“Salute,” Jack said, lifting his glass toward Sun Wu.
“Gambier!” Sun replied, clinking his glass against Jack’s before both presidents downed the alcohol. He placed the empty glass on the counter and looked at the surveillance cameras that hid beneath the desk. “That’s a pretty impressive set up you have there,” he said, motioning to my handiwork.
Jack nodded, throwing his arm around my shoulder and patting me on the back.
“Riggs only does the best work,” he bragged. “This kid turned my house into Fort Knox,” he joked—but it was true. The security system I installed in Jack’s house, the one he never used because he always slept at the compound, blew this thing out of the water. Although, the best work I had done was definitely the clubhouse, that shit was locked up tight.
“Jackie Chan’s” eyes met mine. “I’ve gained a new property I would need to have heavily secured with surveillance equipment,” he started, turning toward Jack. “Is your prospect available for hire?”
“Kid talks for himself,” Jack replied, turning toward me. “But since we’re always in the business of helping friends, I bet he’ll say yes.”
I stared at Jack for a moment, assessing the words he implied, knowing that he wanted us to do whatever we could to make things nice between us and the Red Dragons. I turned back to Sun Wu.
“I have no problem taking your money,” I answered.
“Come again?”
“Time is money, brother. You want a state of the art security system like that one right there, it will cost you.” I declared.
Wu stared at me quietly for a moment before his lips spread into a grin and he turned toward Jack.
“You train them well,” he mused.
Jack shrugged his shoulders, and took another shot. “We all gotta eat, brother,” he stated, moving to refill Wu’s glass only for him to shove it aside.
“I’m good. Glad the Dragons and the Knights could work together, Parrish,” Wu said, before pausing a moment and looking at me. “I’ll be in touch,” he said finally, turning to his men and snapping his fingers.
“Well that went off without a hitch,” Pipe said, once they were out the door.
“Thank Christ,” Jack hissed, slapping his hands against the counter. “Let’s get the fuck out of here,” he said, grabbing the suitcase as he turned his gaze my way. “Looks like you got yourself another gig.”
I grinned at my president.
One step closer.
Chapter Six
I threw back the shot of Fireball, sliding the empty glass across the bar to the hot bartender who bought one for me and one for Mia. She took the bus into the city and we’ve been bar hopping since happy hour, five bars, and two hours later…we were bombed.
“I think we should move to another bar, there’s no hot guys here,” Mia complained.
“The bartender’s not bad,” I said, squinting my eyes to get a better look, but I was blind as a bat without my glasses.
Mia giggled beside me.
“What?” I asked, turning to her. At least I could see up close.
“Where are your glasses?”
“I forgot them at my brother’s house,” I mumbled.
“Oh, that reminds me! Why haven’t you mentioned that your brother’s friends are fucking lickable?”
“Lickable? Really?” Was that even a word? I picked the olive out of my martini and popped it into my mouth. “For the record, Anthony’s friends usually aren’t anything to write home about. They’re usually twice his age and full of graying hair.”
“That man who showed up with your mother was sex on a stick,” she countered.
I brought my drink to my lips. Riggs was definitely sex on a stick and well…indeed lickable.
“Have you seen him since?”
“A couple of times. He works at the gym,” I said, trying not to think of that smile or the way his eyes gleamed with mischief. He was trouble with a capital T, and not for the obvious reasons either. Anyone who ran in the same circle as my brother had criminal tendencies, but Riggs was trouble because he was hard to resist.
“You should get on that, or under it, whichever you prefer, but do something. It’s your duty as a member of the female population,” she declared.
“I couldn’t,” I said weakly.
“Oh yeah? Why the hell not?” She questioned, nudging me with her elbow. “I thought you were turning over a new leaf? What was it you said? Oh, yes, you would live for yourself and not everyone else. Seems the best way to start is by giving into your needs,” she reasoned.
“Funny, I remember having this same conversation before I quit nursing school. I thought that was the start of the new me,” I said sarcastically.
“Okay, fine, so this is the sequel,” she laughed. “Stop worrying about everything so much. You’re twenty-one, you’re supposed to fuck up your life and do stupid things.”
Words to live by.
She was an idiot sometimes.