“Just don’t ask him to do any knife work,” Micah snickered. “Apparently, he’s messy.”
I offered him a bit of a shrug.
“I’ll still do it,” I replied, “as long as you don’t take off points for neatness.”
I watched both Andrey and Gavino closely, trying to gauge their silent exchange. The Russians were in Greco’s group much deeper than I realized, and I wondered if Rinaldo understood the extent of it. Having the two organizations joining forces was always a concern—both due to the numbers as well as the access to overseas merchandise. Rinaldo wouldn’t like seeing them all work together so closely.
I’d done a lot of work to discourage that earlier in the year, but they must not have gotten the right message.
“You use knives for work?” Rurik nodded toward me pointedly before continuing in his thick accent. “There was woman here with us who was killed with knife. It was sloppy job.”
I sat motionless and didn’t respond. I knew exactly who he was talking about—Tasha Zorin. Rinaldo had asked me to send a message with her death, and I had. Andrey said something else to Rurik in Russian. The tone was one of warning, but Rurik didn’t seem interested in heeding it.
“You kill for our competitor,” he said. “How many of my people have you killed?”
“This is history,” Gavino stated.
“I have right to know! If he is man who put her head on my door, I have right to know!”
I leaned back in my seat and looked over to Gavino, wondering how he was going to let this play out. Intelligence aside, he was still obviously in charge.
“History!” he bellowed. “I know he has killed many of my people as well, and if I can set that aside to employ him, then so can you! This is business. Just business.”
Rurik glared from Gavino to Andrey but didn’t say anything else. When no one else dared say anything, Gavino spoke again.
“Mister Arden is in my employ now. Is that correct, Evan?”
“Yes, sir.”
“He has already done work for me, and I have more for him to do soon. We will keep the past behind us.”
“I do not trust him,” Rurik replied.
“And I don’t trust you,” Gavino responded, “but still we manage to work together. How many caviar shipments have you lost?”
“Four,” Rurik said.
“And now I will offer you protection for your next shipment. Mister Arden will be that protection, won’t you?”
I nodded at Gavino, but kept my eyes on Rurik.
“It is settled,” Andrey announced. He and Rurik had another Russian exchange but seemed to be at an understanding when it was over. Soon afterwards, the group began to break up and go their separate ways. I was given the time and location of the next shipment and decided it was time to go do a little recon of the area to find a good spot to conceal myself.
Jenna followed me out of the office and into the hall.
“You know how to make friends,” she mused.
“It’s all part of the game.” I shrugged and started down the hallway, but she stopped me again.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said as she tossed her long brown hair off her shoulder. “You have quite the reputation.”
“For?”
Jenna laughed.
“For being a merciless killer.” She locked eyes with me and took another step closer. Her hand reached out, and she ran her fingers down my chest. “Makes me wonder in what other ways you are…merciless.”
I glanced down at her hand as it found its way to my abs and then ran up my arm. She traced the outline of my bicep with her forefinger before she wrapped her hand around it.
“Nice,” she said softly. “You like the gym, hmm?”
“I spend some time there,” I admitted.
“I bet you do.”
Without any further warning, I found her lips pressed hard against mine. Instinctively, I returned the kiss, wrapping one arm around her to grab her ass and hold her against me as her tongue pushed inside of my mouth.
I shouldn’t be doing this.
Never in my life had I been in such a situation. I’d never had a relationship that was considered “exclusive” in any way and had always gone with the flow when a woman came on to me. Rarely had I ever turned one down, and that was only when I planned on killing her later.
Jenna was a beautiful woman, and I knew taking her up on her obvious offer would work very much to my advantage when it came to getting the more detailed information I was going to need to bring Greco down. She was close to him and had been for some time. He would trust her with much more than he ever would with me.
I didn’t push her away. I let myself respond to her touch even as her hand moved to palm my dick, which also responded predictably. It wasn’t like I was going to fuck her there in the hallway, so I figured it was still a relatively safe thing to let her do. She made it clear what she wanted—I just needed to drag it out as long as possible.
She pulled away first, taking my lip in her teeth briefly as she did. I opened my eyes and looked down at her with a half-grin.
“You’re an aggressive little thing, aren’t you?”
“I take what I want,” she said simply. “Always have.”
“Not exactly a great place for such things,” I said as I looked around the hallway of the office building. I could see Micah near the doorway, watching from the window. “I have a little work to do, but let’s continue this…‘conversation’ later.”
“Most definitely.” Jenna smacked my ass before she turned and sauntered down the hall. I shook my head slightly before heading to the exit and out into the street.
For the next several weeks, Gavino sent me after a variety of characters in Chicago’s underworld. They weren’t often Rinaldo’s people—there was supposed to be a truce between the families though it was always a tentative one. It was like the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union—a necessity to keep both families operating but not because either organization liked the idea. I found out very quickly that Gavino was reaching into many of the businesses that had been carved out for the Moretti family.
Of course, Rinaldo was doing the same thing.
I had also managed to be far too busy to meet up with Jenna, though she had approached me a couple of different times. There was always someone else about though, so she had made do with lecherous glances from across the room. The couple of times we had spoken, it was clear she was far more open than she should be. With just a little casual conversation and light touches, I had already gathered some information that may very well prove useful. She liked to vent about her job a bit, and some of that venting was more than she should have let on.
At Gavino’s request, I stayed away from Rurik completely. It was clear he didn’t like me, and Gavino’s thought on that type of conflict was to avoid it. I would have preferred to handle it a bit more violently, but I was given very precise instructions to not kill anyone who wasn’t on my list.
I kept out of sight as much as possible. My traveling arrangements were still convoluted, and I either stayed at the apartment with Lia or the hotel room near Quay. I didn’t go out or show my face in public, and thus far, Rinaldo had yet to contact me.
Somehow, my hearing date kept getting pushed back as well, so I hadn’t had to appear in court with my attorney. He’d been leaving messages through the correctional center, but I hadn’t returned any of them. I assumed Trent was behind the court’s failure to offer me a speedy trial, and that was also working out well. I wasn’t sure what I would do if I actually needed to appear in court.
It was only a matter of time before Rinaldo caught up with me, but I was hoping I would have enough time to get the goods on Greco before that happened. I did talk to Trent on the phone but had avoided having to meet him in person. I claimed it was because we shouldn’t be seen together, but that only worked for so long.