Heist Royale (Thieves’ Gambit #2)

Chapter Ten

Ten

It was at least an hour until the SUV came to a jostling stop. All of the doors opened at once, revealing even more armed goons. Delightful.

Diane, Kyung-soon, Noelia, and I were herded like very dangerous cattle toward a building of whitewashed stone.

I craned my neck, examining the whole thing. And it went up.

Like, fifty floors up. A lone skyscraper set in the middle of a grassy lawn.

This was the Louisiana capitol building. That was why we were in the car so long—an hour’s drive from New Orleans to Baton Rogue. Louisiana’s congress didn’t convene until March; they had to be out of session now.

“Gauche,” Noelia tapped in Morse code on the back of my hand, lip curling at the unnecessary height of the building. I’d learned while on one of my documentary binges back in my lonely days that Louisiana’s capitol building was only the tallest United States capitol because Governor Huey Long wanted to make it look like a giant penis.

A few years later, he got shot inside his own giant penis.

If the tension hadn’t been so high, I might have snickered as we passed the stairs where it happened. Sadly, we weren’t headed up, so I didn’t get to see the famous bullet hole. Instead, we crossed the lobby’s marble floor toward the tall doors leading into the chambers.

Noelia nodded at Diane and Kyung-soon a step ahead of us. She tapped my hand again; we’d been talking in silence the entire ride, mostly about her not realizing she’d been outsourced on a job with Devroe’s mum and apologizing in the same way a friend might if they realized they’d accidentally slept with your ex. It’d have been funny if all of this weren’t so decidedly unfunny.

“What are they talking about now?” Noelia asked. Diane and Kyung-soon had been chatting in Korean about everything from AI to gelato shops in London’s Soho district during the ride. I hadn’t been paying too much attention…until now.

“Devroe does miss you, you know,” Kyung-soon was saying. “He brings you up every day…”

I slowed, before a guard pushed me back into motion. “What? What?” Noelia tapped frantically.

Every day? How would Kyung-soon know…unless she’d been in contact with Devroe this whole time? No wonder Devroe knew my birthday. The pineapple upside-down cake. That I was in New Orleans. Kyung-soon had been spying for him this whole time.

Gritting my teeth, I answered Noelia with a rough thrumming. “Liars.”

The senate chambers were gorgeous, in an official sort of way, with navy-blue carpet, veined pink marble pillars between high windows—curtains drawn tonight—and gold molding running across the ceiling. At least a hundred oak desks, each proudly displaying a mini American flag and Louisiana State flag, with a corresponding blue leather chair with gold studs, sat empty facing the speaker’s desk at the very front.

Armed goons were stationed at every window, bracketing us in from all sides.

We were far from the first to arrive to this little party. Count was there, for the first time ever with her hands tablet-free, and so was Baron, leaning back casually against the podium while pointedly ignoring whatever Count was saying to him. There was a scent like cream and sugar and baking spray, and I just knew it was coming from him.

He frowned as our entourage entered. “What the hell are they doing here?”

“Witnesses for whatever hysterics you’ve been concocting—”

“You really are getting desperate, calling in the help.” Baron pulled out his phone, pretending Count didn’t exist again.

A spark of green flashed from one of the front-row desks. Mylo raised a hand, still in its emerald glove.

“Yo!”

Someone was sitting next to him. He stood. “Mum?” Devroe’s eyes flashed through a whole coterie of emotions from confusion to concern to anticipation back to confusion as they flickered from his mum to me.

“My god, it’s like the worst high school reunion ever,” Noelia whispered. She shrugged Mylo’s hand away as he came in for a dap-up.

“Ross, are you…all right?” Devroe’s fingers flexed, but he refrained from reaching out. Diane walked right past him, not meeting his eye. Kyung-soon cleared her throat and gave him a look that said he should tend to her.

“I…” He turned to his mum, then me. “I’ll be back.” And followed her to a desk across the aisle. As if I cared.

“Noelia! What’s up?” Mylo beamed. “Crazy night, amirite?”

“You look like a discount leprechaun,” she told him.

“Are you going to tell us why we’re here?” I projected to the room.

Baron ignored me, though I wasn’t as irked at being ignored as Count seemed to be. She stormed down the pair of steps from the speaker’s raised platform. “Deception and betrayal.” Count cut a glare my way, like this was my fault.

“Don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who screwed with my family first, and I hope you’re about to get chewed out for it,” I sneered.

“Excuse me?” She looked genuinely flabbergasted.

“Chewed out,” Mylo said slowly. “You know, it means dragged, beaten up verbally, punished—”

Count raised a silencing finger right in front of Mylo’s face, her jaw clenched in that say-something-else-and-you’ll-regret-it look that only someone who has a teenage son can master.

She stepped close enough that I wished I still had my chain. Not that I thought I couldn’t take Count without it, but you never knew.

“What do you mean, ‘I screwed with your family’?”

