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All of the men turned to look at me, clearly surprised to see me, and maybe, even more surprised to see Annie. I noticed that there wasn’t a single woman in the group, and I worried immediately that I made a miscalculation.
“Ezra Wright,” Joseph Rome said. His dark eyes looked me up and down, and I squared my shoulders in response, doing my best not to squirm. He was trying to size me up, and I knew that if I squirmed, I would fail whatever test he was putting me under. “What brings you here? Normally, you are halfway into a bottle and further into a leggy blonde.”
The men around him laughed, and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from telling him to fuck off. Marcel would kill me if I alienated someone like Rome, and for good reason.
“How is your son doing, Mr. Rome?” Annie asked.
Rome’s attention turned toward her, his brow scrunching as he tried to place her. “He’s fine,” he said, tersely.
“He’s applying to colleges this year, correct?” There was something underlying in her tone, and from the way Rome’s body stiffened, I knew that she was onto something.
“He is.” Rome’s words were tense as he spoke, and his dark eyes narrowed in on Annie. “And who is asking?”
Annie ignored the question, turning to me instead. “You know Joseph’s son, Michael.”
I was sure that I didn’t, but from the way that Rome stiffened, I was starting to suspect that Michael Rome wasn’t on the straight and narrow. Annie was onto something, and while I didn’t know what it was, I trusted her.
The men around us were shifting uncomfortably, and I watched as they said their goodbyes and started to make their way back towards the bar. “What is it that you want?” Rome asked.
“What makes you think I want anything?”
He snorted. “You and O’Connor are both sniffing around me, which makes sense considering that there are rumors swirling around that you are running for mayor.”
“The rumors are true,” I said. It was the first time I’d announced my candidacy to anyone outside of Marcel or Annie. But something told me that Rome wasn’t a man that I wanted to lie to. I didn’t know a ton about him, which was a failing on my part, but Annie’s words resonated with me. He was a player, and even if he weren’t, I needed to ensure that he was in my sights. Something told me that there was more to him that met the eye, and that made me wary.
“What is it that you want from me?” he asked. “As much as I hate to admit this, your family is much more connected than mine.”
I snorted. “Not in the political circuit.” I didn’t actually know if that was true, but I was playing the hand that Annie had set up for me.
Rome looked at me, disgust barely concealed from his face. “I always wondered if you were more like your mother or father,” he asked. “I guess I’m about to find out.”
I didn’t know what that meant, and I didn’t want to dig deeper in case I didn’t like the answer. Annie squeezed my hand, and I knew that she was warning me to keep my cool.
“I’m not interested in your money, or your support,” I told Rome. “I’m interested in you keeping those two things from Patrick O’Connor.”
Rome laughed loudly, drawing a few stares towards us. “If that is what you are worried about, you can skip off to the bar.”
“Meaning?”
Rome shook his head. He was acting as if I’d just told him the funniest joke he’d ever heard, and it was starting to piss me off. Rome was one of the few people I couldn’t read clearly, which was all the more frustrating given how crucial he was to my prospects. It was something that I would be giving Marcel shit about next time I saw him.
“You don’t need to worry about me and the O’Connor’s,” Rome said, tipping back his drink. “I play nice in public, but my business interests don’t align with theirs.”
It took me a moment to piece together what he was saying. But as I did, I remembered what Annie said.
“Do our interests align?” I wanted to ask him if his interests aligned with the Petrovs, but that was too outright, and it wouldn’t get me anywhere.
Rome just laughed once more and shook his head. “Best of luck to you,” he said, lifting his glass. “Something tells me that you are going to need it.”
His words made me unsettled as he walked over to the bar jovially. Across the bar, my eyes met Sawyers, and I didn’t miss the frown that was on his face. I needed to do more digging on Rome to determine if he were an enemy or an ally, but what I suspected from the look on Sawyer’s face, I knew that they weren’t as friendly as they had seemed.
“I wouldn’t trust him,” Annie said. Her soft voice broke through my thoughts.
“What makes you think that?” Annie had a knack for figuring people out. I saw that when she worked for me. She’d managed to make everyone like her, even people who historically weren’t very friendly. I’d seen the same thing happen with Carolina.
Annie read people better than anyone I ever knew.
“If he’s in the Petrov's’ pocket, he’s going to have a vested interest in making sure that you don’t win as mayor.”
