“Little Bo Peep,” she whispers.
“What?”
“Little Bo Peep thinks men are sheep and I use them to my advantage. I lead them here and they’ll never know until I’m stabbing them in the rear.”
“Oh God, that’s fucking hilarious,” Cain starts laughing.
“Joelle?”
“Is there a way to deprogram me? Or would you be using that to catch your enemies unaware? Is sex on the table? What about the circus?”
“Okay, let’s take a moment,” I say, standing to pace.
“Do you love me?” She asks me.
“I do. I just told you that. You started out as a job, but I am falling.”
“I want revenge on my ex. However, the plan works for that since he’s a cop. I love the circus and it’s a great cover for murder.”
“She’s got a point,” Cain interjects.
“Okay?”
“What she’s saying is we use the circus to our advantage. I told you it would make money. We take out enemies across the country by the guise of the burlesque circus. It’s a good cover. She does her little act and when the man we’re hunting comes looking, we pounce. I like it.”
“What about the family?”
“You said yourself that you don’t want to take over. Let your brother and become a hitman. We travel to cities of our choice, hell, even countries. If we don’t want to go, we don’t,” Cain sits back in his chair.
“We?” Joelle cocks her head.
“Oh yeah, this is a threesome now,” Cain chuckles.
Joelle blushes and puts her head down.
“You think Anton will take over? Or that my father will allow it?” I ask.
Cain’s answer is to pick up the phone and call Anton and fill him in.
“Yeah, split evenly,” Cain says as he hangs up, “done.”
“How did you know what city to go to before?” She asks me.
“He would text me where he wanted me to go next, I would suggest it to Meryl.”
“We’re doing this?” Cain asks.
“Yeah,” Joelle nods.
“First, we have to buy a circus,” Cain says, motioning for the men that we didn’t see before to clean up.
“You really are mafia?” She whispers to me.
“I am. Comes with some perks,” I snort.
“Will we still stay in my tent? Can I keep my books?”
“You can have all the books you want,” I say as I grab her hand and kiss the back of it.
