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Brent

“W hat’s got you looking uglier than usual, boss?” Reaper was munching on trail mix while we waited yet again to see what the hell was going on with Jason Haines and his associates.

The last we heard there was trouble in paradise and his company was flailing and at risk. Nothing lasted long when you start trying to fuck over the one who gave you your leg up in the world. Never look a gift horse in the mouth—especially if that person was Augustus Vaughn and you wanted to steal business away from him. He would gut you or ensure that someone else did.

I gritted my teeth and accepted the packet of trail mix from him while there was no activity, and we were out here with our thumbs up our asses. “Nothing.”

He chuckled. “Woman problems, I get it. Don’t need to tell me twice.”

“Just shut up and tell me what you heard last from the higher ups.”

“Last I heard, you were a higher up now after that little meeting with your girlfriend.”

If she was my girlfriend, she wouldn’t have kicked me out so easily. That would change sooner rather than later, but I decided it was best not to push my luck. Her mental state was in no working order and watching her break and shatter within a couple of days was the worst thing I’d ever seen. It was like telling a little kid Santa didn’t exist anymore. All the life and brightness I saw in her that first night was dimmed and darkened by the people I knew would do that to her.

“She’s not my girlfriend. She’s my business partner and nothing else. And yes. You’re right. The Dictator wants me to start taking on some leadership shit for only God knows why. Something tells me he needs the extra cover for something OR that something so big is coming that it could implode the world. Whatever it is, he has his plans about it.” I shoved trail mix into my mouth and looked back through my rangefinder

Reaper was manning a rifle tonight. From what we saw last time, we might have to use it. I just hoped his marksmanship was different from his hacking and slashing.

“How’s Davey?”

“Stop sending him porn videos. He’s not into the weird shit you send him.”

The trail mixed crunched in his mouth. “Oh, come on. An all-dude orgy ain’t that bad. I’m sure he’d love to participate.”

Some days, I didn’t know what I’d do with this guy. The masks were weird enough.

“What’s the news with that execution? Did we find out who that driver was or why the men were executed so inexplicably?” It perplexed me and I needed to know what was going on.

“From what I hear, Jason has issues maintaining his people and we’re here to find out what his course of action is. Mr. Vaughn is very interested in the business practices of the man trying to steal some of his overseas partners in the weapons trade. It’s hard enough getting quality shit, we don’t need some butthurt kid ruining it for an entire industry by getting caught with being careless.”

The black market always had new people popping up trying to take out their competition. No one dared try to take out Chamberlain Industries and preferred to work with us instead of against us. It worked out better that way. My great-great-great grandfather was quite the businessman from stories I was told.

Arthur Vaughn and his associates formulated an ultra secret group with other foundering businessmen like the Rockefellers and original politicians that shaped the country. When they stemmed off from oil and railroads, they set up trade agreements and thus started their under the table dealings.

Flash forward to today, we ran an unstoppable conglomerate that was near impenetrable. The squeaky wheel in our wagon was the Montgomery Group and had been since Maria died. My theory was that Jason wanted to poke us enough and break enough spokes to take over where she left off.

That ultra secret group? They were the families we dealt with on a regular. Call it a secret society, but it came with a lot of shit. Lots of rules to abide by and they were ever changing and nuanced as fuck.

But the hitch in that plan was Fallon, the heir to the company that was teetering. What a mess that girl found herself in.

She had no idea.

“There’s some movement up ahead. Try not to shoot anyone at random.” I pulled up the view as the SUV approached.

“I count two armed men. Super tacti-cool and I bet they feel badass with all that gear. Too bad I could put a bullet in their brains. You say the word and I’ll drop em.”

They rolled up and exited the vehicle. I couldn’t make out if Jason was among the men or not. They were smart, I gave them that. Everyone did their best to cover their faces with hats or hoods knowing that meeting in secret never meant you were alone.

“Do you have a solid visual or identification?”

“One is a woman, and they’re calling her boss.”

“Is this a new group? Are you sure we’ve been following the right trails with Jason?”

He hushed me so he could see better.

