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All it has on it is the taunting smiley face with the eyes crossed out and the initials L.P. beneath it.
“Lance Polinsky,” Jaxon fills in.
“Yeah.” Red flashes of fire blaze before my eyes. “That message wasn’t for you. It was for me. He’s basically trying to tell me that if I fuck with him, he will fuck with me. And he has.”
Jaxon releases a haggard sigh. “Then return the favor.”
“Believe me, I will,” I seethe. “I’ll get the weapons back one way or another. I have to find Harlan first.”
“I’ll join you. My father is livid about the missing shipment, and you know how he already feels about me.”
Jaxon and his father have a terrible relationship. One where his father dictates everything he does. Their relationship got worse after Jaxon’s older brother died. His brother was supposed to take over their company, but according to their law of succession it went to Jaxon, against his father’s wishes.
“Sorry this happened on my watch.”
“Let’s just focus on getting that motherfucker. I did some digging and it looks like he was in serious debt. He gambled away everything he and his wife owned. I found a quarter million dollars in expenses at a casino in Vegas last month and various other expenses. He cleaned out his bank account, his wife’s, and their business account.”
“You’re fucking kidding me.”
“I wish I were. It seems that Lance got him to work for him because of the debt. I don’t know yet, but it’s the only thing that makes sense for him to steal from people like us.”
Jaxon couldn’t be more right. Harlan knows who we are and that we’re part of the Creed.
The Creed is a council of twelve crime lords and their subordinates. Dante is the current leader.
There are four Bratva brotherhoods, two families from the Italian mafia, two clans each from the Camorra, Yakuza, and Irish mafia, of which myself and my uncle Seamus are part of. Each group has taken the blood oath to live by a set of laws and principles which have bound us for over fifty years.
We share power and wealth. But we also share vengeance. When you wrong one group, you wrong all.
A mere man like Harlan would have definitely been under some significant duress to fuck with us the way he has. But that will not excuse him. He’s already a dead man.
“I need to widen the search. Hopefully he’s still in New York.” I ball my hand into a fist.
“I did some checking myself. His wife had a heart attack last night and is in the hospital. I can’t imagine him leaving without seeing her.”
“Fuck. That explains why no one was home when we went there.”
“Her daughter arrived at the hospital this morning.” He pulls out a picture from the envelope and hands it to me.
I look at it and despite the turmoil crashing around in my head, I’m instantly drawn to the beauty that stares back at me. The stunning young woman with long brown hair and champagne-colored eyes.
She has a heart-shaped face with porn-star plump lips, and the sun-kissed skin on her elegant neck looks like cream.
She’s beautiful, but I’m surprised that just seeing a mere picture of her has managed to pull me away from my rage.
“What’s her name?”
“Chloe.” Jaxon’s amused tone suggests he’s caught on to my fascination. “Chloe Ricci.”
Ricci. She must be from Harlan’s wife’s first marriage. “Let’s go pay her a visit.”
Chapter Two
Chloe
My mother had a heart attack.
Those words still feel wrong in my head. Every time I think them my soul feels numb.
