Page 11 of The Boss

My best friend craves power and control. She could absolutely turn on us to gain both. She would hate it, it would kill her to do it, because I’m her oldest friend. But I could see her doing it anyway. Just like I lie to her everyday. I slouch in my desk chair, next to Mark’s. It’s still odd that I have a chair in his “war room.”

“Can you at least ask O to accelerate the timeline with her? Can she become a top priority?”

Mark grimaces and I look away because I understand. My husband and his secret boss and their giant teams of people—spies—have priorities like infiltrating the cartels in the south, installing one of their own as the literal king of some small African country, manipulating the US stock market, the laws, the news. That’s in addition to their work within the four syndicates.

“Okay,” I concede. “Forget about bringing her in. What can you do to stop this marriage at least?”

“Ellie—”

“No, don’t Ellie me. You have so much power! Use it to manipulate him, or manipulate Luna’s dad. There has to be some other way to appease them both outside of my best friend marrying that monster! Do something!”

“I’ll try but think about it. How exactly can I, Texas senator Mark White, get involved without it being fishy as hell? Even—” I start to protest but he pulls my chair so I’m nestled in between his legs and he rests his palms on my thighs as he gently continues. “Even ifwe don’t use me, let’s say we use one of our men on the inside with the Italians or the Irish,ifwe even have some in play right now, andifthey could get in front of their boss.

Hell, even if we could pull the Russians in to object to this somehow, since they won’t like this merger at all, what can anyone possibly say to stop two ruthless, billionaire, all-powerful, untouchable dons from doing whatever the hell theywant?” A sob bubbles up in my chest at the hopelessness of it. It’s just like Luna said. “The signatures have dried,mi amor,I’m so sorry. Everyone in the world is going to sit and watch how this partnership plays out. Then we can start to make a plan.”

“Will you at least ask?” I croak.

“I will. I promise you,” he says with a scratchy voice as he reaches up to wipe a tear away.

“He’s evil, Mark. She can’t marry him.”

Mark lets out a tiny scoff. “We’re all evil, Eleanna. And I kind of get the feeling that if there's anyone who can go up against Skulls Quinn, it’s Luna Mancini.”

CHAPTER 8

Luna

I can’t bring myself to open it. I used to think of myself as strong, brave.

What a joke.

Scared shitless by an email.Pathetica!

I decide to open the text.

Luna: Thanks for the quick delivery.

Vix: Thanks is unnecessary. You paid me well. Goodnight.

Luna: Wait! Question

Vix: ?

Luna: How bad is it? Do I want to know?

Vix: I don’t know you well enough to answer that.

Luna: Right. What I mean is, how much worse are your findings than the rumors we all already know?

Vix: Hard to quantify. But he is a ghost. It’s the smallest dossier of this kind I’ve ever compiled. Pleasure doing business.

I try to reply but the text won’t send. I guess she’s done chatting. What an odd duck. I switch to my mail app.

Just do it already, Luna!

Here goes nothing.

Or everything, maybe…