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“I know everyone who’s going to be there, but I don’t know any of the dynamics. Is there anyone I shouldn’t talk to? Who can we trust?”

Those are some loaded questions . . . and then I realize the first thing she said isn’t actually true.

I don’t remember Harrison telling Liv about Eian being the Chair of the People, or his cousin, and though our leader does love his surprises, I’m not going to let Liv be blindsided.

“Actually, you don’t know everyone.” Another deep breath is needed considering we’re twenty-five minutes away from the building where the meeting will take place and there’s a lot I have to explain for any of this to make sense. “Save the questions for the end, ’cause this is going to take a while, okay?”

“Okay.” I’m glad the word comes out dripping with wariness.

And I bet she understands it too as I tell her the strange fucking sequence of events that led to New York’s most infamous mobster holding the Chair of the People. She keeps her cool even while I tell her who his Heir is, but when I admit the family connection between Harrison and Eian, that’s clearly too far.

“What?!”

“Yeah, that’s the appropriate reaction,” I mumble. “So you don’t know Eian and Colby, but they’ll be there.” I suck in another deep breath, which I need after so much talking. “Eian loves rattling people, and he’s good at it, but he’s not going to hurt you. In fact, it turns out he’s a bit of a softie, at least from what we’ve seen in the meetings these last six months. He’s got this code, I guess you could call it. He doesn’t hurt innocents, and he actually protects them.

“Colby is pretty chill. He’s the whole reason Eian was even able to figure out that Brent was the leader of the human trafficking ring.”

“Just so I understand, you’re talking about the same Colby Major who was a face of ENN news for damn near a decade then got fired out of the blue?” she demands.

“Yup.” I nod but keep my eyes on the road as the light turns green. “Actually, Brent got him fired when he got a little bit too close to the truth. Michael Ellsworth, Chair of Information, he had no idea the head of the news division was a buddy of Brent’s and got that dealt with too.”

“Jesus, that’s a lot of information.”

“I know,” I tell her, feeling a little bit bad about dumping all of this on her on the way there. I should probably have asked her to meet me sooner. “I promise we can talk about it more later. For now, let me go down the list for you.”

I go through everyone quickly, how I trust the Crawfords, Altons, and Walls only as far as I can throw them but they’re okay people, and how Eli and his Dad are the best of the bunch as far as I’m concerned, but Eli won’t be at the meeting since he’s in Denver watching Lex’s brother play in the third round of the playoffs.

I tell her the Windsors are snobs who still believe they have some right to own everything, but are pretty passive, how the Blackwells are the only ones who care less about the whole thing than I do, and how the Cockertons are mostly just annoying.

I’m impressed by how she absorbs everything, not really asking questions, but I suppose she’ll have her own impressions of everyone soon enough.

“One last question. Does Harrison really own Barclay Arena?”

“No.” I shake my head. “The Crawfords own the floor under it. Jim tried to get Harrison to give it up when he sold him the Kings and the stadium, but Harrison wouldn’t budge. At least that’s what Jim told me. I think that regardless of how much he has us by the balls, Harrison doesn’t take it lightly. He’s pretty level-headed considering all the power he has. And he chose his daughter to be his Heir when he also has a son.”

“So at least he’s better than Jim. That’s a low bar, Tuck,” she points out.

“I know, but he’s a good guy. Iris is pretty kick-ass. Jim told me he was ready to riot when Harrison picked her as his Heir, but then the first meeting she went to, Zack—Zachary Wall—made some comment about marrying her and she threw a knife at his chair and it landed right next to his balls.” I bark out a laugh, cursing the fact that I’m a year younger than her and so wasn’t there to see it. “Jim didn’t say it, but I know he was too scared to say anything after that.”

“Good,” Liv says with satisfaction and her evil smile tugging on her lips.

“The Altons are probably the only ones who could rival Harrison in power. They have all of our signed contracts, and Harrison is the only one who has the contracts they signed, the same you signed, but they keep all of ours.”

Again, she only nods once.

“Got it.”

“Are you ready?” I ask and put the car in park.

“I am. Just want to get this over with, if I’m honest.”

That’s how I feel before every meeting too, so I can’t exactly blame her.

“Let’s do it, then.”

It’s only the Crawfords and family when we get up to the windowless meeting room.

As warned, Eian’s smile when he sees Liv walk in is the same as a bloodthirsty shark.