Catwoman: Soulstealer (DC Icons #3)(53)

“Torture? Nice,” Harley said.

“I have methods that might convince him to talk,” Ivy clarified quickly. “Without resorting to waterboarding.” Those natural toxins that had gotten the people at that gala to hand over their jewels, no doubt.

But Selina cut in before they could travel farther down that road, “He’s not part of our plans. We avoid him.”

“Why?” Harley’s smile slipped into something a little dangerous.

“Because he’ll take care of the other bosses and gangs for us. Keep them out of our way. Bring him down, and we’ll have every gang and boss crawling out of the sewers to stake their claim on Gotham. But if he continues to hold back the tide…” She shrugged. “He saves us a headache while we continue to sweep the city of its valuables.”

Harley didn’t look convinced as she zipped up her bag. But Ivy said, “What if he shows up at our next target?”

Selina smiled beneath her mask. “Then we keep playing this game of ours: evade and vanish.”

“But—” Ivy challenged.

“Believe me,” Selina interrupted, shouldering her duffel, “toying with him, driving him nuts, is far more satisfying than killing him.”

Harley opened her mouth, but Selina held up a hand as her helmet began blaring. “We’re about to have company.”

Footsteps. Not guards—no jangling keys or the usual indicators.

Ivy pulled two baseball-sized flowers from the belt at her hips, the golden petals unfurling. Waiting.

Selina freed the bullwhip at her side as the helmet continued to give her a feed.

“Eight individual gaits—heavy,” Selina murmured to Harley and Ivy. “Likely male. Coming as a group, not in a line. Entering the room in—”

“Look what the cat dragged in,” sneered the tall, reedy man in the center of the group.

All wore stained dark clothes that had seen better days. Criminals. No doubt from some low-level group. She could pick up on no signifiers of their allegiance.

“An oversized fern,” the man said, stepping into the chamber. Ivy stiffened, flowers opening wider. A leer toward Harley. “And a washed-up skank.”

Selina ground her teeth, reining in her temper. If Ivy could knock out a few of them with those flowers, and Harley could detonate those small bombs…it’d even the odds.

Not great, but she could deal with the remainders. Even if taking down a group of some gang boss’s men might be a complication in her plans.

Despite the insults, Harley stepped forward, pouting. “Is that really how you’re going to be, Ralph? I haven’t seen you in, what, a few months, and suddenly you gotta call me names? And my new friends, too?”

Ivy remained fixated on the men, flowers and vines at the ready. But Harley cut Selina a swift glance, the words clear in her blue eyes.

Trust me.

Trust her to do what? Get them killed? A few minutes, and they’d be sprinting out of here. If the cops didn’t get here first.

Harley took another step, throwing that glance Selina’s way again. Trust me.

It went against every bit of training, every instinct.

She didn’t remember the last time she’d trusted anyone. Other than herself.

Ivy warned Selina, the words barely audible, “Follow her lead.”

Selina sized up the men. Harley’s welcoming grin.

Harley knew who these men were—well enough to understand that violence would either not work, or land them knee-deep in shit.

Trust me.

Her heartbeat a staccato, Selina did.

Ralph sneered at them again. “You and your new friends haven’t been paying up. Makes some of us…mispleased.”

“Not a word,” Ivy muttered under her breath. Harley made a slicing Shut up motion behind her back.

Harley twirled the end of a braid around her finger. “Honeypie, you know we’ve just been waiting to accumulate enough good stuff to hand over our due.”

Oh hell no. Like hell she was giving these creeps her money, this money—

“Boss wants it now,” Ralph said. The other men behind him pressed in. He pointed at Selina. “He wants her to kneel.”

Selina’s hand didn’t stray from the bullwhip. Harley shot her a warning Be quiet look before turning that grin on Ralph again. “Then why don’t we head over there?” Harley patted her duffel. “I’ll make the delivery in person.”

Ralph considered.

“Come on, Ralphy,” Harley crooned. “Your girl and I go way back.” She pointed with a thumb toward Selina. “Kitty’s new in town. She doesn’t know the rules.”

Selina bit her tongue. She knew their rules. And she was making her own now.

“Give us the bags, and we’ll head over.”

“You’d better be sure to tell Falcone I say hi.” Harley pouted.

Falcone.

The name cracked through Selina.

These men…they were Falcone’s?

They had to be new, because she didn’t know their faces or names.

Ralph pointed a handgun at Harley. Ivy tensed, those vines writhing.

“Tell the freak,” Ralph said, snarling toward Ivy, “to keep her plants away.”

Harley began walking toward him. Toward the gun. “Here’s the goods.” She handed over her bag to the man beside Ralph. “Let’s get going.”