Jasper held up his hand with a shake of his head. "I'll eat later, thanks."
"Good call." Sweeping the whole mess off the side of the desk and into the garbage was worth the hell he'd get for breaking a plate. "I'll just lay this out. You're not coming to Two with us, not this time."
"Guess you're gonna have a full house with Lex along."
"That's not why." Dallas offered Jas a cigarette before pulling out one of his own. "Shit's a mess, man. We've got enemies on all sides. Gareth Woods in the city, the usual scum trying to bite bits of the sector off when we're not looking. Whoever supplied Wilson Trent with those explosives. Hell, even Dom's getting to be more trouble than he's worth. I can't leave for a couple days and trust the place to be standing when I get back. Not without help."
Jasper seemed to consider that. "I can hold it together. Depends, some, on how long you plan to be gone."
A usual meeting between sector leaders dragged through at least two days. One evening for them to indulge in whatever vices Cerys had arranged to put them all in an agreeable frame of mind, and one wasted morning with everyone poking and prodding, feeling out weaknesses and strengths. Only then could they get down to business--and that was under usual circumstances, not with a sector leader dead and his territory dissolving into anarchy.
Dallas lit his cigarette and inhaled deeply before shaking his head. "Figure three nights, at the least. Maybe a week, if nothing goes sideways. They won't want to leave until they've figured out what to do about Three."
"You mean besides burn it to the ground?" Jasper groused.
"Tempting, isn't it?" Not that their own sector had much in the way of elegance. Not like Two or Five or even the nicer parts of Eight. Four took its style from the O'Kanes as much as it took its temper--rough around the edges but solid. Three was straight up broken, just like its leader had been.
But the potential was there.
"There are things we could salvage," Jasper admitted, "but I'm not sure it'd be worth thumbing our noses at everyone else to do it--unless they want you to. It wouldn't be stupid. You clear the place, divide the spoils, and take a finder's fee."
"It'd take a lot of work to enforce some fucking order over there. And probably a fair bit of blood." Perfectly reasonable words, but work and blood had never stopped him before. And staring at all that unclaimed territory on the map stirred the sort of excitement he hadn't felt in too long. "But if we had the manpower...the money could be nice."
"We'd need more people." Jasper leaned forward and braced his elbows on the desk. "I'm talking serious membership drive."
Just the thought splintered pain behind his eyeballs, a headache begging to split open. "Only if you're willing to break them in and weed them out. I don't have the patience for that shit."
"Just let me know. I can start with the fights, the guys who've been around on the fringes for a while."
"Might as well start while I'm gone." Dallas blew smoke at the ceiling as a scowl twisted his lips. "Doesn't really matter who ends up in charge of Three, does it? We need to be stronger."
Jasper grunted.
Dallas glanced at him and got a speculative, curious look back. Jasper didn't sit around and gossip like the women--or Ace--but that didn't make him any less nosy. "You looking for the stab wounds?"
"Dunno." He shrugged. "Figured Lex might take a chunk out of you after the other night."
"We worked it out." Dallas quirked an eyebrow. "Did you and Noelle?"
"We're all right."
Not exactly the words of a man with a newly marked woman bouncing excitedly on his dick. "Sorry for pissing off your girl on your night."
He just shrugged again and, for a moment, Dallas missed the Jasper who'd been utterly his man. As loyal as Jas still was, Noelle had his heart in her perfectly manicured little hands now. She was the one he protected, even if it was just with silence.
Dallas sighed and stared at the ceiling. "I'll make it up to both of you when I get back. Lex is wearing my collar. We've still got shit to figure out, but I'm not enough of an asshole to try to keep her away from Noelle."
Jasper finally chuckled. "I don't think you could, man, even