Why did she sound almost like she didn’t know what I was talking about?

“You’ve been employing Diane in exchange for granting her wish to destroy the Quests,” I said.

Count rubbed her temples and muttered some French words even I didn’t know, but from the way Noelia blanched, I guessed it was something particularly profane. “I haven’t hired Diane Abara for anything. Ever.”

I straightened. “Baron said you were going to offer her a wish in exchange—”

“I would never offer someone a wish so frivolously.”

“Bull!” I sputtered. “What about the hit jobs you had us do on Baron?”

“Yes, yes, every now and then,” Count admitted. “But I don’t know what that has to do with Diane.”

“Then who hired us to protect the senator at the parade? Papa said it was an organization request,” Noelia interjected.

Baron had one arm up on the speaker’s desk. He winked at me, smirking.

Of course. Diane was never employed by Count; that was just a lie to goad me into this botched job tonight. Baron had said he initially thought of Mom for this, but probably figured she would have been harder to dupe. Still, as long as one Quest was on the scene to butt heads with Diane, it was guaranteed to turn into the disaster he wanted.

Mom never would have made this mistake.

The chamber doors groaned open. Senator Robicheaux stormed in faster than a sixtysomething woman in a full Mardi Gras costume should have been able to, hauling her skirts in handfuls.

“Start the call!” she barked, and to who I wasn’t exactly sure until all of the goons by the windows and doors pulled tablets out from their jackets and started queuing up what I guessed was that call.

Count put a smile on real quick. “Good evening, Madame Senator. Perhaps we could speak in private for a few—”

“No.” The senator kept walking until she was at the speaker’s desk—her desk, I supposed.

Baron, on the other hand, gave the senator a playful but respectful bow. “Your Majesty.”

The senator huffed, but it was better than what Count got.

Tablets were shoved into all of our hands. A video call, hundreds of icons littering the screen. More than hundreds, it had to be thousands.

In the top corner of the screen: 1,480 participants.

“Oh boy,” Mylo said, straightening his top hat. Noelia sucked in a breath, holding the tablet up at a more presentable angle.

I swallowed hard. Was this…the entire organization?

“Emergency session,” the senator said, her Southern drawl sharp. “Tonight has been one of the most embarrassing nights of my life. It’s unacceptable that I or any of us should have to put up with anything less than sublimity—that’s the entire reason this esteemed group exists.”

“I couldn’t agree more, Madame Senator,” Baron cut in. “But that’s what you get when you have someone incompetent running things for you.”

Count, red as the fires of hell, retorted, “Tonight’s incident was intentionally orchestrated. The only way to get rid of the problem is to get rid of the dissenter—”

“A competent leader wouldn’t allow a ‘dissenter’ to cause so much trouble.” Baron shrugged.

The senator slapped her hand on the speaker’s desk. “ Both of you are to blame,” she said decidedly. “We know you’ve been launching petty attacks against each other for the past year, and now it’s starting to be an inconvenience. One of you has got to go.”

Her attention had returned to the video chat. Of course, the important audience in this.

“Exactly what I was thinking.” Count gestured back to us, pushing through a tremble in her hand. “Baron is the seed of discontent in this organization. That’s why I asked for the remainder of our associates to be brought here as well. A thorough questioning will prove that all the trouble that’s been caused has been instigated by this disloyal traitor—”

“Loyalty, treason, blah blah blah.” Baron rolled his eyes. “What do any of us care about that? The point is, who can get the job done cleanest? Dragging in a bunch of underlings to plead her case for her isn’t just a perfect example of how sloppy Count’s become. She’s pathetic and desperate.” Baron turned back to us, hand on his heart. “No offense, underlings.”

“Honestly, a lot taken,” Mylo said.

Messages flooded the chat, all of them coming in under the name Anonymous .

Baron has a point.

Ha! I never liked him before but…

I heard Count wasted a week visiting her brat last month.

Count’s tablet shook in her grip. The senator nodded along to the incoming messages.

Diane held her tablet gently in her lap. The hint of a smile was forming on her lips as well, despite Kyung-soon’s worried frown and Devroe’s pacing in front of her.

She was about to get what she wanted too.

Baron reeled me into this mess by telling me that Count had promised her a wish come true in exchange for helping crush the competition. Count would never make that promise—what leader would give someone a blank check like that? But a would-be leader…

Baron had offered her the wish. Once he was crowned, he was going to take us out for her.

A new message dropped into the anonymous chat. It was bolded.

Shall we put it to a vote?

“No!” The messages stopped, and everyone in the chambers looked to me. A couple of goons waiting against the walls slid hands inside their blazers.

They were probably wondering what the hell I was doing.

I was wondering what the hell I was doing.

“A vote,” I repeated. “Now, really?” I stepped up to the senator, my tablet clenched tightly at my side.

“Look—” I cleared my throat at the senator’s sneer. “Ma’am.” She gave me the most annoying that’s-better look I’d ever seen.

