Page 3 of His Smile
Narrowing her eyes at him, he could practically feel herdebating the question as her thumbs hovered over the screen for a second,rapidly she typed in her answer. “Key. I’ll get out once he walks you to thedoor.”
Giving Amin an obligatory look of interest as he spoke,Roman remembered when she came in earlier and how she picked out the Mercedeskey on the tray and replaced it with the key from her pocket. Grinning wider,he leaned forward and reversed the action before handing her the key. The lookof brief triumph on her face twisted into one of outrage when she realized whathe did. Roman nearly had to bite back a laugh of his own.
“I’m going to kill you,” she texted.
(From underneath the desk? You can certainly try. Now doyou want to take my offer and escape or do you want to test me and see what Iwill do next?)
He had no shame in the pleasure he took as he watched herslim shoulders sag in defeat. Avoiding his gaze with a pout she typed: “Fine.Get me out of here.”
(Say please.)
The look she gave him said she would rather die before shesaid that.
Nodding slowly, Roman looked up to the older man and held upthe manila folder to one of the pages of data. “Tell me, what does this linerefer to?”
A myriad of confused emotions bounced around the room.Dimitri gave him a question fueled look, as Mr. Chopra glanced down earnestlyat his own papers, preparing to walk over to where Roman sat, while the mostimportant person in the room gave him a terrified look. Clenching her fist oneither side of her legs, she gave him a tightlipped grimace as she mouthed theword, please.
“Never mind,” Roman stood up from his chair blocking in thegirl between the desk and his legs, while looking directly at Amin. “I think Igot what I needed. Now let us get down to business. Can you give me a digitalversion of the same files?”
Fearing he may be losing the deal at Roman’s abrupt change,Amin nodded with a courteous smile. “Of—of course let me get my son, Riaz, toput it on a flash drive.”
Walking around to the door, the older man didn’t evenconsider looking down. Once he was gone, Roman stepped back and held out a handto the huddled young woman. Feeling her soft hand wrap around his, Roman pulledher up until they were face-to-face. Surprise lit her eyes as she tilted herhead back to look up at him.
“Wow, I didn’t realize how tall you are,” she murmured,seemingly forgetting the whole point of this was for her to escape.
Not saying anything, he tugged her to the window behind thedesk and opened the latch. Standing on the other side in the flower bed wasMosca. Moments before, he texted his lieutenant to be ready by the window.Turning to her, Roman grabbed her by the waist, and just like he suspected thedancer in her complied instinctively. Placing her hands on his shoulders, sheallowed him to lift her up and through the open window into Mosca’s arms. Romanwas pulling the window shut when she stopped him.
“Hey,” still in Mosca’s arms she leaned towards him throughthe open window. “Just grab the Mercedes key real fast.”
Roman all but slammed the window in her face as Dimitrilaughed behind him.
“Here we are,” Amin announced as he stepped back into theoffice. Handing Dimitri the flash drive, he looked to Roman who was standing infront of the window near his office chair. “As I was saying Mr. Mashir,” Aminbegan nervously, trying to retake control of this floundering meeting.
“Let us speak frankly Mr. Chopra” Roman cut the man offbefore he could start rambling again. Roman had to force himself to turn awayfrom the view of Rahina outside the window, who was currently talkingexuberantly to his confused lieutenant. Now that she was gone it felt like hehad somehow survived a tornado that blew through the office. He realized whatit was about her that bothered him. She was like a bursting firework to hisgray, dull life; her very presence felt like a reminder of everything he wasmissing out on and it pissed him off.
With cold eyes and an even colder smile, Roman turned fromthe window and met Amin Chopra’s stare. “You’re not necessarily in the bestposition to negotiate.” He ignored the man’s astounded look and continued pasthis attempt to interject. “We know that your oldest son, Amit, went out andbragged to the Italians about your newly found success in the data collectionbusiness, and to no one’s surprise other than you, the Italians now want tomuscle in on your business.” Grim resignation reflected on the older man’s faceat Roman’s hard-hitting truth. “I have been watching you for some time, Mr. Chopra,ever since you started this venture, and I am well aware the last thing youwant are the Italians in your life.”
Sitting heavily in the same leather chair Roman sat inpreviously, Mr. Chopra gave him a tired look. “What are you offering Mr.Mashir?”
“Ten percent of your profit,” Roman replied, letting hisgaze pass over the family photo on the man’s desk. It was a photo of all thewomen in Amin’s family, all dressed in traditional Bangladeshi garb. Romancould tell the photo was old, taken maybe four to five years ago. He spottedRahina’s face immediately out of the similar looking women. The exuberance anddynamic energy practically radiated from the glossy photo. No one should havethat much damn energy, he thought.
“Ten percent?!” Amin choked, the look of disbelief andwariness intertwined on his shocked face. There was an unspoken “is that it” inthe man’s voice.
Roman knew Italians offered to take thirty percent in returnfor their protection.
“Ten percent and all the data you collect,” Roman said,watching as the understanding settled over Amin.
Nodding, Amin accepted the deal with a sigh. Ten percent ofhis profits will be paid to Roman as well as a twice a week data dump toRoman’s servers. In return, Roman wouldn’t kill him and nor would the Italians.
As the older man walked them back to the front door Romanpaused.
“Take down these photos,” Roman looked pointedly to the hugefamily photo near the door. “And control your son or I will, and mostimportantly,” and for the first time that day Roman let his smile fade away,staring at the older man with obvious anger. “Never send one of your daughtersin to serve tea to a pair of criminals.”
Chapter 2
When Rahina asked her brother Riaz that day about the tall,grinning man their father had a meeting with, the look he gave her told herthat the man wasn’t just one of her dad’s run-of-the-mill shady connections.
“Don’t worry about it, why are you here anyway?” Riazquestioned, obviously trying to change the subject.
