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“Butbaby,” she says in a fake whiny voice that causes me to smile, “I can’t help you if you don’t give me information.”
I blow out a breath. “Fine. I need to talk to one of the federal agents that’ll be in attendance.”
“An FBI agent?” Her eyebrows go up. “In what world would you have business with an FBI agent?”
“A world where he seems intent on fucking things up with my business.”
I had thought a detective was responsible for the random raids and the death of two of my capos a few weeks ago. Turns out the guy was much higher up, and I just recently found out exactly who he is. Unfortunately, he's a hard man to meet.
"So this man,” Daniella drawls. “You’re planning to corner him at the party, and what?”
“Talk to him,” I say on a shrug. Threaten him, bribe him, blackmail him, whatever it takes to get him off my case.
“Right,” she says, disbelieving. “I’ll tell Mom we need two invitations to the event.”
My eyes narrow. “One. You’re not going.”
“I am going,” she states, her nose turned up in a way that tells me she’s gearing for an argument. “It’s a formal event, Christian. Your fiancée will escort you.”
I could fight it and tell her no, but I really don’t think it’s necessary. “Fine. But you’re not going anywhere near Richardson.”
“That’s his name?”
I nod, falling onto the bed and placing a hand under my head. My gaze is trained on the ceiling as the words flow past my lips. She doesn’t need to know all this, but Daniella’s persistent. And I have a vested interest in making sure she’s not upset.
“Asher Richardson,” I tell her. “It turns out he and my father were involved and their relations went south. He wants revenge, I guess.”
Daniella falls onto me and I let out a grunt before wrapping my arm around her waist.
“I’m sure you’ll handle him,” she says, looking me in the eyes.
She kisses me once and I grin. “Of course I will.”
* * *
Asher Richardson isthe single most fucking annoying person I’ve ever met.
“You’ve got some balls, D’Angelo. Walking into a party full of feds and military personnel? Serious guts, man,” he says with a chuckle before slamming back a shot of vodka.
My jaw tightens. I’ve been sitting beside him for the past ten minutes, trying to get him to talk, but he seems intent on dancing around the issue. I’m really starting to lose my patience.
Almost involuntarily, my eyes seek out Daniella, and I find her immediately. She’s practically glowing in the middle of the room as she talks to another woman, her eyes dancing excitedly. Then they meet mine and she arches an eyebrow in question. I shake my head subtly before turning back to Richardson, but he noticed that my attention wavered.
“Gorgeous woman,” he notes, staring at Daniella.
“Thanks,” I say through gritted teeth. “Are you ready to tell me why you’re fucking with me?”
Richardson’s only a few years older than me. I’m not sure what his history is with my family, but according to Carlo, he used to work for us, helping us out with some deals in the city until his relationship with Dad soured. Carlo didn’t seem to know what went down either. My best guess is that the bad cop went good and now he’s trying to take us down.
“Her name’s Daniella Evans, right? I’m really curious how you came to be engaged with a woman like her. As far as I can tell, her family’s pretty clean. No affiliations with the mafia until she turned up engaged to you.”
“This isn’t about Daniella,” I tell him, my voice calm despite the inferno raging inside of me.
“Of course not,” he says, leaning back in his seat, his blue eyes flicking to my face. “This is about me taking down your illegal little business.”
I smirk. “Don’t flatter yourself, Richardson. You might have amassed some power in the FBI, but my business is nowhere near little. And if you think someone like you has the power to destroy it, you’re delusional.”
I’m only entertaining a conversation with him because he has caused enough problems.
