The Deadliest Sin Series Complete Collection, page 57
It's a fair assessment, one any intelligent man in his position should have made.
“I don't think Rose is going to just go away. Certainly not anytime soon.” I uncross and recross my legs. “I can assure you I don't have any plans on interfering with your business, Valerian. My clientele and yours are very different.”
“You'd be surprised by the kind of clientele I get.”
“As would you, Mr. Kamenev. I'm not about to expand my business in any way that will conflict with yours.” At least that he will be aware of until it’s too late.
He narrows his eyes on me. “And what about Rose?”
“What about him?”
“Are you two partnering together?”
I take another sip of my drink and shake my head. “I have no plans for that.” With a sigh, I turn to watch the girl on the pole.
Her beautiful brunette hair dangles down her back, and the way she moves is almost hypnotic. It seems like decades ago when it was me on that pole and I first locked eyes with Aleksander. But so much has changed so fast.
“Lust and sex are powerful things, Valerian. There's plenty to go around.”
“I don't want to see anything shady going on, Ms. Gashi. If I do, make no mistake, our next meeting won't be so friendly.”
“I appreciate the warning.”
He pushes to his feet and drains his beer. “Be careful who you get into bed with, Kat, figuratively and literally.”
That statement hangs ominously in the air, and he brushes past me and out the front door.
I'm not quite sure what just happened, and I can't tell if I made another friend or another enemy. All I know is it's time to kick things into overdrive. I've waited long enough to act on the information I have. Michael made a nice head start when he spoke with the senator before he died and got him on board. But there's far more work to be done. Work I need to start now.
I turn to Genti and finish my drink. “Were you able to arrange the meetings I asked you to?”
He nods slowly. “Your first one is in an hour, the next right after.”
“Excellent. Let’s go back to my office so you can catch me up on where we are on everything before we have to leave.”
He inclines his head toward Rose’s goons at the door. “What about those two.”
“They've been instructed to stay on me like fucking glue. And I don't think they're going to disobey that order. But as long as you're with me, they can remain outside my office.”
“Good.” He casts one last look in their direction. “There are some things we need to discuss that I don't think Rose needs to hear about from his lackeys.”
Through a torrent of rain, the unmarked, dark sedan pulls into the driveway of the modest, two-story, brick home and shuts off. A moment later, the driver’s side door swings open, and the man we’ve been waiting for steps out, holding a basically useless briefcase over his head to try to protect himself from the storm.
It does nothing to stop him from being soaked. The dark, dreary environment matches the somber mood that has settled over me tonight. With my ever-present headache throbbing against my temples, I want to get this done and over with as quickly as possible.
Having Rose’s men in the SUV behind us only complicates things. I’d rather they not be privy to this meeting, but at least all they’ll know is who I’m meeting with, not why. It’s why I insisted they take their own vehicle instead of riding with Genti and me. If Rose got wind of what is going to happen behind these closed doors, it could complicate things even more between us. And the last thing I need is more complications where Rose is concerned.
Even now, with every breath I take, his scent invades my lungs. My body remembers each brush of his fingers, tingling and heating whenever the memories relentlessly batter my brain.
But I have to push that all away for this meeting. I’ve always prided myself on my ability to control the thing I use against others. Lust is meant to be wielded. If I let it overwhelm me, this meeting could go awry in ways I can’t afford.
It could be deadly.
The man I’m here to see turns from his car, and Genti flashes the lights on our SUV. From where we’re parked at the stop sign just across the street facing the house, the harsh high beams strike the driveway, and he jerks his head toward us and narrows his eyes.
Even through the heavy rain, it’s easy to see his hand reaching into his jacket. It would have been more of a surprise if he didn’t reach for his weapon. A man like him never goes unarmed. He’d be stupid to. He’s made a lot of enemies over the years in his position.
Coming to his home for this meeting is risky. He’s likely to be more defensive and on-guard here, with his wife and children just inside. But I knew I’d never be able to do this at his office, and doing it here ensures he understands I know where he lives and how to get to those people who are so important to him.
Leverage. You can never have too much of it.
Genti opens his door and steps out, then motions for our guest, who still stands on his driveway, getting drenched, to come to the vehicle. He glances back at his house and considers Genti for a moment before jogging over, abandoning any attempt to keep himself dry at this point but keeping one hand near his weapon.
My right-hand man opens the back door, and the soaked man glances inside and clenches his jaw. Genti holds out a hand, and my guest growls, grabs his gun, and drops it into Genti’s open palm. Now that we know he’s unarmed, Genti allows him to slide into the back seat on the opposite side of me.
I offer a tight smile. There isn’t any point in pretending we’re friends. We both know what this meeting is. “Superintendent Canon…”
His hard green eyes narrow on me, then flick up to Genti when he climbs back into the driver’s seat and watches us in the rearview mirror. The man knows exactly who we are. Between Genti’s arrest with Michael less than two months ago and my taking over the Albanian territory, he would have to be really bad at his job not to recognize us. “What the hell do you want?”
