Page 170 of Niccolo

Fuck. I’d believed her at the time.

But as impressive as her ability to deceive me was, it wasn’t as impressive as another piece of information.

“You got that cheap motherfucker to pay you a million euros?!”

She smiled craftily. “After I basically extorted it out of him.”

“How?!”

“I said if he didn’t pay, I was going to stay at the poker tournament for the next three days.”

“Nicely played.”

“Thank you.”

“Does he know you and I are here together?”

“He knows I thought you were coming to Macau. He doesn’t know yet that you actually showed up.”

“So he doesn’t know about…this,”I said, tracing my finger down the inside of her thighs again.

She looked at me over her shoulder in amusement. “No, he definitely doesn’t know aboutthat.”

I considered asking,Are you going to tell him?

But I didn’t want to have her counter with the obvious question:

Are you going to tell Dario?

Ihadto tell my brother.

I had no other choice.

So I avoided the topic altogether.

Instead I said, “We can offer you 15 million euros if you come over to our side.”

“So we’re negotiating now?”

“Of course.”

“Not a bad offer. Of course, you don’thave15 million euros.”

“At themoment… thanks toyou.”

“Actually, that was more Fausto than me. He’s the one who arranged everything. I just suggested it.”

“Impressive nonetheless.”

“Still, I might be willing to entertain the offer, depending on what you can provide me upfront.”

“A signing bonus,” I said drily.

“Exactly.”

I knew that we had roughly five million in Bitcoin left…

But I also knew both Roberto and Dario would balk at paying her to switch sides, even if it was by far the smartest thing we could do.

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