Grabbing the tablet, I opened it and found a new folder full of the details I needed. “Atticus, do you already have the financials on all of our business partners or only what they think you’ll need for the transaction?” I asked.
“Mostly just what I need on a case-by-case basis, but I can request whatever I need,” he stated.
I glanced up at Ryker, and he nodded immediately, took a seat in one of the chairs across from me, and opened his laptop.
“Ryker is going to send you everything on Harrison and Raymond. What I need you to do is go through every single transaction and find every single person they’ve paid. If they pay a hooker every Thursday, I want to know who it is and if it’s one of ours or someone else’s. It seems they’re shopping for new business partners who are giving them a better deal, and I want to know exactlywhothat might be. Between the two of them, I know one of them will have fucked up and given us the golden ticket we need,” I explained.
Atticus nodded and started to leave the room, then paused. “I’m going to get my laptop unless you want me to work in my room. It will take me about two hours to get this done if I’m not bothered.”
“Go do what will give us the best results. Please make sure you have your phone on you and that you’re able to receive my calls,” I instructed.
Atticus frowned at me. “Why wouldn’t I be able to get your calls? My phone is always on and close to me. It’s been made incredibly clear to me that I’ll be at your disposal day or night as you are to us.”
I beamed at him. “You’re exactly right, Atty. Thank you for having a clear expectation of your job.”
He nodded, still looking unsure about the whole situation and not realizing I was saying this to make a jab at Gunner, who simply hung his head. The fact Atticus had been more prepared than him must burn, but such is life. After tonight, I’m fairly certain I’ll never have to question whether or not his phone is on.
“Gunner,” I called, causing his head to snap up. “I need you to start from the beginning of this whole theme park situation with Harrison and Raymond. Did you approach them first, or did they come to us? Were you included from the beginning, or did you get brought in later?”
A knock on my door put a pause in the conversation as a cart was wheeled in with coffee and some snacks for us to munch on as we worked. As the staff left, Jace and Braxton joined us, looking none too pleased with me, but even more surprising was that Luca came with them.
“Did you take all their money already, Lukie-poo?” I asked as I ignored the others.
Even though we went out and things got a little steamy, it didn’t mean they had any control over how I did things or where I went. I was safe and played by the rules, so they didn’t need to be my shadows. There was no way I was letting them forget I was their boss.
“I wasn’t trying before, and neither were you, by the way. That first hand you could’ve won, but you decided to fold early,” Luca commented.
I rested my chin on my hand as I looked at him. “You’re right, I could have won that round, but I wanted them to feel more comfortable with me there. If I’d stomped their asses like I wanted to, then they would have been so much more guarded.”
“Fair enough since what we learned is going to keep us from getting fucked right up the ass,” he muttered. “Did you tell golden boy how badly he fucked up?”
“No, we were just about to dive into that when you all showed up,” I said cheerfully. “This is lovely, though, so now I don’t have to repeat myself. Gunner, if you please, you were going to tell me how this deal came into being.”
eighteen
Howisitthatevery time I turn around, I keep fucking up with this woman? She still hadn’t told me how I managed to screw up, but clearly, it had something to do with this deal. Harrison and Raymond had been working with us for years, and I thought they were personal friends to the boss. Now she had me second-guessing everything I was thinking.
“Twice a week I work out of the Caprioni Enterprises building downtown. It’s when people can meet with me about projects and things like that. I personally believe it helps when dealing with new clients… it seems less like a dirty deal with the mafia and more of a true legal business interaction. Raymond came to see me on one of those days and pitched the idea. To be honest, I wasn’t sure about taking on the work since the land part would be such a struggle. So I told Raymond I’d talk to the boss. Turns out Harrison was having dinner with the boss, and I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. When he saw me the next day, he told me he’d given the green light on the deal. While I’d never speak poorly about the boss, I did feel like he hadn’t been given all the information.”
I paused and decided to pour myself some coffee since I could tell this was going to be a long night. “When I sat with him to go over what I learned from Raymond, it seemed like they were playing us against each other, only telling each of us half the story. Boss had already given his answer and said he wouldn’t go back on it when it came to a valuable friend.”
Astin’s face scrunched up at that. I’d thought it was odd myself, but there’s no way I could argue with any of it. That wasn’t my place. “Let me get this straight, Harrison is the close personal friend?”
“Yeah, he’s Casimira’s older brother,” Ryker interjected. “That’s how they got connected… through her.”
“Why am I not surprised,” Astin muttered. “Continue,” she instructed, waving her hand at me.
I took a sip of the coffee, hissing at how hot the fucking shit was burning my tongue. When I got coffee while working late, it was never this hot. It also tasted a hell of a lot better than normal.
“The two handed it off to their lead assistant I’ve worked with on all other projects so that wasn’t unusual,” I started, taking a seat in the other open chair. “He gave me their plans, what information he had on the land, and the other typical things I like to know before I sign off on giving the money. Only this time, they said there was a problem with the zoning, and we needed to fix it according to the agreement the boss made with Harrison.”
“Hold up,” Astin cut in. “At this point, you didn’t know about the zoning issue of the land being a toxic waste dump?”
Warning bells went off in my brain at the tone in her voice. “No, I assumed that if Boss gave his stamp of approval, things were fine. Normally, we never deal with that portion of things. I just double-check to make sure the business plan is sound, ensuring we’ll be able to make our money back. I know that’s not how we’ve done it in years past, but I’d rather make smart investments than worry about breaking kneecaps to get our money. Plus, the loan was going to be over a million dollars.”
“That’s great, so you double-checked the business plan. Did they have the plot of land listed?” Astin questioned.
“Yes…”