in the East. That’s been sealed.” Sandro pulled me into the government building and headed to where the guard stood discussing something with more men in suits, old rich farts from the looks of them, likely Asylum dwellers who hadn’t worked a day in their damned lives. “I will sit down with you and disclose everything, but I want to get some paperwork in place for your protection. I can’t do as much as I would like, but Tulsa being added to the rest of the system will be helpful, since your bounty and contract in the East doesn’t activate until after you arrive there. The Alley’s contracts would override the East’s due to the activation clause. Whoever wrote up that document will regret it, as it was a foolish oversight on their part.”
“What language was that in?” I complained. “I understood the part about being put up for sale. The rest may as well be gibberish.”
“I’ll explain it when we get the paperwork. I’ll walk you through it.”
“That sounds suspiciously helpful.”
“I can be quite the helpful man when I wish to be, and I’ve decided I have a horse in this race. You’re the prize purse, and I mean to win you.”
“I’m not sure that’s how this works.” I needed a few minutes to come up with a good argument against the entire scheme involving me becoming anyone’s courtesan while buying some time to get him alone to ask him about the storms and who might be causing them.
Sandro smirked and dragged me over to Ella, who discussed something with the men, who listened with a certain amount of disinterest but nodded. I only caught the tail end of her speech, which boiled down to ‘deal with it’ before she nodded to Sandro and marched out of the building.
“Gentlemen,” he greeted. “Pass or permit first? I’d like to get her educated about her role in my household and process the appropriate paperwork.”
The men, all old enough to be my grandfathers, took their time looking me over like I was a choice bit of beef available for their enjoyment. Fury distracted me from my goal, and I flattened my ears. My fox demanded that I put the unwanted males in their place so they wouldn’t bother us again.
It amused me she’d altered her policy from a general interest in any man who looked our way to wanting to posture only for Sandro.
She really might get me killed one of these days, and worse, I found her taste in men unfortunately appealing for once in my life.
Sandro cleared his throat, which drew the men’s attention back to him. “What is the permit fee?”
“Five hundred a year for a single weapon, a thousand for unrestricted weapon types.”
“She’ll take the unrestricted permit,” Sandro replied, and he pulled out a wallet from the inner pocket of his suit jacket, retrieving a card and handing it over. “Yes, I understand you’re going to charge an extra hundred for a rush-processing fee, but I don’t want her leaving City Hall without her carry permit.”
One of the younger men, who might have bordered on being handsome if he bothered to smile instead of scowl all the time, sighed and took the card. “I will take care of this for you, Mr. Moretti.”
“We’ll be waiting.” Sandro pushed back the sleeve of his pristine shirt to check his watch. “I have a rather important meeting in Asylum in two hours, so if this could be handled by then, I would be appreciative, otherwise I’ll have to notify Mr. Mansfield why I’m late for my appointment.”
The entire lot of them stiffened, and I resisted the urge to sniff for smoke, as only fire or destruction of some form tended to get an entire group of people to move like they meant it.
I wanted to know exactly how Sandro knew the mastermind behind Asylum and why a bounty hunter had a meeting with him.
Who, exactly, was Sandro Flores Moretti?
Once the one left to do Sandro’s bidding, he said, “I need a blank copy of the private uncontested courtesan agreement, the current pricing regulations for the agreement, and any forms required to process the filing fees. Once I have that, I’ll need a private office to discuss the matter with Miss Tamrin.”
The old men tripped over themselves to do as Sandro told them, and he waited until they disappeared down the hall and around a corner before he rolled his eyes. “Useless political scumsuckers.”
“Those were politicians?”
“Not even. They’re hopefuls wanting to garner