Page 48 of Dragon in Denial
“Is that what this is about?” Delilah interrupted. “Revenge? I do adore a good revenge scheme. Tell me more.”
“Here’s the deal,” Antoinette said, brushing past Ketu as she walked over to sit next to Delilah at the table. “The current reeve hasn’t been seen in years. There’s a good chance he’s dead and his son is hiding that fact, probably because he killed him.”
“The son is Darius, right?” Delilah asked. “He’s the one who created the dragon’s blood.”
Antoinette nodded. “He’s in charge of your business—and the entire colony. He’s making all the decisions right now. But if the colony knew, they’d kick him out. Leaving you to step in as reeve.”
She paused, probably to let that sink into Delilah’s brain. But he didn’t care that Delilah had pretty much bought into Antoinette’s idea. Because her idea sucked. He wasn’t going to trade one shitty reeve for another. No way. “This is bull—”
“Let’s do it,” Delilah shouted, clapping her hands together like they’d just signed an agreement for something positive, not a fucked up life sentence for the Rojo colony.
“But wait,” she said, holding up her finger. “We’re going to need help. We can’t do this alone.”
Antoinette glanced at Ketu, swallowed, and quickly looked away.
“I’m not sure we can convince the gargoyles to help,” Delilah mused. “They’re so damn altruistic, and they don’t trust me for shit anymore. So we need someone else.” She lifted her gaze to Ketu. He immediately started shaking his head.
“Nope, don’t even—”
“Get your colony down here,” Delilah stated. “Call my son and tell him to come help, and it’s a deal. Otherwise, all bets are off.” She leaned back in her chair again, crossing her arms, apparently ready to wait it out while they mulled over their decision.
Which was to either destroy the dragon’s blood trade once and for all or let it continue unchecked. But if they chose to destroy it, that path involved putting a questionable leader into place as reeve. How the hell did Antoinette figure Delilah was any better than Darius?
“She’s giving us her word that she’ll end the dragon’s blood trade,” Antoinette said, apparently realizing she needed him on her side.
He frowned. Sure, maybe, but was putting this woman in place as reeve really any better?
“Darius won’t have power anymore,” Antoinette added. “He won’t be able to destroy any more lives.”
Yes, that was tempting, but Ketu still didn’t like the idea of helping a known drug dealer become leader of the entire damn colony.
“Oh, forget about him.” Delilah pulled her phone out of her pocket and tapped a code to unlock the screen. “I’ve got this handled.”
She paused and then said into the phone, “Why hello, Mother. How is the north treating you? Cold? Yes, I imagine so. Oh well, I’m so glad you’re getting your daily fix of great-grandkids.” She rolled her eyes.
“Listen, I’d love to chitchat—okay, no I wouldn’t. I need you to pass along a message to your reeve. Yes, your grandson. Anyway, tell him that I’m sitting here with his boy, Ketu, and he needs to hurry down here to take care of a little problem that’s come up. Oh, and if he wants to bring along a few big, strong dragons, that would be great. What? No, I’m not going to tell you what’s going on. Just tell him to get his ass down here to New Orleans. Tell him to call me when he arrives, and I’ll let him know where to go from there. Oh please, stop with your pitiful threats. And stop asking what’s going on. I’m not telling you. Now hurry up and let him know we’re waiting. Uh-huh, yeah, okay, bye.”
She disconnected the call and smiled. “Well, that’s settled. Now we wait.”
