"If that's what you want," Max said slowly, "tell me, baby. How do you want to torture them? I'll have them captured. You can do whatever you like with them."
"No." Ruby shook her head, already moving past the simple satisfaction he was offering her. "I don't want that. I have a plan."
Samuel and Max both turned toward her fully now, the kind of attention that put aside every other thought in the room.
"I believe you've tried to deal with them before," Ruby said. "Through the law. Through other means. And it never quite worked they always found a way back to the surface." She paced a slow half-circle, thinking out loud.
"What I want isn't their death. Not yet. I want something slower. I want them to suffer the way they made me suffer, without ever knowing my hand is in it."
She stopped.
"Mia is the head of the syndicate now, isn't she?" Ruby looked at Samuel for confirmation, then back at Max. "
