Ellen snatched the envelope from me so quick it sliced a finger. I popped it in my mouth and sucked on the welling blood as I watched her open it. Her eyes went wide. Inside: a folded piece of paper, the same weight as the envelope, the same embossed blue fleur-de-lis in the corner. Of course the Lady had a stationery set. When you rubbed the two halves of the paper together, they made a lovely shish-shish sound, like silk on skin. In thick marker strokes on the page: A monthly courtesy for our brave blues. Ellen tossed the paper and the envelope onto the desk without sparing either a glance.

Beneath the folded piece of paper, bundled together with a rubber band, a thick wedge of crisp green. The money, I’d realized when I’d peeked inside the envelope, must be the monthly bribe the Lady paid the cops. To ensure they looked the other way in case one of our marks decided it was worth the public humiliation to complain about what we did.

“There must be thousands of dollars here!”

“Eight large,” I said, half wishing I could grab it back out of her hands.

“This on top of what I already get?”

“That’s right.”

It was more money than she’d make in at least three months anywhere else and I knew it. More importantly, she knew it. I regretted offering it even as she shoved the money into her purse. I thought of her threat to tell Carrigan. I hadn’t expected that.

“I’ll assume this means you’re free Thursday.”

Ellen stood up and smoothed out invisible wrinkles over her middle. Her cheeks were red and blotchy, but she wasn’t crying anymore. “All right. One more time. And that’s it.” Still trying to be firm, show me how in charge she was. I wanted to say her pique was wasted—that she should save it for Klein; that empowerment came from topping him, not me—but I couldn’t. The weight of what I’d just done—and what I owed the Lady now—was stuck in my throat like a tumor. “Thursday, the St. Leo—and you will be there, right?”

“Yes.” With Jackal in tow, dead or alive, and more than one camera, just in case.

She told me she’d call me with the time when they’d settled on it. I watched her face as she said it—she’d surprised me twice today, which was two times too many—and thought the odds were close to even that she’d try to find some way to wiggle out of it once Thursday came. I’d need a backup plan. But that’s what the Lady paid me for.