Page 30 of Mayhem

Hunter didn’t bother with Malakai’s condition. “Sit.”

Echo stayed where she was. “I’m fine.”

Hunter’s attention settled on her fully. “That wasn’t a question.”

For a second, I expected her to push simply because she could. Malakai looked like he expected the same thing. Echo studied Hunter instead, then took the chair beside me and sat with one leg crossed over the other. Malakai ignored the remaining chair and leaned against the edge of the desk near her, close enough that Hunter looked at him once before deciding there were more important problems.

Hunter opened Echo’s file again and rested one hand over the first page. “Nichlas says you’re his ex. I’m assuming that’s the least interesting part of whatever happened between you.”

Echo’s expression shifted slightly, enough that I caught it even though she tried to keep the rest of her face flat. “He sold me out. Gave people something that belonged to me because he was scared of what they’d do to him if he didn’t.” Her gaze flicked toward Malakai when Hunter mentioned the ledger, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “You heard more than I thought.”

“I was interested,” Malakai said, entirely unapologetic.

Hunter gave him a brief look. “You were supposed to intervene before she got that far.”

“I did intervene.”

“Eventually.” Hunter left it there and returned his attention to Echo before Malakai could turn the correction into entertainment. “What was in the ledger?”

Echo settled deeper into the chair, one ankle crossing over the other. “Information. Names, favors, things people didn’t want connected to them. Enough that somebody was willing to kill for it.”

That was more than she’d given us downstairs and still less than Hunter had asked for. I watched the pause stretch between them while Hunter decided whether to push. He did, just more carefully. “How close did they get?”

“Close enough.” Her mouth flattened before she added, “Nichlas handed it over and disappeared. I dealt with what came after.”

Hunter leaned back slightly, studying her. “So you found him here and transferred in after him.”

“I transferred here because I found him.” Echo held his gaze, making it clear she knew exactly what he was asking and had no intention of giving him more than she wanted to.

Hunter’s jaw tightened once, but his voice stayed level. “Then tell me what you want from him.”

The room went still around that question. Malakai stopped smiling, and I found myself watching Echo more closely than I had since she walked through the door. She did not hesitate.

“I want him dead.”

I looked at Hunter before I meant to. That changed the shape of everything we had been discussing since Nichlas showed up downstairs bleeding. Echo had not crossed the country for answers, an apology, or even to scare him until she got bored. She had come here intending to kill somebody Desmond Hansen had personally placed under protection.

“That changes things,” I said.

Echo glanced at me. “Does it?”

“It does when the man you want dead is protected by Desmond himself.” I kept my voice even, because there was no point dressing the situation up for her. “That protection isn’t decorative, and it isn’t ours to ignore because you have history with him. You’ve already proven you can get close. If you keep doing it, eventually somebody has to answer for the fact that we knew what you wanted and let it happen.”

Malakai shifted against the desk beside her, interested in the whole thing in a way that would have been concerning if it were anyone else. With him, it was simply predictable.

Hunter looked at Echo, then at me. “Good thing we won’t be touching him.”

I stared at him for a second before the distinction landed.

Echo caught it a moment later. Her mouth curved without humor. “That supposed to mean something?”

“It means Nichlas is protected from us,” Hunter said. “What happens when that protection is no longer there is a different question.”

“That’s convenient.”

“It’s important.” Hunter closed the file and rested both hands over it. “You keep treating the rules here like somebody invented them this morning specifically to annoy you. They weren’t. They exist because everyone involved understands what happens when they’re broken.”

Echo leaned back in the chair. “I don’t care about a bunch of arbitrary rules because you decided they matter.”