Liam looked at Kelvin on his knees on the floor and let a long breath out through his nose.

"Let him go," he said.

The two holding him stepped back. Kelvin rolled one shoulder, brushed his sleeve where they had grabbed him, and looked around the room at everyone staring at him.

Then he looked at Liam.

Then he stood up, crossed the floor in three fast steps, and put himself directly between Liam and the rest of the room with his feet planted wide and his arms out.

"Stay back," Kelvin said. Loud. Directed at everyone in general. "All of you. Nobody touches him."

Liam put his hand over his face.

He dragged it downward slowly.

Kelvin had his knees bent and his fists raised in what he clearly believed was a fighting stance. His eyes were sweeping the room left to right.

Every person in the warehouse was looking at him. Nobody moved.

A few people glanced at each other with expressions that asked whether this was actually happening.

"Kelvin," Liam said.

"I got you bro. Just stay behind me."

"What are you doing."

"Protecting you. Obviously."

"There’s no need for that."

Kelvin held the stance. "I know you’re strong and everything but there’s a lot of them and—"

"Kelvin." Liam stepped forward so he was standing beside him. "There is no danger. None. I chose to be here. I come here voluntarily."

A pause.

Kelvin turned his head slowly and looked at Liam. "What?"

"You’re completely safe. Everyone in this room is on my side."

Kelvin lowered his fists. He looked around the room again, this time actually seeing it.

The organized space. The people standing around looking unbothered. The equipment along the walls. The flag above everything with the grinning reaper on it.

He turned fully to face Liam. "No way." His voice had dropped. "So you’re actually working for a gang now."

"Not exactly."

Kelvin pointed at the flag. "Bro. There is a flag."

"I know."

"With a reaper on it."

"I know."

"It’s smiling."

"Kelvin."

"The reaper is smiling, Liam."

"I know what the flag looks like."

Kelvin lowered his hand and stood there for a second processing it all. Then he nodded slowly. "Okay. Okay I get why you kept me out of this." He paused. Then he looked back at Liam and pointed at him again. "But I should tell you. I have experience with this kind of thing."

Liam looked at him. "What kind of experience."

"You know." Kelvin gestured at the warehouse broadly. "This whole operation type situation. The whole moving things around, handling business, all of that." He kept a straight face. "I’ve done my share of dealing before."

"You have."

"No." A beat. "But I feel like I would be genuinely excellent at it."

Liam opened his mouth.

"Okay." Shay’s voice came from behind Liam. Flat. Direct. "Who is this."

Liam turned slightly. Shay had his arms crossed and was looking at Kelvin the way a person looks at something they haven’t decided what category to put in yet. Not angry. Not amused. Just assessing.

"This is Kelvin," Liam said. "My best friend."

Kelvin’s reaction was immediate. His hands went to his chest, both of them pressed flat against his hoodie, and his eyes went wide. "You said it." His voice had gone slightly higher than normal. "Out loud. In front of actual people."

"Don’t."

"I’m not doing anything."

"You’re doing something."

"I’m just standing here." Kelvin looked at the ceiling for exactly one second and then back at Liam. "You won’t hear another word about it. I’m completely fine. This is fine."

Shay looked at Liam. His expression asked several questions simultaneously without a single word coming out of his mouth.

Liam looked back at him. The look on his face said I know.

"Is this what you came here to tell me," Shay said.

"No," Liam said. "That’s coming. Just give me a second."

He turned back to Kelvin. "Go back outside."

Kelvin crossed his arms. "No."

"Kelvin."

"I said no." He said it clearly and without any sign that he was going to be moved on it. "You’ve been cutting me out of everything since the arena and I’ve been letting it go because I figured you had a reason. But I’m here now and I’m not leaving." He glanced past Liam at Shay. Then he made a decision and walked around Liam entirely.

He stopped in front of Shay.

Shay was taller by a clear margin and built in a way that made the height difference feel larger than it was. He looked down at Kelvin without changing anything about his face.

Kelvin looked up at him. Studied him for about two seconds. "You’re the biggest one here. You’re in charge."

Shay and Liam both raised an eyebrow at the exact same moment.

Before either of them could respond Kelvin reached out, grabbed both of Shay’s hands, and started shaking them with considerable enthusiasm.

"Please recruit me," Kelvin said. "I am serious. I will work harder than anyone you have here. I know Liam personally. I know exactly how he thinks, how he moves, what makes him do what he does. If you want someone who understands him completely that person is standing right in front of you right now." He kept the handshake going. "You will never regret this. I am telling you this as a fact."

Shay looked down at his own hands currently being shaken by a person he had met forty seconds ago. Then he looked up at Liam.

Liam was looking at the floor.

’If I tell Shay to say no right now,’ he thought, ’Kelvin is just going to find another way in. He already proved that today. He climbed a fence and got within range of people who were a second away from making a decision about him that I couldn’t have walked back.’ He lifted his eyes to Kelvin still mid-pitch at Shay. ’The only way I can actually keep an eye on this is to bring it inside where I control what he touches and what he doesn’t.’

