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“Come in.”
It’s one of the receptionists who works for our building.
She hands me a cream-colored card with a familiar 14K label. “This came in today.”
I flip it over to read the contents.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“What is it?” Bash asks, still listening.
“Trouble.”
ANYA
I walk with Grayson down the spiral staircase into The Lair.
Tao, as always, tails us with his laptop and goes straight for one of the desks. He then pulls out snacks, as per usual. It doesn’t prevent him from doing his job, so I just let Tao be Tao.
“Do you want anything to eat or drink? I can ask Lil to bring something on her way down,” I say as I take my seat at the conference table.
“Nah, I’m good, thanks,” Grayson says as he looks around in awe before sitting down.
“It’s a great space, isn’t it? I almost prefer it to my office.” I smile at him as I power my laptop up and organize the files I have prepared for him.
“No kidding,” he responds, still looking around as he sits and fires up the laptop we set him up with.
“So, I guess we can get started. Bo and Kai will take the lead until they think you’re ready. It’s just getting hard for them to handle the trade and be here for me.”
My brother seems eager to work, so I thought the arms trade portion would be a good fit for him. Grayson’s eyes lit up when I suggested this could be something he could take on.
“I’m excited to be working with them. Thanks for giving me this chance,” he says, smiling.
“This means a lot to me, too. I have a lot on my plate, and I need Bo and Kai with me. So, to have someone that can oversee the trade is a big help.”
We spend the next few hours going over the rules and logistics of it all just so he has a basic understanding before breaking for lunch. It’ll be easier for him to catch on once he’s in the grit of it, but I also wanted to spend time with him. Get aread on him and make sure I wasn’t making a huge mistake. He seems sincere so far.
“So, were you born in Chicago, too?” I ask him before taking a bite of my pasta salad.
“Yeah. Lived there until your mom remarried, actually. My mom packed us up and moved us in the middle of the night. You were barely a year old, if I remember correctly, and I was about ten at the time.”
“Why did she move you guys?”
“I think with Da—Peter beinggoneand your mother marrying the Outfit capo, we wouldn’t have anyone to protect us. Anyway, she was a nurse, and there was an opening, so we moved to LA.”
“Bo would’ve looked out for you if she had asked.”
“Maybe. But she wasn’t going to take that risk.”
“Peter didn’t leave you anything?”
It wouldn’t surprise me if Andrew had something to do with this.
“Not that I know of. I was a bastard. My mom was a fling.”
“What was he like?”
I’ve asked Bo this plenty of times, and he always had a different story to tell about my father, but I wonder what he was like from a child’s perspective.
