“What?” I finally ask when he makes no attempt to speak.
“You know I love you, right?”
I sigh. “Yes, Nico.”
“Don’t make me kill him, Tiffany.”
The warning was not made in jest. In fact, I felt the threat all the way to my toes. Saint was bleeding into Nico.
chapter eight
Setbacks
Nico
In three weeks I’m supposed to be opening this hotel, yet here I am, feet squishing in soggy carpet.
“Explain this shit to me,” I say to Stephanie.
She looks around at the damage just as confused as I am. “The fire department got the call early this morning. A jogger heard what he said sounded like running water. Once the fire department got here, they were able to disconnect the water and stop the flooding.”
The amount of water damage I’m looking at is outrageous. I tamp down my fury. This isn’t a place for Saint. This is Nico’s territory. Here, I have to be the polished and well put together businessman. I have to handle this problem diplomatically.
“How long are we looking at?” I ask my personal assistant and right hand.
Stephanie has been working with me since I opened my first hotel. She can damn near run Basille Resorts and Hotels by herself. She is to my hotel business what Ghost is to my arms dealings.
“I’ve been on the phone all morning with companies. The shortest quote I’ve gotten is maybe three to four months.”
“Fuck!” I growl.
Three to four months is a huge setback. Not just for the opening of the hotel, but for our plans to move money through this place. This bullshit affects not only me, but my brothers as well.
I run a hand over my head.
“Have they discovered what caused the leak?” After seeing my wife off to work this morning, I never thought this would be the call I got.
“Here’s the fire chief now,” Stephanie says, introducing a burly looking black man.
“Mr. Basille,” the chief says in greeting. I dip my chin in return. “Looks like someone took an axe or some sharp tool and cut the pipes. The entire ground level is flooded.”
Anger rears up in me so hot my body starts to sweat. My outward appearance doesn’t change, but on the inside I’m like molten lava. I count down backwards in my head to keep myself from spiraling.
“Do you have any footage inside the building? Maybe we can examine the cameras and see who did this?” the fire chief asks.
I shake my head. “I’ve checked the footage. It appears to have been tampered with.”
Unfortunately, this wasn’t a lie. I checked the footage on my way to the hotel. Maseo says it looks as if someone had cut the power to the camera, and since this isn’t an active site yet, no one was thoroughly monitoring the feed
“Do you mind if we still take a look?”
“Not at all. Stef, can you pull up the footage for them?” At that moment my phone rings. “I have to take this,” I say, excusing myself.
I walk away as Stef pulls up the footage from the cameras for the fire chief. Placing my phone to my ear, I answer.
“Yeah?”
“Lunch. Now!” Mason says into the phone, giving me the code for us needing to meet.
