Page 23 of Devil’s Promise

They’d prefer I take my uncle’s place, but they won’t move against Vincent and actively side with me. Not yet.

I need some advantage, that despite my smaller operation, makes me the better choice. And that’s what Promise’s father has provided with our marriage and the land. It’s right in the heart of all our operations, it touches my domain, bordering Vincent’s as well.

It would give us a common meeting area, construction projects to wash money, and as the section is currently filled with leased projects, anyone wanting to deal in them, including Vincent, would have to come through me.

I finish counting and move to the task of allocation through the various businesses. Some of the other bosses have accountants who take care of this aspect of the business, but not me.

I was excellent in math while in school. And I’m a quick study with law. But most of all, if no one else touches the money, there is no trail and no leak for me to worry about.

I keep my business tight.

Rock had a problem with drugs and girls a few years ago. The deeper into the coke he got, the looser his tongue became.

We locked him in the basement and cleaned him up. Told him the truth. He was a liability and there wasn’t another chance. He stayed clean or he left New York.

We were all adopted by Vigo’s brother Lorenzo and he picked well. Each of us was in the system, orphaned, bounced from foster home to foster home because we were violent and troubled.

But he wasn’t just looking for bad-seed, young teenage boys. We’re all large, and we all have a special talent that makes us perfect for this life.

He took us in and turned us from delinquents to criminals. But he also encouraged us to be brothers.

We were his soldiers and soldiers do best when they are united.

But Lorenzo didn’t anticipate how fully we’d bond. No family, we became each other’s everything. Which means that when we told Rock he was out if he didn’t get himself under control, he knew the truth.

We weren’t doing it for ourselves, we were laying down the ultimatum for him. He needed us to be his strength. His guide. He’s been clean ever since.

Even if he is still fucking nuts.

As if he heard me thinking about him, he opens the door to my office.

It’s got to be two in the morning, and the club is in full swing. I hear the thumping of the music from the bar grow louder as he opens the door.

“Still here?” he asks as he closes the door behind him.

“I’m always here,” I answer back, jotting down the figures I’d been calculating. There are tax laws and guidelines that, if followed carefully, almost make certain we fly under the radar with the IRS.

“Knox was convinced you’d be upstairs or gone.” He sits in the worn chair on the other side of the desk, spreading out to completely fill the seat.

“Why would he think that?” Like I don’t know.

Rock shrugs. “Fucking the brains out of your cupcake.”

“Cupcake?”

“That’s what she looks like to me. Like one of those perfect little cupcakes you see in the window of a bakery. Too pretty to eat.”

“I like eating pretty things,” I say, sitting back in my chair as I toss my pen on the desk. “They’re extra delicious.”

“So why aren’t you eating her?”

I scrub a hand over my jaw. “Despite what Knox thinks, I didn’t take her today to eat. I was proving a point to her father.”

Rock’s brows draw together, confusion marking his brow. “What point?”

“That once it’s mine, he doesn’t get to touch it again.” I start cracking the knuckles on my right hand. “Same is going to be true with the land. Once it’s mine, it’s mine. He needs to stay the fuck off it.”

Rock gives me a slow grin. “You are always thinking, brother.”