The Serpent's Curse by Lisa Maxwell (read an ebook week .TXT) 📕

“I can handle myself around the Syndicate,” Jericho told her. “At least with them, I know exactly what I’m dealing with.”

Maggie felt his words land hard, and the look he gave her was worse than a fist to her gut.

“It might be tricky with the raid, but then, maybe that’ll help. There’s sure to be some positions open. I could introduce you to the manager and try to get you set up today?” Cordelia offered.

“Sounds fine to me,” North said, grabbing his hat from the table as he ignored Maggie’s fragile silence. It was almost like he couldn’t wait to get free of her.

“What about us?” Maggie asked.

“It’ll be safer for y’all to stay here,” Cordelia told her flatly.

“But—” Maggie protested.

“No way. We’re coming with you,” Esta insisted.

“The grounds were crawling with federal marshals when we left,” Cordelia reminded them. “With all that happened earlier, we can’t risk someone recognizing you as easily as I did. And you”—Cordelia looked directly at Maggie—“what do you know about cattle?”

Maggie shook her head. “Nothing,” she admitted. But she didn’t want to let Jericho go off without the two of them patching things up.

“It’s bad enough Pickett has probably already realized someone’s robbed him,” Cordelia told her. “We can’t chance you sticking out like a sore thumb and drawing attention.”

“Cordelia’s right,” Jericho told them, but he didn’t look at Maggie when he spoke. “It’ll be safer for both of you to stay here.” His words felt like a door closing, and she didn’t have the key.

“Then it’s settled,” Cordelia said, clearly satisfied. “The two of you will stay here, and I’ll take Jericho back to the showgrounds with me and get him introduced to Aldo.”

“I’ll need the formulation,” Jericho said.

“You think you can give it to him today?” Esta asked, clearly surprised.

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But I might get lucky, and I want to be ready. No sense wasting any more time going back and forth. The sooner I’m done with all this, the better.”

“Of course,” Maggie said, forcing her voice to stay calm. She refused to let a single tear break free as she dug through the small pouch. Finally, she found what she was looking for.

Jericho reached for the tablets, but Cordelia held out her hand. “It’ll be safer for me to hold on to them… in case they search you.”

Maggie frowned. She trusted Jericho to hold the tablets. He had a sense of right and wrong that wouldn’t allow him to abuse them, but Cordelia? Antistasi or not, it could be disastrous if she gave the tablets to the wrong person.

“You never know what to expect with the Syndicate,” Cordelia said. “I’m a known performer. They’re not likely to look at me. But if they search him…”

“I can handle myself just fine,” Jericho said.

Maggie couldn’t take that risk. “You only need one, but you’ll have to dissolve it in something,” she told them as she handed the tablets to Cordelia. “It’ll have a bitterness to it, so alcohol is best if you can find some. To hide the taste.”

“They were in the beer, weren’t they?” Jericho asked.

Maggie turned to him, confused.

“When you gave it to me,” he clarified. “You put them in the beer that first night.”

She couldn’t lie to him, wouldn’t ever again. But she also couldn’t bring herself to say the words, so she only nodded.

Disappointment flashed across Jericho’s expression—or maybe it was something closer to hurt. He let out a resigned breath that made it seem like he was deflating, and then he gave Cordelia a nod. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, opening the door to escort the sharpshooter out. “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he told Maggie, but he didn’t give her cheek a kiss as he usually did before he left.

“Are you okay?” Esta asked when Maggie didn’t do anything but stare blankly at the closed door. Now that Jericho was gone, the tears that had been threatening all along would not come.

The question shook Maggie back to the moment. “I’m fine,” she said, swallowing hard past the knot of regret in her throat.

“You don’t seem fine,” Esta told her.

“Well, I am,” Maggie said. “Or I will be once North and Cordelia come back with news of the Pharaoh’s Heart.” She told herself it would be enough. It had to be enough. Especially if retrieving it had cost her everything else.

Esta was frowning, her dark brows pulled together thoughtfully. “I’m still not sure how I feel about Cordelia knowing all of our business.”

Me neither. “She’s Antistasi,” Maggie said instead. It meant that she was an ally, but it could also be a problem. If Cordelia found out that they had managed to lose the necklace, the entire network would know. From the sound of things, people had already started to doubt her loyalty, which was also a problem. Maggie couldn’t afford anyone to know that she’d failed to keep hold of the artifact. Not until she had a replacement for it.

“I’m still not sure I like her,” Esta grumbled.

“I’m not either,” Maggie admitted, giving Esta a resigned shrug. “But it looks like we’re stuck with her. If she can help us get the dagger—”

“As long as she does help,” Esta said. “All that talk of making Sundren pay…”

Maggie hadn’t liked that bit either. “If Cordelia tries anything, Jericho will take care of it. Even if he is furious with me right now.”

Esta held her gaze. “If he loves you half as much as he pretends to, he’ll get over it.”

“I’m not sure that he will,” Maggie said, remembering the way Jericho had looked away from her. She knew how much his pride meant to him.

“Then he’s not the man you thought he was,” Esta said.

Maggie frowned. “Jericho deserved better than what I did to him.”

“Maybe he did.” Esta shrugged. “But sometimes the choices life hands to us aren’t that simple. People aren’t that simple. Look at your sister.”

“What about my sister?” Maggie asked, suddenly wary.

“The