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“You all good?” Niall calls out and approaches. “Hello, Valentina. We were just waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me… for what?” She looks at me, eyes narrowed. “Ronan, what did you do?”
I’m about to answer, since hanging her in suspense isn’t fun anymore, when the bay doors open and a truck pulls up outside. It parks and the engine shuts off, but the headlights remain on, blinding everyone in their path. A few of my guys pull guns, but Niall goes off to make them put the pieces away.
A man gets out of the truck. Two more follow, both of them big, clearly bodyguards. The headlights shut off, and Valentina sucks in a breath beside me.
“All right, I’m fucking here,” Rocco Ferraro says, glaring around him at my men. “Where the hell is Ronan? And where the fuck are my drugs?”
Chapter 22
Valentina
Iwas a nervous wreck all day thinking about how Ronan’s hit might go wrong. I had it planned down to the second—probably overkill, in retrospect—but so many things can go wrong when a bunch of drugged-up biker criminals are involved. Then he comes home and acts like nothing happened.
Now here we are in a warehouse filled with field hockey sticks and also drugs, and Rocco Ferraro, one of my father’s former Capos, is glaring around him like he’s going to take on the entire Hayes Group organization.
I can’t move. Even when Ronan tugs me forward, I feel like my legs are made from cardboard. My toes are numb and my heart’s racing, and I keep staring at Rocco as a dozen different memories come rushing back.
He was never my favorite. Honestly, I barely liked him, but he was alwaysthere. My father said he was dependable, even if he was a slovenly piece of shit and extremely annoying, but dependable was worth a dozen different flaws. I understood what Dad meant over the years: Rocco was one of the few Caposthat could be consistently relied upon to do a job no matter how difficult it proved to be, and always without complaint.
He was a prick to me. After the family fell apart, he was one of the loudest voices in calling for my head. And now I’m standing here, staring at a piece of my past, and while I should hate him for wanting to kill me, mostly I just feel exhausted and deep, brooding sadness in my guts.
“Hello, Rocco,” Ronan says once we’re through the line of guards.
Rocco looks at him, is about to speak, then he spots me.
And his mouth drops open.
Clearly, he didn’t expect me to be here.
“What thefuckisshedoing here?” Rocco blurts out. He points at me like he’s staring at a ghost. “Why the hell is Valentina Santoro with you?”
“Hey, Rocco,” I say, forcing myself to speak even though my jaw feels like it should be locked shut. “You look like crap. Life been hard since my father died?”
“What the fuck is going on here?” Rocco gets control of himself, but his fury is very clear as he glares at Ronan.
“Valentina is consulting with my organization,” Ronan says, and I swear there are a few murmurs from the guards, or maybe that’s my imagination. Ronan doesn’t react either way. “It was actually her idea to intercept your shipment.”
“You know, I fucking respected and loved your father, but you’ve been nothing but trouble,” he says, practically growling at me. “Why in the fuck did you take my drugs?”
“Because you’re an asshole, mostly,” I tell him and feel gratified when I get a couple laughs.
“Okay, okay,” Ronan says, grinning huge. Clearly, he liked that. “Let’s not start with the insults.”
“Fuck that. You stole from me.” Rocco takes a step forward like he forgot where he was for a moment. His guards seem very uncomfortable, since they both know they’re the first ones to die if this gets violent.
“Actually, we stole from the Bullethole Boys, and you’re very much in luck. Valentina here thinks we should sell you back this shipment at a heavily discounted rate, given we can agree to some terms. How’s that sound?”
Rocco’s taking deep breaths through his nose. The wordsheavily discounted rateare probably keeping him in check right now, but he’s not happy. “I’m listening.”
“We’ll sell you this meth for half of what you were going to pay the Bullethole Boys. That’s a lot of extra profit in your pocket. However, moving forward, I want you to do business exclusively through me and my business.”
Rocco’s jaw ticks. “I got a good thing going with the bikers. They cook a nice product.”
“You know what I import, and I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors. Quality stuff at a very reasonable cost. We happen to be ramping up production, and I’m going to give you an early backer discount, but only if you make us your exclusive supplier.”
Rocco grunts and shakes his head. “Basically, I’d be working for you is what you’re saying.”
