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Maybe I don’t have to give up the future I’ve always dreamed of after all.
3
CHRISTIAN
“Hold on, Jeremiah, what do you mean the deal’s off?”
I scowl at the dead body at my feet, wishing he were alive so I would have an outlet for my anger. “I came back to Tennessee to get married tomorrow, and now you’re calling this off?”
Jeremiah Redford has been nothing but a pain in my ass since he first brought up working together.
He reached out to me when some of my men had been taken by the cops after their names were leaked. He told me he could protect my people, keep the authorities away from my cartel, if I protected his family against some bad people.
Marrying his daughter was supposed to be the signature to the deal, ensuring that our families would be tied together.
“You heard me. You’re on your own. The wedding is off.” Jeremiah chuckles, and for a moment, I wish I could reach through the phone and strangle him. “You’re a smart man, Christian. You’ll figure it out, I’m sure. However, my daughter will not be marrying you tomorrow.”
“You have no clue what you’ve just done,” I say as I step away from the body.
I pace back and forth, running a hand through my hair. “This is the one and only chance I’m going to give you, Jeremiah. I'll pretend you didn’t just say that, and we continue with the wedding tomorrow.”
“Not happening. I love my daughter, and I’m not going to force her into a life with you.”
I bark out a short laugh. “You’re fucking kidding me, right? You love your daughter, but you’re willing to marry her off to a complete stranger? A criminal you approached to make a deal. How do you think she’s going to react when she finds out what kind of man you are? Although, I’m sure she already has a guess. What kind of man marries off his daughter?”
“I do what I have to do to protect my family. From what I know, that is a concept you are quite familiar with.”
The line goes dead.
I throw my phone, watching it shatter against the tarmac.
The pilot looks over at me from where he stands beside the plane before looking down at the body.
“Do you want me to deal with this mess, boss?”
I link my hands together behind my head, looking up at the fat white clouds drifting across the sky. “Yes. Handle this, and do it discreetly. Forget you heard that conversation, and there will be a bonus in it for you.”
The pilot nods and walks over to the body. He doesn’t say a word as he picks up the man’s body and carries him over to the little truck that transports bags from the airport to the plane. He stuffs the body in the bed before looking down at the blood on the ground.
I don’t have time to stand around for this. I need to figure out how I’m going to be able to protect my cartel without Jeremiah keeping the authorities away from me.
My people are like fish in a barrel.
I’ve had to sit back and watch as people I’ve known and trusted for years get locked away because someone has been leaking their names and linking them to crimes through irrefutable evidence.
My men are familiar with the dangers associated with life in a cartel. Having people locked away due to a snitch was not supposed to be one of them.
Jeremiah has the power to talk with the district attorney and the police chief and get them to back off. Without this deal, I’m left with my pants down around my ankles, wondering how the hell I’m going to fix this.
Jeremiah is going to pay for fucking me over.
As I walk to my car, I sort through my options.
I could kill him right now, but that's only going to draw attention to me.
He’s not a stupid man. You don’t get to be the Head of State without making sure that you have contingency plans in place.
If I kill him, there is no doubt in my mind that somebody will be coming after me.
