Page 16 of Maldives & Mistletoe

NINE

Alessa and Adriano

ADRIANO

“And you talked to the buyer again, correct?”

Adriano nodded. “Several times, Tommas.”

“We don’t expect issues, right?”

Usually, Adriano would bristle a bit about people questioning him when he’d already repeated the same shit over and over again. But this was Tommas, and he figured his boss was just as edgy about this transaction as the rest of them, frankly. Not because he expected it to go wrong, but rather, because he wanted everything to go right.

As Theo had told Adriano months ago when he first brought up this idea, the Maldives deal would officially be their first foray into the gun trafficking business. And in this business, it was all about being able to deliver without trouble, and keeping a good reputation. That was how more contracts came up, and buyers continued to shell out money for guns.

If their first contract went bad, that wasn’t going to do anything good for their reputations in this line of work. It was unlikely they would be able to sell the cache of weapons they had stumbled upon, and stole which meant they would have a whole warehouse full of useless guns sitting there costing them money.

They all needed this to go well.

Including the buyer …

Speaking of which, Adriano turned to Tommas again, saying, “I don’t expect any issues. Honestly, I think he’s as eager to get this started as we are.”

He didn’t mention the buyer had gotten a bit demanding the last time they spoke for more than two minutes. Besides, that would only serve to piss Tommas off, and it was never good to take Tommas into a meeting angry. Absolutely fucking nobody won when Tommas was pissed and ready to teach someone a lesson.

“I did have the weapons moved again,” Adriano mentioned offhandedly.

“Why?”

“As a precaution.”

It wasn’t entirely a lie, and it would keep Tommas happy. Both good things, Adriano decided.

“All right.” Tommas glanced down at his watch, and then back up again, only this time he was staring forward into the front seats where Damian was driving, and Theo was fiddling with the radio. “How much longer, Damian?”

“Not very. A few more minutes to the hotel, I think. You know, as long as this fucking GPS is correct.”

“This was too long of a drive. I hate sitting for this long.”

“You picked the hotel,” Theo countered his boss from the front. “You wanted it far enough from our vacation spot that there was no chance of them following us back or finding us ahead of time, remember?”

Tommas rolled his eyes, stared out the window, and grunted, “I remember just fine why I picked the place, thank you.”

Damian wasn’t wrong, and the GPS had been correct. It was another ten minutes of driving, and listening to Theo’s terrible fucking screaming music before the resort hotel Tommas had chosen for the meeting came into view. Once in front of the place, a valet came up to the vehicle to take the car while the four men stepped out of the vehicle. Adriano was already regretting his choice to wear a silk dress shirt considering it practically clung to his damp skin the second he was standing in the heat.

Theo headed inside first, as they had previously agreed, to check on their reservations and to see if their guest had already arrived. They were supposed to show up first, and then the buyer. If the guy couldn’t follow very basic instructions, then chances were, the rest of this would already be doomed to fucking fail.

“A table is ready in the dining room,” Theo said, coming out from the front of the hotel. “They’ve got it all set up for us. The buyer hasn’t arrived yet, but they expect him within the next fifteen or so minutes. So, whenever you are ready, Tommy.”

“Great,” Tommas said. “Let’s get this started, then.”

Adriano didn’t pay very much attention to the inside of the hotel or the grand entryway when they entered the place. They had already staked the place out online, and had someone go in and take pictures to send to them as a just in case. It was always good to plan for things ahead of time, and none of them were the type of men to leave shit to chance.

Once directed into the hotel’s dining area, they were situated in a small private section with large windows overlooking swaying trees and a rather scenic view of the water in the distance. The four of them kept their conversation quiet and entirely off the topic of the business at hand as servers came in with menus, coffee, and water.

They didn’t order anything more than the coffee and water, though. Not until the buyer arrived, anyway.

It was only the sight of a man in the doorway—one of the hotel’s managers—that took Theo’s attention away from the table for a split second. That was their signal for the start of the meeting, technically. It also meant, that by all visual accounts, the buyer had arrived as he had been told to. By an inconspicuous car, and with only one man by his side.