“Dom,” I said into the phone as I walkeddown the hall.
“Hey, bro, what’s going on?” he asked.
“About to meet with Ron,” I replied.
“Good. I need to talk to him about theaccounts from Willis.Hopefully,he has an update. Anyway, rumor has it that you finally boughtyourself some nice permanent tail, huh? How come I have to hearabout it from someone else?”
I stopped in my tracks.
“Who told you this?” I asked, trying to keepmy voice even. Our auctions were meant to be extremelyconfidential.
“Boris. That old, fat fuck said you boughtsome hot little redhead who kicked the shit out of the guards infront of the clients!”
My jaw clenched as my chest seethed withrage.
“Remind me to pay Boris a visit in the verynear future,” I said, trying to keep the venom in my voice at bay.I didn’t like people talking about my business and just about everyperson I dealt with knew this.
“Yeah, yeah. So what’s the story? Who isthis chick? When do I get to meet her?”
“She’s no one you need to be concernedwith,” I said, picking up my pace again.
“Oh, come on, man. You’ve never taken aslave before. Something must be special about this girl if you’reactually looking to keep her.”
Dominic was one to talk. He’d taken plentyof slaves before, but they were never “special” to him. Whenever agirl didn’t sell in theauctionbut had more potential than Mexico, we sent them to the clubs inVegas, where Dominic liked to “break” them in for himself.
“Come on, Dare. You gotta give mesomething,” he continued.
I released an irritated sigh into the phone,no longer interested in the conversation.
As I walked down the hall, I noticed Jaredwalking in my direction, and I found myself staring him down withmenace in my eyes. I was still furious about how he had handledJaden back when she was still at the warehouse. She’d nearly killedhim when she finally fought him in the shower room. It took him twoweeks before he was fully recovered and the fact that he allowedhimself to take a beat down from her had me wondering if I shouldhave just killed him right there.
Jaden had been training all her life, whilemost of the guards at the warehouse had maybe a few years undertheir belts, including Jared. The guards here only had to deal withwomen, and since most didn’t put up the kind of fight Jaden did,they had no need for special training. They weren’t soldiers. Onlythe best of my men were allowed to uphold that title.
“Don’t worry about it, Dominic. You’ll meether eventually.”
As Jared passed me, he glanced at mebriefly, only meeting my eyes for a second while I glared back athim. He quickened his pace and hurried on his way. He knew he wason thin ice with me, and everyone knew what would happen shouldthat ice finally give way.
“Just as soon as I’m finished training her,”I finished, turning my attention back to Dominic.
“Oh, shit.” He laughed. “Good luck. Fromwhat I heard, she’s quite the fighter.”
“Nothing I can’t handle,” I said in stride.“Now, keep it under wraps. I’ve got to see Ron. I’ll talk to youlater.”
I hung up the phone and headed up to thesmall conference room where I knew Ron was waiting. I found himsitting at the table, a laptop in front of him with a pad of paperand several folders. As I approached, Ron looked up and gave me aweak smile.
“Darren, good to see you, as always,” Ronsaid with his dry monotone voice.
“Ron,” I replied, with a curt nod as Ipulled out the chair across the table from him, unbuttoned myjacket, and sat down.
Ron was a short and stocky littlefucker—thin brownhair,roundedbelly, and black framed glasses. You would neverhavesuspected he was smart as a fuckingwhip.
“I’ll get right to it,” he said, lookingdown at his notes. “I have three candidates for the position you’relooking for. Paul Kelling, who’s been head of security at theresort in Vegas, Steve Deller, who’s been working in finance withus for years, and Raymond Ross, who’s been working security heresince we first started this. Here are their credentials,” Ron saidhanding me a folder of paperwork. “Just take a look, let me knowwhat you think,” he said, shrugging, moving on to the next topic ofbusiness.
We discussed the revenues from the latestauction, totaling about six million, half of which came frommyself, thanks to Jaden’s priceyass, but she was worth every dollar and then some.
We discussed new investments, the status ofall my finances, as well as the measures to ensure all of my menremained clean and out of the legal system. We also discussed mycasino, Audeamus, and the resorts I owned through my privatecorporation, Triguard Holdings, Inc.
I wasn’t there often, far too busy to stayin one place, and I preferred to handle things personally ratherthan hide behind a desk. Another reason I hated managing thewarehouse, but the simple fact was I didn’t trust very many tohandle it. Ron was my jack-of-all-trades, his usefulness neverwavering for a second. Anything I needed outside of the realm ofbrutality, Ron would make it happen without failure.
