’t shoot or stab.” Ares ruffles my hair, then dodges before my punch can connect to his side.
Mel is seated at the table, with Anastasia standing right behind her. She looks out of place with the rest of us, and I can see with the way she fidgets that she’s probably regretting her choice to come along with so many people around.
Asch looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “I didn’t know this was a whole family thing,” he remarks.
I raise my hands up in despair. “I don’t know! The more the merrier!” I point to everyone. “Introductions. Mel, you’ve met Blaze, Asch, and River. That’s Reaper, that’s Bobbi, and over there is Fenrir.”
Bobbi nods at Mel, while Reaper only grunts.
Fenrir, the only halfway friendly person in the room, waves. “Hey. Also, what the hell, Anastasia? How did you get roped into this?”
“Because I love slideshows,” she answers. “I couldn’t possibly miss out.”
“Wait, you know each other?” Blaze asks, looking between them.
“We’re cousins,” Fenrir supplies. “Her mom used to be Winters, before she married Konstantin Voronkov.”
Oh, right. We don’t hang out with the Winters that much, not like we do with the Voronkovs. And even when we do, Fenrir and his sister aren’t usually around. It’s only Silvano Cresci, head of the Cresci Crime Family, and occasionally his partner Kyran Winters.
“Fucking hell, a whole family reunion,” Reaper mutters. He pulls out the chair at the head of the table and slumps down. “Am I the only one not fucking somebody here, or related to them?”
“I’m not,” Bobbi says. “But the New Bristol crime scene is as incestuous as they say.”
“It’s not,” Ares answers with a grin. “You share one—”
“Shut up!” I yell. “Oh my god, Ares, you had better be joking about that.”
The guilty look on Kratos’s face tells me that he’s not joking. He never can lie for shit.
“Anyway,” River interjects. “We’re not here to talk about… that.” He’s glaring at Bobbi and Reaper, not even trying to hide his animosity toward them.
“Thank you, River,” Blaze says. “We’ve got more numbers than expected. I thought we’d go over the game plan.” He points at the device in the middle of the table. A projector, which he bought specifically for this whole stupid presentation.
I was in favor of letting everyone figure shit out as they go, but for some reason Blaze, Asch, and River vetoed that.
I take a chip and dip it into the queso—which is lukewarm—while Blaze drones on about his very clever plan.
It is clever. Mostly.
But he thinks it’s going to work out perfectly.
We’ve already got two wild cards in the form of Ares and Kratos.
Wait, three wild cards. What Mel thinks she’s doing here, I have no idea, but her presence isn’t going to help.
Reaper looks like he’d rather be bashing somebody’s head in. That’s the right attitude, at least, even if he should save it for the right people. I don’t know what his fucking problem is. He wants to protect Carly! This is going to help with that.
Bobbi, of course, still hates us, but she’s been mostly appeased with the info we’ve been feeding her and her own desire for revenge.
I like that about her. Give me a girl who can slam you face first into the asphalt and murder you.
“I’ll need to have direct access to the computer network,” Anastasia says. “And no interruptions. I can’t concentrate on this stuff if I’m being shot at.”
Fenrir groans. “You won’t get shot at. And if you do, don’t tell anyone. Reaper, you’ll keep an eye on her, right? You’ll be closest.”
“No,” Kratos interrupts. “I’ll take care of her. Reaper can do the fighting shit somewhere else.”
Ares elbows Kratos hard enough to make him grunt. “Nope. I’m gonna need you on fire duty with me.”
Asch looks between the two of them. “Fire duty,” he repeats.
“No. I’m going to protect Stasya,” Kratos insists. “Ares can handle fire duty by himself. It’s not like it’ll be the first time.”
I wonder if Mel’s regretting coming with them yet.
Blaze coughs. “Reaper, you’ll be closest to Anastasia anyway.”
Reaper rolls his eyes. “Sure, why not. I’ll babysit.”
Nodding, Anastasia says, “I think that’s best.” She gives Kratos a sidelong look. “Kratos would just get distracted by my perfect ass anyway.”
Kratos glowers at her. “I would not!”
“So that’s settled,” Asch says. “Reaper will cover Anastasia while she does her thing, and Ares and Kratos are on fire duty.”
“What can I do?” Mel asks. “I know I don’t know what’s going on, but I want to do something.” She levels her gaze on me. “Please let me help.”
I want to tell her that she should go home. We don’t need her here.
“You’ll be on lookout,” Blaze says. “We’ll set you up with a tablet that has all the IDs and pics. You’ll alert us whenever somebody important checks in.”
River glances at me, but I have to admit it’ll be useful. As long as we keep her far away from the fighting, it’ll be good to have someone dedicated to keeping us updated on who’s where.
“Is your dad coming?” Asch asks Blaze.
“He is,” Bobbi says before Blaze can respond. “I told him I’m going to make my move at the event. He said he’s going to drag Blaze back and make him forget that Pavone cunt.”
Huh. At least he didn’t call me a crazy bitch.
I’ll take it.
River’s jaw clenches, but he doesn’t comment.
“Okay, no offense, Blaze, but I’m going to light your father on fire,” Ares says, smiling wide.
“Go ahead,” Blaze responds. “Not that I think he’ll be here without security. You’ll need to watch out for his guards. Isaac is pretty impenetrable.”
Fenrir slams his fist into his palm. “My fists can bust through impenetrable.”
“They cannot,” Anastasia counters. “You’re going to end up with a broken hand and Silvano is going to give you a very disappointed look.”
“I think I can handle a very disappointed look,” Fenrir argues, but he seems less sure now.
“Fenrir and Bobbi can handle them,” Asch says. “Blaze and I can take Allers. River is on backup.”
And once we have Allers…. We drag him to our designated murder theater, and I have my way with him.
I lick my lips in anticipation.
The rest of the meeting devolves into bickering about individual logistics. I mostly focus on watching Blaze, Asch, and River interact with everyone.
Blaze is really good at wrangling them.
Even when he isn’t threatening to feed somebody their own balls, he knows what he’s doing.
He’ll be a great leader someday.
Or now.