Jay’s brows lift and he silently laughs at my boldness.
“I see,” Murphy says. “You think I have an agenda?”
“We both know you have an agenda with me and Kane. We just don’t know what it is. Not yet.”
“You know my agenda.”
He means to shut down the Society and avenge my mother, which I believe to be true, but it’s not all there is with him. “There’s more,” I reply.
“Hmm,” he says, no denial to him. “Your mother would have loved to see you get married. She liked Kane.”
“Kane said they merely had a few brief encounters at random events.”
“That’s true. But he stood out to her. She told me one evening after an event he attended, a fundraiser, I believe, that she heard the whispers about him. But she praised how magnificently he deflected it all and claimed the room.”
My heart squeezes at the idea of my mother in the same room as Kane. “I never heard that story.”
“Consider it a wedding gift,” he says. “How much time off do you need?”
“A month that will probably turn into a week because someone goes and gets killed.”
“Done. Text me after the meeting with Pocher.” He disconnects.
And that’s when Kane sits down next to me in his six-thousand-dollar suit with a tray of Taco Bell now in front of him. I love it. He’s arrogant but not pretentious.
Kit appears at the end of the table with his own tray and motions to Jay, who grabs his food and follows Kit to another table. Once they’re gone, my attention is on Kane. “How are you here right now? Why are you here?”
“I was hungry, so I texted Jay to see what you were doing for lunch. I told him not to tell you.”
“Well, it’s good timing. I talked to Murphy. I asked for a month off for our wedding.”
“And I found us a hotel on one of the Cranberry Isles in Maine.” He takes a bite of his taco and then pulls out his phone to show me the images of islands surrounded by gorgeous ocean waters, as well as a few of a luxury hotel. “It looks more like Belize than Maine.”
“And yet it’s right here, close to us. You wanted private, you and me, and so do I. This gives us that. There’s a house for sale there too that I think we should look at.”
“A vacation house,” I supply.
“An escape. That idea is growing on me. A place we go where we are safe and alone, if we want to be alone.”
“I’m all in. I’m excited to see it.”
“Then I think we should fly up before the wedding and take a look at the house and the hotel.”
“When? I have this case I’m trying to break.”
“How about after the fundraiser? We can leave that night and come back Monday morning.”
“Yes. That works.” I glance over at him. “Remember you said you were at a few parties my mother attended?”
“How could I forget your mother?”
“Murphy said she was at a party with you and observed from a distance the way you stood tall in the midst of controversy over your father. She respected that in you. Probably because she so often had to do the same.”
“Yes, well, respecting my ability to survive and wanting me to marry her daughter are two different things.”
“She would have supported us,” I insist.
“And you know this how?”
“Because we say live or die together and mean it. She didn’t have that with my father. I wonder—did she with Murphy?”
His jaw flexes. “You know how I feel about Murphy.”
“You don’t trust him.”
“Never have,” he says. “Never will.”
“He asked for an invite to the wedding.”
“And you said?”
“No. Actually might as well have been hell no.”
He laughs. “And there you go, ladies and gentlemen. Queen Mendez.”
I smile, but I also give him a keen look. “Why are you really here right now? And don’t tell me you had a mad craving for Taco Bell. Or me, for that matter.”
“United we stand, beautiful. Pocher and I are long past due a face-to-face. I’d prefer that not happen at the fundraiser. I’m going with you to see him.”
“You’re going with me to warn him his life is in danger,” I state. “I’m pretty sure he’ll find that suspicious.”
“I’m going with you to remind him of our mutual interests.”
“What mutual interests?”
“Survival. Pocher is Society, but he’s not the head of the dragon. I don’t even know who that is, but it’s not him. If I stir up trouble in his territory, he looks weak and he risks repercussions. We both want to keep the Society in their lane. Sometimes he forgets that means we have to survive in the same territory. And he needs a little reminder.”
“Alrighty then,” I say. “Let’s go see Pocher.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Kane and I load up in an SUV with Kit driving us toward Pocher’s Central Park apartment, while Jay takes Kit’s car back to our place. I don’t ask if we need to call ahead to get a meeting with Pocher. Kane knows Pocher is home or we wouldn’t be headed in his direction. And the minute Pocher hears Kane Mendez is in his building, we’ll have his attention.