Page 44 of A Fine Line

“She wasn’t dead-dead? What the fuck?”

“Yeah, you’re telling me,” Matt says with a laugh. “So, I went down there, and sure enough, she still looked mostly dead, but she had a pulse, and they were asking me if I wanted them to make her dead-dead or if we’re gonna transfer her somewhere else to make her less dead—“

Dare interrupts, “Why didn’t you call anyone?”

“Call and say what? At this point, everyone had already accepted that she was gone. Should I have gotten everyone’s hopes up only to possibly have to crush them again? I couldn’t do that.”

I have to acknowledge the truth behind that statement. Getting Antoinette’s hopes up only to have to crush her again would’ve been a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Still, I ask, “And once you realized she was going to live, why not say anything then?”

“We thought about it,” Matt says with a grimace. “But then we realized she could do a lot more good being dead. Because the only person they may fear more than Lilith Ferro would be the ghost of Lilith Ferro.”

Anton eyes widen, and then he laughs, his hands slapping the tops of his thighs as he exclaims, “Oh, shit. All that ghost talk was her?”

Dare and I look at each other, and then look at Anton curiously before I ask, “What was her? There hasn’t been any ghost activity in New York that I’m aware of.”

“No, this was Russia and parts of Europe, as far as I know,” Anton replies. “I know some of it was us, but the amount of chatter going through was far more than we could take credit for.”

“Yeah,” Matt says. “We were on a roll there for a little while. But then we caught wind of Tony snatching Carolina and figured we better fast-track retrieving Flora before her cover was blown. Obviously, that didn’t work.”

“You guys knew where Flora was this entire fucking time?” I growl, my fists clenching.

He shakes his head. “No, we’d just started closing in on her location at that point. Lilith went in there under the guise of being a human-trafficking mercenary in the hopes she’d be able to locate whoever’s in charge of the whole operation while also getting close to Flora to get her out. She’d only been in there for a few days when you guys showed up. Initially, she was going to vanish and allow you to come in, but then she overheard them trying to arrange for Carolina to come alone. She figured something stupid was gonna happen, so she stuck around.”

“And Mickey doesn’t know?” Dare asks.

“No, he doesn’t know. And you’re not gonna fucking tell him either. That’s between Lilith and him. Mickey’s going about his day, taking direction from Antoinette, keeping shit in New York in line. Just let him do his job until Lilith decides what she wants to do.”

“I don’t like keeping this from him,” I reply, my arms crossing over my chest in annoyance. “That man was fucking destroyed when Lilith died. He may as well have lost his own child.”

Regret passes over Matt’s features, but he shakes it off, shrugging as he murmurs, “I’m aware. But nothing’s gonna change that right now.”

“You’re right. We have more urgent matters to take care of right now,” Darius says as he walks over to Matt and hands him the lists we’ve been working on. “We finally talked Tony into a divide and conquer method. I’ll have Antoinette notify Mickey of who he’s looking for and how to handle them once he finds them. And Anton will delegate some of his people to handle the outlier destinations. Tony has his shortlist of the more criminally important subjects, and you and I can divvy up the rest—“

“What about us?” Nettie interrupts from the doorway.

We turn our attention in that direction, and all three women stand there, looking as obstinate as ever. I groan, and Darius chuckles, with Matt and Anton quickly joining in. I shouldn’t be surprised, given their tendency to always want to be part of the action, but still, I say, “You guys already have your fucking orders.”

“We’re not taking fucking babysitting duty, Tony,” Aggie pipes in.

“Yeah,” Nettie adds. “Flora has already made friends with the kids, and their mum decided they’re gonna stay here for a while and help her get settled. Having a bit of childlike normalcy is the best thing for her right now.”

“Fine,” I relent. “I have the perfect job for you murder triplets.”

Three sets of eyes light up, matching maniacal blue orbs that have the hair on the back of my neck standing up. I shake my head at their enthusiasm and then add, “Don’t get too excited; you ain’t gonna like it.”

“But do we get to fuck around and find out?” Aggie asks.

“Stop ruining my line.” Nettie giggles. “That’s a yes.”

I glance at Dare and Matt, who are openly laughing at my pain rather than being at all supportive. I roll my eyes at them, turning and walking out of the room, only pausing to flip them the bird from the doorway.

Chapter Seventeen

Tony

Dariusisn’toverlyexcitedabout the mission I’ve given the murder triplets.

Well, the murder twins, anyway. Mama murder is currently too conspicuous for the job, so she’s going to have to run things behind the scenes. Aggie and Nettie, however, jumped right on the idea of being able to play dress up as mafia bosses.

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