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"Dario applied to be one of our runners. He used to be a trucker along the southern route, and still had contacts there."
"And?" I asked, lighting up a joint.
"And, he's dead, that's what." Ahanu’s cold eyes bore into me. "And one of the neighbors pointed to you as the killer."
I didn't give him the satisfaction of answering, though Coulter did glance my way. He didn't know about my side projects.
"Knight's nothing special, there are a thousand men in the city who look like him." A grin snaked up my face at Coulter's diss.
"Except the neighbor specifically recognized him.”
"Is this all you have to go on?" Coulter leaned back in his chair, just as the waitress who’d been eyeing me earlier put down two glasses of whiskey. I picked one up, taking a sip but Coulter ignored his.
Ahanu jerked his head to the guy on his left—a man with a gold-toothed smile, gauze taped to his neck and a large belt buckle—pulled out his phone. He tapped on it a few times, then slid it across the cocaine riddled glass table, towards us.
Sure enough, there was a picture of me that night, squatting down, petting the yellow lab while he ate the steak I'd given him.
I smiled. "It's a good picture." I pushed the phone back. "But what does this have to do with you?"
"He was applying to work with one of us." The man with the large belt buckle took a sip of his beer, eyeing the blonde waitress’ ass as she walked away.
"And yet, he wasn't yet." I knew this for a fact, because Rochon always double, triple checked.
"Not yet," Ahanu answered, and the man with the belt buckle stared at us with a cold expression. The rest of the men were growing restless, and one of them kept eyeing the unopened baggie of pills on the table.
"And?" I tipped my head back, already done with this conversation. The loud music was giving me a headache. “You had no interest in Dario, and we both know it.”
Ahanu’s face darkened and I felt Coulter's shoe on mine, pressing down, warning me to chill out. Scowling, I bit my tongue, letting Coulter take the lead.
"You have a picture of someone who looks similar to Knight, next to a dog. This isn't proof that he killed the man, and even if it did, you have no claim on the man since he wasn't officially working for you."
"Why are we really here?" I leaned forward, putting my joint out in the ashtray. "Let's just call this what it is: a bullshit reason to meet with us. What do you really want?”
Ahanu studied me and it didn't escape my notice that the whole time, he'd paid particular attention tome, not Coulter.
He gave me a sharp grin, then turned to Coulter. "Knight has too much power. Right now, he can come and go into our territory without any repercussions. We want to renegotiate our contract with him."
"I practically own your territory," I scoffed, and once again, Coulter kicked my foot, making me grind my molars. I knew we were supposed to be playing nice until after Rose had her baby, but this was ridiculous.
"Just because you own certain properties in my territory doesn't mean you own the whole of it." Ahanu took a sip of his beer, tossing the empty bottle onto the glass table with a cling, his throat working before he lay down his cards. "I want you to sell us the properties located in our area. Then you'll have no reason to enter our territory."
I was seriously done with this motherfucker. Some of those properties were generational, in my family since before this dumb ass motherfucker was even born. How dare he demand this.
It was just a power play, and everyone at this table knew it.
Either that, or the person trying to destroy me was had access to the cartel, and this was another part of their plan. Maybe they took all my money in a bid to tempt me to sell my properties.
Regardless, I wanted to slit this motherfucker's throat open and watch his blood drain onto the grey concrete flooring. The only thing keeping me from leaping across this table to strangle him was Coulter by my side. I also had to keep Tatiana’s safety in mind. Even though we could never be together, starting a war against the cartel would put her in the direct line of danger.
So I forced down the itching in my fingers to kill this man and nodded. "I'll look into it."
I had no fucking plan on actually doing it, but I could pretend for a while.
Ahanu nodded, and I wanted to wipe the goddamn satisfied smirk off his face.
Asshole.
"All right, man," belt buckle sitting next to him said, his face splitting into a grin like they'd just won the fucking World Series. "Time to really party, eh? You going to bring us some more shots?"