consolidating power in the Alley, in theory they might be able to make something of themselves and annoy us later.”
“Oh. You mean like what Mansfield is doing with Asylum?”
“Yes, he’s one of the morons, although he’s the son of a wealthier family in Maine. His problem is he’s like the tenth born and won’t be getting jack shit in inheritance, and he isn’t good enough at large-scale business ventures to make any headway in the East. His option is to get as many smart people in the Alley working with him as possible, like the boy. The boy is not precisely fond of that one. Whenever he wanders out of the Alley, he does try to email. Sometimes, he calls to rant. I do enjoy those phone calls. He’s delightfully waspish.”
Sandro, waspish? I pointed at the paperwork. “That is the boy, yes?”
“Yes, it is. Why do you ask?”
“Sandro, waspish?”
“He can be a right bear, really. You yourself said he took a lech’s hand.”
“That is what you think of as waspish?”
“Well, when he’s taking hands, he’s definitely feeling waspish.”
I couldn’t argue with that, so I didn’t. Desperate to find something sane to discuss, I asked, “Where do you live?”
“Long Island most of the time, but we’re headed to Lake George. It’s about an hour from here, so it’s not too bad. The boy doesn’t know about that property, as I bought it last year, so I’ll text him to meet us there to discuss negotiations. Theo, can you call Marco and tell him to remove the sign with our name on it? I don’t want to tip him off too early. I want to leave him on my doorstep, annoyed and confused, until he realizes he’s been fully played. Oh! I’ll make his father answer the door. He can be the negotiator. He does that sometimes.”
Sandro’s uncle heaved a sigh, and a moment later, the sound of a phone ringing filled the limousine.
“Or you can put the call over the sound system.”
“Everything okay, Theo?” a tired man with a voice startlingly similar to Sandro’s asked.
“Everything’s fine. The boy’s little fox was purchased for a million and a half, and it looks like the boy was the provisional buyer, so his mother, because she lacks in sense and gets carried away, wants you to play the middle man while she tricks him at the Lake George house.”
Sandro’s father chuckled. “If you want, Stephani. You still overspent your budget.”
“She’d gotten up to eight hundred thousand, and several assholes were fucking with me because they could. I wasn’t leaving without his fox. She’d agreed to give him two years to prove he wasn’t useless, and he sent her to the East to make sure she got properly cared for.”
“After costing you a fortune on shit care in the Alley,” Sandro’s father grumbled.
“She’s either a mix or a witch, too. Possibly a master, but we’ll have to test that and teach her if she’s not already skilled. She’s well worth her price tag, and she’s calm as can be. Don’t you complain at me! The boy would cry if I let his little fox die because of a shit hospital. He did good by her, but I’m going to remind him why it’s not good to let her out of his sight in the future.”
With a long-suffering sigh, Sandro’s father said, “He’s been trying to find the auction house that had her for a week. I have told you this several times today alone. He’s about frothing over it.”
“It’s not my fault he didn’t have an invite.”
“Stephani.”
“Don’t you take that tone with me, Marco.”
“I’ll do exactly as I want. Does the boy’s vixen, perhaps, have a name she’d prefer rather than the boy’s vixen? Also, the only reason I’m calling Sandro the boy right now is because he cost me how much money?”
“Somewhere around four million dollars,” Sandro’s mother reported with an alarming amount of good cheer. “And it’s only partially his fault. He just wanted to catch his fox. She’s adorable. You can’t blame him for falling for those ears and tail. She turns them back when she’s annoyed, and it’s adorable. Everything about her is adorable.”
To hopefully restore the crazy rich people to some semblance of sanity, I said, “My name is Jade.”
“Good evening, Jade. Don’t mind the wife. She’s always excitable when Sandro comes home, and it’s been a while. How are you feeling?”
“I’ve been better, but I’m all right. I think they finally got rid of the infections.” I hoped. I’d