out rules and manages decisions about the empire. My family is in charge of shipping. We traffic anything illegal, mainly drugs and antiquities. Then there’s another family who runs illegal gambling, card games, film sets, anything on the entertainment side. The third family, Dio, are the muscle, the mercenaries, the hired killers.” She exchanges a look with Antony, and even in my inebriated state, I can see there’s more she’s holding back. “None of them know what I look like or that I’m still alive, but if Brutus has figured it out, then someone else can, too. And it throws a fat-ass question mark over other things – I thought Alec was the one who broke into the house and hurt my cat, but now I have to consider other possibilities.”
“Whether he did or not, he deserved what he got,” Noah rasps. “Could Alec be responsible for today?”
“I don’t know. I believe he’d think nothing of shooting at me, but he nearly hit the son of a senator. That’d cause all kinds of trouble for him.” She narrows her eyes at Noah. “You’re his friend. Is this the kind of thing he’d do?”
“I was his friend,” Noah corrects. “I don’t hang out with rapists. It could be Alec. I wouldn’t have believed it, but… I didn’t believe that stunt he pulled in the desert, either. And you did destroy his car and his nose.”
She nods. “I did. But then, I can’t believe he’d be able to pull one over on Tiberius. But neither does this seem like the work of Brutus or Brentwood. None of it makes sense – why cleverly take out Tiberius to get close to the house, but then completely botch my murder with terrible aim and the wrong weapon?”
The casualness with which she speaks of her own attempted murder makes my cock jerk to attention. The alcohol hums in my veins, my whole body drowning in a sweet warmth that makes the danger and insanity of this conversation seem utterly comical. “What happens now? We whack Brutus and Bollywood, and then what?”
Claudia laughs, and the sound is glass shards tinkling against cold hotel room bathroom tile. Beautiful in the way all pain is beautiful, and instantly sobering. “You’ve known the truth for all of seven minutes and you’ve already jumped to whacking.”
“What can I say? I’m a fast learner.”
“You don’t just go around taking out crime bosses on a whim,” Antony snaps. “For one thing, Brutus has gone to ground. How do you plan to get close enough to him to ‘whack’ him?”
“Also, no one says ‘whacking’ anymore.” Claudia rolls her eyes. “This is politics as much as it’s crime. There’s an honor code, and we need to be careful how we approach this or we could land the city in an all-out gang war.”
“Intriguing,” I drawl. Noah manages to wrestle my vodka away. I lurch toward him but misjudge… everything, and end up in a giggling heap on the floor. Possibly it’s for the best. I wave goodbye to my vodka as Noah pours it into a potted plant.
I burp loudly and shoot my arm into the air again. “I have another question. Why does he call you Claws?”
She raises a hand, curling her fingers over, her long fingernails dripping blood-red polish. “Because I may be tiny, but if you come too close, I’ll scratch your eyes out.”
Why do I have a feeling she means that literally?
Why do I find that so damn hot?
Claudia shoves Buzzcut and Cave-In Face (I’m too wasted to remember their names) out of the ballroom and pulls the doors shut behind them. She leans against the ornately carved panels, her chest heaving, her blonde curls plastered to her face.
“So…” she looks like she’s ready to bolt.
“You’re not Mackenzie,” Noah says. “You’re not her.”
He looks relieved. Such a weird face for Noah Marlowe. It doesn’t suit him.
She shakes her head. “I’m not going to apologize again. I’m not sorry I stole her life. It was up for grabs and I did what I had to do to survive. I am sorry that I dragged the three of you into this. I checked Mackenzie’s room before I started at Stonehurst. I’ve been using her old phone for years, so I read all the messages. Apart from Eli’s incessant texts that eventually stopped coming, there was nothing that talked about close friends or cute boys, so I thought I was safe if I could keep up her Ice Queen facade. I didn’t find