Chapter 3 #3
“You sound awfully cheery about this mess, Chief. But I suppose that pedestal up in the sky is pretty comfy. You walk in,” Felix casts his unhappy glower Aubree’s way, “and you, too. Pretty faces, seductive charm. You convince the old man you’re the shit, and suddenly, you’re being handed a hundred years of everyone else’s labors stacked on a shiny platter. ”
“Wait…” Stunned, I blink the confusion from my eyes and study everyone all over again. Angry Tim. Suspicious Micah. An entirely unbothered Cato. Furious Felix. “You’re mad because Cordoza dragged me and Aubree into this?”
Behind him, Aubree shakes her head.
“Jealous?”
She pauses for a beat, hesitant, then nods.
“You’re jealous?” I balk. “Because you’re about to sit in the most important friggin’ seat in the country, while the rest of us get wonky, stiff, uncomfortable chairs, a metric ton of paperwork, responsibility that could make or break a lot of shit…
And we didn’t ask for any of it? Are you serious right now? ”
“A hundred years of Malone,” he snarls. “A hundred fuckin’ years, Chief. I don’t get a choice, I have to be one of the douchebags stepping up, and I have to do it before everyone else scrambles. But now I get the privilege of asking you for permission every time I wanna take a shit?”
“Ah… no?” My brows furrow and dig a line between my eyes.
“My plan is to stay as far from this mess as I can manage. I have a job, remember? I don’t sleep enough as it is.
I run myself into the ground with the responsibilities I already have, and Aubree’s career is exactly the same, which means I’m about to spend the next year yes-sir’ing every time Cordoza speaks to me, I’ll pretend I actually give a shit about this city, and then I intend to leave it to you.
Don’t fuck people over, don’t profit from the misery of innocents, don’t become like your father, and I won’t ever have an opinion on your toileting schedule. ”
“So you’ll abandon your role and leave all that power with the Solomon sisters? That’s worse!”
“What the hell do you want from me, Felix? You’re mad I’m involved, but you’re even madder if I walk?”
“I’m pissed he felt the need to assign me a fuckin’ babysitter!
Four of them. Never in the history of ever has this city functioned this way, but Cordoza fancies himself besotted by a foursome of mouthy women, and now I’m nothing more than a face on display, an ass in a chair, but I’ve been neutered, Mayet.
I can’t run the city without a majority vote from four women whose periods will probably sync soon.
Does that mean my job one week a month includes tossing candy bars at your faces and achieving literally nothing else?
Will I mediate catfights and stomp out the wars your hormones wanna start? ”
I choke out a cathartic laugh. A throat-scratching, head-pounding, he’s-lucky-I-know-he’s-decent-under-the-attitude laugh.
But then I cut it off with a growl and snap my teeth.
“Sounds to me like those Malone the first and second genes have made an appearance today, since the Felix I know respects the intelligent, logical thinking women in his life. The Felix I know would never be so friggin’ small-minded and chauvinistic. ”
“I—”
“Have you ever had to throw candy bars at us? Have you had to mediate an issue between me and Aubree? Between me and Soph? Between literally any group of women, ever?”
“No, I—”
“No. But you’ve stormed the homes of your enemies with nothing more than firepower, and ‘I’ve got big balls, hear me roar.
’ To reunite with Archer, you left dead bodies littered across Copeland, kidnapped a child, and almost started a twin-city war.
Instead of dealing with your father’s death in a healthy, legal way, you dug a hole in the backyard, dropped him in it, and walked away.
Micah lost his ever-loving mind and took Tiia to a torture hut in the woods because he didn’t know how else to manage his emotions.
Cato’s completely incapable of identifying and fostering healthy, non-toxic relationships with women.
He considers himself in love with me because he knows it’s safe.
Because I married Archer.” Finally, I point toward Tim.
“He married Aubree without telling her! Without her consent. Without her knowledge… or so he thought.”
He opens his mouth to argue.
“Shush!” I swing cranky, he-ruined-my-sex-buzz eyes back to Felix.
“Don’t come at me about how men are superior decision-makers, or how women are too soft or too emotional to function.
Cordoza’s gonna do whatever the hell he’s gonna do.
I can’t control it, I can’t change it, and according to Estefan, I can’t walk away from it.
My interest goes only as far as making sure you don’t jump into the skin trade just like every other asshole who came before you.
There’s money to be made selling little girls, we all know it, and of the hundred richest assholes in the world, only fifteen of them are women.
That’s not because women are less capable or too emotional.
It’s because men are notoriously greedy, and even those we might’ve considered decent once upon a time fall victim to ‘but I want more, more, more.’”
“Not sure how I got dragged into this,” Cato grumbles, his lips dropped into a pout, and his muscles bulging as he wraps himself lovingly around Zora. “I’ve been good lately.”
“I intend to be one of those hands-off, silent kinds of silent partners, which basically means my life will continue how it always has, assuming your moral code remains on this side of what I consider acceptable. You’ll stay here and do your thing, you’ll pout because Cordoza dinged your ego, but you’ll get over it, because you married an intelligent, logical-thinking woman, and together, you created a future intelligent, logical-thinking woman.
When you’ve had your tantrum, and you’re feeling a little less emotional, you’ll realize everything is okay. ”
“And the Solomon sisters?” he sneers. “Cordoza proposes a four-woman board of advisers, but if two of you bounce, leaving me with Soph and Ellie? That means I no longer control this city. They do.”
“Stop catastrophizing, Felix. Jesus! Soph’s as interested in uprooting her life as I am, and Ellie’s growing a baby.
Their moral code sits firmly where mine does.
Do the right thing, and the city is yours.
” I trade my scowl for a smile, then I tip my head back and search Archer’s eyes. “I’m starving. Wanna eat on the patio?”
“Mmm.” He folds closer and drops a kiss on my lips. “I’ll cook. We’ll eat. Then we’re heading home.”
Ugh. Home… soon.
He senses my change in mood, pulling back and studying me through narrowed eyes. “What?”
“Manhattan first,” I groan. “I don’t get a choice.”