Page 4 of Prey It By Ear

“Chess, open every drawer and cabinet to check them top to bottom. Look for anything out of the ordinary, but don’t touch what you can’t identify. Fitz, under the furniture and between cushions and pillows. We need this room locked down by the time our girl is done showering.”

Now that I’m in a publicly accessible space, it’s time for ‘non-vacation’ Felix to return.

* It’s possible.

Every Breath You Take

Delores

I look around the dining car carefully, noting any preds who make my bunny ears metaphorically twitch. We kept up with the outside world a little from the clutch’s hidden compound, but our focus was more on examining their library for history about the time before the Treaty, and how our world interacted with the magical beings.

Nothing we read convinced me that the Society family ancestors didn’t purposefully provoke incidents in order to grab power across the globe. It was simply too convenient that everything following the Treaty relegated half the remaining population to a lower caste and redistributed industry that was formerly dominated by Fae and other casters to the leaders of the preds.

Capitalism is a bane to society no matter who is running the machine, I suppose.

“You're thinking so hard that I expect steam to come out of your ears, snack size.”

My expression is guilty as I look at Aubrey across the table. He’s bemused as he sips his scotch while Rennie is scribbling in a notebook. “Maybe? Figuring out that there wasn’t really a reason besides greed to ban people from this world sits poorly with me. Not that our new shadowy friend’s response is any better—she’s obviously off her fucking nut—but her kind have a valid point.”

“Rarely in life is anything black and white, cherie,” the gargoyle murmurs as he continues writing in his little book. “And if you consider what was done after the agreement to anyone who remained, can you say without reservation that any reason would be satisfactory? I doubt it, as hate is a poison that cannot be excused.”

Felix leans back in his chair, ruffling his paper loudly, and we turn to look at him. “Our poetic friend is being too vague. I believe the question is: would it be okay to do such atrocities if we were reacting to the ones done to us? What if those terrible things were not truly the acts of our enemies, but seeds of dissent planted by those who wished to ascend to power?”

“An eye for an eye makes the world go blind,” Fitz adds, and then grins at me. “But you’d make a sexy pirate, Baby Girl. Don’t think for a minute that I wouldn’t keep you as my wench if vengeance boomeranged back to you that way.”

He means well, of course, despite the weird connotation that he’d be fine with me missing an eye because I’d be hot in an eyepatch.

“Fitzy, you’re always here to make us lighten up a little, and I love you for it.” I lean into him, nibbling his earlobe as I whisper, “And yes, you can find a pirate costume later.”

His eyes light up, and he practically booty dances with joy in his seat. The others look at me as if I’m encouraging an addict, but that’s okay. Part of knowing how Fitz’s mind works is that people don’t take him seriously, which bothers him, but also he wants to be a clown so they laugh. I take everything he says as if it’s gospel, and adjust once I know he’s being silly for effect. It has the distinct benefit of his feeling validated all the time when I’m around, and that calms his hyper-activity down a little. Win-win, if you ask me.

“So we’ll eat here, hang out a bit, and then what? Last time we got on close enough to bedtime, but we’re on the train early now.” Chess smiles softly at me, his eyes telling me he knows what I just did for our mate.

“Perhaps some of us stay here and putz around while others snoop,” Renard says as he looks up from his writing. “I noticed that in this elite car there are quite a few people of interest.”

Nodding, Felix cuts his eyes to the back left corner where there’s a snooty-looking dude with glasses and a well-tailored suit surrounded by beefy dudes in black. “That’s Silas Vesper. He’s the Director of Marketing & Strategy for Erickson Electronics. He’s been in Prague for secret meetings about a new acquisition on the continent.”

I blink, tilting my head as I look at the guy. “Gotta be a reptile, right? It’s in his build and definitely his scent. Not a python, Komodo, or a crocodile, though. I know what they smell like for certain.”

Aubrey grins as he nods. “Indeed, lunchable. Silas is a viper of some sort, I believe. Not surprising for someone who has risen through the ranks in a cutthroat industry and company such as his. He’s not the highest man in the tower—that’s your ex-friend’s father—but Silas is up there where the air is thin.”

“Why in the fuck would someone like him travel on a train?” I grumble. “I like this for the experience, and I’m no fan of air travel, but… it seems dangerous, right?”

Fitz snorts, shaking his head. “Baby Girl, the ultra-wealthy often travel in odd ways to prevent people from recognizing or posing a security threat. This train is ridiculously chi-chi, and he has five bulky motherfuckers probably trained like Batman sitting with him. I’m sure he feels like he’s safer than a granola bar in a lion cage.”

Laughing, I sigh as I take in more of the people in the car. “Okay, what about that very fancy woman in the back right booth? She’s someone… her look is way too ‘I vont to be alone’ to be a normal rider.”

The tigers look puzzled, and Chess holds a finger up. “They don’t recognize her because she’s not political or sporty, but that’s India Shirdal. She’s Henny’s younger sister and the one people believe will actually run the Shirdal live arts empire when their dad passes. India is known for making or breaking new stars entering the limelight by simply giving a ‘thumbs up or down’ without a word. It’s very Devil Wears Preyda.”

This time, I smirk. “Chessie, you have been listening to Coco and Ru-Ru talk way too much during sleepovers. Even I didn’t remember that shit.”

“I find the arts fascinating,” he says with zero remorse. “Someone related to Council families who can destroy careers before they start is pretty relevant to you, Angel.”

Oh, shit, he’s right.

“Okay, gossip hound,” Felix says dryly. “Which of those two should we try to find dirt on?”

“Both,” Rennie and I say at the same time.