Page 63 of Skin Deep

“Oh, come on!” War growled. “No hotel is worth that much! Am I renting out the whole hotel? Why? I’m a tiny silver dog!”

“You’re the one who rolled an eight,” Lettie shot back. “You don’t like it?Youbuy Park Place next time.”

“This is not how economics works,” War grumbled.

“Uh, no. It’s how Monopoly works. Duh.” She rolled the dice and stifled a yawn.

War looked up from the game and saw me watching them, flashing me a small smile. They played for another fifteen minutes before War decided he’d had enough and put the girls down in front of the TV to watch some cartoon channel.

“She’s vicious,” he said, joining me in the kitchen.

“She’ll fit right in with the rest of your clan.” I held out a mug of hot chamomile tea I’d made using the tea I found in his cupboard.

“Pax…”

“Tea first. Then talk.”

He took the tea and sat at the table. I pulled out the chair across from him and sat. We stayed there in companionable silence, sipping our tea and listening to the cartoon sounds coming from the next room.

“I don’t want this to end,” War said eventually without looking up from the table. “But Simeon made it clear that if I didn’t drop the ripper investigation, you and the girls would be in danger.”

I frowned. “Why’s he want you to drop it?”

War’s eyes flicked up to meet mine. “The ripper might be one of his guys. I don’t have any proof, but it’s the only reason I can think of.”

Fury I thought I’d buried long ago ignited in my chest. The mafia was protecting Maya’s killer? I didn’t care how many of them there were. I’d fight my way through a damn army to get justice for Maya.

“There’s more, Pax,” War said. “I think we’ve been roped into helping my father pull a coup. Simeon didn’t know anything about the hit on Bowen. My cousin, Aleksi, all but confirmed it. He and my father are getting ready to make a move that will put my father in power. They’re going to kill Simeon and all the men loyal to him. Us killing Bowen? It’s part of his plan to take over.”

I leaned back in my chair, processing what he was telling me. No wonder he’d freaked out and tried to break things off. This whole thing was way more dangerous than we’d first assumed. We weren’t just going after a dirtbag and a serial assaulter. We were hunting mobsters, mobsters that Simeon the Immortal had protected for years.

War’s chair creaked as he leaned forward. “If we do this, we have to follow through. Your family is going to get pulled into a mafia war. There will be crosshairs on you, Pax, and on them. I warned you this could happen. I just… didn’t think it would.”

I considered him carefully. “If Simeon knows who the ripper is, what are the chances that your father also knows?”

“Very high,” War answered. “So if we want that information, we need to play his game. Of course, there are other avenues we can try, but they’ll take time. Every day we take is another chance for Simeon or one of his men to come for you and the girls. Helping Nikita is the safest way forward, but it’s by no means safe. I want you to understand that. Simeon is powerful. He’s smart and has a lot of men who are fiercely loyal to him. This will be a bloodbath. We could lose. Are you ready for that? Are you ready to risk everything for a chance at vengeance?”

I thought about it long and hard for a second. I’d known going in that hunting the ripper would be dangerous. That hadn’t changed. So he was hiding behind a wall of dangerous mobsters. So what? I’d climbed over plenty of walls, and if I couldn’t climb over or go around, I’d go through. With War at my side, we could carve up a good chunk of Simeon’s guys all by ourselves.

Killing Maya’s killer wouldn’t bring her back. It wouldn’t change anything about what had happened to her, but it would stop him from hurting someone else. The world would be a better place than when she left it. Wasn’t that what I was trying to do? Build a better world for my daughters to grow up in? War shared that vision, even if his methods weren’t always by the book. Sometimes you needed to throw away the book to get shit done.

“It ain’t about vengeance,” I said. “Avenging Maya is only part of why these motherfuckers need to die.”

“What’s the other reason?” he asked with a frown.

“You are, War.” I reached across the table and put my hand over his. “Bowen hurt you, and Simeon? Well, he gave the order. That fucker is also protecting Maya’s killer. If I help you take them down, I’m avenging both you and her in one fell swoop. Plus, murdering your evil mafia family is definitely going to make you want to jump on my dick, so there’s that.”

War rolled his eyes, but gave a half smile. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Made you smile, though.”

“You did.” He looked down at where our hands were joined. “I bought a new mattress today.”

“Did you?” I smiled.

He nodded. “And a waterproof blanket.”

Lettie giggled in the next room.

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