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“Trust me,” she insisted. “We can stick together. The buddy system. Just this one time, for tonight.”
I cringed, trying valiantly to ignore the temptation for extra money. Itwouldbe nice to have a tiny bit of cash available for decent groceries for once. And I could pay the utility charge so my apartment could be air conditioned again, since the landlords were assholes to keep those fees high and separate to better price gouge the tenants.
I sighed.
Whatever. One time.
“Okay.” I pointed at her and gave her my sternest stare. “Just this once.”
“Yeah, yeah. Just tonight.” She grinned, happily resuming with the concealer to erase the evidence of her black eye.
“Don’t make me regret this,” I warned.
“You won’t. We’ll rake in so much money, you won’t regret it at all.”
I was still skeptical and nervous. It was bad enough that I felt like I was selling my soul to be a stripper and dancer at all, but for those VIPs? It felt like I was handing my soul to the devil.
“I’ll only do this if we stick together, like you said. The buddy system.”
She nodded at my reflection in the mirror and winked. “I’ve got your back, and you’ve got mine.”
I wasn’t sure she believed that. I’d tried to look out for her and watch her back already. When I told her to leave Nicky and point out how he was taking advantage of her, she never, ever listened. So how could I trust her logic about our sticking together for the risk of dancing at this private event?
I steadied my breath.Just tonight. One time.
Hell, maybe I could make enough extra money that I could justify taking tomorrow night off and try to sleep more than a few hours for once.
6
MAXIM
Since my father was still traveling back from Miami after a meeting with an ally there, it was up to me to act in his place here at the Ivanov residence. Standing out back, past the patio space, I waited with Nik and Damon as the soldiers transported a spy they’d captured earlier this evening.
Overseeing this wasn’t necessary, but I wanted to see the face of the man Hugo, one of the crew leaders, had caught trying to kill one of our guards. The warehouse the guard had been stationed at wasn’t one of our main drug distribution and packing centers, but they all mattered. Regardless of where a hit came, every attack on the Ivanov Syndicate was punishable to the highest degree.
When Hugo walked the young man toward the doors that would lead to the dungeons in the basement, where we tortured our enemies to stay ahead of the other crime families in New York, I saw nothing that would make me guess who he was working for.
“He say anything?” I asked Hugo when he returned to the outdoor area. We were near the recreational space to smell the chlorine from the pool water, but off to the side like this, it wasjust darkness over the pavement. Several cars idled on the drive under the security lights, but Hugo slowed to speak with us before taking off.
“No,” Hugo replied, using a handkerchief to wipe blood from his chin. He cleared his throat, seeming to need another moment to catch his breath after handling the captured man. “He didn’t say a single thing.” Older than my father, he looked tired. But I knew he was prepared for more violence. Seeing him in this light, huffing for air, reminded me of how critical it was to balance every crew with seasoned veteran soldiers or leaders and the younger recruits who could take on more of the grunt work.
Damon cracked his knuckles and rocked on his heels. “I’ll see what I can get out of him.”
Nik and I shared a glance, not saying anything. Damon was the “Demon” and always eager to inflict pain on our enemies. But from the brief look I’d had of the captured man before he was taken downstairs, he was already sporting too much of a bloody pulp instead of a face to last very long, anyway.
Anyone who messed with the Ivanovs lived only long enough to impart their secrets.
“I don’t understand why anyone would target that warehouse,” Hugo added as he shoved his bloody cloth into his pocket and straightened his jacket. “My bloc doesn’t see much activity like that.”
Perhaps that’s why Father has you stationed there in your old age. A semi-retirement for your decades of loyalty.
“Nothing’s been happening in those warehouses for years, and now, all of a sudden, there’s a hit on one of the dealers there?” He furrowed his brow as he shook his head. “Makes no sense.”
“None of these recent incidents make sense,” I complained.
Petty theft. Instigated street fights. Hits on lower-level dealers and bosses. It all added to a string of trouble, like my father had spoken to us about last week in the kitchen that one morning. And all of it threw me off to the point I suspected this could be the calm before the storm. But like Hugo said, none of it made sense. Nothing directed us to assume there was a goal our enemies had in mind. Nothing of value had been compromised. No new deals were made against us so that we’d need to plan to protect different assets.
It all seemed like minor headaches popping up with too much frequency, as if someone wanted to keep us on our toes.