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He wouldn’t want Frankie or Vincent to come down here. Or if it came to it and my father or my uncle came here, it would be over in every sense of the fucking word.
“Six hundred thousand,” I say, and now Salvatore laughs out loud.
“I’m loving this,” he says as Ricco’s face hardens.
I said six because I want to see just how high he’s willing to go to outdo me.
“Six-fifty.”
Fucker. That means he’s reaching his limit. I always know when a fucker reaches that point. He’ll start bidding in the fifties, then drop lower.
I, however, still have money to burn.
“Seven,” I smile.
“Seven-twenty-five.”
I’m going to wrap this up now. I look at Salvatore, who nods, and with that, I pull out my gun.
There’s an evident tic in Ricco’s jaw when he sees it. “I thought we could solve this without violence.”
“Then either you underestimated me, or you really don’t live in Chicago. Let me tell you how this is going to work, Ricco,” I begin and take a step forward past Shane and Salvatore. “I’m closing this at one million.”
Ricco’s eyes go wide. “One million! That is absurd. It’s not worth it.”
“You don’t know what worth I place on things, so do not tell me what to assume.” I raise my gun and tap the side of my head with the butt to intimidate his ass. It has the desired effect I was going for on him and the assholes he brought along as bodyguards or whatever the fuck they are.
“One million lets you know you can’t beat me, and I got this building fair and square,” I add for good measure. “One million tells you if you come for me and I haven’t sent for you, I will kill your ass and everybody linked to you. One million closes this deal and this conversation. Doesn’t it, Salvatore?”
“I think it does, cousin,” Salvatore answers.
“Great. Now, what say ye, Ricco Santorini?”
“Of course, I wouldn’t want to upset anybody from the Giordano family. I’d say one million closes the conversation too.” He gives me a stiff smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Good evening, gentlemen.”
Ricco backs away, and we all watch him walk through the door, gravel crunching underneath his feet with every step he takes.
Shane steps forward. “Georgiou, one million is a lot of money. Not that I wasn’t listening or that I’m not grateful, but I know what Ricco is like. It’s not going to stop him.”
“I know,” I reply.
It won’t stop him because he’s a pest who thinks he can hang his hat on the same hook as people like me.
I didn’t stop him, but I slowed him down and gave myself time to put eyes on him to watch his ass.
When men like him don’t get what they want, they try to find other ways to get it. What he will try to do is destroy me.
One glance at Salvatore, and I know he guessed that too.
7
Evie
Ibarely slept last night.
I lay in the bed and thought about the shit hole I’d fallen into.
A shit hole is exactly what I think best describes what’s happening around me.
