Page 137 of Unwritten Rules

?Chapter 35

Brent

“What’s got you lookinguglier than usual, boss?” Reaper was munching on trail mix while we waited yet again to see what the hell was going on with Jason Haines and his associates.

The last we heard there was trouble in paradise and his company was flailing and at risk. Nothing lasted long when you start trying to fuck over the one who gave you your leg up in the world. Never look a gift horse in the mouth—especially if that person was Augustus Vaughn and you wanted to steal business away from him. He would gut you or ensure that someone else did.

I gritted my teeth and accepted the packet of trail mix from him while there was no activity, and we were out here with our thumbs up our asses. “Nothing.”

He chuckled. “Woman problems, I get it. Don’t need to tell me twice.”

“Just shut up and tell me what you heard last from the higher ups.”

“Last I heard, youwerea higher up now after that little meeting with your girlfriend.”

If she was my girlfriend, she wouldn’t have kicked me out so easily. That would change sooner rather than later, but I decided it was best not to push my luck. Her mental state was in no working order and watching her break and shatter within a couple of days was the worst thing I’d ever seen. It was like telling a little kid Santa didn’t exist anymore. All the life and brightness I saw in her that first night was dimmed and darkened by the people I knew would do that to her.

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my business partner and nothing else. And yes. You’re right. The Dictator wants me to start taking on some leadership shit for only God knows why. Something tells me he needs the extra cover for something OR that something so big is coming that it could implode the world. Whatever it is, he has his plans about it.” I shoved trail mix into my mouth and looked back through my rangefinder

Reaper was manning a rifle tonight. From what we saw last time, we might have to use it. I just hoped his marksmanship was different from his hacking and slashing.

“How’s Davey?”

“Stop sending him porn videos. He’s not into the weird shit you send him.”

The trail mixed crunched in his mouth. “Oh, come on. An all-dude orgy ain’tthatbad. I’m sure he’d love to participate.”

Some days, I didn’t know what I’d do with this guy. The masks were weird enough.

“What’s the news with that execution? Did we find out who that driver was or why the men were executed so inexplicably?” It perplexed me and I needed to know what was going on.

“From what I hear, Jason has issues maintaining his people and we’re here to find out what his course of action is. Mr. Vaughn is very interested in the business practices of the man trying to steal some of his overseas partners in the weapons trade. It’s hard enough getting quality shit, we don’t need some butthurt kid ruining it for an entire industry by getting caught with being careless.”

The black market always had new people popping up trying to take out their competition. No one dared try to take out Chamberlain Industries and preferred to work with us instead of against us. It worked out better that way. My great-great-great grandfather was quite the businessman from stories I was told.

Arthur Vaughn and his associates formulated an ultra secret group with other foundering businessmen like the Rockefellers and original politicians that shaped the country. When they stemmed off from oil and railroads, they set up trade agreements and thus started their under the table dealings.

Flash forward to today, we ran an unstoppable conglomerate that was near impenetrable. The squeaky wheel in our wagon was the Montgomery Group and had been since Maria died. My theory was that Jason wanted to poke us enough and break enough spokes to take over where she left off.

That ultra secret group? They were the families we dealt with on a regular. Call it a secret society, but it came with a lot of shit. Lots of rules to abide by and they were ever changing and nuanced as fuck.

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