Page 36 of Ashes of Honor

“She’s dating. I’d say you’d get along great with her girlfriend but, you already know her.” I shrugged. “And I heard you didn’t get along too well.”

Ronan’s posture tightened. I was fishing. Did he know Jessa was there? For Reina’s sake, I prayed she wasn’t the leak we thought her to be. That she’d been honest in her confession to Reina. The blank stare behind his sea storm eyes was not fake. Ronan was the type to brag about his deceit—which, in theory, should have made it easier to trace leaks. But instead, it meant untangling truth from his web of half-truths and exaggerations, making the job of determining who among us was sharing information even harder.Ifthere was anyone at all.

Again, Ronan changed the subject. Controlling what we did and did not discuss. I had my work cut out for me. Bringing him down would take patience. Time. There was no ‘politicking’ our way out of this. I could see that now. No. We’d have to hit him with brutal force and he wouldn’t stand a chance if he saw it coming.

“The resources,” his voice boomed, pulling me from my thoughts. “I’ll need to call in for them now.”

I smirked. “Resources? That’s what we’re calling people now? You’re getting creative with your euphemisms.”

He ignored me. “You’ve had a new influx of people. Quite the growing military you’re building—of course, I assume there’s no correlation between that and the lack of residents in Duluth.”

Naturally, any soldiers that had arrived from surrounding territories had become part of mine. Technically, under the new treaty for the war wethoughtwas going to happen, they were already my soldiers. But with an increase of population, an increase in military personnel followed.

I preferred to keep my ratios within the historical realm of victory. One soldier per every forty citizens. Like America in Germany during World War II. Of course, my ratio had always been a bit more than that. Now, however, we were looking at about two soldiers per every thirty people. And I wanted more. I wasn’t done recruiting. I’d expected this to come up.

“No relation, pure coincidence.” I crossed my arms, not bothering to hide my irritation. It was. Duluth’s residents weren’t here—it wasn’t my fault he hadn’t thought to check the bunker. “What else am I supposed to do with soldiers, turn them into gardeners?”

His eyes narrowed. “No. I’m requesting two hundred.”

My mouth dropped open, then I laughed, a sharp, biting sound. “Two hundred? Two hundred of my soldiers? You’re joking.”

“I don’t joke.”

“That is what he said, yes.” Malachai chimed in, standing off to the side, nothing more than a smug mouthpiece.

I held up a hand to stop Riley before he could instigate a fight we could not win today.

“No way,” I said flatly, turning back to Ronan. “Over my dead body.”

He watched me, waiting. I knew his game. I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. “Fifty.”

“Fifty?” His lip curled. “Now what am I supposed to do with fifty soldiers? Do I appear to be the type of individual that bargains withlessersettlements.”

“That’s not my problem. Figure it out. What are you planning to do with them, anyway?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Nothing that concerns you,” he said smoothly.

“My monkeys, my circus.”

Riley, predictably, couldn’t hold back. “So you want a battalion and we don’t even get to know what for? You?—”

I cut him off, my tone firm. “Riley, let it go.”

He clenched his jaw, glaring daggers at Malachai. But he stayed quiet.

I turned back in my seat, eyeing Ronan over with a sweet, saccharine smile. “I want the trade agreement signed off right here, right now. You’ll get seventy-five. Don’t worry—they’ll be there before you even know it.”

I slipped my hand into my bag. The room tensed, everyone reacted, jumpy hands flew to their weapons—all but one. I took out the agreement and slammed it onto the table. Ronan didn’t flinch. He simply licked the tip of his pen and signed it, his gaze never leaving me. He didn’t read it. The issue had never been our requests—it was about making us suffer.

“It was a pleasure meeting with you. We’ll be in touch soon.” He dismissed me, but I wasn’t ready to leave.

“Actually,” I leaned forward, taking another sip of the now cold tea and entered his personal space. “I have a request of my own.”

My head felt light. A bit fuzzy. My thoughts scrambled a bit as I forgot what I’d come here to discover.

Ronan smiled back at me. One that made my skin crawl. It wasn’t pleasant but had hints of his own humor in there. He raised his head and tilted it, examining me out the side of his eye. “What would that be?”

It came back to me, just barely. I knew. I didn’t need to ask. His smile. The way I felt after the tea. There was no need to question him because I no longer cared. It didn’t matter.Nothingmattered. The how long, the why, the who. I didn’t need any other powering force to want to kill this motherfucker than his current actions. For once, the history, the root unrest and claim for power didn’t mean shit to me. The present was fueling enough.

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