Natalia closed her eyes for two seconds. When she opened them, the Ring had dimmed to a low pulse, the color it went when she was choosing patience over homicide.
"You stay because if this goes wrong, someone has to handle the media," she said. "Seraphina will bury it. Someone has to dig it back up. You know every reporter in Valoria who'd sell their mother for a story, and you know which ones will keep their mouths shut when we pay them."
Akari considered this. She leaned back. One gold nail tapped her lip again.
"So I'm the contingency," she said.
"You're the contingency."
"I like being the contingency." She looked at me and winked. "Contingencies get paid on completion."
Raphael pushed off the doorframe. He walked to the center of the room and stood in front of me. His amber eyes were bloodshot and his jaw was set hard.
"You're taking Luka," he said. "Not me."
