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Chapter 2
Jaxon
When Robert had told me that Keri Esposito had shown up at my door unannounced, I’d been curious enough to sit down with her rather than turn her away. I knew of her father’s position and that he didn’t always abide by the law. In fact, more often than not, he flipped the bird in the face of law enforcement as well as basic human decency, but in recent years his power was beginning to wane. The age of the overwhelming power of the mafia was declining because men like me with more powerful connections and even bigger bank accounts had begun to rise and overshadow them.
Which would explain Keri’s presence here in front of me. She’d probably heard that I had a certain amount of influence of my own and that sometimes I solved problems for a price. Maybe she’d heard more, but that I didn’t know.
With her marriage to Anthony Battista, it would combine the Esposito and Battista families in an unbreakable alliance. With their powers folded together, it would be entirely possible for them to become a formidable force in the city once again. New York would be in trouble if that ever happened. It would be an annoyance for me, although I could easily handle them all if I wanted to. There was nothing really in it for me, so I’d ignored it for the most part.
That is, until Keri Esposito walked through my door.
I didn’t know if I fully believed her. From what I knew about her father, Richard, he led his family with an iron fist, but he was a fair man. At least as fair as a mafia kingpin could be. I hadn’t ever been around the Battistas, but I wouldn’t help her until I fully understood the story surrounding the whole situation. I wouldn’t be made a fool by rushing into the situation without all the information.
There was an element of honesty in her eyes, but there was something else. Something else that I didn’t quite trust. Something I needed to figure out.
“Wait here. I’ll be back shortly. Enjoy your glass of wine in the meantime. I’ll have Robert bring you something to eat,” I said, fully expecting her obedience.
“Thank you, Jaxon,” she murmured softly. She blinked and looked up at me with those beautiful blue doe eyes of hers. Her arms pressed against her chest, and I glanced down at the rather seductive view of her cleavage she offered as a result. She was flirting with me, the little vixen.
She was playing with fire. I wondered if she realized that.
I left my study and returned to my office. I sat down at my desk and keyed a few commands into the background check software I’d designed myself for the FBI. There wasn’t much about Keri, but there was certainly a great deal of circumstantial evidence around the rest of her family and especially her father concerning his supposed criminal activities. There’d never been enough for a conviction however because his very expensive lawyers had found one loophole after the next and gotten him off every single time.
I decided to focus a bit more on her. She’d done well at the private academies her parents had shipped her off to and she was excelling in her more recent coursework through a small university. There were no marks against her. At the top of her class, she was either intelligent enough to cover her tracks or she actually was a good girl who didn’t get into that kind of trouble. I couldn’t be sure which it was yet.
I’d have to dive a bit deeper.
I picked up the phone and dialed her father’s cell phone number.
“Hello?” he answered.
“Richard Esposito,” I drawled.
“Who is this? How did you get this number?”
“My name is Jaxon Blackwood.” The long moment of silence said everything. He’d heard of me and that pleased me. “I’m calling about your daughter.”
“Why the fuck would you be calling me about that little bitch?” Immediately, I disliked how he talked about her. I sat back and crossed my legs, thinking about my next steps.
“She showed up at my door asking for my help. It seems you have arranged for her to be married to a certain Anthony Battista without her consent and when she refused, she told me that you threatened to kill her,” I ventured.
“Fucking cunt,” he spat.
“Did you threaten her, Esposito?” I pressed.
“For fuck’s sake, of course I did. It’s the only way the little whore will listen to reason. She’s with you? Tell me where you are, and I’ll come get her and teach her a lesson she won’t soon forget. She’ll be lucky if she can even walk down the aisle tomorrow,” he sneered.
“No,” I answered simply.
“Excuse me?” he replied with a clear sense of disbelief. He wasn’t used to another man standing up to him. I didn’t care.
“No. I’m not going to tell you where she is,” I countered.
“Yes, you will. If you don’t, I’ll find you and kill you myself,” he snarled.
I laughed.
No one threatened me without paying a very steep price. Not ever and Richard Esposito certainly wouldn’t be the first.