It’s not that I expected the Superintendent of the Chicago Police to greet me with open arms, but the hostility isn’t warranted. I haven’t even done anything to him…yet.
This can be a pleasant chat if he lets it be.
“I think the right question here is what do I have?” I reach into my jacket pocket and pull out the tiny piece of technology that is about to give me all the power I need over this man. With a grin, I jiggle the flash drive in my hand. So much power in something so easy to hide. “And what I have is something you don’t want anyone else to see.”
His eyes widen slightly, then narrow on the drive. “What the hell are you talking about?”
I hand the drive to Genti, who flips open the laptop on the center console, plugs it in, and hits play. The screen blinks to life and shows one of the rooms at Kat’s Cradle and the man sitting next to me enjoying the company of several women who are most definitely not the wife who is likely asleep in the house directly across the street.
Technology is so amazing.
Canon’s free hand clenches into a fist on his thigh, and the briefcase tumbles to the floorboard from his other one. He turns to me with his jaw squeezed so tightly, a muscle there tics, anger flashing in his hard gaze. “I should have known you were up to no good the day I stepped foot in that house. Do you think you can blackmail me?”
I chuckle and motion to Genti to close the computer. “I don’t think I can, Superintendent. I know I can.” Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble. The thing about lust is that people want to keep it behind closed doors. Especially when they give in to it with people they shouldn’t. “What would the people of this city think if they found out the head of its police department, which is already under intense scrutiny for corruption, ended up enjoying the services at a brothel he went to go try to shut down? I don’t think they’d appreciate discovering Mr. Law and Order is actually Mr. Can I Order a Threesome?”
It was almost too easy with Canon.
The day he first showed up couldn’t be more crystal clear in my head if it had happened only yesterday instead of months ago. I had only been open a few weeks at that time, but word had already spread in certain circles about the quality of the establishment and girls.
I knew Canon wasn’t there on official business. The house is well outside the city limits of Chicago and therefore not his jurisdiction anyway, but he marched in with his chest puffed out, pretending anyway, making threats about having us shut down.
Until I caught the way he “appreciated” the girls who walked by. Once I offered to introduce him to one of them…his mood changed fast, and it became evident almost immediately that this wasn’t his first time partaking at such an establishment. Like so many of the men I have on these recordings, he flew right into my trap. All I had to do was supply the honey.
Now faced with the video evidence of his debauchery and infidelity, Canon scowls at me and shakes his head. “I’ll tell them the video is doctored. That it isn’t me. You can’t prove that it is.”
Genti’s laughter mingles with mine, filling the car and clearly annoying our friend.
But really, that’s funny.
I shake my head and sigh. “Now, now, Superintendent Canon, do you really think it’s just one video?” I raise an eyebrow. “I have dozens. Documenting every moment you’ve ever spent at Kat’s Cradle, including audio of you speaking with one of my security personnel outside about concern your vehicle might be spotted and identified.” I point through the windshield at the very same car parked on his driveway. “You surely remember that, asking him to move it around to the back so no one would see it?”
All the color drains from Canon’s face, and his wide shoulders slump. He might be able to convince some people that a single video wasn’t real, but that many videos coupled with audio that can be voice-matched is something different entirely. A fact he seems to have just accepted. “What do you want?”
The words come out through gritted teeth, harsh and bitter.
I can’t blame the man. He gave in to lust and expected to come out on top—literally and figuratively. Instead, he’s being buried under dirt of his own making. He probably thought he got away with it since it’s been over six months since he started coming to Kat’s Cradle, but really, he was a man with a guillotine already hanging over his head. He just didn’t know it.
Now it’s time to lower it. But not all the way. I need him too much to behead him at this point. Yet the sharp bite of a blade against his neck will act as a gentle urge to make the right decision with what I’m about to present to him. A reminder of who he now belongs to.
“Listen closely, Mr. Canon, because your response to my offer determines the future for both of us.”
And I’m not willing to take no for an answer.
“I plan on opening at least half a dozen more brothels in the city limits in the next few months. Expanding rapidly.”
With the girls coming in basically monthly from Albania and the rest of Eastern Europe, I will have an almost endless supply of willing workers, and God knows there’s already an endless supply of men lusting for them in this city. But selling sex isn’t my only goal.
There will be so much more beneath the surface. Things I couldn’t start when Michael was still sniffing around. But now that he’s gone and I’m on my own, I can really move forward with steps that will help me eliminate my competition on every front.
“There will also be other things happening at these locations, things you don’t need to concern yourself with unless I need to be concerned.” He doesn’t need to worry about the specifics. “The important thing here is that we come to an understanding about what the police will and won’t be doing.”
I shift to face him more fully, to ensure he understands that this isn’t a request. One thing I’ve perfected since becoming Kat is the icy-cold look that can wither even the hardest of men. It hasn’t failed me yet.
“There will not be any raids on any of the houses, and there will be no attempts made to arrest any of my girls for any reason. Your men will act like the houses do not exist in their districts. There will be no written reports mentioning them, no whispers about them in back rooms. For all intents and purposes, the houses won’t exist to your force.”
