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Rian’s laugh was cruel. “This is why your empire is crumbling, Antonio. All bark, no bite.”
I stood, tired of the posturing and the dick measuring. “Don’t be an ass, Rian. Liam’s already negotiated the price with me. Work with Alexi and make it happen. Think of it as a gesture of good faith, on both sides.”
Projecting the same tough authority I used when running meetings back home in LA, I walked over to my father’s desk and leaned back against it. I speared Rian with my annoyed gaze. “Can we talk about the Russians now?”
6
RIAN
“Fuck this bitch,” Cormac said, shoving the laptop away from him. The files Ginevra’s lawyer sent were full of red lines where she’d tracked changes to the contracts. “Just marry her the old-fashioned way and leave me out of it, if she doesn’t want to play my games.”
Liam had stayed behind at the Russos’ to coordinate protection details with Alexi, their head of security. Liam’s charm would make this work. Our men weren’t going to bend over backward for the Italians unless we set the example. Alexi was a real asshole and wouldn’t make it easy for us.
I stood behind Cormac, pulling his head back against my stomach and running my hands up and down his front. He leaned on me, sighing as I slid my fingers back up to his shoulders to work the knots, placing a gentle kiss on the top of his head.
“She got rid of all of it!” he muttered, his voice dripping with frustration.
“I told you, you shouldn’t have put in that shit about sharing Sofia,” I said, smirking at my business partner, sometimes lover, and one of two men in the entire world I wouldn’t hesitate to give my life for.
He ran his hands over his closely cropped curls. “She would have signed it, and so would her dick father. Fucking asshole, sacrificing that child for his own security.”
We would have broken Sofia in a night or two, sending her screaming in terror back to her parents, and we’d have accrued all the benefits of the marriage without the anchor of a physically present wife around my neck. “Ginevra’s made of tougher stuff.”
“She’s a wildcard,” Cormac snapped at me. “And she’s smart enough to get in the way of business and our relationships.”
He was right. When Liam returned from Ireland eight years ago, we’d just come back to Yorkfield after graduating from college, puffed up and full of ourselves. Eight bloody years of fighting to conquer our tiny corner of the city, peeling it back from the other gangs, making it safe, block by block, so the kids wouldn’t have to run drugs and guns like we did. Ginevra was never going to accept the brutality and the violence it took to maintain our empire, let alone grow it.
“Better than giving up the ports to the Russians, though.” At least the Italians drew the line at trafficking people. They didn’t like drugs either, but the twenty-first century had dragged them kicking and screaming into competition with the cartels. Now they were bringing in heroin from Afghanistan imported through West Africa, the same as the rest of us.
Cormac leaned back and grabbed my hands, holding them to his chest. I leaned my chin on his head, letting him pull me close. “I wish we didn’t need the goddamned Russo name.”
“The Italians own this town. It doesn’t matter how many clubs and casinos we open up or how much real estate we own. Nobody’ll do business with us without the Russo seal of approval.”
Liam: Security’s set up at the Russos’.
Rian: Double check everything yourself. Alexi’s lazy.
Ginevra: And a liar.
Liam: Ginevra, show us your tits!
Two seconds later, a photo popped up of Ginevra, fully clothed, giving us the finger.
Cormac: Brats who don’t do what they’re told get punished, Ginevra.
I snatched his phone out of his hands. “We’re supposed to be scaring her so we have more leverage in the negotiations, not flirting.”
Cormac grabbed his phone back. “Wait, fool.”
Five anxious minutes later, a photo popped up in the group chat. We both scrambled over ourselves to see what the fuck it was. Arranged on a plate were two goddamned raw chicken breasts.
I bit back a startled laugh. “I’m going to enjoy breaking her.”
She’d dug deep under my skin already, and I wanted her by my side. And under me. And on her knees in front of me, tears streaming down her face as she sucked my cock.Fuck.
My brother-in-arms looked at me from where I loomed over him. “You like her, don’t you?”
“She has potential,” I said, avoiding the question.
