She dismissed, “You couldn’t cope with the amount of information that flows toward me on a regular basis.”
Deciding to umpire, I asked, “How did they get their hands on it?”
“Apparently, the Rabid Wolves?—”
“The MC over the border?”
“Yeah. They stole it about a decade ago from a rich tycoon and it was hidden away in a safe that got lost after the transfer of power between the last Prez and this one."
“How do you lose a safe?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped. “Stan can ask him when he goes to visit. All I know is that Storm, the current Prez, wants to give them to us if they’re the Anjou rubies.”
As the car came to a stop, Luciu groaned. “Another favor?”
These rubies were the banes of our lives. We owed so many goddamn ‘favors’ because of them, it was turning into a joke.
“Unfortunately.”
“We’re here, Don,” Chad informed us, his voice filtering through a small speaker in the back of the car. “And the area is secured.”
“Fucking favors,” he groused as he switched his cell onto an audio call that I answered before tapping the ‘speaker’ button.
“Don’t lose your head,” Rory ordered. “Listen to what he has to say, answer his damn questions, and don’t give away more than you must.”
“Se, se, se.It’s not like I’ve never talked to the man on my own before,” Luc sniped, climbing out of the car then crossing the small parking lot.
I peered around, making sure that our guards watched him closely, on edge until Aidan O’Donnelly Jr. stepped out of his SUV.
“Luciu, a pleasure to see you again.”
“Don’t lie, Aidan,”Luc mocked. “The last time we caught up, you lost a three-thousand-dollar bet and accused me of cheating.”
“It’s messed up that the Irish and Sicilian heads are this close.”
Rory gave her phone preferential treatment over me so I tuned back into the conversation.
“I appreciate that you agreed to meet before the Summit, Aidan,”Luc insisted.
“Why were the cloaks and daggers necessary? Couldn’t we have met at Finn and Aoife’s place on a Sunday like usual?”
“He goes to the moneyman’s house for Sunday dinner?!”
Rory, now replying to an email, shrugged. “They’re family.”
“I didn’t know about this on Sunday and you called the Summit out of the blue,”Luc grumbled.
“What is it you‘know?’”
“The Favaros were involved in a child brothel/fighting ring operating out of the building in Nolita we raided recently. We’re in the process of dealing with them.
“If any of them are seen on your turf, I’d appreciate you capturing them and letting us be the ones who dole out punishment.”
O’Donnelly’s look was measured.“What level of involvement?”
“A shell company in their possession owned almost the whole block the brothel operated on.”Luc retrieved the smallUSB drive from his pocket that Rory had given him earlier.“Here. Take it.”
“What’s on it?”
