Three Fates

that’s fast work, isn’t it?”
    “It only took one look, and she knows it. That gives her the advantage.” He paused. “She’d use an advantage when it comes to hand.”
    “She would,” Malachi agreed, not without sympathy. “If need be.”
    “What she doesn’t know, and what I haven’t figured out, is what I’m going to do about it. I’m not a fatalist. I think people drive the train.”
    “So do I.” He thought of Felix Greenfield, of Henry Wyley, and a sunny afternoon in May. “But we don’t always choose the tracks.”
    “Whatever the tracks, we’ve got our hand on the switch. If that wasn’t the way it worked, I’d believe that those statues, the circle they’ve made, have something to do with what happened to me when I looked at Rebecca. Since I don’t, I’ll just say I’m in love with your sister. So you can stop worrying that I’ll let anything or anyone hurt her. Including myself. That do it for you?”
    “I’m just going to sit down here a minute.” He did so, drank contemplatively, then set the bottle on the little iron table by his chair. He bounced his palms off his knees while he studied Jack. “Our father’s gone, and I’m the oldest, so it falls to me to ask you . . .” He trailed off, dragged his hands through his hair. “You know, I’m just not ready for it. Let’s have part two of this particular discussion at some later date.”
    Jack tipped back his beer again. “Works for me.”
    “You’re a cool one, you are. Better for her that you are. So let’s move on to another area. The Fates.”
    “You’ve been in charge.”
    Malachi leaned back, cocked a brow. “This is a family affair for us, Jack.”
    “Never said different, but you’re in charge. When push comes to shove, the others look to you for the answer. That goes for Tia, too. Probably Cleo, though she’s the wild card.”
    “She’s had a rough go, but she’s steady enough. You have a problem with what you see as the pecking order here?”
    “I might have, except I get the impression you know how to delegate, and how to let everyone play to their strengths. I know what mine are. I don’t mind taking orders, Sullivan, if I agree with them. And I won’t mind telling you to fuck off if I don’t. Bottom line, I owe you. Felix Greenfield,” he continued. “And I want the Fates. I’ll work with you so we all end up with what we want.
    “Next on the bill,” he added. “It’s a little too loose for my liking to keep Cleo’s Fate in Tia’s refrigerator. My apartment’s got the best security money can buy. I want to keep it in my safe there, along with mine.”
    Picking up his beer, Malachi passed the bottle from hand to hand as he thought it through. Trust, he thought. Without it, they’d never solidify. “I won’t argue with the practicality of that, but to say you’d then have two of three in your hands. What’s to stop you from going after the other on your own, or even negotiating with Anita? No offense.”
    “None taken. Going after the other alone would be tricky, logistically. Not impossible, but tricky. Moreover, Rebecca wouldn’t like it one damn bit, and that matters. And finally, I don’t double-cross people I like. I especially like the doc.” His grin was fast and wolfish.
    “As do I.”
    “Yeah, that comes through clear. As for dealing with Anita, I don’t negotiate with sociopaths. And that’s just what she is. She gets the chance, she’d take any one of us out, cold blood, then go have her weekly manicure.”
    Malachi settled back again, drank again. “Agreed. So, we won’t give her that opportunity. We’ve all got some pondering to do.”
    “Why don’t we take twenty-four hours? Then we can give Tia a break and meet at my place tomorrow.”
    “All right.” Malachi got to his feet, held out a hand. “Welcome aboard.”
     
     
    “YOU AND MAL were involved in your private and manly discussion for some time.” Rebecca angled in the seat of the tanklike SUV Jack had driven uptown. “What was it about?”
    “This. That. The other.”
    “You can start with this, move along to that.”
    “It comes to mind that if we’d wanted you in on the discussion, we’d have asked you up on the roof.”
    “I’m as much a part of this as anyone.”
    “Nobody says different.” He turned off Fifth, headed east to Lexington, watching his rearview mirror as a matter of course.
    “And as such, I’ve a perfect right to know what the two of you had your heads