He looked up at the digital clock on the wall. “We need your expertise.”
My thoughts acted like hair full of static and shot in twenty million different directions. I could do this. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and a way for a pharmaceutical drug I believed in to move forward.
Also.
I would be working for the mob.
I would be going against on Stonewood Enterprises. Jett would flip out. He would literally lose his shit.
“I’ll do whatever I can.”
“Get Jett to back it. I don’t want your mother’s company involved. Government can get dicey.” He licked his full lips. “Mean. Stonewood Enterprises has the manpower to handle mean.”
“My mother’s company …”
“Doesn’t know what mean really is, Vick.” He grinned, showing his teeth like a wolf all of a sudden, they held a sort of snarl so vicious I wanted to take a step back.
“And you think I do? That I can handle this?”
He walked to the door, opened it, and motioned me through. His smile was slow as I made my way through it. “You’re a fighter.”
I met his gaze. “Damn right I am.”
18
Jett
Vick and Bastian.
Vick. And. Bastian.
I opened my laptop but couldn’t focus. I rearranged the paperweights on my desk. My father had given me three of them, all perfectly round. All blown glass. All from a little shop in Italy. The colors rippled, flowed together, and then pooled in just the right spots.
I liked the detail in them, the smoothness, the feel of the substantial weight in my hand. I grabbed one and fisted it.
One of a kind. They were all unique, and they all had their purpose. I kept them on my desk, set up for every person to see when they came and sat there. Some would focus on the red one, some on the blue, but most were drawn to the colorful one fisted in my hand, the captivating one swirling its damn color everywhere.
I needed to name that paperweight Victory Blakely. Shewascolor, entertaining the whole world and not stopping for a second to think about all the attention she attracted.
And the woman was one of a kind, that’s for sure. No one else on my team had the audacity to push a partnership forward with the Armanellis knowing I didn’t want to. Leave it to her. And leave it to her to grab the attention of one of the most dangerous men in the city.
Sebastian Armanelli definitely appeared harmless. His charm was instrumental in sweeping his family’s business under the rug. And the man worked like a panther in antelope’s clothing. He was new mob, new money, new power. He didn’t technically do any dirty work. Most of the business he and his family did was clean, legal, maybe a little risky and hovering near criminal, but most often fighting for good.
Even if that meant going up against the government.
I had no doubt this backing would put me in a shitstorm with the FDA and other pharmaceutical companies. I didn’t have the bandwidth, my team didn’t have the bandwidth. Not with my father stepping down.
I squeezed the paperweight, contemplating the place I worked at day in and day out. We moved companies forward, we pushed healthcare, we pushed tech. Hell, I’d found a company to navigate bottling water without plastic and instead using biodegradable material. Now, some of the largest brands were following suit.
I had to work harder than ever to pave the way for good in my city, and I hoped it would spread to other cities across the world. I believed in my team. I believed we had the ability to change the world.
Vick breezed in, bouncing about like a ball that was as pink as cotton candy. Everyone’s eyes tracked her around the office like she was some sweet as hell candy too. She stopped by Josie’s desk and they both laughed at something she said. Then she hovered by Bob as though she didn’t have a pile of work waiting for her.
I waited for her to look up, I willed her ass to look my way.
She didn’t.
Fine.