I opened the door and climbed out, offering Matthew one more wave before walking into the building. I let out a sigh of relief as I took the elevator up to my floor, then fished out my keys as I walked down the hallway. I was already dreaming of the bath I was going to take before bed as I entered the apartment, but I made extra sure to pull out my phone and call Anton.
It answered after one ring. “Made it home?” he said.
“Safe and sound,” I replied. “Matthew was a perfect gentleman.”
“Glad to hear it. I’ll call you on Monday and see if we can’t figure this whole campaign manager thing out,” he said.
I smiled, thinking that maybe,justmaybe, there was hope for my family after all. “Sounds great. Bye.”
“Bye.”
I locked up and turned to head towards the bathroom when there was a knock at the door. My heart started to beat a little bit faster, and I wondered if I should call Anton back, but then I realized that was silly. It could be anyone at my door. Like he said, Gio was probably just enjoying the conversation with me. He wasn’t up to anything. He didn’t give me that sense. I crossed back to my door and looked into the peephole and saw Matthew standing on the other side.
“One of your neighbors let me in,” he called out, then he lifted his arm, he was holding my shawl in his hand. I neglected to grab it.
“Oh!” I unlocked the door and opened it, smiling as I reached out for it. “Thank you,” but then a thought hit me. “Wait… how did you know my unit number?”
“Oh, I uh…”
Matthew threw himself forward, shoving the shawl into my mouth to keep me from screaming, and quickly wrapped his arms around me in order to restrain me before dragging me backward out of my apartment.
7
GIO
I hooked my finger into my tie and loosened it as I walked into my office with Milli on my heels. It was a good thing that we had driven separately to the party, otherwise, I might have been lectured the entire way home. From the second we climbed out of our cars in the garage, he started in on me and hadn’t let up for a second for the entire trip up to the third floor of my estate where my office was located.
“I mean, what if I’d said something completely contradictory to you in the moment?” he droned on. “We’re supposed to be a united front, and I didn’t even know what you were doing.”
“It’s just Curtis,” I spat back. “It’s fine. Who does he have any influence over?”
“He’s the Governor of the entire state!”
I slumped down into my office chair and tossed my tie to the side. “Yeah, he’s Governor, but his sons are more influential and powerful than he is. He’s the face of government here, but that’s as far as it goes. I’m not afraid of Curtis. I’m surprised you are.”
Milli leaned over my desk with his arms perched on the edge of it. “I’m notafraidof him, I’m afraid of Merrick. If he finds out we’re out there running different plays, he’s going to chew us both out.”
I leered up at him and he sighed, falling back into one of the chairs that always faced my desk. “Can you at least tell me what you were thinking when you made the offer? Collateral? We’re not a bank. What are you going to let people make payment plans next? Curtis didn’t have any issue at all handing over his only daughter to you, that probably means he doesn’t care enough for her to be held for ransom. He’ll be in Tokyo by this time tomorrow, taking his debt with him.”
“First of all, we’re the mob, not the cops. We don’t have jurisdictions. If he runs to Japan, we’ll go dig him out of Japan, I’m not worried. Second of all, the collateral was just a cover for me to get what I wanted. I don’t expect Curtis to pay back that money just for her,” I explained. “No, my plan is a slightly longer game and a little more diabolical.”
Milli crossed his arms. “And what plan is that?”
“I think you would agree that the Narzand brothers are a much larger issue for us than Governor Curtis.” Milli nodded his head in confirmation. “What if we have a Narzand inourpockets. She’s been their campaign manager. She knows more about them than anyone probably. If we can turn her into an ally, then we’ve got a pretty powerful resource to leverage against them. We can stop their reign of terror and possibly even take them down.”
Milli went quiet as he considered this. His lips were pursed into a hard line that let me know he was probably seeing the logic and hating that he was realizing I was right. There was more to success than the immediate. Those who were willing to play the game for the ending and not the next play are ultimately destined to win.
Finally, as if he just couldn’t come to terms with accepting my plan without a complaint he hissed, “That’s still half a million-dollar debt that you lost and if Merrick finds out he isnotgoing to be happy.”
“I’m not gonna tell him. Are you?”
An irritated hiss slipped out of Milli as he glared at me. He knew what I was doing, and I knew that he knew. His loyalty was to my father first, and then me. That said, my father specifically asked him to serve me from the time that I turned eighteen on. He was weighing the risk in his head. Would Merrick be more upset with him for letting something so large pass by without telling him, or would he be more upset that Milli was turning on me to defer to him?
His nostrils flared and he rolled his eyes. “No. The reality is, I’m chained to you, and if he gets pissed at you, he’s gonna get pissed at me too.”
I threw him a knowing smile. “I figured that would be the conclusion you’d come to.”
“You’re fucking stressful,” Milli barked. “All I’m asking is that you tell me these things.”
