Page 14 of Fierce Monarch

It was only through years of practice reading her body language that I saw Mari tense. Just the slight hitch of her shoulders to betray her nerves. “What exactly does that mean?”

Joaquin pulled out his phone, scrolled, then slid it down the long table to land in front of her. Mari didn’t touch it, but Dominic, who sat to her right, did. He scrolled through, cursing under his breath.

“Cash has been flaunting him around town.” Dominic tilted the phone so Mari and I could see, and sure enough, there was Cash on his mystery tour, shaking hands. Although, instead of kissing babies, he was kissing up. The first picture was Kosas, then Ajilon, and finally O’Bannon.

“Has he been seen with everyone?” she asked quietly.

“Every single one,” Joaquin said. “And you’ll see it’s not just the leaders either.”

“I think I’ll take your word for it.” Mari nodded, and Dominic slid the phone back harder than necessary. Undeterred, Joaquin caught it and slipped the device back into his pocket with a satisfied smirk.

“What are we going to do about this?”

“Nothing.”

Joaquin laughed, though it was as fake as ever. “You want to sit there and let him disrespect us?—”

“Is your ego so fragile that it can’t handle a little disrespect, Uncle?” She spoke with a chill cold enough to burn, but the passion gave me renewed hope that she was coming to terms with everything. That sometime soon, I’d have my partner back.

“It’s the principle of the matter.” Joaquin leaned forward on the table like he was ready to leap down and attack her. “He’s disrespecting the Marcosa name, our power structure, the family itself—and you’re letting him.”

“I’m letting him do nothing. Cash’s actions have no bearing on ours, and right now, I’d rather take our time and extinguish him permanently than poke holes big enough for him to escape. Nate is a nonstarter. He doesn’t matter.”

“If you really think that it doesn’t matter, then you’re a fool.”

“Is that so?” The temperature dropped ten degrees with every word until I felt like we were all breathing frost. “If you think you can do so much better than me, maybe we should trade seats.”

“Maybe we should,” Joaquin snapped, only to wince and look away at Gabriele’s scowl and the very subtle shift of the table.

Joaquin was silent, chewing on his own petulance until he bent his head to Mari once more. “Apologies, niece. Seeing how upset you are about this situation has me feeling some sort of way. I worry the boy will become a problem for you.”

I held back my scoff, but Dominic’s disbelief was audible across the table.

Mari smiled, sickly-sweet and poisonous. “Thank you for your concern, Uncle, but I assure you there is no problem for any of us. Nate was a mistake I don’t intend to make again.”

“So what do we do now?” Moore asked, guiding us back on track.

“We kill the Beckstrom boy,” Gabriele suggested. It didn’t escape my attention that only two of the capos were speaking.

“If we could kill Cash, he would be dead already,” Dominic pointed out.

“Not Cash. The brother.”

Again, I watched the hitch in Mari’s shoulder, the single tap of her foot betraying her agitation. I stepped forward, giving her a moment to collect herself. “We need to be smart about our course of action. An assassination is one thing. A failed assassination is another entirely. The last thing we need is Cash getting another head of steam.”

“I think we could figure out a way.”

“Then do it,” Mari snapped, and Joaquin’s head jerked back to her. “If you believe that’s true, then you plan things, Uncle. Bring me an assassination proposal that won’t get this city burned down around our ears, and I’ll consider it.”

Joaquin’s surprise was nothing more than a widening of his eyes, then a grim smile lit his face. “Agreed.”

Mari turned to the rest of the table, dismissing him entirely. “We’re operating under the assumption that everything has been compromised. Credentials will be reallocated, biometrics rescanned, profiles recreated. We’re starting from the ground up. Moore will text you with your time slot to get it redone. Until then, assume whatever information we got on Cash and Nate was a lie and start from scratch. Get on the streets and pull info on both of them. Poll the dealers, check the DMV, find their fucking school records. I don’t care what you do, but get me facts.”

“What’s going to happen when we get this information?” Joaquin asked.

Mari looked him dead in the eyes, no flinching. “Exactly what should happen. You find me the information that I need to take out Cash, and he goes down.”

“How is this any different from before?” Gabriele asked, throwing another glare at Joaquin when he tried to poke at her again. Those two had always been oil and water.

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