AllFreeNovel
Share Us
NICO
We need to have a meeting
There’s no inclination that the text I send to The Shadow is delivered on my phone but I know he received it. I also know that he’ll only meet up with me when I’m ready so I ignore that in favor of more pressing issues. Adrian seats opposite the desk in front of me, looking every bit the petulant child.
“No,” he says immaturely after I relay my request.
I arch an eyebrow. “What do you mean, no?”
“Would you like to hear it in Russian? Nyet,” he says cheekily.
My eyes narrow. “Adrian, you killed five men without cause. We’re lucky all the Bratva want is an apology. One of them was a high-ranking commander. I need you to work with me here.”
“Nicolas, I respect you; really, I do. But if you think I’m going to walk into a meeting filled with assholes who could be protecting my mother’s murderer and apologize to them, I can assure you, you’re wrong.”
“All right, then the deal falls through. We lose the chance to make an alliance with the Bratva. Lose the chance to establish our own properties and holdings,” I say easily, leaning back in my chair.
Adrian’s eyebrows rise. “That sounds good enough to me, so what’s the catch?”
“No catch, except you’d have to invest more money from your family’s account into the outfit. A lot more. We’ve got to find another way to take care of our drug shortage problems.”
“That’s not happening. We already provide enough funds as it is,” he says, green eyes darkening.
I slap a hand down on the table.
“Do you think I went into this without careful consideration? We can’t keep depending on the cartels, Rossi. They’re unruly and fickle and likely to turn on us at every moment. Look at what happened with Santiago’s gang. I’m still cleaning up that mess and the man himself is nowhere to be found. I’m this close to sending someone to Mexico to sniff him out because it really makes me uncomfortable that he’s out there. So I need you to understand that I am not fucking around. Either you help me with the Bratva or you figure out another way out of this mess.”
Adrian smirks, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Damn, Ramirez. Intense much? It’s weird seeing you so worked up.”
I am going to strangle him.
Before I can move though, he raises both his hands up in surrender.
“Okay, okay, I get it. I’ll take care of the stupid apology,” he finally accepts. “In a note.”
My eyes fall shut, and I suck in a calming breath. “What?”
“You heard me. I’ll write it down. Have Vlad or someone else read it out to them. And by the way, I’m not attending the meeting. You can’t expect me to sit down in a room filled with my mother’s potential murderers.”
“I could order you to do it,” I state
There’s a hard look in his green eyes. “I realize that, but I’m asking you not to.”
After a few more moments of contemplation, I sigh.
“Fine. As long as you don’t do anything else to jeopardize the deal.”
“I won’t,” he mutters. “Also, do you want me to track down Santiago for you? I’ve got some contacts in Mexico.”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
“I’m on it,” he informs me. And then an easy smile spreads across his face. “By the way, Don, you look great. Married life must be treating you well, huh?”
I roll my eyes. I was wondering when he’d get to that. It’s been two weeks since Aurora and I returned from our fake honeymoon. And since then, we’ve been continuing our fake marriage, but we’ve also been kind of dating. The point is, we haven’t established the rules of our relationship yet, which I don’t like. But I also can’t push her too hard, otherwise she’ll push back.
I have to be careful.
