AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Victor
Victor Sloth was an ass. He knew it but just didn’t give a fuck who he had to step on to get his family to where he wanted it to be. The Sloth family was the only holdout, sticking with their old ties, an alliance with the Gluttony family. His father insisted on it and every time he brought up the fact that they were outnumbered by the other families demanding peace between the syndicate families, he was told to mind his own business. As if the Sloth family wasn’t his business. Someday, it would be his and only his, but his father liked to forget that fact. For now, he’d have to play nicely and remember his place.
“Mr. Sloth.” Gina, his secretary stuck her head into his office and smiled at him. “I have your itinerary for today if you’d like to go over it.” Usually, his planner was filled with useless meetings that would bore him completely. He didn’t expect today to be any different until Gina handed him his schedule for today.
“I have a meeting with Bowie Wrath this morning?” he asked.
“Yes, and he said that Mr. Lust might join you both, depending on when his plane gets in from France.”
“Great,” he said, trying not to act too excited about seeing the two guys who could help him bring the Sloth family out of the dark ages. “Well, then, you’ll have to cancel my meeting at one with my father. But don’t tell him that I’m meeting with Bowie and Carter—it will only piss him off.”
“Right,” she agreed, “and, we all do our best to avoid that happening. I know that it isn’t my place to say this, but I’m happy that you’re trying to bring the Sloth family into the current century.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Gina,” he said. He had to play dumb—his father had spies everywhere and he knew not to trust anyone, even his assistant.
She smiled and winked at him, letting him know that she knew the truth, even if he wasn’t ready to admit it to her. “Sure you don’t,” she teased. “The rumors mill around here won’t keep a lid on your secret for very long, Mr. Sloth.”
“Victor,” he insisted. “You know that I hate being called Mr. Sloth—that’s my father. Plus, you’ve been my assistant for a long time now, Gina. You should know to call me Victor.”
“Of course, Victor,” she agreed. “And you are correct—I’ve worked for you for a long time now.” She placed emphasis on the word “You” and he nodded that he was picking up what she was putting down. “Which means that you can trust me, even if you don’t think you can. I’m on your side, Victor. I think that you’ll find that a lot of us around the office are.”
“Thank you for letting me know, Gina. I appreciate that,” he said.
She started out of his office, turning back to give him one last smile. She was probably the cheeriest woman he’d ever met. He wasn’t used to people smiling as much as Gina did and that sometimes threw him off his game. “I’ll inform your father you had an emergency down at the club that you had to attend to. He’ll believe that you blew off work and went to play golf or something.” Gina was apparently good at reading people too because she had his father pegged perfectly. He liked to think the absolute worst of Victor, so believing that he had blown off work again to go to the club was a perfect cover story.
“Thank you, Gina,” he said. “I appreciate your keeping my meeting on the down low.” She giggled and nodded, pulling his door shut on the way out of the office.
Victor had to admit, he was looking forward to today’s change of pace and meeting with Bowie and Carter. He really needed to come up with a better plan than waiting for his father to die to claim his birthright as head of household for the Sloth Syndicate, and he was pretty sure that Bowie and Carter were just the guys who could help him come up with one.
* * *
He felt like a kid on Christmas morning, waiting for the guys to show up for their meeting. Bowie had been kind enough to call to let him know that they were running late and to grab them a table at the restaurant that they agreed to meet in. Victor was on his second martini by the time the guys showed up.
“You’re drinking martinis at this hour?” Bowie asked. Victor checked his watch, noting that it was only eleven in the morning, and shrugged. He never drank before noon, but he had to admit, he was pretty nervous about this meeting.
“Well, then, we’re going to have to catch up,” Carter said, sitting down next to him, and patting him on the shoulder. “Good to see you, man.” He shook Carter’s hand and then, Bowie’s.
“You’re only okay with drinking because it’s the afternoon in France, but I’m in.” Bowie nodded to the waitress who quickly made her way over to the table.
“Hello Mr. Wrath,” she said, shyly smiling at him. Of course, Bowie Wrath knew the waitress. He would pick a place where he felt confident that they wouldn’t be found. “The usual?”
“No, today I’ll have what my friend is having,” he said, nodding to Victor’s half-empty martini glass.
“Same,” Carter said when she turned to ask him. She left to go fetch their drinks and Victor turned to Bowie.
“You have a thing with the waitress?” he asked.
“Nope, I’m a happily married man,” Bowie insisted, holding his left hand up for him to see the ring.
“Eden finally put him out of his misery and agreed to marry him,” Carter teased.
“Shut the fuck up,” Bowie grumbled. “We got married a few months ago, but the waitress and I used to date. That was ages ago, though,” he said. “I can ask if she’s single—you know if you want to ask her out or something,” Bowie said.
“I’m good,” Victor said. He was totally lying. He wasn’t good at all in the dating department. It had been ages since he had been out with a woman, but that wasn’t something that he cared to share with Bowie or Carter, no matter how buddy-buddy they were playing things.
“I’d really love to know why you called me all the way here from France,” Carter said to Bowie.
“Wait, you don’t know why we’re here either?” he asked Carter.
