Page 238 of Chaos Kills

“You’ve only been trying to do it for years.”

“So?”

“I can’t believe he’s allowing me the seat,” I chime in. “He knows we’ll use it against him.”

“He still has eyes on that fifth one,” Levi replies. “However, he can’t find it.”

“I’m betting Penn Northcott gave it away,” Cairo states. “You wouldn’t happen to know to whom, would you?”

Levi shakes his head. “I don’t.”

“And you wouldn’t tell me if you did,” Cairo retorts off a small sigh then steers his focus to me. “Emilio would have to kill said person to gain it. You don’t just take it.”

“Like the others?”

“No, you don’t call out the fifth seat. You take it, or they hand it down.”

“Who would Northcott give it to?”

“Don’t know. However, they haven’t been around.”

“Then how do you know someone still sits there?”

Levi wraps his arm around my shoulders and pulls me into his warm body, sensing I need the comfort when I’ve just gotten severe whiplash, and this whole conversation isn’t one of my all-time favorites. “Things are still moving. Dues are still paid. Once in a great while, the fifth seat will send out a mass email or text message about things he or she doesn’t like. Emilio was trying to sit Newport back on a Titan seat, and the fifth one shut it down.”

“Through…an email?”

“Text.” Levi waves a dismissive hand. “But regardless of how he or she still makes themselves known they’re still here and watching.”

“And they haven’t come out because Emilio will hunt them down.”

“Exactly,” Cairo answers. “And, I’m sure, he’s been searching for that answer for years.”

“But if he doesn’t get or find it…he’s screwed.”

Levi flexes his fingers along my bicep. “That’s what Ramsey and The Void are for, Astor. You might get the seat, but you still won’t hold all the power in The Landings. You’re not known as anything but being South Shore. You won’t gain the Forsaken Crew?—”

“The Forsaken Crew is mine,” Cairo carps back. “She’ll get everything she needs?—”

“Half of them will follow Emilio, dumbass,” Levi argues with knitted brows. “Don’t tell me you live in a fantasy world. She’ll never get enough on her own.”

Cairo steps forward with violence written all over his face. Two kings going head-to-head , and I have no idea how they’re ever going to work together. “You think I’ve never thought of that, Wallace? I don’t know how big you’ve stroked your ego, but from what it looks like, your Nameless crew is as minimal as a fuckin’ chess team. How the hell you still hold South Shore is beyond me.”

Levi doesn’t tense or grow rigid. Instead, he remains lax at my side as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. “Then, it means what Roger built is working. Because you have no clue how much power I have nor how big my army is. That’s why your father has never stepped up on me nor has Emilio ever been able to take me down. You see us runnin’ drugs through enemy territory, our town living just along the brink of poverty, but we like it that way. Fancy things scare us, and it’s fun to live under the radar. It keeps assholes like you wondering.”

“I’m sure you get a hard dick just thinking about it.”

“All the time.”

“Alright, morons,” I chide lightly. “Are you both done now?”

“Almost,” Levi replies with a little squeeze. “Looks like Cairo and I need to find the fifth seat.”

“If we don’t, Emilio will.”

“I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. He hasn’t yet.”

“That doesn’t mean he’s not any closer,” Cairo retorts. “And I’m not looking forward to what he does with it if he obtains it.”

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