“He told me you know everything now,” Liu commented. “While he puts on a good face, I can tell you we won’t have him around much longer, Astin. He’s getting weaker and weaker no matter how much he tries to hide it. Don’t let his mistakes take away from the time you have left with him. Fuck the rest of us, be mad at me for not making sure he told you about me or making an effort to reach out to you myself. Yes, Jamison is an idiot but a lovable one if you gave him a chance. He’s been looking forward to the day he gets to meet his big sister.”
I cut him off, laughing at that last part. “Yes, I got the warm fuzzies from him on that front. He must have wanted to meet me so badly that he acted like a complete and utter dick. I tried last night, even after I got blindsided withfamilydinner. Didn’t you see me asking questions to get to know the little prick before he got all bent out of shape because we were having fish? They’re your family, not mine. As for my father, don’t you concern yourself with our relationship, we’ve managed to deal with things harder than this. So just back the fuck off and stop acting like you have any right to speak to me on this matter. You and I might share a last name, but that doesn’t make you my family.”
Liu rubbed his hand over his forehead like I was giving him a headache and nodded. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I don’t have any right to talk to you about this. You might not believe anything that’s coming out of my mouth but know this… your father loves you more than anything else, and Jamison grew up in your shadow. Fuck, I’ve been in it too since he made sure I knew never to ask to take your spot because the answer would always be no. To be clear, I didn’t want it… just thought you should know.”
He turned to leave then stopped and faced me again. “I love him like a father. He’s been the only parent who loved me my whole life. It’s an honor to work alongside him, and I’ll do anything to make sure his last years, months, days are ones that have happy memories. He’s been waiting for you to come home like a child waits for Santa. Don’t be the coal in his sock instead of the gift he sees you as.” With that parting fortune-cookie wisdom, he left the room.
Liu had called me out in a way only Ryker had before in my life. It stung because I knew in some ways, he was right. I didn’t know how much time I had left with my father, and if it wasn’t much, then I needed to move quickly. He deserved to see these men who claimed to be friends ruined. This was my mission and a way to connect us when I didn’t know how to forgive or trust again once feeling betrayed. Everything I’d been taught my whole life was to cut off those who hurt you or never to trust anyone lest they do what Harrison was doing to my father now.
Being the leader of the mafia made you a target. Everyone always wanted something from you, and if they couldn’t get it, then they’d destroy you. The problem was you better be able to do it the first time, or we’d come back ten times harder until your bones were ground into dust.
“Mistress, what’s put that look of pure murder on your face?” Braxton asked as he walked up to where I was standing.
I’d been so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t heard them enter. “Huh?”
Braxton gestured to his own face. “Ah, your expression. You look like someone is going to die slowly by your own hands.”
“Oh, I’m sure someone will by the time this is all over,” I answered as I turned on my heel and took a seat at the head of the table.
The others entered and took their seats, even remembering the order I’d newly placed them in. Atticus seemed to have gotten enough sleep since he looked far perkier than the others. Luca seemed agitated about something, but I’d get there in a minute. First, I needed to share the order the boss had given me.
“All right, boys, listen up. The training wheels are coming off, and we are in this shit for real,” I announced. “The warm-up Boss thought we’d have to get to know each other isn’t gonna happen, so we’re gonna figure this out on the fly. Our main focus, above all others, is the destruction of Continental Properties. They’ve made a fool out of us and betrayed the boss’s trust. For that, the time of them benefiting from our friendship has come to an end. I’m tasked with the job of bringing them to their knees, and you, my lieutenants, are going to help me make it happen.”
“I know I said this earlier, but I’m hella ready to start some shit,” Braxton shared, a grin on his face. “Just tell me what you need, and I’ll make it happen.”
Atticus raised his hand, making me smile. “Yes, Atty?”
“Are we all required to perform physical violence on these people?” he questioned.
“No,” I answered simply. “What I need from you is to make a list of all the money they still owe us. I mean, going back to the first transaction and any penny they haven’t made good on, I want to know about it. They’ve been getting a better deal than they realized, and I want to show them that.”
“Thank you. I’m not very skilled in harming others, even though I’m quite a good shot with a gun. I apologize. I should clarify I’m a good shot when the target isn’t moving. I haven’t practiced on live targets or targets that move,” Atticus informed me.
“Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind if there’s an occasion where shooting is required,” I assured him. “Now, this is the list of things I’d like to do. Let me know if we have the ability to do them. Freeze their bank accounts, find every speck of dirt we can use against them, fuck up the deal they want to make with Harvey, buy the property out from under them, and pin the trick they were going to pull on us on them.”
There wasn’t an immediate reaction, but once they absorbed what I was saying, they burst into action. Laptops flew open, tablets were grabbed, and each of them was talking over one another trying to figure out who was going to do what.
“Jace, can you pull the information from your records to see how much he’s been loaned out during games and lost?” Atticus asked. “I keep saying I need to be given those records as well, but Boss hasn’t given the go-ahead. I’m the money man, and if it has to do with our money, then it should go through me.”
Jace nodded and started to type on his laptop. “Trust me. If this gives you what you need, then I doubt there will be any pushback. Do you want just the past few years? The records before me are shit, and I’ve been trying to work through them, but men like these made deals on a handshake.”
“Wait, what?” I demanded. “There are deals that have gone down without any paperwork?”
All of them paused and looked over at me. “What?” I demanded.
“Before your father, no one wanted a paper trail,” Luca answered. “There are ledgers and other books that keep records, but we can’t decode them. Even Boss was having trouble since it’s a variation on the family code. It hasn’t been, but for the past decade, the Caprioni Empire has been trying to ensure things appear legit on the surface since the government has gotten so much better at fucking us over with the details.”
I ran my hand through my hair as I thought this over. “Okay, that makes sense. Get whatever you can, and I’ll go over everything with the boss and double-check to make sure we didn’t miss anything major. In the long run, this won’t matter, but it’s good for me to know going forward if we need leverage. Sadly, we can only prove so much from back in the day, not having written records.”
We worked for hours going over all the years these men had worked with us. Father had given them loans and backing when they first started the company they have yet to pay back. There wasn’t an agreed-upon timeframe, but that simply meant we got to call their note when we felt like it. The grand total ended up being about five million, and while they could afford to pay that back, it wouldn’t be easy if we asked for it all at once. What I was most excited about, though, was being able to deliver it to them in person at their office. I imagined the looks on their faces when they realized who I was, and it was priceless.
Then an idea started to unravel in my mind about what could be done to pin the whole breaking the treaty on them. It might even give me a chance to use my burglary skills to my advantage. There’s no way they could deny the accusation when the evidence was right there in their own offices. Delivering the bill would give me a chance to look around the place, then I could decide if it was worth it. On second thought, looking up their blueprints might not be a bad idea either.
“Ryker, can your people get me blueprints of properties that aren’t ours?” I asked.
Gunner cut in before Ryker had a chance to answer. “If he can’t, I know my people can. We keep copies of all the buildings we’ve helped to develop.”
Ryker just smirked and gestured to Gunner. “I was gonna say, ask him.”