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An attempt to clear his throat becomes a cough. His face is red. For a moment, I wonder what the hell is the matter now before I remember his threatening her mother’s security to get her to marry me. Thinking of Gabrielle Angelo’s fragile mental state, which he’d caused by forcing her to have pregnancies her body couldn’t carry to term has me sipping deep on my own glass of whiskey. It’s been a long time since I let myself enjoy killing someone—I’m going to take my time with him.
He runs a sweaty palm down his front as if he were trying to straighten his tie. “Good. She’s good. She, um, is excited. It’s like I told you, she’s a good girl. If she has to move to Colombia ‘cause it’s where you say, then she’s gonna go to Colombia.”
I lift an eyebrow in question at the statement. More to make him sweat than anything.
The moment the contract is signed, Richie stands. “So yeah, I gotta get going. I got another appointment on the other side of town.”
With a phone call, I send the money to his account. He keeps refreshing his screen before he sighs heavily enough the room expands with it.
“Manuel, you’ll stay and enjoy lunch,” Dominic states. It isn’t an invitation.
I nod. “I am hungry, thank you. Richie, I’ll see you Friday.”
“Yeah, Friday. Good doing business with you,” he mutters as he escapes.
The door closes behind Vinny. I look to Dominic. “He has two of my men on him. I’ve decided I’m not going to kill him quickly. I need to find out how bad the mess is I need to clean up. I’m also going to take my time as a way of punishing his ass for all of this shit. Therefore, he’ll be taken to another location for privacy.”
His jaw works. “Good. I have Diego Valdez in his computer. Unfortunately, he’s old school. While he has a shit ton of foul shit I’m going to need to clean up, there’s a bunch still out there because it’s referenced in emails.”
“We’ll meet up and swap notes. If there’s anything out there that could hurt Nicolette, I want to know about it. I will fix whatever it is.” It’s not a request.
He nods. “When I have it all, I’ll get with you.”
I stand. “One more thing. Why were you at Nicolette’s this morning?”
Smiling, he shakes his head. “I wanted to confirm her agreement without anyone around her to influence what she had to say.”
“What did she say?” The words are out when I intended to drop it.
His smile deepens. “She meant what she said, you are what she wants.”
I refuse to acknowledge the warmth flooding my chest. “Now that you know, stay away from my woman.”
Both hands come up. “I understand completely.”
* * *
Manuel
Walking into Kotyonok, the restaurant Milos Levin owns and has his office in, I’m welcomed by the staff with a smile. The hostess takes my drink order as she shows me upstairs to the VIP area.
Dinner is, as always, excellent. What I like the most about Milos is he doesn’t feel the need to fill silence. It isn’t until we have finished dinner, he gets down to the reason he provided a free dinner for the evening. “I've heard you were going to kill Aleksander's wife.”
“I was going to.” I still wasn’t sure if I was going to or not.
“Did Richie tell you why he wanted to kill her?”
Sonofabitch. The way he asks tells me everything I need to know. Richie isn’t hiding from just me—the Fed on his tail is far more connected than he let on.
“She was after us, my family. Richie and I went in on a hijacking of product. We each got what we wanted and parted ways. First time I worked with him. I can’t say I was impressed. He was messy, lazy. She connected him to it. Through his laziness, she connected him to us, tried to use him against us. You are cleaning up his mess. The woman is…” He shakes his head.
Anger is notching up within me with every passing second. He used the correct story but with the Levins, not us.
“It isn't that she's a Fed. It's how she got to where she is now. She's one of those rare ones who should never see us with a gun in our hand. I offered her twenty grand to go away, she spit in my face. A hundred grand, I got all the way up to a million with help on how to hide it.”
So not the dirty Fed taking every dime Richie has.
Our eyes meet. “She wouldn't take it. Idiot is too pure to be in this. It's why Aleksander married her. It's why she will remain his wife until her last breath. Richie is going to ask you to finish what you didn’t accomplish with her. Before it's all over, he’s going to ask you to kill Aleksander. Who knows, if he figures out how dumb he's been, he'll ask you to kill me.”
