Page 42 of O'Mega's Revenge
“It’s on them, on him,” he muttered.
“Yes.” He understood, probably better than anyone in this room why I needed control of this situation.
“I got to go talk to Jackson. Are you okay?”
Was I? Yes. I had work of my own to do. “Nonno’s going to be a wild card. Keep him clueless.” My tone still hadn’t warmed. I was in protective mode, but kept the walls down as best I could. My hand tightened on his belt, trapping him a moment longer.
He needed another answer from me.
“That question you asked? Yes, but not now.”
He scrunched up his face in question. Then it cleared, and he laughed. “Damn, Sprout’s ma is a fucking genius.”
What the fuck?
Before he could get too far, I had to even the score. If he could knock me off axis, that deserved retaliation. “One of these days, you’re gonna wake up dead.”
He just laughed and whipped me the bird without looking back.
“I love you, too. Ya big oaf,” I said it as quietly as I could while double-birding him back.
“Good to see you’re taking this well.” Trot didn’t sound happy. I wouldn’t be, either.
“We need a back up to a back up plan.”
“Maybe four or five back up plans,” she mused as we both watched Wolf capture Jackson’s attention.
“Stop looking at my man’s ass.”
“Busted. You know, the hair was a distraction.”
“From?”
“From everything else that boy’s got going on.”
I shoved her. “Knock it off.”
Her quiet chuckle died quickly. “I put in word to Quinn. Got Fell doing some calls. Missile is doing recon on the room, and Quick is…” She blew out a breath.
Both of us knew where that line of logic ended. “Grieving, but handling it for us,” I finished for her.
“Yeah. We gotta kick ass soon, babe. Otherwise, it’s going to catch up to us, too.”
I had to break the bad news to her as painlessly as possible. “It already has. What we’re doing is holding onto a stage of it. As long as it takes. Then, we’ll let the anger go.”
“Why is Fell my VP and you aren’t?”
“Because I hate power, remember?” Power was a horrible thing. The pursuit of it caused so many people to behave badly. But no matter your reason, be it trying to protect your family, or to gain wealth, nothing good ever came out of it if you had to hurt people who didn’t deserve it. In some twisted logic, that was a weakness. Yet societies all over flourished better when people remembered how to be kind. Even Machiavelli conceded that the wise prince took care of his people and obtained power from them through that act.
But he was also the asshole so many evil men quoted.
“I need to tell you about our enemy.”
“Do I need Fell in on this?”
Felonious was her VP and a bitch of a woman. Her whole life revolved around the MC, and doing the dirty work was a badge of honor for her. In ways, she obtained power through treating her people well. Taking on their burdens and the hardest parts of the work so we didn’t have to do it. She was going to work herself into an asylum someday. Of the girls, she was going to take Margaret’s death hardest. I was already detaching from it, knowing it would hit me again someday long from this one. But even in that, I knew I could come out the other side. I’d weathered much worse. “Yes, she needs to be prepared.”
We made maps in the dirt floor. Dug up long-buried memories. I gave any insight I possessed to my club.
