2024-07-11 05:24:08
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371 Fish Sticks
Bruno came up off the wheel arch with his rifle still on the young man's chest."There's nobody here by that name, you idiot. You're standing in front of Don Camilla, and she runs every street on this side of the river. Say it right or I'll put you down where you stand."Camilla didn't hear a word of it. Her rifle was still pointed at his chest, but her arms had gone loose, and the barrel was drifting off him an inch at a time.Nobody had called her Callie in all these years.Callie was the name the sisters had written on her file at St. Brigid's. Camilla was the one she'd built on top of it so nobody would ever find the girl underneath.Six people in the world knew the first one. "How do you know my orphanage name?"Her voice came out wrong, and she heard it happen, and every man behind those cars turned to look at her. "Were you in there too?"Tyler shrugged. "We can talk about all of that later."Another burst came in off the north road and blew the wing mirror off the car above th
370 River Street
Gunfire tore across River Street Square without stopping.Fifty rifles were firing into the center of it from four directions at once. The noise came off the buildings and doubled back, so hard that the shop windows on the corner had already shaken out of their frames.In the middle of that square, twelve men and one woman were pinned down behind four cars.The cars were coming apart around them. Glass sprayed off the roofs in sheets and rounds punched clean through the door panels into the asphalt.One of them found the fuel line on the second car. The whole front end thumped and caught fire.Vex had sealed all four roads with vehicles. Two moving trucks nose to nose on the north, a flatbed and three vans on the south.Cars turned sideways east and west, bumper to bumper, close enough that a man couldn't get between them.There was no way out of that square. That was the whole point of it.The woman in the middle of them was in her mid-twenties.She was tall, with the kind of beauty
369 Free Food and Drinks
"Take your hand out of that woman's hair before you really hurt her."Dodo didn't move. He stood there with a fistful of Rosa's hair and a grin on his face. He was already sure what the answer was going to be."Forget about this old bitch. Listen to my offer. Five grand a month, kid, and you never pay for anything on this side of the river again.""Guys twice your age and half your size have begged me for that offer. Say yes and let's go get a drink."Tyler was barely listening. "I'd rather go back to prison."Dodo's grin came down about halfway. "You want to run that past me one more time? Because I don't think I heard it right.""You heard me fine. I'd rather go back to Montserrat and serve the other nine years in the ice than stand around with a pack of worms who swindle an old woman out of a breakfast she cooked for you."Rosa let out a painful gasp and Tyler stood up out of the chair. "Now take your hand out of her hair. That's twice I've asked."The one nearest the door didn't w
368 The Tab
Sapphire City was carved into eleven districts on the official maps.Nobody who actually lived there used those maps. There were two halves, east and west, and everybody knew which side of the line they were standing on.The east belonged to Dorian Vex. The west belonged to Don Camilla. The border ran along the river and shifted a few blocks every year depending on who'd shot who.The same people paid for both sides.Six or seven billionaire families kept the mobs funded. A construction permit moves faster when the men across the table are frightened.Contracts got won. Inspectors changed their minds. Union heads retired early.Mayor Rourke didn't interfere with any of it. Those same families had paid for his campaign twice, and a man doesn't bite the hand that buys his billboards.That was the city. Everybody living in it just worked around the two of them and got on with their day.Corvetti's had been on the corner of Ninth and Maple for a hundred and four years.It was a narrow pla
367 Half the City
"I do not know," Tyler said.Ivy let out a breath she had been holding since the hotel."I have not found either of them and I have nothing to go on. But nobody has told me they are dead, and until somebody does, I am going to keep assuming they are out there." He looked over at her. "Do you know anything at all?"Ivy shook her head, and it took her a moment to start."All three of us got through the fence at the back with the roof going up behind us. Then there were headlights on the road and men shouting, and Callie shoved me one way and took Junie the other. That was the last time I saw either of them.""Why did she split you up?""Because there were two directions and three of us, and she made a decision in about one second." Ivy's mouth twisted. "That is Callie. She took the one with the headlights on it and gave me the empty one. I did not work that out until I was about seventeen.""How old were you when that happened?""Twelve. I ran for two days and slept in a bus shelter." I
366 Marriage Proposal
The penthouse sat forty floors above the harbour, quiet enough to hear the ice shift in a glass.Ivy came out of the kitchen in cotton shorts and an old grey t-shirt, with her hair pulled up in a clip. No makeup, and bare feet on the wooden floor.She handed Tyler a drink and folded onto the couch beside him with her knees tucked under. She looked more like herself than she had all afternoon.On the counter behind them her phone had been buzzing without a break for two hours. It went off again while she was sitting down, and she reached over and turned it face down without looking at the screen."That has not stopped since we got in the car," Tyler said."It is not going to stop for about a week." Ivy pulled a cushion into her lap. "Somebody outside that showroom filmed the whole thing and had it online before we were even in the building. Four hundred people, four hundred phones. The story going around tonight is that Ivy Solaris has a secret boyfriend who just got out of prison.""Th
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