Savage Hearts (Queens & Monsters #3)(97)

There was a side story about some guy named Stavros and another jet, but I’d zoned out by then.

The bottom line being that Sloane fell in love with Declan, turned over a new leaf as a human being (I tried very hard not to snort when she said that), and wanted to mend fences with the little sister she’d never been that close to, partly because the little sister—wrongly—thought she’d once stolen her boyfriend.

By the end of all that, I’m exhausted.

We hang up with Nat—who, from the sound of it, is about to go do something violent to her man Kage for giving Mal intel about Declan—and I lie down on the floor.

To the ceiling, I say, “So to wrap it all up, the three of us are in love with a trio of powerful mobsters.”

Sloane says, “Who are all enemies. Yes.”

“Why would Mal and Kage be enemies?”

“Maybe enemies isn’t the right word, but those boys don’t like to share their toys.”

“So they don’t hate each other as much as they hate Declan.”

She lies down on the floor beside me and takes my hand. “Right. Though I don’t understand what Declan meant when he said he and Malek have a mutual friend now. I’ll have to ask him about it later.”

Whatever it means, I know she’ll get it out of him. The woman was born to dissolve a man’s independent will.

“Circling back. How did Spider know I was in Moscow from the beginning?”

“Kage told Declan in return for a marker.”

“Is that some kind of mobster slang I should know?”

“It’s a favor. A big one. That can be called in at any time, and Declan can’t refuse.”

“Yikes.”

“Exactly.”

I feel bad about that angry speech I made to Declan when I first came in, until I get confused again. “Wait, so Kage and Declan are enemies, but they work together?”

“Sometimes. Other times they try to kill each other.”

That makes me smile. “Sounds like sisters.”

“Ha.”

“What about Diego? Is he still in the hospital?”

“He went to live with his sister in New York. He still can’t remember a thing that happened. He’s working at a diner as a short-order cook.”

“Poor guy.”

“I dunno, I think he might be better off.”

“What makes you say that?”

“There probably aren’t too many people trying to kill short-order cooks.”

“Good point. And Kieran? I’ve been worrying about him.”

“He’s a tank, that guy. Three shots to the torso and he lived! Declan put him on leave for a while, but he’s back on the job.” She turns her head and smiles at me. “He’s almost as tough as you.”

“Yeah, we mouse deer with the tiny fang-like tusks are super badass.” When she makes a confused face, I say, “Forget it. Inside joke.”

Then I’m depressed. Abruptly, completely depressed, and longing for Mal with such a fierce ache, I can hardly draw a breath.

I whisper, “He let me go. He let me go.”

“It sounds like he was trying to protect you.”

“I know he was, but what an asshole!”

“You don’t think he’s an asshole.”

“Yes, I really do!”

She quirks her lips and looks at me sideways. “Remember how in Twilight when Edward left Bella to protect her even though it killed him to do it, and you thought that was the most romantic thing you’d ever heard?”

“No!”

“Shut up. Yes, you do.”

“I hated that movie!”

“Yeah, but you loved all the books. And you loooved Edward, Mr. Broody Telepathic Vampire who would sacrifice anything for his dumb-as-rocks human girlfriend, including his own life.”

I think of Mal’s self-sacrificing tendencies and his love of bitey sex, and have to admit she might have a point. “So you’re saying I’m the dumb-as-rocks human girlfriend in this scenario.”

“No, I’m saying you don’t really think Mal’s an asshole. You think he’s the bees knees.”

“Who says that? What are you, eighty?”

Breezing past that, she muses, “You know what’s funny? Nobody ever mentions that Edward was like a hundred years old and Bella was only seventeen. Talk about perving on a baby.”

I grimace at the image of my dear Edward Cullen as a child molester. “Thanks for ruining my favorite book series for me.”

“Ha! I knew you loved Twilight!”

I grumble, “Whatever. And he didn’t leave Bella until New Moon.”

We lie there in companionable silence for a long time, until I sit up and scrub my hands over my face. “God, this is a fucked-up situation.”

Sloane props herself up on her elbows and gazes at me thoughtfully. “We might be looking at this the wrong way.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, between you, me, and Nat, we have the three most powerful men in the US and Russia totally pussy whipped.”

I say drily, “Always the incurable romantic.”

“I mean, think what we could accomplish!”

I see the mad glint in her eye and know she’s planning something. Like overthrowing all the governments of the world and becoming Supreme Ruler of Earth.