Page 103 of Hell and High Water

“Looking it up online, the traditional order is pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. Final sin. Final say?” Tell offers.

“Sounds as plausible as anything else. Either way, that role was supposed to fall to me…”

“Not as far-fetched as you make it sound, Hell,” I assert, shrugging.

“So, assuming their sins correlated to their duties…” She deflects, squeezing my hand, “Avarice is greed, the desire for wealth. Could be in charge of banks, or raw materials, shipping?”

“I like it. Fits with what we know about the founding families a little more closely too. Who ran exports, mining, local government, law enforcement? I’ll start a list of potential roles and which title might have assumed which duties.”

“Along that train of thought…” Evan crosses his arms, looking at me. “Voracity. Gluttony. Sounds a lot like addiction. Drugs. Medicine. Sound like anyone we know?”

My connection and work for the Ghosts isn’t exactly a point of pride. I cleaned up bodies. Gun fights. Turf wars.

And I tried my best not to look behind the scenes, to know who I was really taking money from. But I knew. Everyone knew.

Oliver Devonde owned the Holy Ghosts. Ran all of the drugs in and out of Sanctum.

“You really think he’s so openly active as a power player in town and working with the Sinful? Devonde always struck me as selfish. Solo.”

“Which gives him plenty of reason to want to knock off the rest of the Sinful.”

“Only one way to find out.”

“Two ways. I need to finish reading this cover to cover. Twice. Wouldn’t hurt to have you look it over too, Evan. But Gavin is right. Tell, I need you to pay Devonde a visit. See what he’s up to.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Tell salutes.

Just like that, she takes charge. She doesn’t even realize she’s doing it. “We need to move quickly. Not only to build our defense, but to root out whichever one of the Sinful is trying to kill off the others, and potentially trying to kill me, if there even are any of them left running the show. We can’t be looking over our shoulders when the time comes to take on Vice.”

“Still, it would be a good idea to pool everyone we can together as soon as we can, anyone who could fight back, or help us stand up to Marco, to the Ghosts, too.” I can’t help veering into a tactical way of thinking.

“I think I know where to start there.” Hellena smiles.

“One of us needs to go pay the Block a visit. Might serve us better to call Ora, to see if she can get us a meeting with Clive Senior.” Evan nods.

“I’ll give her a call later. Evan, do what you can with the paper trails we have. See if anything stands out from your research and find out who we are up against.”

Evan tilts his head, giving over to her orders with way more grace than I expected from him. He knows when not to bicker with her, I guess.

“And I guess I'll just watch everybody's back. Big guns.” I smile grimly, crossing my arms.

“Hey, you're a big musclehead for a reason, right?” Tell snickers.

“You’re so much more than that, Gav.” Hell stands, pulling me closer.

“Oh, I don't mind being the muscle. Nope.”

“Yeah, but you're also the best tactician we have. You have so much more experience than the rest of us. I need you making those calls.”

“I don’t know if I’m the best choice.” My years away have made me hesitant, resistant to act.

But it’s not as if I could deny her anything.

“Put your best foot forward? For me?” She smiles, instantly heating my blood. Those lips…

“You make it sound like a dance, Hella!” Tell stands, swooping in behind her, his arms circling her waist.

“Hmm… We haven't danced in a while.” Evan smirks, joining us and tipping Hellena’s head back to look her in the eye, leaning in for a kiss.

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