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“Nothing yet, boss.”
“No updates at all?” I repeat through gritted teeth. He shakes his head, and in turn, my fist hits the surface of the wood.
“This is unacceptable. What the fuck do I pay you for?” My words cut through the air.
“We have men all over the city looking into it,” Julian says, meeting my eyes.
“Not fucking good enough,” I snap. “Get answers.”
No one speaks because the truth is, despite the fact that these men are doing everything to uncover who’s behind the threat, they’ve failed at this.
“I need you to find out which family is after her. I can assume it’s one of our competitors, but that doesn’t narrow it down.” My hand sweeps back through my hair. The need to pull at the roots is intense, but I won’t show these guys just how on edge I am. “Find out who Roman was in bed with. He was getting drugs from someone, and it wasn’t me. My bet is that’s who’s after her. Find out. I don’t care how you do it. We can’t have this girl living under this roof forever.”
Because she’s fucking everything up.
Fuckingmeup.
My little firefly won’t be okay with staying here. She’ll eventually find a way to fly far from me.
The thought does irrational things to me. My heart pounds in my chest, and my hands fist at my sides.
She can’t go.
“I need you guys to make sure this place is locked down. I loosened the reins for a few days, but no more. This place needs to be safe for her. For all of us. Understand?”
“Yes,” they all say in unison, but I don’t miss the looks of confusion and something else…something dangerous.
My men are questioning my actions. Questioning why I care so much about some girl when we have bigger problems on our plate. Namely, the missing cargo. I have to get ahead of it and instill fear in these men. Show them why they follow my orders.
“This woman is important for reasons I don’t know. If another family is after her, it could be tied to the missing cargo. It could be bigger than that. Until we know what threat is out there and why, we protect her and this place from our enemies. Do you understand?” I bellow the last part for good measure, giving them a reason to fear me.
It seems to do the trick. Not one man looks at me any other way than with absolute respect when they say, “Yes, sir.”
“Good. For now, that’s all. Everyone back to work but you.” I point at Julian.
The men all get up and go back to their jobs. Some searching for a way to gather info on our Russian competition, and others working on security for the house.
When it’s just the two of us at the table, I speak. “Money. Where are we at?”
“We have about a hundred million we need to clean, give or take, from the last two shipments.”
“Lorenzo’s missing shipment? Anything on that?” I ask.
His head shakes, and he averts his gaze. “Not yet, boss, but I’m on it.”
“You better be.” With nothing more to say, I push back from the table and stand. “I want an update.”
Without another word, I make my way out of the room and into the hall, heading toward the stairs. Now that the security is out in the open, I know she won’t try to leave. While I won’t allow her to sleep anywhere but my room, I can loosen the reins on what she can do throughout the day. But before I deal with that, I have one more order of business to attend to.
I slam the door to my office shut and cross the space until I’m at my desk, taking a seat on a huff. The day has only just begun, and I’m already exhausted. The stress of the missing shipment and the unknown threat to Sasha weighs heavily on me. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this out of control, and it’s fucking with me.
I grab my phone and call Trent, needing to get this over with. The phone only rings once before he answers. “Gideon. Where have you been?”
Typical Trent. I don’t speak to him for one week, and he acts like I disappeared. “Busy.”
“That’s a short answer, even for you. Something tells me there’s a story…”
If he only knew how right he is, but I’m not ready to dive into that.
