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“I will.” Ludvik rises from his chair and buttons his suit jacket again, then heads for the door. Before he walks through it, I look over at him.
“Ludvik, shut the door if you don’t mind.”
Ludvik nods and doesn’t say a word, then shuts the door.
I grab my cell from where it sits on my desk and unlock it. Once it’s unlocked, I search my contacts for my brother’s name and then call him. It rings and rings, and he doesn’t answer, but I know he’ll call me back within a few minutes.
While I wait for Ruslan to call me back, I wonder what Emily’s up to or if she has any plans this evening. Ruslan still hasn’t called me back, so I press Emily’s contact instead. By the third ring, she’s already answering the phone. “Hey there,” Emily says into the phone.
“Hey. I was wondering if you had any plans for this evening?”
“The only ones I had were drinking some whiskey and watching trashy TV on the couch. What do you have in mind?”
“I thought I might be able to take you out on the town. Maybe we can get some food and drinks and go dancing. But the date you have with your couch soundsveryexciting. I’d hate for you to cancel important plans like that.” I love how Emily and I can throw our sarcasm back and forth. It makes for better conversation, and the fact we can mess around with each other like that only makes our connection that much better.
“Oh, wow. Yeah, I think going out with you would be a total drag.” There’s a brief moment of silence before Emily speaks up again, “So, what time are you coming to pick me up?”
“I can be there in two hours. Would that get you enough time to get home from work, get ready, and all of that?”
“Yeah, it’ll be more than enough time. I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” Emily and I both say our goodbyes, and then she hangs up the phone. Meanwhile, as soon as my call with Emily ends, Ruslan’s finally calling me back.
“I was worried I might not hear from you until tomorrow,” I comment, and Ruslan groans in the background.
“You wouldn’t have, but Karim woke up, and Amelia got him last time. I assume your call has something to do with business.”
“More or less, yes.”
“All right, so get on with it,” my brother tells me.
“Ludvik found out some information about the Ramirez cartel. I thought you’d want to know about it as well,” I start off, and after a few moments of silence, I continue. “Long story short, there’s a man claiming to be Rafael’s youngest son named Julio. He’s trying to make a claim to the throne for the cartel, and this man has a son as well. His son, Santos, was born here in Atlanta, and if Julio gains control over the Mexican cartel, it could mean that it poses a threat here.”
“Mmm, I see. Alejandro Ramirez has led the cartel for many years now. What makes you think Julio will get control? From what I know, his people are happy with him, are they not?”
“As far as I know, yes. Rafael is the brute out of the brothers, whereas Alejandro keeps peace in Mexico. I don’t know anything about Julio, and it could very well mean that this is going to cause some real problems if he gets anywhere with taking what he believes is rightfully his.” My brother laughs in amusement on the other end of the line.
“Handle things as you see fit if they show up in Atlanta, but I wouldn’t worry about this until we need to be worrying about it. They might handle things among themselves, as most family arguments are solved. Now, I have to get going and warm Karim’s bottle, but contact me if there are any changes. All right?”
“Yes, I will,” I tell my brother, and then he hangs up the phone.
All I can do is hope that nothing will end up coming here. Things have been busy enough, and with everything my family has been through, I’m praying that we can get somewhat of a break for a while.
***
Two hours fly by, and I pick Emily up at her apartment complex. We’re almost at the club now where we’re going to spend a few hours this evening, and I think she looks as beautiful as ever, maybe even more beautiful than I’ve seen her before.
She’s in a deep pink dress that stops a few inches below her ass. It’s sexy but isn’t overly so. Once I park the vehicle, I walk alongside her, and we both head inside. We order food at the bar and go sit down in one of the booths made for two people. We’re told our food will come out to us shortly, so since we already have our drinks, we can sit down and enjoy one another’s company for a bit.
“So, how was your day?” I question Emily. Before, I would never ask women questions like this, simply because I didn’t really give a damn about them. With Emily, things are so different. I care about her, which means I care about how her day has been. I want to know if it was good or if someone pissed her off. Whether it’s good, bad, or ugly… I want to know.
“It was eventful, I suppose.” The tone of her voice makes me think she doesn’t want to talk about it. I have two options right now. I can either ask her flat out what happened, or I can let it be. As much as I’d like to just not ask her about it… I don’t know if it’s in my nature to. I care about this woman, and when you care about someone, you always want to make sure they’re okay.
“It sounds like something’s bothering you,” I point out, and Emily picks up her whiskey sour and takes a sip. I wait a few moments, and finally, she starts to speak.
“Yeah, my boss at work made a remark about how I’m not working as much as I used to when I was interning. It’s sort of pissed me off.”
“What do you mean?” I question her because I don’t really understand what the problem is here.
“Well, when I was interning, I worked over sixty hours a week most of the time. I wanted to prove to the company that I’m a valuable asset to have. Since I got the position, I’ve been working forty-hour weeks, which is standard for any sort of employee. My boss isn’t happy that I’m not working more hours and insinuated I should be doing something to make up for the lack of hours being worked.” Emily sighs, and a disgusted expression crosses over her features.
