“Please,” he added as if that helped.
I waited for her response and turned a bit to see her looking bored. She couldn’t even be bothered with the guy.
I walked to the bar and poured us two glasses of the vodka he’d gifted me, then brought the drinks back to the window. I handed him one. When his fingers wrapped around the glass, I didn’t release it. “You know to help yourself when you’re here. She’s not your barmaid.”
“But you are?” He smirked.
“I can be anything you want me to be.” I showed him my teeth.
Knowing he was in the wrong when he’d asked my right hand to bring him a drink just because she happened to be the only girl in the room, he dropped his gaze.
“I’m sure you didn’t come here for the party.” I knew this because Mikhail, his boss, had called to wish me happy birthday this morning, so between then and now, something had changed, something big enough to warrant a personal meeting between us. I presumed it was the deal I’d closed with the Italians earlier today.
“Rumor has it the Italians are due for a reshuffling.”
The group of girls remained at the bar, but the blonde had disappeared. I searched the pool area.
“At what level?” I didn’t see her downstairs anymore. Maybe she’d left or gone to the bathroom.Why the fuck do I care?
“At the top,” he said.
I leaned a shoulder on the glass. “I doubt it. I think rumors will prove false.”
He sipped his drink. “I’m here to warn you. What you do with the information is none of my business.”
Mikhail wanted in on the deal I closed with the Italians. Or else why bother telling me? “Thank you. Is that all?”
Maks clicked my glass with his. “Cheer up, Nikola. It’s your birthday.”
I chuckled. “Stay for the cake.”
“And pussy.”
Ivana snorted.
“That too,” I said. “Ivana will show you to the girls. Don’t touch anyone I wouldn’t touch.”
He placed his drink on my desk and lifted his hands. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
I glanced at Ivana and met her death stare. I loved my cousin, but she also had to behave. Everyone had to behave and play nicely.
After the two left, Ludi joined me at the window. The girl returned to the bar. Relieved, I sighed and wondered why I gave a fuck at the same time.
“Any thoughts on what Maks said?” Ludi asked.
“Not yet.”
“We keep Sokol in New York?”
“And send a few more.”
“Youdothink the Italians have a problem.”
She slammed three shots in a minute, then spun in the bar chair, legs spread wide. Spreading legs in a bathing suit was onething. Spreading them with a—I pressed my forehead on the window to see better. I needed binoculars to see her clothes on the bottom. “Trouble, trouble.”
Next to me, Ludi sighed. “Those are kids.”
“Why the fuck is everyone saying that?”
