The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(52)

“You’re doing a fucking poor job of it, then, standing in my office.”

“I was on assignment.”

“Bearing gifts.”

“From someone else.”

“Which you chose.”

“Yes I did.”

“Come over later, and I’ll wear it for you. And not much else.”

“Deal.”

*

“So why do you work for evil fucks?” Kiva asked Fundapellonan later, as they were lying in Kiva’s bed after some better-than-average sex.

Fundapellonan looked over at Kiva, annoyed. “The House of Nohamapetan is not evil.”

“Sounds like someone needs a refresher course on certain recent events.”

“Fine,” Fundapellonan said. “Some members of the House of Nohamapetan may be evil.”

“Fratricide. Murder. Attempted assassination. Embezzlement. Questionable taste in men. That’s just one of those motherfuckers.”

“Are evil. Well, were evil.”

“Still evil, just dead.”

“But I didn’t even work for her.”

“You work for her mom. Where did you think she got it?”

“But I don’t even technically work for her. I work for the house.”

“Which is run by the countess, your boss, and her family. You’re splitting hairs here pretty fucking fine.”

“I’m a lawyer; that’s my actual job. Look, Kiva, I’m not arguing that the individual members of the Nohamapetan family are perfect angels, or even decent human beings. But I work for the house. And on a day-to-day basis the House of Nohamapetan is a middling decent noble house.”

“If you say so.”

Fundapellonan propped herself up on an elbow. “And what about the House of Lagos, hmmm? You probably won’t be entirely surprised to discover that before I met you I did a little, shall we say, opposition research on your house. Would you like a rundown on the labor issues and various other workplace and safety laws the House of Lagos endemically runs afoul of? How many times in the last two years alone the House of Lagos has been hauled up in front of the guilds for bad practices? How many marks the House of Lagos has as a line item in its annual budget for ‘conflict resolution’? You actually have a line item for payouts, and you don’t change your practices unless you overshoot that line item three years in a row. Which you’re about to do, by the way.”

“I could do the same opposition research on the House of Nohamapetan and come away with a similar list.”

“Which is my point exactly,” Fundapellonan said. “The house is a business; it needs representation; it’s not perfect but not pure evil either.”

“But your boss is.”

“That stings, coming from a woman who charged refugees millions of marks to get on her ship to flee from a devastating civil war.”

Kiva looked over. “Wow. You really did your research.”

“Why did you do it?”

“I needed the money.”

Fundapellonan grinned and rolled on top of Kiva. “See, that is actually fucking evil, Kiva Lagos.”

“And yet you’re still here with me.”

Fundapellonan sat up with Kiva still underneath her. “Maybe I just like bad people.” She grabbed at Kiva’s wrist and slid the silver-and-topaz bracelet off it, and on to her own. She held it up to look at it.

“It looks good on you,” Kiva said.

“It’s nice with my skin tone,” Fundapellonan agreed, and then flew sideways off the bed.

*

“Hey,” Kiva said to Fundapellonan, several hours later.

Fundapellonan tried to croak something, and Kiva moved her hand. “Don’t bother. You’ve got a tube in your throat. Your entire respiratory system is kind of fucked at the moment. Along with the rest of you. You were shot. Right off my fucking bed.”

Fundapellonan’s eyes widened and she looked around frantically.

“Relax, relax, hey, relax,” Kiva said. “You’re fine. You’re safe. Well, you’re not fine. You almost died several times. But you’re not going to die now. And you’re very safe. I called in a favor.” Kiva made a sweeping motion with her hand. “Welcome to the emperox’s private medical suite at Brighton Palace.”

Fundapellonan eyes, already wide, became like plates.

“Don’t worry, I’m paying.”

This got Fundapellonan’s eyes to shrink a little.

“Let me catch you up on events,” Kiva said. “You were shot in the chest. The bullet came through the sliding glass door. I’m on the seventeenth fucking floor, so it’s unlikely it was a random occurrence. My best guess is that someone meant to shoot me and shot you instead. I think this because, no offense, more people probably want me dead than want you dead, including your own actual fucking boss. Does that sound like a reasonable guess to you?”

Fundapellonan nodded, very very slightly.

“Did you tell anyone at House of Nohamapetan you were coming to see me tonight?”

Fundapellonan was still for this, still looking at Kiva.

“I’m not angry at you, Senia. I don’t think you set me up. But I need to know if you told anyone at the House of Nohamapetan that you were going to see me.”