Page 164 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

“Or we leave Vegas. For good.”

“Well, there is no fucking way I’m going to run away again! They don’t get to keep uprooting us from our lives, Nate! Running is for the weak!”

“Running kept us alive,” he hisses at me.

“Yeah, well, now we have…you know, stuff,” I sputter in frustration, throwing up my hands. “Like money. And a crew. Andmoney!” I swallow hard, thoughts popping between my ears like bullets. “We can stand our ground. We can win this! But it has to be on our terms. If Becerra is moving in, let’s cockblock the bastards! They’re out for blood, so let’s give it to them!” I will not leave. I will not run again. I will defend what we have left because it’s everything to us. My pulse throbs against the side of my neck. There has to be something we can do, some way to keep control, some person we can manipulate!

“Oh, so you wanna take on the cartel?” Nate shakes his head and goes over to his desk. He pours himself a shot and gulps it down, narrowing his eyes at me once his glass is empty. “That’s your big play?”

With a thumping heart, a slow smile lifts my lips. The fog lifts and I can finally see what we need to do and how we can do it. The wheels turn so fast, I can almost smell smoke billowing out of my ears, but holy shit, I have the answer. Now I just need to get Nate onboard. “Yes, take on the cartel! That’s exactly what I want to do, but I don’t want to do it alone.” I take a deep breath, bracing myself for the accolades that better tumble from my brother’s lips when he hears this stroke of brilliance. “Let’s use our prospective partner Sergio Villani and his desire to control Vegas as part of our battle plan, brother.”

“And how exactly do you expect that to work? All of a sudden, we just strip down and jump into bed with the families that are looking to snuff us out?”

Yeah, he doesn’t need to know I kind of already did that…

“Well, you refuse to cancel the meeting. So let’s be ready. First, we’ll let him think we’re not interested in selling, for any amount. Let him see how much he has to gain by grabbing hold of our business. Make him work for it. We put up a front, tell him there’s no way we’d sell, that he’ll never get what we’ve built. Guys like him love a challenge. Besides, based on what I saw tonight, they definitely need an injection of people and cash since that one club was pretty much on life support. We make it too tempting for him to walk away and then we agree to a partnership onourterms.”

“Wait, so you’re saying we need to sell?”

I look at Nate. “I’m saying that we need to consider taking on investors if we want to keep what we have. It’s not an outright sell, but yeah, screw it. If we can partner with them before Becerra can, we get Villani’s protection. That’s what we really need if we want to keep ruling this city. So what if we give up a piece? We’ll still own most of the pie.”

“That’s assuming they go along with the plan of not being in complete control.”

“Some is better than none. And none is pretty much what they have right now, so…”

“And if the thugs in the cartel ride shotgun with him the night of the meeting? If we don’t have a chance to execute your plan because we’re busy getting executed ourselves?” Nate quirks a brow at me.

I shrug. “We’ve taken them out before. We can do it again. I’m not worried.”

“You’re kind of insane, you know that, right?”

“And you’re kind of in love with my idea.” I smirk at him. “Admit it! You like the plan!”

“It keeps us in the driver’s seat.”

I nod. “We set the terms when we finally have Villani begging us for a piece of the action. Our partnership will keep Becerra far away because they won’t want to declare war on the Italians and risk getting skewered by their Russian allies unless they have a death wish.”

Nate strokes the stubble on his chin. “It would preserve the club and our business?—”

“And our lives.”

“You’re assuming we’re not too late and that Becerra hasn’t already convinced Villani to partner.”

“I’m being optimistic. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If we can make it seem like we don’t need Villani, he’ll be back to convince us that we do. And he’ll have no clue how right he will be.”

“You really think this can work?”

“Positively.” I don’t mention the fact that it lets me put my powers of seduction to blissfully good use with Sergio Villani. Nate wouldn’t appreciate that too much.

Make him want me.

Er, I mean, the clubs.

He’ll be putty in my hands. Guys like him love a challenge. They always take the bait if they think they’re the ones running the show.

When we send him away with his dick between his legs, he’ll be back, guns blazing. His little family unit won’t be happy to hear that he couldn’t deliver. So he’s going to do whatever he can to reverse his luck.

I’m positive of it.

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