Page 98 of Intent to Kill
“The hard way... the hard way.” Adam’s jaw tensed.
“You cannot steal from me.”
“Have you heard what’s going on down here in Ridge City? Missing drug shipments? Millions of dollars on the loose?”
Once again, the other end was silent, whether from consideration or speechlessness Adam couldn’t be sure.
There was a low grumble before the voice started to shake. “You are the guys who try take down Dorian Blake?”
“You’ve heard of me then. Excellent,” Adam said. “Do we have a deal?”
“You are blackmailing us.”
“Seems so,” Adam said.
There was a hustling of arguing in the background, all in Russian. Adam heard rustling as the phone was obviously snatched and passed around the room. Finally, a different voice came on the line and said with a threatening kind of calmness, “You won’t last long before Dorian Blake eventually find and kill you. Because he will.”
“Everyone seems so worried for me. It’s sweet. Maybe you should be less worried about whathe woulddo and be more worried about whatI willdo.”
The voice exhaled on the line. “Piz-dets.Fine, you have deal.”
* * *
Paul made his way through crowded streets to Dan’s office building. Directly across from the beach there was always a hurried buzz of people. Perhaps why Dan had requested it. For the view of the topless sun bathers on the open beach front.
When Paul walked up to Dan’s building, Carlos was already waiting out in front, leaning against the brick with one foot rested at his knee. When he saw Paul, he dropped his cigarette, smothering it with his shoe.
“How’d you do?” Carlos asked.
“Guns are mostly sold, only got a few crates. You?”
“Crystals all gone, can’t fucking make them quick enough. Fucking drug addicts in this city,” Carlos said.
“Sorry, I’m here! I’m here,” Dan said. He jogged from around the corner, the redness in his cheeks and the heavy sweat pooling at his jawline said enough of how far and fast he had run. When he reached them, he bent down to rest his hands on his knees and blew out long, heavy breaths.
“You have lipstick on your face,” Carlos said.
From his rested position, Dan smiled up at them and then wiped the lipstick off his cheek with his thumb, rolling his eyes at Paul’s disapproving stare.
Dan held the door open for his friends, and together they ascended the open glass stairs to Dan’s third-floor office. Not high by the standards of the high-rises in the city, but it was still the top floor of that particular building.
“You’re not paying for anything, are you?” Paul said. “You’re just funneling our own money back to us if you are.”
“I don’t need to pay for shit,” Dan smiled, winking back at Carlos. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
“Don’t bring me into this.” Carlos shook his head, but Paul didn’t miss how the corners of his mouth tugged into a smile. Being the voice of reason always meant Paul was short on allies.
They pushed through the doors to Dan’s suite and reached the reception desk, but up front Dan halted so suddenly that Paul and Carlos nearly slammed into him.
Dan’s eyes were locked with his assistant, her face tight with panic. Paul went to open his mouth to speak, but she shook her head in warning, as if she knew that they had been doing something wrong.
Paul peered behind her with pinched brows. The office door was almost closed, but ajar enough that he could just see in. It was a swarm of suits…and guns.
Blake men.
They needed to slowly start backing away. But before they could, Antonio smashed the office door open. And the opportunity had passed…it became too late to run.
Antonio spied them all. His smile that of a wicked servant ready to please its master, rubbing his hands together like he’d get a special treat for being a good doggie.
