share when things change
hands. Surely you already thought of this.”
Ren and Jordan meet eyes across the table, and briefly they
are united as passengers on a sinking ship. They’re about to start
spluttering, claiming to have remembered Matt, though clearly it never crossed
their minds. I spare them the trouble and continue.
“I’m just saying…” I flip my hair casually over my
shoulder as I lean back, “…Ultimately, you all have to decide if you can make
business work together or not. But financially speaking, it makes more
sense. I mean, you’re already taking a twenty percent hit, total.
Now, if you’re splitting things up in addition to that, it doesn’t leave either
group with a lot to work with. And honestly, you’re both going to find
your position in the Outpost is incredibly weakened. Plus, you’ll be
competing with each other. If I were you, I’d seriously rethink splitting
up at all.”
The men at the table spend another round of silence thinking
before negotiations resume with consideration to the new information I’ve
presented. Honestly, I have no idea if Matt expects a share when property
switches hands, but it works for me. And Matt doesn’t need to know about
it. He’s busy right now. With a little luck, it will never come up.
The negotiations take a while, and there are problems to
sort out far beyond financial disputes. There are slights and hurt
feelings to smooth over in order to patch things up between the two
groups. Turns out, I’m really good at mediating. Before it’s all
over, I’ve managed to reunite Donegan’s men with Ren Sawyer as their official
leader, and Jordan Black as a captain with his own crew to manage. All of
them are pleased to maintain their previous operation in one piece, and if
they’re not grateful enough about that, they’re downright tickled when I agree
to take the warehouse and five percent for now, allowing them to pay the rest
of their debt in labor. By the time we part ways, I’m their new favorite
person. I’m also the owner of a warehouse, a good chunk of cash, and I
have a small force ready to do my bidding. I just have to figure out how
I’m going to use it.
***
I head out onto the streets to search the marketplace once
again for Neveah. My ever-vigilant bodyguards trail me down the street
silently. The sun is shining, making it warm enough that they save their
complaints for later. They’re also strangely buoyed by the gold I’ve
promised them in exchange for their silence. Honestly, I’m starting to
like them, so if they did complain, I might have to listen, but neither of them
speak at all. In the market, there’s still no sign of Neveah. I
start to wander, looking for her, but I find I’m thinking about my warehouse
and what I can do with it. My first thought is moving in, but I know
better than to think I can hide from Matt. There’s an idea brewing in the
back of my mind, but I need to work out the details. I’m tired of the
misery. Things are going to change around here for real.
My new determination brings on a curiosity about whether
there’s any weight to Matt’s claim that things will improve. As I head
for my new warehouse, I scan the Outpost for signs of change. For hope
that things are getting better. And they are. Food prices are
already going down. Way down. The market vendors offer items for sale
that would have been impossible to get only a week ago—oil for lamps, onions,
apples. The cake seller has scores of cakes. There's barrels of
rice and wheat. And the flower peddlers are back, calling "lilies
and roses," over and over again. The sound of my name, my real name,
makes me shiver. I think of Jonas. Of kissing him. My soul
sinks into that moment like a warm bath, exulting in the brief flare of
happiness. But inevitably the memory leads to Oscar being taken away by
the Sentry. Me crying and screaming.
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