“Opinions are obviously biased right now. Count dropped the ball tonight, but that doesn’t mean Baron’s the overall best choice to run your…group.”

“Thank you for that unsolicited opinion, Ms.Quest. Madame Senator, maybe we should get the help out of the proceedings. If Count wants to babysit, I’m sure she’ll have plenty of time for that now.” Baron circled my way just to put a hand on the small of my back, like he could guide me away that easily.

I twisted his wrist into a bone-breaking lock.

The sound of half a dozen guns being cocked at the same time filled the chambers. The goons were suddenly circling in fast. Devroe tried to rush my way but was blocked by one of the goons.

“You don’t look so competent now,” I said.

“Oh, like you couldn’t get Count in a poor-man’s armlock,” Baron said through gritted teeth.

“Count’s smart enough not to get this close.”

I let him go, splaying my hands to the guards so they knew I wasn’t fighting anymore. Baron tried to hide his embarrassment, but the red on the tips of his ears gave him away.

If I hadn’t been on Baron’s chopping block already, I sure as hell was now.

The senator tilted her head to the side, and the guards begged off.

She thrummed her fingers against the side of her desk. Okay, no getting ushered away for me. So that meant she was at least curious about me, or maybe my little attack on Baron had entertained her. “Awfully loyal to Count, are we? You must really like her.”

“No,” I clarified. “But I…respect how suited she is for the job she does.”

The senator scoffed. “And yet you still betrayed her. Why?”

I swallowed. How did I keep it from sounding like I was only Team Count for the sake of my own family?

I went on, feeling thousands of invisible eyes on me. “Have you spent a month with Count before? I wanted to slam my head against a steel safe.” That got me a smirk and some laughter in the chat. “But look what happened the one time I didn’t listen to her.”

A new message buzzed into the chat. This one bolded too.

Gambit?

And just like that, the messages flooded in.

Yes, let’s test it.

Who can do the most for us in a week? Two weeks?

I like it.

Yes, a Gambit to decide the winner.

Less like a Gambit, more like a gauntlet.

“Oh, come on,” Baron said, scrolling through his tablet. He let out a wry laugh. “You can’t be serious.”

“I like it as well.” The senator nodded, looking through the comments.

“Managing the Gambit is one of the most important events of the year,” Count said, having, mostly, found her composure again. She straightened the edges of her hair behind her ears. “Are you saying you wouldn’t be able to manage that responsibility?”

“Of course not,” Baron spat.

“How are you going to plan one if you can’t even win one?” Noelia added from behind me.

Mylo pointed at her. “What she said.”

“I’m not a thief. I don’t do that grunt work any more than you do,” Baron said to Count, his composure starting to frazzle.

“Obviously no one is expecting you to get your hands dirty, Baron. But it appears some of our favorite talent has already created factions,” the senator said, waving him off. “How does a little team versus team sound?” The senator was speaking to the tablet again. Her gaze flicked to me, then my friends behind. “I think it’s clear that Count already has her own gaggle of in-house supporters. Perhaps Baron does too? If they come as a package, let’s see whose package is superior.”

The messages were now a near-overwhelming yes.

Diane stood.

“Mum?” Devroe asked.

“I would like to support Baron’s team,” she said. “If I’m allowed to play.”

The comments approved.

“We’re with Ross!” Mylo said, grabbing Noelia’s hand and raising it along with his.

Noelia wiggled her hand away and cleared her throat, placing a hand over her heart. “I would be honored to enter another Gambit, in Count’s favor.”

She gave me a little nod.

Devroe fidgeted on the other side of the aisle, twisting his cuff link. “If I’m allowed to play…I…”

Our gazes caught, and I almost crumpled seeing how quietly distraught he was. Back at the ball, Diane implied she hadn’t talked to him since the end of the Gambit.

She also implied that she thought her son really was on my side. Would he prove it now?

“I’d like to join Baron’s team.”

I couldn’t say that was a surprise, but it did ache.

Kyung-soon rose and gave Devroe’s hand a friendly squeeze. She spared me and the rest of our friends, or maybe just my friends, a sliver of a glance before returning her attention to the senator.

“Baron, please.” Her voice was quiet, but it still hurt.

I knew we were having beef right now, but…really?

Then again, she’d been in contact with Devroe this entire time. I needed to stop being so gullible. Maybe Kyung-soon was never really with me, not when compared to Devroe, at least.

No freaking way I would cry here. So I blinked away my tears and turned my full focus to the senator.

In the most dramatic fashion possible, she clapped her hands and smiled. “Then we’ve got a game. Whoever’s team wins this gauntlet will have the honor of leading us, or continuing to lead us. And the other one…Well, you know how retirement works in this organization.”

Count took a shaky breath, paper pale. I could see in her face the look of someone tallying their life achievements along with all the things they hadn’t done yet.

“We’ll arrange specifics within the next few hours,” the senator said.

Whoever won got to lead. Whoever won got to live.