Page 50 of Mayhem

Echo’s head turned slowly in his direction.

He lifted both hands before she had to say anything. “For science.”

I ignored him and opened the first page of the folder. “Friday changed again. Desmond expanded the main table, and the Voss family added another two names. Ronan’s checking why one of them appeared this late. Until he knows, nobody changes the placement.”

Malakai’s attention shifted cleanly. That was another thing people missed when they decided his mouth meant he was not listening. He leaned back in his chair and held out a hand for the list. I passed it over, and his eyes moved down the page once before stopping near the bottom.

“Elias Voss wasn’t on the original.”

“No.”

“He doesn’t come to student dinners unless his father wants somebody counted.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Echo had gone back to her laptop, but I could tell she was listening from the way her typing slowed. I left her out of it. If she was going to sit in our spaces, she could learn what happened in them without being spoon-fed every detail.

Malakai read another line. “And Camille’s still beside you.”

“For now.”

He glanced up at that, then back at the seating list. “Desmond really wants the room to believe something.”

“He wants the room talking before I get there.”

Echo’s fingers stopped over the keyboard for half a second.

Malakai noticed too. He did not comment. He handed the list back and reached for the drink beside Echo’s elbow instead. She caught it before he did and moved it to the other side of her laptop without looking at him.

I went through the rest of the changes with him, then the security issue at the south lot and the lower house trying to borrow Quorum access it did not have. Echo worked while we talked, interrupting only once when Malakai tried to steal her drink again. By the time I finished, he had somehow shifted his chair closer to hers without either of them acknowledging it.

I closed the folder and looked at Echo.

She was reading now, chin propped briefly against one hand, boots planted beneath the table. Malakai had gone back to his own work at some point, though he had dragged it over beside hers rather than returning to the seat he had abandoned. Their papers had started bleeding into the same space.

Yesterday, I would have called it Malakai entertaining himself. Today, I knew better.

My phone vibrated again. Ronan this time.

That Primrose identifier you sent me is old. Very old. Give me an hour.

I read the message twice before locking the screen. Across the table, Echo looked up. “What?”

“Nothing.”

Her eyes narrowed because she did not believe me, but she let it go and returned to the page in front of her. I looked at the folder, then at her, and thought about the access error waiting downstairs. Primrose had been a weak thread ten minutes ago. Now Ronan had recognized enough about it to ask for time.

Camille arrived less than twenty minutes later with two people behind her and enough confidence to make it obvious nobody downstairs had considered stopping her.

I heard the heels first, sharp against the old library floor, followed by a quieter pair and the low murmur of someone answering a question I couldn’t make out. Malakai looked toward the stairs before Camille cleared the last shelf. Echo did not. She had gone back to whatever she was reading, one boot hooked around the lower rung of her chair while she wrote something in the margin of a printed article. She only glanced up when Camille came directly toward our table.

Camille had brought Talia Mercer and Evan Voss with her, both familiar enough with Quorum business to know why they had been included and smart enough to stay behind her while she handled the conversation. Talia carried a slim folder beneath one arm. Evan had his phone in his hand, though he locked the screen as soon as he saw me watching.

Camille stopped beside the table and looked at Malakai first, then at me. Her attention passed over Echo without settling long enough to acknowledge her. “My father changed the transportation arrangements for Friday. Desmond already approved the additional security, but Elias wants the west entrance cleared before the first cars arrive. There’s also a problem with the Morrow placement because apparently nobody told them the upper dining room was closed to outside guests.”

“Not here.” I closed the folder in front of me and left my hand resting over it.

Camille paused. “It’s Friday logistics, Hunter. I’m not asking you to open the family books in the middle of the library.”