His eyebrows fly up, and his mouth falls open. “How the fuck am I supposed to make that happen? My men aren’t blind and deaf. They see and hear things in the neighborhoods they work in. They know those streets and aren’t going to just pretend things aren’t happening right under their noses.”
“How you accomplish the end result isn’t my concern. That’s your problem. If people need to be bought, I’ll provide you with those resources. If people need to be silenced other ways, that’s on you.”
He swallows thickly and glances at Genti in the front seat. “You’re serious?”
Genti snarls at him. “Deadly serious.”
My entire plan for this city requires I have the cooperation of certain high-ranking individuals with power over the things that might interfere with my advancement.
Michael got the senator to agree to watch our backs in Congress over the organized crime bill they keep trying to get passed that will tighten things up and almost double penalties for anyone caught doing what we do, but on the local level, there’s still a lot to do to secure my stranglehold. Having the superintendent of police commit murder of one of his own men to protect me would ensure he will remain under my thumb…indefinitely.
That kind of sin never washes away, no matter how hard the rain may fall or how desperately you try to scrub it off.
I cross my legs and offer him what I hope is a reassuring smile. “I’ve already had a chat with your friend the mayor, and he’s assured me his cooperation in zoning and any other matters that might cross his desk. You’re going to assure me yours when it comes to your men in blue.”
He shakes his head and shoves his hands through his wet hair. “You can’t honestly expect me to be able to pull this off.”
“Oh, I do.” I pull my gun from my purse and lay it across my lap with the barrel pointed right at him. “Or the revelation of how you’ve been spending your free time will be the least of your worries. Do I have your cooperation?”
Canon huffs and glares at me, his eyes hardening. “You’re a cold bitch, Ms. Gashi. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, considering who you married. Or what you did to Michael Syla.”
I can’t stop the smile that pulls at my lips. “You shouldn’t believe rumors, Mr. Canon.”
One of his eyebrows rises. “It isn’t really a rumor since you appear to be at the head of the family now and no one has seen Michael in weeks.”
And no one ever will. Genti, Altin, Driton, and Agon made sure his body would never be found. He doesn’t deserve to end up buried back home. That man is exactly where he belongs, at the bottom of Lake Michigan in pieces.
“I’m flattered you think so highly of me, Mr. Canon, but I’m just a businesswoman looking for some cooperation from the local men committed to protecting our community. We have the same goal.”
He snorts and shakes his head. “I highly doubt that, Ms. Gashi.”
“Oh, but we do.” I smile at him and shrug. “I want what you want—what’s best for the city of Chicago. And that’s me controlling all of it.”
“All of you are the same.” He holds up two fingers. “First, it was Italians and the Irish.” He adds three more fingers. “Then the Russians and the black and Hispanic gangs came in trying to take over. Every time someone pops up wanting more power, a new war erupts. These streets get bathed in blood that I have to clean up. I’ve seen it time and time again in my almost thirty years on the force. And I’m telling you, you will fail, just like everyone else has.”
Oh, ye of little faith.
“I won’t fail, Mr. Canon. Because I have something none of them ever did.”
“Oh, yeah?” He sneers. “What’s that?”
A single word floats through my head. The same one that’s been there since the moment I learned Aleksander had been taken from me.
I spread my hands out, palms open and up. “Nothing. Unlike everyone else who has tried and failed to expand their territory and take all of the city, I have nothing to lose.”
“What about your territory. Your life? You can easily lose those with one wrong step.”
He’s right about that, and it’s happened countless times in the history of this city. But I’m not concerned about it. “I’ve already lost the only thing that ever mattered to me. When Aleksander died, I might as well have died with him.”
“You really have nothing to live for? Nothing that brings you joy?”
Brief flashes of being in Rose’s arms and in his bed flicker through my head but then jumble with memories I’ve tried so hard to push away. Things I can’t remember or they’ll make me crumble. The façade who is Kat will cease to exist and I’ll be nothing more than broken Brynn—the girl I left behind what feels like lifetimes ago.
“Everything I had to live for or that gave me joy was taken from me.” Or I had to give it away. “This city is all I have left. And I don’t like sharing it. So, you’ll help me, Mr. Canon. With whatever I need. I’ll be in touch.”
He snarls one last time and shoves open the door to step out into the downpour. Genti and I watch him run back toward his house and disappear inside with a final glance back at us.
This is the start of the next phase of the plan. The dominoes are lining up, and all it will take is one gentle push from me and the entire Chicago underworld will topple at my feet, leaving me the only one standing.
Some people would think it’s too dangerous, too big a move—what I’m attempting to do under the cover of the brothels—but I never believed in taking the easy path when the harder one is more rewarding. Aleksander tried to push me away, tried to prevent me from becoming part of this life. I could have taken his money, the financial support he offered me with no strings, and I could have walked away. But I chose the path no one else would have. I chose The Dragon.
