The Consuming Fire (The Interdependency #2)(53)

Nod.

“Did you tell them I said I would wear the bracelet for you?”

Nod.

Kiva smiled. “That’s how I know you didn’t set me up. If you had set me up, there is no way in fucking hell that you would have put on the bracelet. And I would be dead. You saved my life tonight, Senia. You took a bullet for me.”

Fundapellonan’s eyes squinted.

“Yes, I know. If it was all the same you would have preferred not to. But I still appreciate it. Also, thank you for not dying on me. I’m not saying that because I like you or anything. It’s just having someone murdered in your house is not great for property values.”

The squint was back.

“Too soon. Okay. Fair. Well, how about this, then. One, you should clearly quit your job because your boss, who is fucking evil, probably just had you shot. And yes, I know she was aiming at me, but the very fact she was willing to take a shot at me while you were there should let you know she was perfectly fine with you as collateral damage, or blowing my brains out while you watched. Two, if you do quit your job at the House of Nohamapetan, you have a job at the House of Lagos. Yes, we have shaky labor practices. Maybe you can help us fix that. Three, no matter what you do, remember you fucking deserve better than this. And four, do you remember how I said you haven’t seen me angry?”

Fundapellonan nodded.

“Well, that’s about to fucking change.”

*

Kiva tickled the nose of Tinda Louentintu, the Countess Nohamapetan’s chief of staff. Louentintu snorted in her sleep, swatted at her nose, and then rolled onto her side.

Kiva watched this fucking piece of shit snore lightly for a few more minutes. Then she went to the bathroom of Louentintu’s hotel room, set down the universal room key she had just paid an outrageous sum for to one of the hotel’s less ethically minded assistant managers, unwrapped one of the hygienically sealed glasses on the sink, filled it with water, walked back to the bed and poured it into Louentintu’s ears and face. Louentintu came up, awake and sputtering.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” Kiva said. “Hi, I’m Kiva Lagos.” Then she punched Louentintu square in the face.

There was a crunch, and blood burst out of Louentintu’s nose. She gasped and put her hands to her face and came away with bloody fingers. She looked up at Kiva, asked, “Why?” and then screamed as Kiva punched her right flat square in her fucking nose again.

“I’m sorry, did you have a question?” Kiva asked. She shook out her hand, grimacing. She was pretty fucking sure she just broke a finger on the nose of this thundering twat, but she wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of knowing that, so she drew her hand back again, ready to punch. “Go ahead, ask another fucking question, you feculent pile of shit.”

Louentintu shut up. Then Kiva fucking punched her again. Louentintu went down onto her pillows, blood everywhere, her breathing making a horrible fucking noise through her broken nose.

“Now that we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way, let me explain why I’m here,” Kiva said. “Tonight a friend of mine—and an employee of your boss, you walking fucking wastestream—was shot right in front of me. One second she was on top of me, showing off a nice piece of jewelry, and the next she was two fucking meters away on the floor with a hole in her chest. It was a fucking miracle she survived.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Louentintu said, in between snorts.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Kiva said. “I will fucking drag you off this bloody fucking bed and launch you right off the goddamned balcony and I won’t give a shit what happens to me after. So if you want to see if you can fucking fly, lady, tell me one more time you don’t have the first fucking idea of what I’m talking about.”

Louentintu was silent.

“Now, we both know who that bullet was meant for,” Kiva continued. “But it happened to go through Senia Fundapellonan instead. Well, fine. That face bashing I just gave you was meant for the Countess Nohamapetan. I guess my aim is as bad as hers. The difference is that Senia didn’t fucking deserve what happened to her. You, on the other hand, are an entirely different matter. I know that when the Countess Nohamapetan takes a shit, you wipe her ass for her.

“So here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to take that newly fucked-up face of yours and you’re going to go up the six floors to where your boss is sleeping, and you’re going to wake her up. You’re going to tell her that she fucking missed. And you’re going to tell her that tomorrow bright and early I’m walking into the fucking Guild House and going up to my office and I’m going to sit in my nice fucking chair behind my nice fucking desk with my nice fucking tea, and then I’m going to rip her fucking business apart.

“Every minute of every day of the rest of my natural life will be dedicated to doing to her house what I just did to your shitty, complicit nose. I already have enough on the countess’s greedy, asshole family to make the guilds seriously consider disenfranchising the house and throwing every last one of you into prison. And that was just me farting around. Imagine what I will do now that I am fucking motivated.”

“Or,” Louentintu said.

“What?”

“I said ‘or.’” Louentintu’s nose had stopped bleeding and she had wiped her face on her sheet, making a bloody mess of both. “When someone comes in and makes threats there is always an ‘or.’ ‘Give me what I want, or I will burn your house down.’ You’ve made the threat, Lady Kiva. I’m waiting to hear the ‘or.’”