Page 29 of Capitol Matters

I sniggered. “You don’t say.”

“I think the manager of the place is getting suspicious.” He looked back at me, his eyes dark under a scrunched brow. “How much longer do we have to keep them there?”

“Two weeks.”

His shoulders slumped. “So, forever, basically.”

To him, maybe. To me, it was a deadline approaching far too rapidly.

We sat in quiet for a while before he added, “They’re getting tired of pizza.”

“What else are you feeding them?”

Silence stretched until I pushed up on my elbows and frowned over at him. “Just pizza?” I asked.

“Pizza’s good!” His cheeks burned red.

I laughed again. “For every meal? For a month? Nothing’s that good.”

Approaching footsteps joined the other sounds of the room. I sat the rest of the way up to look along the back wall. Avery and Ripley ascended the staircase in the opposite corner with Maggie tagging lackadaisically behind. Judging by Avery’s stagger, they’d been raiding the downstairs bar. I might head there next if Grimm took much longer.

Avery wore a golden crown and a fur-trimmed red cape that swished against his legs as he walked. He stumbled into the middle of the room, then stopped andthrew his arms wide.

“My people!” he crowed, turning an unsteady circle. “Your king has returned!”

A few gang members whistled and clapped, but most pretended not to notice.

I nodded toward the conjurer, who twirled his cape before returning to the shadows where Ripley and Maggie lurked.

“Good to see he’s not letting the whole gang leader thing go to his head,” I said.

“Are you kidding?” Donovan whipped aside to find me grinning. “Oh good, you’re kidding.”

I hadn’t been around as much as usual. With the infrequent kidnappings and my nine to five at the Capitol, my schedule was too full for fraternizing with Grimm’s new and improved gang. On top of all that, I’d taken to staying over at Nash’s, which left Donovan largely on his own. It was an unintended consequence, and one I was coming to regret. He seemed out of sorts and not just because we were at the whorehouse.

“How’s that been going?” I nodded toward the corner where Avery stood.

Donovan wrung his hands. “Awful,” he replied. “He and Ripley bitch at each other like an old married couple. Well, Ripley bitches. Avery mostly laughs at him, and that makes it worse.”

A similar scene appeared to be playing out as we spoke. Ripley stuffed earbuds into his ears while Avery flapped his hands in grand, drunken gestures. Maggie held the cell wired to Ripley’s headphones and stared at it, her pale face aglow in the screen’s bluish light.

Watching them, Donovan added, “I honestly don’t know why Ripley sticks around.”

I shrugged. “Lack of better options?” Or biding his time till he got the chance to stab us all in the back. I didn’t trust the toxin-spewing teen. Once a traitor, always a traitor.

“Does Grimm do anything about it?” I wondered aloud.

“He’s not here,” Donovan said. “And when he is here…” His eyes flicked meaningfully toward the ceiling. “He’s still not here.”

I chewed my lip.

Speaking of the devils seemed to draw them toward us. Ripley led the other two with Avery hanging off his shoulder and talking loudly enough I could hear him at range.

“Whaddya say, Rip?” Avery motioned to the mass of people. “Pick one and have a go. See what it feels like to have a woman between your legs who’s warm and has a pulse.”

Ripley stopped midstride and turned on the caped conjurer. “What wouldyouknow about having a woman between your legs?” he snapped. “Prissy twat.” He surged forward again, testing the limit of the earbuds’ cable.

As they approached, it became clear they were headed upstairs, using the path Donovan and I currently blocked. I stood and stepped aside, then poked Donovan to encourage him to do the same.

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