I was just a pawn in all this, an easy excuse. Arturo wasn’t going to war over me; he was going to war because he was sick of my family taking his territory.
The bastards all wanted to pin it on me. They were all bastards, especially Vince.
He grinned at me, a delicious grin.
A dirty bastard’s smile.
“Come on, princess,” he said. “Let’s go.”
“You can use me as an excuse,” I said softly, “but the truth is, you all just want to kill each other. I’m a convenient reason. But I won’t let you drag me down with you.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Come on.”
We continued walking, heading back toward my rooms.
How quickly things changed. Not long ago, I was thinking about wanting Vince in my life. He had made my body feel so incredible.
Now, though, he was just another bastard I had to deal with. All of these men wanted to kill each other, and they wanted to use me as an excuse.
But I wouldn’t break. I had Alexei to think about.
Vince dropped me off at my rooms and walked away, a dark and stormy look in his eyes.
14
Vince
So it was going to be war.
I hadn’t really expected it to come to this. When I first saw her standing outside the gate, I thought it might lead to some bickering, some annoying skirmishes, but not all-out war.
How fucking wrong I was.
The day after Kaley met with Arturo, I was out in the streets preparing for the coming fight. I still had her taste in my mouth and her anger in my mind, both of which drove me absolutely crazy.
I understood her anger. I understood why she would hate us for blaming her for this war. Truthfully, I knew it wasn’t her fault, and Arturo had even gone out of his way to make sure she understood that.
But she still resented being used as an excuse to kill each other.
Kaley was going to have to understand the men she was involved with. If she wanted me to be a father to her kid, which I wasn’t sure I really wanted, then she was going to have to accept that I was a fucking violent man.
I was a mafioso. I was a mobster. I was a killer and a thief. I lived my life according to my own principles, and no man had control of me, what I did, or when I did it.
I was a free man and always would be.
I climbed out of the car, Rafa right next to me. I stretched and looked up at the Chinatown buildings.
“Finding Bao today?” Rafa asked.
“Why else would we come to this shithole?”
He laughed. “Good point.”
“Come on.”
Bao ran a series of drycleaners throughout the city, but they were really just a front for money laundering. His store in Chinatown was his cleanest and best place, though it was still rundown and a piece of shit by the standards of the area.
I pushed in through the front door. A woman was sitting on a stool, watching a small television.
“Hello,” she said.
“I’m looking for Bao.”
She looked at me. “He not here.”
“Where is he?”
“Don’t know. You got clothes?”
I clenched my jaw. “Get me Bao.” I lifted open my jacket and showed her my gun. “Now.”
She stared at me, wide-eyed. “He not here.”
“Get him on the phone.”
“I can’t. Bao not here.”
I stepped closer to her. “Listen, lady. I know you speak English just fine. Get Bao on the phone or I’m going to shoot you in the fucking kneecap. Got it?”
She stared at me. “Fine. Hold on.” I glanced at Rafa, and he grinned at me as the woman grabbed a phone and dialed a number.
She said something in Chinese into the receiver and waited. More Chinese back and forth before she finally looked at me. “Bao coming,” she said.
We waited for another minute, she spoke more Chinese, and finally she handed me the phone.
“Bao?” I asked.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Vincent. You know, your fucking business partner.”
“Ah, Vincent.” He sounded a little nervous. “How are you?”
“I’m pissed off. I’m very angry that I had to threaten one of your employees just to get you on the phone, Bao.”
“Ah, well, I’m sorry about that, too.”
“Tell me about the shipment.”
“We’re having trouble. It’s costing us more than we expected to bribe the dock workers.”
“How much more?”
“One hundred thousand dollars.”
“Fuck,” I said. “What the fuck, Bao? You said we were all paid up.”
“We were, Vince. We were. But the workers want more now. They’re squeezing all our shipments.”
“Fuck.” I looked up at the dingy ceiling and did some quick math. “I can front that. But listen to me, Bao. If you dodge my calls one more time, I will hunt you down and I will kill you. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, of course, Vincent. I will be at your beck and call.”
“One more thing, Bao. This has to happen fast.”
“If you can get that money, we can move very quickly.”
“Fine. I’ll call you soon and arrange a drop. In the meantime, be fucking accessible.”
“Of course. Of course. I apologize again.”
“Fine.” I handed the phone back to the woman. She gazed at me with a bored expression as she hung it up.