"Wait," I said quickly. When everyone's eyes turned to me, I turned mine on Milly. "Do you know who Nile Fox is?"
She stared at me for a moment before she burst into giggles. "Do you mean Nyla Fox? She's one of the Crimson Vipers. She sticks to the shadows, but rumour has it she's trying to position herself to be Carlos Jones' successor. She's a nasty piece of work. If I were you, I'd stay away from her."
"How do you know who she is?" I asked.
"I listen to gossip," she said. "You know people tell us things they wouldn't say to anyone else. Some of the cartel guys frequent Flirts. I'm a favourite of some of them." She shrugged modestly. "But you didn't hear any of this from me. Be careful, they say she's more ruthless than Carlos Jones. He's a pussycat in comparison to her. Now, can you put me down?"
Gradually, Storm lowered her to the ground. The moment her feet touched, she bolted for the door.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Frost asked Ice.
"She really is harmless." Ice turned back to his other guest. "Unlike this prick. He tried to get too handsy with a woman without her consent. You know how I feel about men like that. Shame you weren't here an hour ago, you would have been able to watch me redecorate him so he'll never try anything with another woman again." He smiled. "He's lucky I'm not the sort of person to give him what he tried to give her. A guy has to have limits."
"It's not worth stooping to his level," I agreed. "Hopefully whatever he's writing will reach other people like him."
"Hopefully," Ice agreed. "Otherwise I'm going to need a bigger workroom."
"That reminds me," Frost said, looking excited. "I wanted to talk to you about a workroom of our own."
While the pair chatted about torture devices, I stepped over to Dallas, who'd retreated to the corner of the room.
"I could have sworn she said Nile," he said when I got close enough to hear him whisper. "If I got it right in the first place…"
"We still wouldn't have known," I said. "I've never heard of her. If she's as bad as Milly said, then I don't want to meet her. Milly might have the right idea about getting out of Dusk Bay." We couldn't leave, we both knew that, but it was tempting.
"You think she's who is behind all of this?" Dallas asked. "She might be the one trying to muscle in on the Brantley's territory."
I thought about that for a minute or two.
"I suspect it's more than that," I said finally. "She might be trying to replace them, and Carlos. If she managed that, she'd be incredibly powerful."
She might not stop at Dusk Bay. That much power would become addictive and she'd want more and more of it. People like that, they didn't care who they stepped on in their quest for power. Whether it was us, or half the city, she wouldn't flinch. Whatever it took to win.
"What do we do?" he asked. His brow was corrugated with a deep frown, eyes more troubled than I'd seen them yet. Blaming himself for mishearing, even though it really wouldn't have made a difference in the long run.
But it mattered to him, so it mattered to me. If it was allowed to fester, like an untreated wound, it would eat him up inside.
I shook my head. "I have no idea."
I had a bad feeling about this from the start. Now, it at least doubled. Possibly tripled.
I felt like we were living that scene in the firstStar Warsmovie, where the walls of the garbage compactor were pressing in on the characters. Threatening to squash them into nothing. All that was missing was the literal dirty water. And a handy android to turn the compactor off from the outside.
"I won't let anything happen to you," he said quickly. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close, like the embrace would keep me safe from the world.
"I know you won't," I said. "I won't let anything happen to you either." Maybe it was time to practice my gun and knife skills. They were rusty to say the least. Put either weapon in my hand and it would probably come back to me like riding a bike. What choice did I have? If anyone came for us, I needed to be prepared.
"Ice loves the idea of our own workroom," Frost said, coming up beside us. "He's going to help us put it together." He was bouncing on the balls of his feet and like he was ready to jump up and down. His smile was like a little boy allowed to go into a toy shop and choose anything he wanted. Or one who found everything he ever dreamt of, sitting under the tree on Christmas morning. When he’d embraced the darker side of himself, he did it with enthusiasm. For him, there was no looking back.
"That's great," I said absently.
Who needed literal dirty water when the figurative kind dragged you under against your will? For so many years, I'd fought against the current, only to have it engulf all of us like a tsunami. The battle I'd fought for so long, was it one I'd never win? Right then, it felt like it.
Whether I wanted to or not, I was a part of the darker side of Dusk Bay. I had two choices: sink or swim.
Chapter Fourteen
Chelsea
