Page 210 of With Us

Cazzo.

Luc spoke. “Your woman beating pussy of a man who ditched you back at Amaric. Who was he?”

Nothing.

“Fine then.” I looked at Luc and Gabe. “Get him and this room cleaned up. I’m talking sparkly new. Wait until every bruise is gone. Then pin a sign to him.”

Gabe looked positively gleeful and sickly aroused at the idea of cleaning. He grabbed his pen and pad. “What do you want it to say?”

“Tell them he’s been having friendly conversations with us for the last month.” I looked at the man again. “Make sure you add that he got caught after being taken down bymytiny woman.”

“Got it.”

The man began struggling against his binds, screaming around his gag.

“You ready to talk?” I asked.

He nodded.

Carefully, I undid his gag. “Now.”

“I don’t know much,” he croaked. “New. Low. Drugs and street whore, not call girls.”

“Okay.”

“Some are unhappy with Donnelly. He’s getting greedy and dangerous with lives other than his own. People were whispering about a war. Ben had teamed up with someone high ranking, I don’t know who. All my orders are passedwaydown to me.”

“What was the plan?”

“You go to war with Donnelly, and take him and his underboss out. Or one of us does and makes it look like you did. Then we restructure.”

‘So you have no clue who?”

“No. It’s like a game of telephone. Whispers go through so many ears, the higher ups are protected.”

“That’s all you’ve got?”

He nodded. “I can help, though. Go back in, say I escaped. Feed you info.”

I walked over to Luc and Gabe. “Stick with the plan.”

“You lied!” Ian screamed, his chair squeaking and scraping as he thrashed around.

I started for the door not bothering to look back as I spoke. “Yeah. And you put a gun in my face and upset my woman. Little late in your life to learn a lesson.”

“What? What lesson?”

Glancing back, my voice was a low growl as I said, “No one fucks with us.”

Dahlia

Five years later

Tapping my foot, I avoided looking at the mirror in the elevator. I still couldn’t help my reaction when I saw it, and it was definitely not the time to get turned on.

The doors slid open and Rosa looked up from her desk. “You just caught him. He’s leaving for a meeting in less than five.”

“You might want to cancel that,” I said as I moved to open the door to his office.

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