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Christ, I needed a drink to get through this meeting.
“Thankfully, I can count on you two.” Andraius nodded as if he’d done something right. “I wasn’t so sure about sending you off to represent us, but damn, trusting the two of you with my interests was probably the best thing I could have done. No matter what, I know you have the family’s best interests in every decision you make.”
As if he’d had any other choice but to trust us. He’d killed all the people who knew any fucking thing about the organization.
No, that wasn’t true. Andraius had allowed Pops to live. Somehow, my father had convinced this jackass that our family’s undying loyalty to the Angelos family translated to him.
It had taken us a few years, but we’d worked our way through the various networks. First, we’d had to battle the stigma of being traitors, which still gutted me.
Once people saw where our loyalties honestly sat, things shifted faster than Theo and I could ever imagine. We’d maneuvered and formed alliances to back us when we ultimately set our trap in motion to take down this betrayer.
It was only fitting for us to double-cross a double-crosser. And on top of everything else we’d lost, we no longer had each other orher.
“We appreciate the recognition, sir,” I responded as I leaned back in my chair and studied the asshole on the other side of the desk.
How Andraius used the word trust and never choked on it always surprised me. He was an interloper. A man who’d changed his name to occupy a seat meant for someone else.
The reasons the people of Angelos Shipping, more widely known as the Angelos Syndicate, hadn’t revolted against him all revolved around keeping the true heirs to the organization alive.
We’d let him blow smoke up our asses if it kept the fucker thinking he was the big man on campus.
“How is our progress with the negotiations with the Greek suppliers?” Andraius studied the paperwork on his table.
“Everything is going as planned. Security is in place for your arrival in Cyprus.” Theo spoke this time.
After a slight pause, Theo added, “However, I urge caution.”
I almost rolled my eyes at the corporateness of this conversation. I fucking missed the days when I could say, “Boss, it’s better to watch your back and keep the deal quiet so outsiders don’t learn of it and try to fuck it up.”
“Meaning?”
“I suggest you reconsider the trip and finish the final paperwork in Boston. The security risks are higher than normal, considering the parties involved in the deal. The Drakoses have an estate in the suburbs outside Boston, and news is less likely to leak.”
Andraius considered Theo’s words, nodded, and said, “I’ll consider it. It may come to that if I don’t solve another problem on my table.”
I waited for him to drop whatever issue he had waiting for us to handle.
An actual boss showed up to the negotiation tables as the head of an organization, but he let Theo mediate for the family, so we’d go with it.
But fuck. I was tired. And the last thing I wanted was to get on another flight.
Could he give me more than a week in Boston at a time? I’d barely had a decent conversation with Pops and Mama since everything happened almost five years ago.
But as Pops would tell me, this was the role I’d trained for and then inherited as part of my duties to the Angelos family. I came from four generations of Onassis men and women who had never and would never falter in their loyalty to the Angeloses.
Hell, Theo’s family had followed the same traditions even longer. The Nephus family went back to the inception of the Angelos Syndicate back in Greece.
Our two families’ legacies were to fight with and protect the Angeloses.
Only once had they failed. Not quite five years ago, when some of our own betrayed us and helped the fucker sitting before us to pull off his plan.
But at least I could say Pops had fought a good fight. He’d come out with nearly fatal wounds as he’d tried to shield little Linus. It had broken his heart to learn one of the bullets had pierced through him and into the kid.
Theo’s pop, Theios Mik, hadn’t been so lucky. He’d died protecting our Angel and her sisters. He’d stood between them and this bastard before me.
One day, I’d make this fucker pay. No, Theo deserved the honors. He’d lost his only parent that day. I still had both of mine. He’d also lost his three brothers. Even if they weren’t close, they were his family. Now, he was the last of his line outside of Greece.
“Let us hear your problem, and we will come up with a solution,” I coaxed.
