City of Fire and Ink

Grumpier than a Band of Alley Cats

"And exactly how the fuck are we going to do that?"

The Murder Madams sat around Dominic's table, the sun spilling onto the hardwood floors. Aisha changed the nickname of the group chat every few days. Today, we were the Murder Madams. A week ago, we were the Victorious Villains. I liked that one a lot better than murder madams, but it was worth it to see the look on Owen's face. He clearly wasn't a fan of the name. 

Dominic laced his fingers together. "Pleasure houses are under equal jurisdiction of all the gangs. We hold considerable authority."

"Really?" I raised an eyebrow. "Sorry, I just thought that Thornwood controlled the pleasure houses."

"Me too." I whipped my head around. Was Maisie Demon Face agreeing with me? I totally would have teased her about it, but I didn't like Dominic's attention on me any more than I needed.

"Who told you that?" His eyes narrowed. 

"Nobody told me. It was implied. If they have clubs like Wonderland, why wouldn't they run the pleasure houses?"

"And what do the rest of you have to say about this?" Dominic's face darkened, the displeasing information crunching up his body like a piece of used paper. 

We sat in awkward silence. A calm Dominic was one thing, but one who was very visibly annoyed was something none of us wanted to get close to with a ten foot pole. Finally, Rowan decided to speak up. "Yeah. I mean, I knew that pleasure houses were technically a safe zone, but they always seemed to be run by Thornwoods, so that's how I thought of them." 

"I knew the Nostras were involved in it, since that's the easiest way to get information out of someone." Orion coughed, and Owen amended "well, one of the easiest ways."

Dominic was up, pacing around the room. "So no one thinks that we control the pleasure houses?" None of us answered. We all watched him, the sunlight licking his boots. The day was warm, but the temperature inside his office was practically glacial. I shivered under my leather jacket, the thin fabric not doing much to keep me warm. 

"That's a good thing." I volunteered. Dominic stopped pacing immediately and fixed me with a stare.

"Explain."

"We won't be the ones to blame. Say miraculously this whole thing works, and we get all the major pleasure houses of Pardahna to do what we need them to do, then no one is looking at us. All eyes are on Thornwood and we're in the clear. Hell, we can even act mad about it and say they tampered with our liquor or something." I watched the scowl drain from Dominic's face as he mulled over my words. 

"You think that would work? This entire room isn't public opinion."

"In a way though, it is.  We were all hand chosen for this set, but who among us is a legacy?" I glanced around. Emery, Rowan, and Maisie raised their hands. "Ok, well not all of us. Orion and I, I think it's safe to say, were as good as regular civilians before we landed ourselves here. Aisha and Ayofemi were minding their own business before they got here." I was guessing on that last bit, but but those two seemed the closest to normal people. 

"Random civilians that hacked our warehouses and killed our snipers." Dominic reminded me. I knew what he was doing, trying to bait me with Carys's death. I was so over him trying to use my inexperience and emotions against me so I ignored him. 

"Doesn't matter how we got here. What matters is that there's a solid chance that people aren't going to blame us when things start to go south."

"Very well then, let's play out your plan." Dominic rubbed his hands together. "We'd start with connections. I can't help you directly. That will draw way too much attention. An engraved invitation from Dominic Sforza will put a giant unnecessary target on our backs. I can give you names, but you're going to have to do the work yourself. We need every major pleasure house and their leaders in on this."