Page 95 of Beautiful Prey

I leave the flat, locking the door behind me, the little resin Calder warm against my ribs.

Outside, I stop.

Three cars are drawn up across the road where I left one. Not the dusty runabouts that have been trailing us for days, but proper vehicles, armored at the panels, their engines idling. Men lean against them, arms folded. Six I can see. Eight. More shapes inside the cars.

At the center, propped against the middle bonnet with his ankles crossed, is Vasco, the signet ring catching the light as he laces his fingers over his stomach.

“Mr. Clement.” He pushes away from the car, his men following suit. “You’re a hard man to catch alone. All the way out here, too, nowhere near that pretty tower of yours.”

The little Calder I took from Jade presses against my ribs.

“You found me. Congratulations.” I straighten one cuff. “Now tell me why the fuck you’re standing on property that belongs to me.”

Vasco laughs. “Still calling it yours? You walk into my casino, take my company, my housing, and half my fucking district, then drive around Calder like you’ve owned it all your life.”

“I fucking won it. You lost. If that still hurts, take it up with the man who signed the papers.”

His men shift behind him as Vasco closes the distance between us. “Careful, Clement. You’re standing on my streets now, without your cousins, and I’ve been given a very good reason to stop being polite.”

“Then stop.”

Vasco’s smile widens. “Funny thing is, I was going to let this go. Take the loss, learn the lesson, all that grown-up bullshit.”

I say nothing.

“Then I got a message.” He glances at the men around him then looks back at me. “Offworld. Very high up. The sort of name a man like me reads twice before answering.”

I stop smiling, running through the very short list of people powerful enough to make Vasco look this fucking pleased.

Vasco catches it immediately. “You’re getting warmer.”

“Who the fuck put you up to this, Vasco?”

“Oh, come on, Clement. Think.” He takes another step toward me. “Who knows exactly where to hurt you? Who cares enough about your little wedding to make sure you arrive for it?”

Dad’s study comes back whole. The closed door. The cane on the desk. Me standing where he put me, waiting to learn what needed correcting this time. I bare my teeth at Vasco. “No. Don’t be fucking ridiculous.”

His grin turns vicious. “Knew you’d get there.”

I hold his stare, already knowing before I say it. “My father.”

Vasco spreads his hands. “Very generous man, your father, if I may say so. Turns out I don’t have to swallow what happened at that table after all. He wants his son reminded of a few things before a certain wedding, and he was quite specific about how far I’m allowed to go.”

I take one step closer. “How far?”

His gaze travels over me, stopping at my face. “Not there. Apparently he still wants you recognizable at the altar.”

Of course he does. Of course, even this has rules.

I glance over the men surrounding us, then back at Vasco. “So this is your grand plan? I take everything off you, and you crawl to my father for permission to hit me?”

A few of his men laugh before Vasco turns his head toward them, giving me the smug satisfaction of having made him look weak in front of his own fucking men.

“Keep talking,” he grumbles. “He only paid me to leave the face alone. Everything below it is still negotiable.”

I look past Vasco at the men he brought, and all I can see is Dad’s hand behind each of them. Reaching across the fucking Reach, finding the one enemy I made for myself and putting a price on hurting me. He didn’t even need to be here to raise his hand, letting me think I was three moves ahead while he played me from the moment I landed on Calder.

And I spent the whole fucking time thinking the board was mine.