I stared at him while Lee shrugged. Primary public relations effort? It had been an orphanage. God, how cold could you be?

“It was the easiest way to get your attention.” Lee sipped his drink. “You’ve been inching your way past the Mississippi the last ten years. Did you expect anything less?”

Trent’s jaw tightened. “You’re killing innocent people with the potency of the Brimstone you’re putting on the streets.”

“No!” Lee barked, pushing the glass from him. “There are no innocents.” Thin lips pressed together, he leaned forward, angry and threatening. “You crossed the line,” he said, shoulders tense under his tux. “And I wouldn’t be here culling your weak clientele if you stayed on your side of the river as agreed.”

“My father made that agreement, not me. I’ve asked your father to lower the levels he allows in his Brimstone. People want a safe product. I give it to them. I don’t care where they live.”

Lee fell back with a sound of disbelief. “Spare me the benefactor crap,” he simpered. “We don’t sell to anyone who doesn’t want it. And Trent? They want it. The stronger, the better. The death levels even out in less than a generation. The weak die off, the strong survive, ready and willing to buy more. To buy stronger. Your careful regulation weakens everyone. There’s no natural balance, no strengthening of the species. Maybe that’s why there are so few of you left. You’ve killed yourself by trying to save them.”

I sat with my hands deceptively slack in my lap, feeling the tension rise in the small room. Culling weak clientele? Strengthening the species? Who in hell did he think he was?

Lee made a quick movement, and I twitched.

“But the bottom line,” Lee said, easing back when he saw me move, “is that I’m here because you are changing the rules. And I’m not leaving. It’s too late for that. You can hand everything over to me and graciously move off the continent, or I will take it, one orphanage, one hospital, one train station, street corner, and bleeding-heart innocent at a time.” He took a sip of his drink and cradled it in his laced hands. “I like games, Trent. And if you remember, I won whatever we played.”

Trent’s eye twitched. It was his only show of emotion. “You have two weeks to get out of my city,” he said, his voice a smooth ribbon of calm water hiding a deadly under-tow. “I’m going to maintain my distribution. If your father wants to talk, I’m listening.”