He walked over.

"Shay’s going to say yes," Liam said.

Kelvin dropped Shay’s hands and spun around. "Seriously?"

"Yes. But you’re not going to be active the same way I am. We’ll be on something separate. What that is, Shay decides. Not you, not me."

Kelvin was already nodding. "Fine. Completely fine. What is it?"

"Shay will tell you when he decides."

Kelvin pointed at Liam. "Okay but why are you the one telling me all this. Why isn’t he telling me." He pointed at Shay.

Liam glanced back at Shay. "The crew leader doesn’t really talk much."

Shay looked at Liam with an expression that was doing a lot of work staying neutral.

Kelvin studied Shay for a moment and then nodded like this made complete sense. "Strong silent type. I respect it. Say less, do more. That’s leadership."

Shay said nothing.

"Right," Liam said. He turned to face the room and raised his voice just enough to carry. "Can everyone give us a few minutes please."

The room moved without hesitation. People stood from chairs, stepped away from walls, moved toward both exits in an organized and quiet way that showed it wasn’t the first time they had been asked to clear a space. Within a minute the warehouse had emptied down to three people.

One of Shay’s people caught Kelvin’s eye and nodded toward the door.

Kelvin looked at Liam.

Liam pointed at the door.

Kelvin pressed his mouth together. Then he nodded and walked toward it. At the door he stopped and looked back at Liam one more time with an expression that contained approximately six different things and then went through it.

The door closed.

Silence settled over the warehouse. The three of them stood in the open space under the flat even lighting with the grinning reaper watching from the flag above them.

Shay looked at Liam. "Talk."

Liam put his hands in his pockets. He looked at the floor for a moment, putting it in order, and then looked up.

"The crew we cleared out when we took the base," he said.

Shay nodded. "Yeah."

"They’re gone. Not because of what we did to them." Liam kept his voice even. "Someone else killed them. All of them. Over a hundred people."

Shay’s jaw tightened. His arms, which had been crossed, dropped slowly to his sides. "Who."

"The same people who came after me last night. Three of them. Came at me outside a hotel after I sent Clara home." He watched Shay’s face. "Daggers. Matching marks on the blades. One of them had an ability I hadn’t seen before. They talked before it ended and they told me what I needed to know."

Shay’s eyes hadn’t moved from Liam’s face. "What did they say."

"They called themselves the Elite Gang."

Something moved behind Shay’s eyes. Quick and then gone. His brow came down slightly and he looked to the side for a second like he was reaching for something in his memory. "I’ve heard that before," he said quietly. More to himself than Liam.

"Yeah." Liam paused. "Because they work for the Blade Family."

The warehouse went quiet in a different way than it had been quiet before.

Shay stood completely still.

His chest moved with one slow breath. His jaw was set. His hands at his sides had closed without him seeming to decide to close them, the knuckles sitting tight against his fingers.

"Oh shit," he said. Low and quiet.

"So you know them."

Shay looked at him. "Liam." He said the name the way someone says a name when what comes after it is going to be serious and they want you to hear it properly. "Everyone who wants to stay alive knows who the seven families are. That’s not even a choice. That’s just information you pick up if you’re paying attention."

"That’s what I figured," Liam said.

Shay looked at him. "So what’s the question. Because you didn’t come here just to tell me what happened. You came here because there’s a decision attached to it."

Liam looked back at him straight. "They know I run this crew. Which means everyone here is a potential target. Not just me. Any one of these people could be used to get at me at any time from here on." He let that sit in the space between them for a second. "So the question is whether you’re still in after knowing all of that. Because this is a different thing from what we signed up for at the beginning and you have the right to know exactly what it is before you decide."

Shay didn’t move for a moment.

Then he let out a short breath through his nose. "I’m fighting beside you." His voice was completely flat and completely certain. Not emotional. Not dramatic. Just stated like a fact that had already been decided a long time ago and wasn’t up for revisiting. "No question. Don’t ask me that again."

Something in Liam’s chest settled. The thing that had been sitting there since last night, since the court, since he had stood there and looked at the three bodies and understood what they represented, loosened by a degree.

He didn’t say anything for a second.

Then he nodded. "Now we just have to tell everyone else."

Shay straightened up. His shoulders rolled back once. The focused quality that had come in behind his eyes when the Blade Family’s name had been said was still there, sharp and settled, the kind of focus that doesn’t go away when the conversation ends. "The core is solid. None of them are going to push back. I know every one of those people."

"The wider members though."

"Yeah." Shay looked toward the main door. "They need to hear it directly."

"From both of us," Liam said.

Shay looked at him. Then he gestured toward the door. "Lead the way then."

Liam turned toward it.

He put his hand on the door and pushed it open and the light from outside came in across the clean floor of the warehouse and the grinning reaper on the flag above them looked out through the open door at whatever was coming next with the same wide unbothered smile it had for everything else.

Liam walked out.

Shay followed one step behind.