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He says little and always stares at Bruiser, who resembles a coked-out Bob Ross, with a hint of mixed disgust and longing. It’s adorable.
“Let me see if I understand the situation correctly,” Broderick croons. “You’re saying Docks on Markee is back in operation, Gabriel?”
Antoni’s smirk deepens at the way Broderick says my name.
I tap my foot on the tile to let Antoni know exactly how I feel about him being here. He smiles in return although his lips are still puckered.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” I reply.
“You’re sure it’s not a mistake?” Antoni asks.
He’s begging for a knife between the ribs one of these days. “I don’t make those kinds of mistakes.”
Golden afternoon light filters in through the closed blinds of the office, and judging from the silence on the other end of the phone, my boss isn’t happy about what I found last night at Docks on Markee.
I haven’t spoken to Layla since we parted ways last night but my mind returns to her again and again.
Is she in a similar meeting right now?
Is she talking to her boss about the mysterious bald man?
Is she keeping it to herself about our onstage fuck?
Swallowing hard over the lump in my throat, I focus on staring Antoni down while we wait for Broderick to answer.
I’d thought too many times about finding Layla and letting her know exactly where I’d planned to go today, and who I had to alert about what we found last night. Angry with me as she is, she won’t like hearing me talk about Broderick or the Syndicate.
Thistrustbusiness has to work for us to get our answers, and rather than both of us covering the same ground, I might as well share. I could be the bigger person here.
Not my usual style but I tried.
I’d shot her a quick string of texts an hour ago before stepping out of my apartment.
“None of this is good news,” Broderick says eventually. “How many of them were there?”
Between us, Layla and I counted ten men excluding Baldy, which I tell the boss now.
“And how did they gain access to the building, I wonder?” he muses out loud.
I open my mouth to answer when my cell, on the desktop besides Antoni’s, vibrates and the name on the screen gives me away.Layla. I have to hustle to knock the cell aside before Antoni puts the pieces together.
He’s a dick but he’s not stupid.
“And who might that be, Blackwell? Another one of your fucking creep girlfriends?” he teases anyway.
I say nothing, flicking the notification aside to focus on the voice sighing in disappointment on the other end.
“This isn’t how I’d hoped today would go, gentlemen. Antoni? Bring him in,” the boss says.
Antoni snaps his fingers and Bruiser moves into position, one hand on his gun as Howard pulls open the office door. Horn-Rimmed guy, who handed me the files, steps inside silently.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I ask.
“I asked him to come,” Broderick continues. “He’s a valuable part of the expansion of our operation, after all. Now tell us everything from the beginning.”
Being taken by surprise always sucks.
I take the time to compose myself, sliding my hands into my pockets and squaring my shoulders before I repeat the story of last night, Layla excluded.
