I’d like to say Iris isn’t fearsome, but there’s a reason she’s one of Maddox and Cohen’s top picks when they put together small teams for dangerous tasks. I sigh and follow Monroe out of the office, waiting while she locks up behind her. I didn’t plant another listening device today. I don’t have the full details about Abel’s plans, but he was very clear on the schedule for hiding bugs in Monroe’s office. I suspect it’s so, eventually, she’ll become complacent and stop scanning the space.

I’m not sure Monroe and complacent have ever been used in the same sentence, but Abel seems to know what he’s doing. Especially since he’s got his two Brides in line and they’re all working together. It’s made a huge difference in our welcome in the Raider faction.

All good things.

None of it helps make Monroe easier to deal with.

She strides down the hallway, forcing me to rush to keep up with her. It doesn’t seem to matter that my legs are longer than hers. The woman is a menace.

We take the elevators down to the main floor and head out to the street. I keep waiting for it to be easier to move through the Amazon faction, but even though my childhood home was far from the city center, there’s something about the people here that are innately familiar. It doesn’t matter their gender, their race, their age; they all feel like Amazons to me. I hate that familiarity. I wish I could scrub it from my brain, could divorce myself from that identity with the same violence I divorced myself from this city the first time.

It won’t happen. If it was that easy to purge the secret demons from myself, I would have done it long ago.

The Raider truck is waiting for us at the curb, just like it is every day. I ignore the little stab of disappointment when I see Maddox behind the wheel instead of Broderick. Of course, it wouldn’t be Broderick. He hasn’t been our driver even once in the last two weeks. He’d rather cut off his arm than spend thirty minutes in an enclosed space with his Bride.

Even if I’m there, too.

At least Maddox is one of the few people Monroe doesn’t mess with. It’s fascinating, because she has no problem poking at Cohen, who’s easily the scariest motherfucker in the entire compound, but Maddox, his best-friend-sometimes-lover is where she draws the line. The big blond man is handsome and charming, and I don’t understand what he did to accomplish putting her on her best behavior when he’s around.

I’d love to be able to replicate it.