Page 21 of Land of Shadow

“Bullshit,” Juno seethes. “It has to be him.”

“No.” Vince seems too tired to argue the point further.

“Then who?” I ask. The idea of my sister already having enemies lining up to take her down sends a sick feeling swirling through my gut.

“These men were sent by a faction of my people. I’ll handle it.” Valen clasps his hands behind his back, his posture rigid. “They’ll not be a problem again.”

“Yourpeople?” Juno stands, fire flashing in her eyes. “We had a deal, Dragonis. Gregor promised me?—”

“Gregor?” I blurt. It seems exhaustion has loosened my tongue. “Who’s Gregor?”

Juno waves a hand at me. “Not important right now. Whatisimportant.” She stabs a finger at Valen. “Is that your people step the fuck back and abide by our deal.” Moving around the desk, she crosses her arms over her middle. “In fact, I want you at the CDC lab first thing in the morning. Georgia will be your direct contact from now on. She’ll tell you what she needs from you, and you will give it. Understand?” Her cutting tone makes me squirm in my seat, but my head’s clear enough that I don’t interrupt again.

Valen isn’t ruffled in the least. In fact, he steps forward, his tall frame looming over Juno. “The agreement is still in place. We’ll deliver what we promised, and we expect you to do the same.”

Vince’s hand twitches toward his hip.

“No need, Mr. Camden.” Valen turns his head so quickly I jump. “I was just leaving.” He strides out with all the severity of a storm, taking a crackling, smarting tension with him.

“We need to talk,” Vince growls, his eyes on the closing door. “Aboutthat.”

“He’s not your concern.” Juno returns to her seat at the desk. “What did the captured thugs have to say?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?” Her voice is sharp, icy. “Whydon’tyou know?”

“I don’t know because the man who’s ‘not my concern’ killed them before I got a chance to speak to them.” He scrubs a hand across his face. “Never even saw their bodies. They were being wheeled out in bags when I got there, his people dressed head to toe in these black plastic getups, like goddamn radiation suits, taking the bodies away.”

“Wait.” I set my coffee cup on the table in front of me and lean forward. “Hekilledthem? But he can’t do that. There are laws. There are …” My ears begin to ring, my face going hot. I look at Juno. “Don’t you have to arrest him? You can’t just let him go. He can’t … can’t do that.”

Her brows furrow. “He said it was his people. If that’s how he deals with his own, then it’s no concern of ours.”

“Like some kind of immunity?” I blink several times, my mind spinning like tires on black ice. “But this is America. You can’t just get away with murder. You can’t?—”

“They tried to kill us, Georgia!” Juno barks. The vehemence in her tone is like a slap. “They tried to kill us, and they got what they deserved. End of story.”

Part of me—a part I don’t like to acknowledge—agrees with her. Part of me is glad they’re dead. But that doesn’t mean it’s right. Shehasto know that. And the fact that Valen killed them, that he did it and then showed up looking like nothing had happened—I don’t know what to make of it. It’s like swallowing a pill that sticks in your throat.

“It’s all cleaned up now.” Vince seems to have aged a decade in the space of a few hours. “Right down to the last speck of blood. Dragonis is thorough. Even wiped the surveillance already, though I don’t fucking know how. There’s nothing left to prove those two prisoners were ever taken into custody.”

“Holy shit.” I rub my temples.

“Any word on our injured?” Juno asks.

“Senator Unger and Representative Whitson are dead. Several others are wounded, two severely. Associate Justice Pearson is in surgery right now. They don’t know if he’s going to make it. Vice President Shellhurst wasn’t shot?—”

Juno gasps and puts a hand to her mouth. “I seriously didn’t even think about him till right then.”

Vince’s scowl deepens, the lines in his forehead doubling. “But he fell in the chaos and likely broke his hip. We’ll know more later.”

“What a mess.” Juno cocks her head toward the door. “Fatima!”

She hurries in, notepad in hand. “Ma’am?”

“Write up my remarks for the morning. I want them brief and strong. President Gray’s supporters tried to overturn democracy, but we will not let anarchy reign in this nation. Not now, not ever. Something along those lines, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

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