Two
Leo
“She made it,” Shane said, interrupting Leo’s thoughts as he appeared in the doorway.
Leo was in the bedroom, taking his time to get ready. He couldn’t find a tie to match the suit and occasion, so he went back and forth, throwing one on, tearing it off, and so on.
He didn’t reply to Shane, but he stiffened a nod. What could he say? He just watched the love of his life get into his best friend’s truck. They rode out under the falling snow, and he could do nothing but watch his love fade away.
It was okay. He told himself. But it wasn’t okay, and that, too, was okay.
He would learn to erect his walls when she was gone. He would fortify them, make sure his pain was just over those walls and out of reach. In doing so, he would distance himself from…well, himself.
“Are you certain you can make it to this meeting?” Shane asked, concernedly. “I’m sure we can request another time—”
“You don’t cancel on Abram,” Leo cut in, shaking his head. “I’ll never get this opportunity again.”
“You don’t know that.”
Leo looked at Shane. “I have to strike while the iron is hot. I’ve just won over the Czechs which was no easy feat. I need the Russians—IneedAbram. Without his banking system, I won’t be able to transfer the money. I need to hide it, Shane. I need to starve my old man out. Deplete his resources and make him kneel.”
Shane sighed, looking unconvinced. “Abram is in league with the Warlords—”
“He’s in league witheveryone.”
“But he has a good relationship with the head chapter, and the man that controls that head chapter is a very fearsome president.”
Leo already knew all this. “Well, Hawke Navarro won’t be riding into town anytime soon.”
“What about that Road Captain—”
“I don’t want to talk abouthim,” Leo hissed, nostrils flaring as the blood pumped quickly inside him.
Shane hesitated a moment. “Navarro has placed a chapter into the heart of our own town, and they are slowly taking over what the Itani name does not own.”
“That’s separate from Abram.”
“Not when he aids them.”
Leo exhaled slowly, feeling a headache coming on. “It would be bad business for Abram to go against his word and move my money out from under me.”
“How certain are you he won’t?”
Leo paused, glancing back at the tall mirror, at the godawful red tie he was now ripping off him. “A man can never be too certain about anything. Isn’t that what you taught me, Shane?”
“I taught you to always be on guard.”
“You also taught me to make calculated risks.”
Shane frowned. “This would be a very big risk.”
Yeah, it would be, but Abram’s underground banking system was the only way to move the Itani fortune out from under Leo’s father. Leo had already tracked the whereabouts of the money through hidden surveillance. It was not easy to recruit a team off the books to investigate. It was only a matter of time someone would report the hidden spending to his father, and his father would know it was Leo scheming for his seat at the High Table.
Every few months, George shuffled his cash empire from one nest to the next. He never kept that money still. And right now, Leo had a chance to not only intercept that money, but to hide it away.
He needed Abram.
He needed connections beyond the High Table.