“Fuck this,” he spat from where he landed beside his busted friend. “This was supposed to be easy.”
I raised a brow. He thought this was hard?
The lone man still left standing yanked a gun from his jacket and leveled it at me.
“Better shoot to kill,” I said, calm. “Because if I’m not dead, you will be.”
His gun wavered slightly, the confidence in his ability for a kill shot clearly lacking. I waited him out. It took about three seconds.
The gun dropped to the side of his leg. “Answer your goddamned phone the next time it rings.”
That’s what this was about?Incredulous, I stalked forward, feet splashing through the water. The gun came back up, and I slapped it away. “You’re holding a gun on me for a few missed calls?” I barked.
“No one ignores the boss,” one of the men on the floor said.
I cocked my head to the side and studied him. His temple was bleeding. “Who’s your boss?”
The one with the ring of bruises around his throat shifted, and I tensed. He held up his hands in surrender. “I’m getting my phone.”
I nodded once, and he quickly pulled it out and pushed it against his ear. Whoever he called answered on the first ring.
“I have him,” he said into the line. A moment later, he held the phone out. “He wants to talk to you.”
I didn’t move.
He shook the phone at me impatiently.
I pursed my lips. “Put it on speaker.”
His brows pinched. “Why?”
I shrugged. “You want me to talk, put it on speaker.”
“Do it,” a muffled voice said on the line.
“Mr. Vaughn.” My name came through the speaker loud and clear.
I didn’t like that he knew my name, and I didn’t know his, so I didn’t speak.
A long, silent moment stretched. If this guy was waiting for me to break first, he was in for a disappointment.
He cleared his throat. “I have a job for you.”
“I’m not interested.”
“Ten million up front. Cash.”
“No.”
The three men in front of me gaped.
“You don’t like money?” the voice on the line questioned.
“I don’t like being accosted in the shower and offered a job from a man whose name I don’t even know.”
More silence. Then, “This is Nicholas Grimaldi.”
Surprise shot through me. Nicholas Grimaldi was the second-in-command to the most powerful mafia in Buffalo.
