When Villains Rise (Market of Monsters #3) - Rebecca Schaeffer Page 0,24

little in her throat. “But I don’t know that I regret the choices I made. They seemed right at the time, and I learned a lot from them.”

He raised his eyebrows. “I see. Anything else?”

She snorted. “You want me to apologize for the hot water.”

“That would be nice.”

Her smile was bitter. “Why don’t we just agree we both made mistakes. I shouldn’t have burned your skin off, you shouldn’t have sold me out to Henry.”

He considered, his swampy eyes strange and unreadable, before inclining his head. “Very well. We both made mistakes.”

Nita could hear his unspoken but you made more. Which she couldn’t argue with.

“You told Diana you were here because of something to do with the Dangerous Unnaturals List?” Adair asked, changing the subject.

Nita nodded. Of all people besides Kovit, Adair probably had the most invested in getting rid of the list. It was only a matter of time before kelpies were added and Adair was murdered. He’d kept his species off it with information and blackmail and who knew what else, but it was a stopgap, not a solution.

“I might have an idea to get rid of the list.” Nita let out a breath. “But I would need your help.”

“Of course you need my help. You always need my help.” His tone was mocking, but his eyes were calculating. “Tell me more about this opportunity.”

Here was the sticky part. This involved telling Adair her plans for herself too. And she didn’t know who he might sell that information to.

Was it worth risking her own safety and her own plans to help Kovit?

She felt a bit bad even thinking it. She knew Kovit would gladly help her at whatever risk to himself—he had already. But she couldn’t help hesitating, because nothing in the world was worth more to her than her own safety.

But she deemed the risk worth the reward, so she took a breath and spoke. “I’ve captured Fabricio Tácunan. I’m going to use him to break into his father’s company and steal all the files.”

Adair tilted his head to the side. “And?”

“And I want to make a trade with INHUP. Dissolve the list for the contents of those files.” Nita met his eyes. “You and I both know that every black market player, every corrupt politician, everyone who has something to hide and the money to do it hires Tácunan Law. With all that information to trade . . .”

“You want to take the list down?” Adair gave her a skeptical look, and then his face cleared. “Ah, no, you’re not that altruistic. You want to use it to blackmail black market players so that they stop hunting you. The list is just a side note to help Kovit out.”

She winced at how easily she’d been seen through. “There’s no reason I can’t want to do both.”

“Won’t work. Trading information for taking down the list, I mean.” Adair sighed softly. “You think I haven’t thought of something like that before? I can tell you secrets that would crush dynasties.”

“But all of Tácunan Law?”

Adair leaned back. “They’re even less likely to take that deal.”

“Why?”

“Because to make a deal so big it would take down the Dangerous Unnaturals List . . . Do you know how high up in INHUP you’d need to be to make that deal?”

“And?”

“And the people that high in INHUP all use Tácunan Law.” Adair leaned forward. “Rather than dealing with you, they’d be more likely to murder you so word of their crimes doesn’t get out.”

Nita stared, her mind blanking for a moment.

Of course. Of course they wouldn’t want to make that deal.

Nita had known that forces in INHUP were corrupt. She’d been paying for Adair’s protection with the names of corrupt INHUP agents. Someone in INHUP had tagged her phone and sold her GPS location on the black market.

When Fabricio had fled Nita’s mother, he’d gone to INHUP, but he’d known how corrupt they were and had tried to ensure that he’d be able to escape by having new documents made before he got there. He, of all people, would have had intimate knowledge of how many INHUP agents used his father’s company, and he was more mistrustful than Nita had ever been of INHUP.

Adair was right. There was no bargain she could make that would convince INHUP to take that list down.

“I’m sorry about Kovit, Nita,” Adair said, interrupting her thoughts.

Nita blinked. “How did you know?”

“Why else would you suddenly be looking to take the list down?” His smile was ironic. “It’s