"Who, me?"
"Yes, horn dog. You."
"Well, if you consider me telling her that I hoped her pussy would be as pretty of a red as her face and I wanted to feast on her as she rode me, then yeah, I guess." The shit-eating grin he wore caused me to laugh out loud.
Fucking hell, only Sax could say something like that and get away with it too. His whole mountain man ruggedness had the ladies dropping their panties at his feet. Course, I had my fair share of women throwing themselves at me, so I couldn't say anything against him. Women gravitated toward the danger we possessed and wanted the one-night stand—never anything more. After a while, you learned to accept it. It was part of this life and easier in the end. Too many liabilities made you weak.
"So, any info on the twerp I saw pissing himself as he ran out of here?" Sax asked once our laughter died out.
Sobering, I focused back on the problem at hand. Dragging my hand up my face, I felt the weight of the last hour. Exhaling, I looked over at Sax.
"It's how we thought. He's been shaving off the top and siphoning money to Delgado. He ‘claimed' it was an attempt to gain favor with us by double-crossing them. He's full of shit, but I decided to use this situation as an advantage. It's time to see if we can get some leverage on Delgado and how much they had a part in ‘the Reapers' actions. There's a piece of this puzzle I'm missing. I just know it," I mumbled the last part, deep in thought.
My ascension to the boss wasn't the grand plan I'd heard my whole life from my father. I still couldn't decide if it had been a long con on my father's part or if he'd gone crazy in the end. I hated him for what he'd done, but there was still a tiny sliver of the boy in me who'd idolized his father. Against all logic, that part wanted there to be a reason for his dad killing his wife and having his daughter kidnapped. But nothing justified those actions or excused them. Nothing.
Instead, I became the boss and head of the Mascro family and was left hating a man who'd once been my idol.
"What time is your next meeting?"
Sax's question pulled me from my inner ramblings, causing me to glance at my watch, forgetting I'd already been running behind. I was now thirty minutes off schedule. Dammit. Squaring my shoulders, I smoothed my shirt and rolled my sleeves back down, redoing the cuff links as I did. Grabbing my suit jacket, I started to head toward the door.
"Thirty minutes ago," I sighed, "Come on, let's go meet with the next asshole of the day."
Sax followed and fell back into his guard role once we stepped through those doors. We both had a role to play, and we were great at playing them.
* * *
"Send in the next one,"I instructed, rubbing my temples.
It had been a long day of meetings, most not being pleasant. No one tells you that being the boss of a crime family is 90% administrative. I was beginning to loathe meetings. Jotting down some notes, I looked up a few minutes later when no one entered. Picking up the phone, I hit the button to ring the desk out front. After a few rings and no answer, I started to get anxious that something had happened. Before I made it out into the hall, Sax walked in.
"All done, boss."
I looked at him quizzically, "I thought there was one more?"
"Ah, yes, there was, but not anymore."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Do you really want to know?" he challenged.
I thought about it for a minute. If Sax said there wasn't one, I believed him. Part of his job was managing the things I didn't need to, so I had to assume this was one of those. Besides, it was now 8 pm, and I'd been at this for twelve hours. If I didn't need to meet with someone, I didn't particularly care about the reason why. Sax had it handled, and I trusted him in his role. Shaking my head no, he smiled at my acceptance.
"We do, however, need to head out to the club. I have Nicco popping in at Climax tonight, so we can head over to Evolve."
"Hmm, is that so?" I challenged, raising my eyebrow at him. Sax did a dramatic bow before responding.
"At your will, of course, my liege."
"Fucker," I uttered, shoving his shoulder as I walked toward the garage.
His mention of Climax pulled the memory of our last venture there and the stunning woman we'd interacted with. There was something about her that had drawn both of us to her. That night had been exceptional. The way she'd owned her sexuality with each sway of her hips and the feel of her on my fingers was almost enough to make me say ‘fuck it' to the whole mask rule just so I could see her face as she came undone.
However, it was a necessary precaution. No one knew who I really was at the club, and because of that, I had a relative sense of freedom I couldn't get anywhere else in my life. Climax had been a chance to do something as my own venture and hadn't been connected to my father. I'd opened it a year ago, and now, it felt even more important to keep it that way. Not having strings attached to the family seemed like a clever play when I didn't know who I could trust.
The other club, Evolve, or Club Bullet as it was previously known, was my father's establishment—was being the keyword. I'd taken it over six months ago when I inherited ownership of everything from my father. We'd been remodeling and rebranding ever since. The new name felt fitting and, hopefully, a positive change for the place. I wanted to leave the past where it belonged and hoped our family, and the criminal underground, could evolve into a new era.
While Evolve remained a ‘family' company, at least this way, none of his stain would be left on it, and hopefully, we could start anew. My background was in business and management, both valuable assets for a life of crime. It was something Sax and I wanted to integrate more as we changed things. In a family built on history and legends, though, change took time.