I could be nicer. We’re both upset about Romeo’s death.
I cleared my throat. “Sorry. The suit is not that bad.”
Marcelo leaned in closer. “I don’t give a fuck about the suit or your tailor. What are we going to do about the Syndicate?”
I turned my attention back to our dead friend and partner. Romeo had been the glue that held the Syndicate together. “You want me to state the obvious?”
“Yes. Humor me.”
“Romeo is dead. Now we have a big problem on our hands.”
Officially, I commanded the North. Unofficially, I also ruled the Diamond Syndicate, handling our problems and maintaining the peace.
“What are we going to do?” Marcelo asked.
“What we always do. Wait for me to fix it.”
Marcelo frowned. “But—”
“Let me think.” Stepping forward, I assessed Romeo and placed my hand in my left pocket. My king chess piece lay within it. It had come from the most expensive chess set in the world—the Jewel Royale. The king piece alone possessed 146 diamonds and seventy-three rubies studded in 165.2 grams of eighteen carat gold.
Meanwhile, the chess set was worth 9.8 million USD, and lost to the world forever. Mom refused to take it out of the attic, due to my father dying in the process of stealing it.
Marcelo got back to my side. “You think you can fix this?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe isn’t good enough, Dimitri.”
“I may look like a god, but I’m not one.” In my pocket, I twisted the chess piece. “What do you think the killer was trying to say with putting him in a gown?”
“That Romeo was gay.”
I shook my head. “Too simple.”
Surely, these theatrics symbolized something more.
Romeo didn’t only resemble Queen Marie Antoinette, but he had the posing of Lady Justice. While there wasn’t a blindfold, he gripped a sword in his left hand that pointed to the ground.
Thick, dry blood caked the blade.
My stomach twisted. I moved my view to the Romeo’s other hand.
Lady Justice held a set of scales suspended from one hand. The same was true for Romeo. However, a rainbow colored dildo, whip, and two bottles of lube sat on top of his scales.
Why?
I sniffed the space in front of me. The stench of death permeated the air.
He’s been here for a few days.
Tension and dread weighed down my shoulders. I’d lost many men in this bloody underworld of power and gunplay. But Romeo’s death would hurt. It would break me more than the others.
Tapping the chess piece in my pocket, I turned away from Romeo and looked at the others, assessing the expressions on their faces. I noted the things their mouths didn’t say—their body language and even the clothes they chose to wear today.
Did one of you do this?
Like me, Marcelo brought in millions due to the Diamond Syndicate’s efforts, but Marcelo had an animalistic hunger that kept him in the boxing ring.
Could Marcelo have done this?
He quirked his brows. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
When Marcelo wasn’t training for boxing, one could catch him partying every night with the hint of white powder around his nostrils and two big, bosomed women flanking him.
But now he must be training.
That meant no drugs, women, and alcohol. And the only thing Marcelo would hit, would be a bag or sparring partner.
Romeo’s killer spent a lot of time thinking about this murder. There must’ve been a lot of preparation in getting Romeo alone, bringing all the stuff, and making sure he had the time to clean, dress, and pose the corpse.
Marcelo didn’t do this.
I left him and headed for Lei and Chanel who were on the other side of the room.
Besides me, who is the most detail-oriented person in the Syndicate?
I let go of the chess piece, took my hand out of my pocket, and put my attention to Lei on my left. His long black hair was tied in a ponytail that fell down his back. He wore his signature leather trench coat along with a white buttoned-down shirt and dark blue pants. I knew several knives and guns were strapped within the inside of the trench.
His number two, Chen had not come up to him. Instead, Chen remained by the door, constantly checking it. I wasn’t sure if he was just uneasy with the dead body or nervous.
Could it have been Lei or Chen? What about someone from the East trying to create war with the West?
In the East of Paradise, Lei ran the Four Aces—the biggest Asian gang in America.
The story went that his father fell in love with the wife of a top Triad boss. The lovers fled China and landed in America where Lei was eventually born.
His father set up Paradise’s first black market in weapons. Slowly, he made his throne in the East with one illegal gun at a time.
Last year, Lei’s mother died. Distraught, his father turned his back on crime and became a pastor of a church called Sinner’s Haven.