Saint kisses me. Hard. Desperate.
"I fucking love your brain."
Not I love you. But close.
Closer than before.
"Come to bed," he says. "We have a long day tomorrow."
"In a minute. I want to think through the approach. How we present this to Igor."
"Gemma—"
"Five minutes. I promise."
He studies me. Then nods. "Five minutes. Then I'm carrying you to bed."
He leaves.
I sit back down in his chair.
Pull out a piece of paper. Start writing.
Strategy. Approach. Contingencies.
Everything Bianca taught me. Everything I learned watching her manipulate men twice her size into doing exactly what she wanted.
I'm not my mother.
But maybe I'm her daughter after all.
And maybe that's not such a bad thing.
CHAPTER 26
Saint
The meeting place is neutral ground. A restaurant in Queens that's been family-owned for three generations.
No Italians, no Russians.
The owner, Stavros, owes favors to everyone, and they also owe him, which means he owes loyalty to no one.
It's a perfect set up, and it's a place where we all do business when we need to make deals on neutral ground.
It's also a place that wouldn't be on Artem's radar. Because Gemma is right, he is an outsider, and that works to our advantage.
I arrive early with Gemma and Marcello. Emmanuel and three other men wait outside. Armed and ready to move on my order.
Though I doubt that I am going to have to do too much.
Igor will have his own security, but we aren't here as enemies.
And while that's all well and good, I still make sure that we are the first ones here, that we control the space. Gemma insisted on coming, and I know I'm not going to be able to keep her home. This was her play, after all. But I need to be in control of as many things as possible.
"You remember the plan?" I ask Gemma for the third time. I'm on edge. I don't normally work out in the open like this, and it's making me anxious.
Gemma appears cool and collected. She's wearing a beige pants suit with her hair pulled back in a braid. Her silver eyes are serious. She looks lovely and demure. Like a high society socialite.
