Page 23 of Prodigal Son

Albie shot him a glare.

“I’m not disagreeing with you. I think we should do this. It’s a risk, yeah, but it’s one we have to take. I hate his ass, but I’m not just handing him over. He may be a bastard, but he is our dad.”

Albie snorted. Twitched a smile. “Yeah. Same.”

“Charlie’s the most like him, you know,” Phillip mused. “That’s why this is hitting him so hard.”

“Afraid someone’s going to throw him in the Thames?”

“One day, maybe, yeah,” Phillip said, more serious than Albie had expected. “But I think there’s hope, because there’s one crucial difference.”

“What’s that?”

“Devin’s never been in love in his life. But Charlie has.”

Eight

It was actually a relief when Vivian was done inspecting her room, sniffed disapprovingly, and announced she was going to sleep. Once the door was firmly shut in their faces, Eden nudged Axelle and said, “Drinks at the pub?”

Axelle said, “Hell yes,” with a tired sigh.

Downstairs, now that the sun had set – they’d been in that meeting forever, it seemed like; Eden felt like she was back with the Service – the pub was jumping with what was probably its usual crowd. There were some civilians, recognizable for their lack of leather and tattoos, but the crowd was mostly Lean Dogs letting off steam after a day’s work.

Eden was dubiously eyeing two available stools at the bar, wedged between two hulking, hairy, ink-covered Dogs, when someone caught her eye and waved from a corner table. It was Fox’s sister, Raven.

She knew a moment’s serious hesitation, was tempted to go to the bar, ask for two whiskeys, and then take hers back to her room for the evening. She wasn’t easily intimidated, and Raven had never given the impression of trying to intimidate, but…Eden had always sensed a threat there. Something unspoken, maybe even ingrained. The well-leashed contempt of a sister who might not agree with her brothers’ lifestyle, but who wouldn’t hesitate to frame an MI5 agent she deemed a threat to that lifestyle.

But Eden was being silly. She was no longer in the intelligence business, and Raven wouldn’t have waved them over if she hadn’t wanted them at her table.

“Over there,” Eden said, getting Axelle’s attention, and they wended their way through the crowd.

When they slid into the booth, Eden immediately realized why Raven had chosen it, and smiled to herself. It was a table with a clear view of the bar, the front door, and a rear exit marked with an illuminated sign. And Raven had the best seat. Eden, and Axelle beside her, would have to crane their necks to see anything over the high back of the booth.

Eden glanced across at Fox’s sister and got a measuring look. Eden tipped her head.Fair point. And Raven nodded and poured white wine from a bottle into two waiting, empty glasses.

“You girls didn’t look like you wanted to sit with the riff-raff,” she said, sliding now-full glasses to them.

Axelle chuckled. “Iamriff-raff.”

“Oh darling, not like them you’re not,” Raven said, dismissively, lifting her own glass to her lips. “Snyder hasn’t showered indays. I thought I’d faint just walking past him.”

Axelle snuck Eden a questioning look, but Eden could only shake her head. She had the sense a game was afoot, but couldn’t pin it down at the moment. They would have to play along for now.

“Well, thank you,” Eden said coolly, and sipped her wine.

“Hmm. We ladies have to stick together in this Neanderthal world, after all.”

It wasn’t a question, so Eden didn’t answer. It was funny: dealing with Fox, with Devin, with Albie over the past few days, she hadn’t felt even the slightest need to pull out one of her old undercover personas. She had masks – had a whole figurative closet of masks – that she could use to monitor, to hide, to scrutinize, to befriend. She’d thought she would need one with the boys, but it turned out she didn’t. Just plain old Done With Your Shit Eden handled them just fine. But now, across from Raven, with her flawless, sharp-edged bob and her designer dress, Eden felt herself reaching for a persona. A little bit of the old armor.

Tone light, Eden said, “I’m surprised to see you’re still here.”

Raven lifted her brows.

“We never spent much time together, granted, but you didn’t seem to care for this place much back then. It doesn’t seem like that’s changed.”

A slow, wicked smile cut across Raven’s face; she didn’t much resemble her brothers, save for the eyes, but at the moment she looked startlingly like Charlie. “You’re right. Weneverspent much time together.”

A moment of tense, fraught eye contact–

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