The drone of the crowd filled three of the edges. It followed me with unrelenting noise as I walked purposely to the fourth, where only one individual stood waiting.
“He’s lucky,” Rayko spat and pushed himself from the wall.
I worked my jaw back and forth. There would be a bruise there tomorrow.
Hristo will see.
Gingerly, I touched the spot. How would my son react? Would it scare him? It was probable that his mother shielded him from violence.
Time to change that.
But…how?
Flickers of my own childhood played like a silent film strip in my mind. Fuck. I’d had no choice. It was fight or die. And now only the most insane men dared to challenge me. Maybe some martial arts. He could learn skills, be introduced to violence, but in a safe and regulated environment.
Huh. That wasn’t such a bad idea. Looks like I had pieces of this parenting thing down already.
“Update?” I clipped out.
Rayko stretched, swinging his left arm to loosen the shoulder. He’d had his own beating earlier in a sparring session, but the fox never complained. Just adopted shrewder and more crafty manners of attacking me.
“Georgi said the house is still dark. No movement. Boris hasn’t seen anything out back, either.”
Good. My little flower learned her lesson, it seemed.
“Is everything set for the game tomorrow?” I pushed into the back room, where I wrenched a towel from the back of my chair. Papers littered the desk, documents detailing the stalleddemolition of the Redwood Plaza, and no loophole in sight for its rebuild.
All because I couldn’t navigate the business world as well as Don Alessandro Mancini. He would have had the commissioner in his pocket by now. I was still leaving messages with the commissioner’s secretary.
“It is.” Rayko closed the door, sealing away the buzz of the tiresome insects. “We found a replacement since Mancini won’t be joining us.”
Not only had the don made my business come to a screeching halt, but he insulted me by refusing to attend the high stakes poker match.
Fuck him. I didn’t need him.
I tipped back a bottle of water and chugged the whole thing. Crinkling the plastic bottle, I tossed it into the wastebasket. It bounced off the edge, mocking me, and clattered to the floor.
“Boss.”
I shot my second a look. “What is it?”
“The woman. She’s a…liability.”
I scoffed.
“Why haven’t you done anything with her?” Rayko pressed. “She could go to the police if we aren’t careful.”
Without thinking, I tightened the grip on my knife and shifted. Rayko sensed the defensive stance and quickly moved to one of his own.
“She’s my problem. Understood?”
Rayko nodded slowly. “I’m not saying kill her. You would have done that already. But she needs to be silenced—”
“No buts.” I took a step forward, shifting the knife to my other hand. I lifted a threatening finger to his face. “I mean it.”
No other man would dare question me. Rayko had been through the trenches with me. We’d bled together. Each of ushad taken more than one bullet for the other. But when it came to the beautiful Italian flower, he was out of line.
“There’s a way to make it hard for her to testify. That’s what I’m trying to get at,” Rayko said softly. His sharp gaze never left mine, but he was more than aware of the knife that was now within swinging distance. “Have you considered it?”
