Page 42 of Ruling Scar
“So?” Since when do people get so fussy about the weather?
“Max is taking care of her.” Russet smushes her face against Albert.
“You two only came for the dog and didn’t bother to bring my niece along.”
“You know you’re welcome to come to brunch.” Russet’s smile brightens her face. Despite the tired, blue bruises under her eyes, she’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her.
I don’t doubt she has her moments. This is the same woman that put a bullet in the people who pimped her best friend out. But she’s a Zimin now. Her chaos is ours.
“Come on, let’s go.” Roma heads for the door.
“Do you want to?” she asks.
“He doesn’t care about pancakes,” Roma calls over his shoulder. “He’s plotting.”
Hazel eyes narrow on me. “Plotting?”
I press a kiss to her cheek. “Don’t worry. I think you’ll be rather proud of me.”
She’s wise enough to stay silent but shoots me a mocking look.
She certainly fits in with the Zimin’s.
“I’m helping a damsel in distress.”
She laughs as she heads to the door. “I think that’s what you told yourself when you used to show up with pizza on my doorstep.”
“The pizza you inhaled every week?”
Russet shakes her head as she shuts the door. “Let us know when you need help from the damsel.”
Leopold Stuart, like the pompous ass he is, is currently staying in some swanky hotel.
I’m at the bar next to a man named Ivan. I don’t believe in friendships, but Ivan is my most loyal guard and the man I’ll be posting on Leonora. Therefore, he is the closest thing to a friend I have.
He’s a similar age and a man of few words. I gave him the name Leopold Stuart and he conducted his own intel.
We’re now in this insufferably stuffy bar, seemingly unconcerned with those around us. This is one of my favorite parts of the game. There’s no need to track Leopold down. Chance and coincidence will bring him into my sphere and he won’t realize it’s because I want him here.
I’ve thought out all the different plays and settled on this one:
Leonora is just the type to go out to dinner with an old friend thinking nothing of it. I’ll ignore the fact that she wore a dress and did her hair for this tosser and stick to the belief she wanted to catch up with a college friend. Despite being frightened, she wouldn’t want to worry me. Men who go after the things that are mine tend to disappear and worse, Leonora tends to internalize her pain and feelings.
So I’m sitting at this bar, pretending not to know this Leopold, just like I’m pretending not to know that he tried to hurtmyLeonora last night.
Ivan nods at the large mirror spanning the wall behind the bar. Leopold sits in a chair, near the fireplace, reading the news. He fits in with the furniture and the staff remain polite but swerve around him. They’d rather deal with anyone else and I don’t blame them.
Since the paper blocks his face he didn’t see us come in. We patiently wait.
He lowers the paper, his face blank, and casts an eye around the place. This is not a mask of boredom like the one I often put on. This is his real face. It’s unfeeling, uncaring. Not a muscle onhis face ticks. He’d come across as dull, if not for the sharp eyes scanning across the room.
He spots me.
Or rather the back of my head. Ivan and I sit at the bar, facing away from him.
“This is the guy?” Ivan asks. He’s soft-spoken and his polite, clipped tone cover the killer instincts I require in all my close acquaintances.
“This is the guy,” I confirm.
