Chapter 28

Sabina took me to an upper floor, to a room on the corner of the raised house that had both a view of the river and the smoke from the warehouse fires still burning. The morning had nulled the bite of winter's freeze, clearing some of the fog heavy over the river with its arrival, though the Districts were still concealed on the other side.

Two women discussed the day's schedule with Sabina, and I waited for her to explain why she dragged me up here. They reviewed the clean-up and the meetings to account for the stock along with the projected loss from the hits, adding insult to injury with every bullet on the list.

"For hell's sake," Sabina snapped, "just get out. I'll deal with this later."

"But Madame—"

"Get out," her boss hissed. I flinched for her. "Tell Vincent to handle things until I'm ready for my next appointment."

Her assistants gave small bows before scurrying out of the room, glancing at me before they left. We stood in silence for a moment once they were gone, letting the dust of the day's disturbances settle some.

"We should have foreseen this," she said at last. She faced the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring out over the burning remains of her sector.

"I didn't think they'd be so bold," I admitted. Certainly not here, anyway. The viaduct, the Row's station, my factories, all places I would have bet the Society would have attacked before Sabina's warehouses.

"You know why they came after me, don't you?" She faced me at last. The morning glare outlined her figure like a silver halo.

"You supply the Row with ninety percent of our goods. The meat from the Wilds, the tannery for clothes and leather products, we're lucky they didn't hit the Salt Exchange, or we'd be screwed."

"All good reasons, yes. Though not the one I was thinking about."

I crossed my arms, unsure of what I'd missed. "What then?"

"The deal you have with Desmond, or have you forgotten now that your wife is home?"

I cursed, releasing a long sigh. "Of course I haven't forgotten. But what does my deal with him have to do with you?"

"I'm the middleman!" she shouted. "I've been his contractor in Lynchaven, for both sides. The Society has been watching me for years; they just never had proof to charge me. But now—" She threw her hands up, gesturing widely. "Now we're at war. Now they don't care about laws or innocent lives."

"How would they know about my deal with York?" The Society bastards had busted the party that night, but I'd left none alive to share my face.

"The Demon Dealer has been looking for someone to move that shit for six weeks. Word must have gotten back to the Watch somehow. The stock, however, remains a mystery. Only that it comes from the Lowlands and is apparently very valuable."

I couldn't think of anything profitable enough to risk this amount of headache in the south. Not that it mattered. My very life depended on getting this job done and done fast. "What's the timeline?"

"The drop is next week. I'll send you coordinates where the buyer wants you to load. Until then, we need to prepare the Row properly."

I nodded, looking out to where smoke was clearing thanks to the morning breeze. "We can distribute weapons to the business strip along the river, but the bombs stay with my men. And my men stay by my wife. I'll not risk someone blowing themselves up because they don't know how to work an explosive safely."

Sabina chuckled darkly. "That's probably wise. I'll send Vincent to your offices to discuss the distribution. For now, I need to deal with my sector."

"I understand. If you need anything else, don't hesitate to call on the Attanos."

"Thank you, Nicolai." A pause. "For everything." She said the last bit in a softer tone, one I'd never heard from the bleeder before.

I turned to leave but suffered one last thought. "You did all this for her, didn't you? Helping me so much to get Milla back. It wasn't because we were allies. It's because of her mother."

The bleeder queen lowered herself into a chair, eyes drifting to the furthest window, where the view was consumed by the rough waters of the Ada. "To everyone, Chaos was a saint, a monster who tried to break the world. To me, she was my closest friend. Sometimes my only friend, and I loved her more than I loved anyone else in this life, save for my own miserable mother." Sabina's dark gaze rested on me then. "I owe it to Nadine to look after her daughter in her place, but trust me when I say she would have been grateful for you as well."

The admission shifted something in my chest. Something heavy I didn't know had rested there. "Thank you, Sabina. That means a lot, coming from someone who knew her."

"You love Camilla," she said then, completely off topic.

I couldn't deny it. Didn't want to. "I do."

"Have you told her?"

"Not in those words exactly."

Sabina rolled her eyes. "Men. You have all the courage to bust into a high security prison and rescue your woman, but saints forbid you say a four-letter word." She scoffed and waved me off. "Get out of my sight before I drag you downstairs and compel you to tell the girl the truth."

Honestly, it wouldn't be her worst idea.

By the time I made it down the ebony-stained stairwell leading to the lowest level, Luther was running up to me from the entryway.

"Boss! It wasn't my fault, I swear it."

Gideon was behind him, scrubbing his face with a hand. "It's completely your fault, Luther."

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking around for Milla. I started towards the parlor when Gideon held up a hand, insisting it was pointless.

"She isn't there. She went home with Adler and Aramis."

An uneasy sensation curled beneath my ribs. I asked Luther once more, sliding each word through my teeth. "What. Happened."

He winced. "I got you in trouble."