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“Are you going to sign or not? This is a business negotiation. It’s nothing personal.”
“Fuck you, Hunter,” he replies. “You can’t threaten me with shit. You got nothing on me. You know that if you kill me, the whole fucking Bratva will come for you. Let me go now, and I’ll forget about all this.”
“I have no intention of killing you.”
“Then why am I even here? You know I’ll never sell, especially not to you.”
“I know about your deal with Tyson.” I smile. “You thought paying him double my fee would keep his mouth zipped. You should have killed him instead of buying him.”
“I’m not a murderer, unlike you.”
“Which is why you’re losing this negotiation.”
He manages a laugh. “Negotiation? Three hours in Rome waiting for you to show up? Then I get home, and your apes drag me here. You call that a negotiation?”
“That was preparation. This is negotiation. I say what I want, and you agree. We call that negotiating, Lombardi style.”
“Fuck you.”
“You’d make a shitty poker player, George. Shouldn’t just say no. Makes it harder when you eventually give in. Pride takes more of a hit. You know what’s on the memory card.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Tyson did keep his mouth shut.” I pause, clicking my fingers toward Toby. “At first.” He hands me the memory card. I wave it in front of Ivanov’s face. “But all men got a breaking point. Dead men can’t talk, George. That’s a rule you should remember. You let him walk, and my man got hold of him. Now I’ve got this, and you’re fucked.”
His face has drained of all color. “You’re bluffing.” This time he doesn’t sound convinced.
“Could boot it up, show you the footage. Let you reminisce on how it all went down, you sick fuck. Slicing up rent boys for kicks. How’d you think your missus would like to see that? You getting fucked up the ass and then killing the kids that did the fucking. Want me to send her the video? Better yet, maybe I will send it to little Angela’s school and get them to show the whole class what kind of man her uncle is. Twenty files on here, and that’s just number one. Want me to go on with what else I have? Or I could kill you now and spare you the shame. Last chance. Sign or die.” I pull out a knife and press it to his eyeball. “I’m getting bored, and I’ve got jetlag from chasing after you. Once I’ve taken out your eyes, I’ll skin you alive.”
I slice a patch out of his cheek to make sure he gets the point. I lean real close to him as he grunts in pain. “That’s one inch. Two minutes I’ll have you skinned like a dead deer. I work fast, and you live through the whole thing. See if your wife will care for you after when she knows the shit, you get up to. You ready? Let’s do this.” I lunge at him with the knife.
“Please,” he says, spitting out his words, the panic evident in his bulging eyes and the dark patch appearing on the crotch of his pants.
At last, he’s seen how serious I am. He gets it.
“I’ll do anything. Please, I’m begging you, Hunter. Anything. Whatever you want, I’ll do it.”
I tap the paperwork. “I’ve adjusted our offer to correct for the insult of you dragging this out. It’s twenty percent lower now. I know, I know. I’m robbing you blind, but you insulted me. Every business in that building goes bye-bye. Your first business in the States. All that work. Gone in the click of my fingers. Fresh starts all round. You’re going to sign, and I’m going to hold onto this memory card for insurance. Suppose you try and go back on our deal. In that case, I hear the slightest hint of you running to the lawyers or the accountants or the fucking girl scouts, then this footage goes everywhere, and I’m talking everywhere. Toby, untie him.”
Toby walks around the back of his chair, pulling out his flick knife and cutting through the cables.
Ivanov brings his trembling hands forward, rubbing his wrists. Snot and tears running down his face, he signs the contract, dropping the pen a moment later like it’s a twenty-ton weight in his fingers.
“There,” he says. “Now, please, let me go.”
“You’re free to walk,” I way, waving lazily toward the door. “But remember, I got plenty of insurance. You talk, and the whole world discovers the kind of man youreallyare.”
He gets to his feet, scurrying past me, picking up speed once he’s out in the corridor. I glance at the contract and then at Toby. “Another asset successfully purchased,” he says, picking up the contract. “Congratulations. Want me to get started firing the workforce?”
“Get rid of every business in there except the sixth floor.”
“What’s there?”
“Unique Couture Monthly.”
“The fashion magazine? Why?” A knowing grin breaks out on his face. “That girl, right?”
There’s a knock on the door. Toby pulls it open to find the concierge standing there.