We sat in silence while we both observed what we could of the conversation. There was a woman there from the looks of facial structure—what women did we know who played in the black market game with Jason’s minions? I didn’t have the slightest idea on who she could be.

Unless Jason hired a front woman. Which was entirely possible. No one batted eyes at them. A well trained woman could take everything from you and you’d thank her for it. If I were him, I'd do it in a heartbeat considering there were eyes all over him and his operations.

Everyone wanted a piece of the illegal pie when they thought they could get away with it. Unless you were in the big boys club ran by the top families, you’d never be safe.

The boys in the club weren’t even safe from each other.

If you were an outsider like Jason? Tough game to play when it’s rigged.

“We need ID on who that woman is. Body language tells me that she’s calling the shots in this meeting. This is a Haines meeting because they’re talking about his specific deals. The big deal in Russia? Yeah, that’s what they’re talking about. Guns and munitions being brought back to undermine the Vaughns.”

Because of our flighty boy, Nicholas, that deal was still going through. When I get my hands on him..

I snapped some pictures of everyone in the group and, luckily, no one was dropped in the same way as last time. Looks like everything was just a normal conversation. A normal day of black market dealings and under the table operations—a regular Tuesday.

“Haines is planning to offer a better deal to the Russians than we were. Considering he’s going through Ukraine, the prices are higher crossing more borders. It can’t be that lucrative.”

“Who needs lucrative when you’re trying to get one over on your biggest competition?”

“What about our Moldova contact?”

Many hands were trying to get into the cookie jar lately, and people were scrambling to get a hold onto their own operations. The drugs coming from the Middle East slowed by loss of properties and contacts in the surrounding areas. Washing money in the UAE had to be transferred over to Switzerland for similar reasons.

It was a tight ship to maintain; with the teetering Montgomery Group... Whoever controlled the company would be directly impacting most of the deals.

“Has anyone contacted Russia to offer a bounty on Haines?”

“You’d probably want to offer the same in Venezuela. One of ours split and is hiding out somewhere. Get his name and picture out, offering a nice cash prize to whoever delivers him first.”

Cigar smoke and corruption were held in the safe confines of the poker room on our compound. The biggest names in the world came to play to keep a stranglehold on the world.

And I was just a busboy at the restaurant.

“More liquor, boy,” The Dictator held up his glass, signaling for me to do my duty.

Just continue taking orders.

I’ve been in these rooms for a while and had a working knowledge of how things operated and had the confidence that I could contribute positively to the conversations and operations. He just didn’t want me to do so.

Like how I know Romania was always willing to negotiate better terms to outshine the Balkan territories. No one gave them any mind despite them having better access to arms to move out and an easier time doing so. The government was cooperative–for money. Other places required some clandestine operations.

“We have information on Jason Haines letting a woman lead his operation.” Reaper busted into the room with a file folder. “But I have suspicions that it’s something else.”

The Dictator looked surprised to see him waltz into the room so carelessly, but he shouldn’t have been. Reaper was a wild card and he wore a cover that showed none of his face with an expensive suit to boot. The rest of the men turned to see what was going on.

“Do tell.” He puffed his cigar and kicked his feet up.

The file was opened and spread out across the poker table in a way that said ‘fuck your poker game’ and Dave came in behind him–face uncovered. “We’ve been trailing this deal for a while. Each time, this same woman has been there doing the deals. One of the times we staked them out, she executed Haines’ drivers like it was nothing and replaced them with other men. We still have a missing Nicholas out of the country with insider information to our operations.”

Everyone leaned over the table to take a look at the file.

Dave continued where Reaper left off. “We spotted Haines last night. He’s hiding out and keeping his head low with only two men at his side. It smells fishy for the large name he’s made for himself over the last eight years. This woman has been seen with him for the last five or six years and pokes her head out more and more as the timeline continues.”

Interesting. The woman wasn’t a front woman. She was his girlfriend that, what, took him over? Cunning women I tell you .

“Has our favorite vermin finally found himself in a predicament?”

“Seems so,” Dave confirmed.