Page 141 of High Reward

My father’s fist clenches atop his papers, but he stays silent as Jamie stands and opens a folder he brought in with him.

“Gentlemen, my son informed me two weeks ago that Mr. Serrano here believes Griffin Price to be involved with the Russians, as he laid out in his eloquent presentation.”

The Irish accent makes it sound like he’s mocking my father, but it’s honestly hard to tell. Still, the tension ratchets up a notch as Bowden continues.

“I took the liberty of deploying some of my men on a fact-finding mission, because we’ve had trouble with Price in New York before. Here’s what we found.”

Owen changes the slide so we can see what’s in Jamie’s folder. I had no idea he’d done that much coordinating with each of the meeting attendees. But the careful planning on Owen’s part seems to be paying off because so far no one has shouted or pulled a gun that we missed in the pat downs.

“As you can see, Mr. Price has been a busy young man. He seems to be buying up stakes in a dozen Russian backedcompanies, and yes, several of those are right here in Las Vegas. Now, we value Vegas as neutral territory, and I admire what my son has done here. It has provided a safe place to meet with contentious parties on a number of occasions, and I for one would like to keep it that way. So let me tell you a bit out Griffin Price’s way of doing things.”

He goes on to lay out the ways that Price set the Russians up to take over key territories in New York, ending with the fact that he doesn’t have enough proof just yet, but he believes it was Price who ultimately orchestrated the assassination of the mayor of New York City, because doing so put a friendly party in office temporarily which was enough to get his Russian friends the various permits they needed to operate in the city.

“What does that have to do with Las Vegas?” Danny Trentini asks when Owen opens the floor to questions.

Jamie leans back in his chair, resting his hands on his belly, fingers laced together. “I’ve been known to be wrong on occasion, but didn’t the mayor of this fine city just resign? What happens when she leaves office?”

Hunter curses and leans forward. “The Mayor Pro Tempore takes over immediately, and then the city council selects someone to finish out her term. A city council that has recently been overrun with new council members in the last two cycles.”

“How much longer does she have?”

“Eighteen months,” Hunter growls. “Seventeen by the time she leaves office. We can’t let her resign. Not yet.”

My eyes fly to his. He can’t be serious. There’s no way we can let that woman continue in office.

“How do we know she’s not close with the Russians?” I ask. “Didn’t we already ascertain that she is?”

Jamie slides a piece of paper my direction, as Owen changes the slide again. “As you can see there, lad, the paper trail leads to Phineas, not Mayor Brandt. It would appear Miranda was anaughty girl and had an affair with one of Maxim Argon’s men years ago, and that resulted in young Phineas being born.”

There are whistles and gasps around the table as the pieces fall into place.

The first two hours of the meeting fly as we continue through Owen’s carefully crafted agenda. We summon Bellamy to allow Tyson, Sabrina, and Grace into the room to guide everyone to their suites where they will stay for the night. In each room, Tyson has set up a lunch spread, and they are given their cell phones but not their weapons. Everyone will meet back in the conference room in one hour.

I wink at Grace as she asks my father and brother to follow her. The blush in her cheeks makes me smile.

“Ah, Grace, I see my son is fond of you. It’s a pleasure to meet you finally. Perhaps you can introduce me to Liliana as well.”

I can’t hear what Grace says as she leads them from the room, but whatever it is makes my father laugh. A rare feat, but I pray she doesn’t take him to meet Lili.

Mostly for fear of what Lili might say. My Spitfire is not known for keeping her thoughts to herself.

Chapter 37

Victor

“Thankyou,gentlemen,”Matteosays, standing as Owen concludes the final meeting of the summit. It’s been a productive session considering how tense everything was when we first got started. My father was even cordial to Danny Trentini by the time it was all over, and he and Grace seem to have developed a bond of some kind that I didn’t expect. In the end, we agreed to use our resources and keep all families informed as we work to drive the Russians back into hiding, while avoiding as much bloodshed as possible in Las Vegas.We couldn’t get anyone to agree to avoid outright murder in their own territories, but everyone finally agreed that Las Vegas should remain neutral.

“It will be good to be working with you instead of against you,” Jamie Bowden says.

As I’m opening my mouth to agree, a shrill alarm sounds, and everyone goes stock still as Owen holds up a hand and pulls out a tablet.

“Let me investigate. No one leaves this room,” he shouts.

As he’s heading for the door, his fingers are tapping furiously against the screen. Then he swears and stops what he’s doing.

“Fuck.”

“What is it?” I ask, knowing that this room is a tinderbox and the smallest setback could be the spark that turns it into an all-out war.