Marcus nods, catching my gaze. “It was neutral territory under Luca’s rule, and I don’t see any reason to change that.”
“Even if we plan on changing everything else,” Theo adds, looking up from where he’s tracing the shapes of the roses on my tattoo. The light contact of his fingertip on my skin sends a pleasurable little thrill through me.
Movement to my left catches my eye, and I glance up to see Victoria walking toward us. Last time I saw her, she was dirty and disheveled from a vicious and bloody fight. But she looks elegant and sharp today, her auburn hair sleek and her makeup perfectly done. She walks with a slight limp, which I’m sure would be worse if she weren’t so determined, and one hand lightly grips the arm of the tall man who walks beside her.
It must be Jaden.
She never described him, but I know it’s him anyway. I can tell by the way her body seems to unconsciously lean closer to his, and by the protective way he moves beside her that the two of them are in love.
That this is the man she did all of this for. The man she fought for, tooth and fucking nail.
He’s got dark brown hair and deeply tanned skin. His eyes are dark too, framed by long lashes, straight brows, and high cheekbones. His expression is serious as his gaze tracks over all of us, and I wonder what Victoria has told him, or what he’s heard from other sources.
When they reach us, Victoria nods curtly.
As she introduces Jaden, I shoot a surreptitious glance at my men. Technically, this negotiation was just supposed to be between the four of us, Victoria, and Caleb. I wait to see if any of them will object, but none do. They must know as well as I do that Jaden will be a part of this no matter what.
“Where’s Dom?” Theo asks.
The name sounds so strange to me now. At some point in the middle of this fucking ordeal, my brother flipped from being Dominic to being Caleb in my head, and it’s hard to think of him any other way now. But not everyone knows his whole story yet, I don’t think, and I appreciate that Theo is letting him be the one to tell it.
“I don’t know.” Victoria shrugs. “He’s not staying at my house anymore. After two days, Doctor Brenson gave him the go-ahead to move around, and he left. Brenson will still do his follow-ups, but I haven’t spoken to him since then.”
“There he is.” Ryland jerks his chin, and I turn to see my brother walking slowly up the path from the opposite direction.
Caleb is moving slowly, but he’s upright and has a lot more color than he did last time I saw him. The sun glints off his dark hair as a messy piece falls across his forehead, and when he sees us all looking at him, he tries to pick up his pace.
“Jesus, he’s gonna pull his stitches,” I mutter, irritation in my voice. I stand up and stride quickly over to him, meeting him halfway and offering him my arm.
He looks at it in surprise, and I press my lips together.
“Don’t make a big deal out of it. And don’t expect this kind of thing all the time. I just don’t want you to pop your stitches and bleed all over yourself while we’re discussing the future of Halston.”
Caleb’s mouth twitches like he’s trying to fight back a smile, but he doesn’t say anything as he rests a hand on my good arm, letting me take a little of his weight.
When we reach the others, Marcus, Ryland, and Theo are all standing. I step up beside Marcus, and the seven of us form a small circle.
“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us,” Marcus says, skipping the boring pleasantries and jumping right into things. He glances from Victoria to Caleb. “As I’m sure you’ve both noticed, the landscape in Halston is already shifting. There’s a small window of time before the power structure settles. The Morello and Saviano families are already scrambling to increase their influence, but with Gabriel’s and Michael’s deaths, each organization has their own internal shit to deal with. That leaves an opening. An opportunity.”
Victoria’s eyes narrow slightly, and I can tell that although she’s keeping her face set into a neutral mask, she’s interested.
“We have a proposal for you,” Ryland adds, picking up where Marcus left off. His gaze bounces from Victoria to Caleb. His black eye has faded a bit, the colors turning a little green around the edges. “An offer.”
Caleb sounds interested too, but he also looks a bit wary. “What kind of offer?”
Theo grins. “When we decided to try to force Luca to step down, we agreed that we’d let him name Marcus the winner of the game—but that once he passed over his power, we would redistribute it, dividing things among ourselves.”
“And that offer still stands,” Marcus says.
“Share power?” Victoria rolls the words around as if testing them out. “Why would you be willing to do that?”
Marcus holds her gaze evenly. It’s not hard to believe that less than a week ago, he tried to put a bullet in her head. They’ve moved past the point of wanting to kill each other and into a place of grudging respect, but I don’t think they’ll ever get too far beyond that.
I don’t think Marcus will ever entirely forgive her for trying to take him from me, and I can’t blame him for that.
“Two reasons,” he tells her. “The first is that none of us have the resources or ability to claim absolute power for ourselves. There’s strength in numbers, and dividing up the empire will make it easier to defend.” He shrugs, his eyes glinting. “And the second is that it’s dangerous for anyone to control that much of the city. Luca proved that beyond a shred of doubt. He abused his power because there was no one strong enough to check him. We don’t want to see that happen again.”
“So we’re offering a partnership.” Ryland crosses his arms over his chest, revealing hints of the dark ink on his skin beneath the sleeves of his shirt. “The six of us, each controlling a piece of Halston.”
Victoria glances at Jaden, and I know she’s remembering the years he spent under Luca’s thumb. She did a good job of disguising how much she hated Luca D’Addario while she was playing the game, but I can see it now in the dark cloud that passes over her face.
She and Jaden share a look, a silent communication passing between them. Then she turns back to us.
“All right. I accept. As long as one thing is perfectly clear. I don’t work for you. Any of you. We’re partners, and I won’t be taking orders from anyone.”
Marcus smiles, although the hard glint in his eyes doesn’t disappear. “Of course. Same goes for each of us.”
Caleb hesitates for a moment, his gaze darting to me. I wonder if the fact that we’ve just discovered we’re related makes him more or less likely to accept our offer. It means we’ll pretty much have to be in each other’s lives since we’ll be sharing control of the city, and even though he said he wanted that the last time we spoke, it’s possible he’ll still decide to back out. He was recovering from a gunshot wound and probably on a nice cocktail of drugs that morning, so who knows if he meant what he said.
But to my surprise, his blue eyes soften a little. Some of the tension and mistrust fades from his expression, and he nods. “Yeah. I’m in. My family name doesn’t mean shit to me anymore, so I need to build something for myself. For my own name.”