Page 33 of Vows In Corruption

The way that the old bastard grins tells me that my assumptions are correct.

Of course they are.

Peter here may think that he is slick, but he wears his cards on his fucking sleeve. I know his next move before he does.

“Your father said you were smart. I didn’t believe him until now.”

The anger rolling through me is growing stronger. It its taking everything in me to not get up from this chair and punch Hill in the damn face. He could use a new nose job anyway.

But I just roll my eyes and let the sarcasm slip.“Gee. You would think that all the damn business and money I bring into this company would have been an earlier indicator.”

The bastard’s face goes beet red with anger. “Cut the shit. If I were you, I wouldn’t play games with me. I don’t give a shit if the old geezer names you CEO and you get every single vote in that boardroom, you will never get the ability to wear that title. Not as long as I’m still fucking breathing. It’s not meant for you.”

I can’t help but to roll my eyes at the old bastard taking up my time.“Let me guess, it’s meant for you?”

The smirk that forms on his face would tell me all that I need to know if I wasn’t able to read Peter Hill like a damn movie. “I’ve kept this company alive.” He sneers. “I’ve made it what it is.” Like fucking hell he did. “Not Goldman and definitely not you. I worked fucking hard for it. It wouldn’t be handed to me just because my daddy died. So if he names you, I will do everything in my power to make sure it never goes through. Do you fucking hear me?”

It wouldn’t be handed to me just because my daddy died.

For the majority of my life, I’ve heard those words spoken to me by countless individuals. Every time that I hear them, I want to scream at the person speaking them and beat them until they understand that my parents death didn’t hand me a single thing beside being an orphan. Sure, I received an inheritance, but I’ve worked fucking hard to get where I am and my parents death has nothing to do with it.

But Peter and everyone like him will never understand that. To them I will always be the rich kid that uses his daddy’s money to get what he wants, and that’s fine. It will just make taking what they desire the most all that sweeter.

“Loud and fucking clear.”

My response to dear ole Peter comes out in almost a growl, to make it seem to him like he actually succeeded to get under my skin.

Peter can threaten me all he wants. Nothing is going to stop me from getting the title of CEO and that includes him. He will be destroyed before that even happens.

“Good. Now if you excuse me, I have important matters to attend to.”

He throws a grin in my direction and as soon as he is out of my office, I don’t hesitate in opening up the top drawer of my desk and take out the scanning device.

I wasn’t joking when I asked Peter if he was here to plant a listening device. A conniving man like him, would do just that to get anything he wants. What he doesn’t know is that I will always be one step ahead of him.

I place the device, one that was invented by this very company and as soon as it’s running, I take my phone out and start dialing a number that I’ve known since I was a teenager. The one number I call when I need something done.

This call was initially to get information in Ella Vincent, but now that Peter Hill has paid me a visit, my reasoning for this call has changed slightly.

The phone rings a total of three times before he answers.

“Whatever it is must be good if the prince himself is giving me a call on a Monday morning.” Dante Rosetti’s voice sounds through the other end of the phone.

When it comes to having friends, I have very few. Getting thrown into fatherhood at twenty-two and raising four kids that aren’t technically yours seems to scare people your age away. Some people though, will stick by your side and open their doors to you for whenever you need. The person on the other side of this call is the latter.

I met Dante in high school when I was a junior and he was coming in as a freshman. We both come from prominent Chicago families, something that we bonded over during computer science class, but where my family was known for its money and the charity work that was done, Dante’s was known for some thing else.

Being the mafia.

That should have been something to sway me away from a friendship with him, but I didn’t. If anything, being friends with Dante was something that I actively sought after. From the age of sixteen, I knew that being friends with someone like Dante was going to be beneficial for the both of us, and I was right.

I look down at the time on my watch and see that it’s close to ten in the morning.“Good enough for you to answer. I would have figured with the club, you would still be in bed.”

“Yeah, well when your wife is craving pancakes from a specific place, you get out of bed and get her pancakes and all the syrup in the world.”

For the first time I’ve step foot into my office this morning, I actually smile. It may be a tiny one, but a smile nonetheless.

“Look at you, the most pussy-whipped man known to life. Angelina is a lucky woman.”

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