Page 43 of Goldflame

Guess I’ll have to show her.

I have quick movements thanks to all my fighting at The Den, so I grab her hair and slam her forehead down into the table. It happens in less than a second and the other members gasp around me.

Olivia cries out, blood tricking from the split skinabove her eyes. I yank her head back so I can talk in her ear.

“I’ll say this one more time—my family had nothing to do with your sister’s murder. Yet, you sent Theodore to kill my father, theleaderof the Consortium, without a single drop of proof. You’re lucky we haven’t burned your entire family to the ground. So, are you going to behave?”

She whimpers in pain and nods.

“Good girl. Because this feud ends now. Moving forward, you’re going to do everything you’re told—whatever I tell you—until I decide to forgive you. Got it?”

She whimpers again and I release her hair.

Dusting my suit jacket, I return to my seat. When I gaze around the table, I see different eyes looking back this time. Fearful eyes.

All of them except Lorenzo’s. He’s smiling.

“The children must be shown how to behave,”I remember Lucian once telling Adrian.

For the first time, I understand what he meant.

“What else?” I ask, wanting to get this circus over with.

A man in a sharp red suit raises his hand like he’s in school. What’s his name? Fuck, I can’t remember. “Uh,” he says, “Uh, my brother recently got arrested. Uh, DeSean. And, maybe?—”

“The Marlowes will get him out,” I say, glancing at Olivia.

She nods weakly as she wipes blood from her face.

The man in the red suit grins. “Thank you, Julian.”

A few other members speak up, also asking for the Marlowe’s to help with police and federal issues sincethey have such a strong influence on law enforcement. Olivia nods each time and glances at me nervously.

I smile. Maybe I actually did something right this time. But it’s not enough, is it?

I still think about my lack of response when Mom struck Aurelia.

I thought of doing something. Saying something. But this isn’t a black and white situation.

I couldn’t intervene, not when my mother is the only family I have left. Not when she’s the only one guiding me through this fucking nightmare of leadership I never wanted—it was her intel about Castellano’s cousin being in jail that helped me settle these ‘children.’ She’s the only one helping me survive right now, so I couldn’t intervene and upset her.

And part of me thinks Aurelia deserved it; she’s the reason my brother is dead.

Isn’t she?

The thought slithers through the cracks of my certainty, slimy and persistent.

Gregory Whitman slides a folder across the table toward me, interrupting my spiral. “The projections for the new casino,” he explains, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.

I take the folder without opening it. Another decision to make. The weight of it crushes against my chest, making it hard to breathe.

“Your father would’ve seen the potential immediately,” Gregory adds, his voice edged with challenge. Testing me. They’re all testing me. Even after I showed them why I should be feared.

This struggle against them is endless.

My jaw clenches, the muscle there jumping beneath skin that’s still healing from the beating I took at The Den. “My father isn’t here,” I snap. “I’ll review this and decide what’s best.”

“Very well,” Gregory replies, leaning back in his chair.

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