She bobbed her head, sniffling hard. “Yes, yes. I swear.”
“Good girl.” He lowered the gun. “Now go upstairs. I need to talk to Cane alone.” She turned away from him rapidly. “Oh—and before you go,” he called, and she stopped in her tracks, peering over her shoulder, but not fully. Fuck. She was terrified, and I wanted to rip him to pieces for it. “Give me your phone. You’ll get it back when I’m gone. Wouldn’t want you making any stupid, rash decisions while your heart is racing.” He stuck his hand out, and she wasted no time going to him and dropping the phone into his palm like it was on fire.
“Kandy,” I called as she rushed away from him. Her mouth still trembled as she ran into my arms. I kissed her forehead. “It’s okay. Just go upstairs until I come up. All right?”
She nodded and I lightly pushed her out of the kitchen. I heard her running down the hallway, and when I could no longer hear her footsteps, I faced him.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I snapped when I heard a door slam.
“Oh yes, I did. Don’t need her running her mouth.”
“She won’t say anything. I fucking trust her.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t,” he muttered, looking around.
I was getting fed up with him already. He and I could never remain in the same room for long. He got on my nerves just as much as I did his. “Why are you here? If this is about money, you could have called me to wire it.”
“We have that to discuss, among other things.”
“Things like what?”
He frowned. “Like how you’re losing money, not gaining. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“There was a slight hiccup. Shit went downhill for a while, but business is picking up again.”
“Yeah, it went downhill because you were too caught up in her young pussy to think clearly.”
“Wrong.”
“Right.”
I let out an agitated breath, shaking my head. “I fixed the issue. Your money has still doubled. I didn’t touch those funds.”
“I know you didn’t. You’re too smart to do something that stupid.” He tucked the gun in the holder clipped to his belt and then placed Kandy’s phone down. “I’m a fugitive now, did you know that? Well, I take that back. I’ve been one for a while, but I really feel like one now since I’m no longer safe in my own country. If I show my face to anyone or do anything, I’ll most likely be turned in. My face is on every news channel, billboard, and highlight reel. There are people who want the cash, and can you blame them? Four million to capture me, dead or alive. Pretty fucking steep.”
I looked him over as he swept his eyes all over my kitchen. “I came to tell you that I’ll be in hiding for a few years, might come back out when things cool off, but I’ll be investing all that I have into Tempt until I find another solution. Right now, your company is the cleanest. Hasn’t been targeted or suspected of any foul shit, no red flags, and that’s what I need in order to keep my money safe. I can’t keep it in any international accounts of my own anymore. I need it here, right under their noses, where they’d least expect it.”
“Okay. I can make that happen. How much are we talking?”
“About $735 million.”
“What?” I spat, frowning. “Draco, I can’t make a report of a private investment that big without it getting suspicious. Ten to twenty was fine, but seven hundred? That’s too fucking much.”
“You’re smart enough to figure it out.”
I blew a breath. “I think you’re overestimating my abilities. The only way I can hide that much is if I have my accountant work with a private offshore bank. Some of it has to go international. Keeping it all here might help you, but it’s a big risk for me.”
“Then find me an accountant who can do the offshore work. Do whatever you need to do, but I want some of the accounts written in another name.”
“Whose?”
“Gianna Nicotera for now.”
“Nicotera? Why does that name sound so familiar?”
He glared at me.
My eyes widened. “Wait…isn’t she the girl you kidnapped? She belonged to that Italian mob, right?”
He grimaced. “She belonged to me.”
“You took her against her free will, and from what I heard, you tortured her. That’s kidnapping.”
“She had no free will. She was mine since I was thirteen. I had every right to take her from the dirty bastard that didn’t fucking deserve her.” He was getting agitated now, eyes darkening.
“Okay, look. I don’t give a shit about any of that right now. When are you trying to get the money deposited?”
“As soon as possible. I have two of my people coming with some of it in a few days. They’ll be delivering it in increments. I want to be here to watch the accounts get set up and to know my money has been moved safely. I also need a favor.”
“I can try, Draco, but I can’t make any promises. What’s the favor?”
“There is no fucking trying, Cane. You have no choice but to do this,” he snapped. “Remember that without me, you wouldn’t even have this fucking company. You came to me and made me a promise. You told me if I needed something done, you would make it happen, did you not?”
I sighed. “Yeah.”
“Okay. So make it fucking happen. I don’t want excuses; I want solutions. Figure it out and make sure you keep your name off record. Don’t ring any bells. Split it up if you have to, I don’t care. Just make sure my money is somewhere safe and easy for me to access when I need it.”
I ran my fingers through my hair. “Okay, fine. What’s the favor?”
“Gianna is pregnant.” He rubbed his hand, where his ring finger was. “We’re not sure what the gender is yet, but when the baby is older, we’ve agreed to let him or her come to America to go to school. I’ll need Gianna and the kid in a safe place, and since I won’t be able to be here as much, and she’s too wary to get a home with her or Clark’s name, I figured you could put it under yours.”
I blinked rapidly. “Shit…you got her pregnant? You sure she isn’t planning to make a run for it?”
Draco grimaced. “She isn’t planning shit. You’ve only heard the stories, Cane. Gianna and I have been through some shit, but we’re on the same page now. She knows the truth about her past and knows I would do anything to protect her. She’s not my prisoner. She can leave whenever she feels like it. It’s her choice to stay with me.”
“Okay—chill the fuck out.” I rolled my shoulders, releasing some of my own tension. “I didn’t realize things had gotten so serious. Is she the reason I haven’t heard from you in a while?”
He pressed his lips and shrugged. “Let’s just say that I had my hands full because I was dealing with her.” He looked me over once before walking around the island counter. “Why are you with her, anyway? The girl?”
“Do I need a specific reason to be with her?”
He cocked a brow, turning fully to face me. “She’s your best friend’s daughter.”
“He was my best friend.”
“And I assume you two are no longer friends because you can’t keep your cock away from her?”
My jaw tightened. “Don’t talk about her like that, and it’s not like you have any fucking room to say shit. Kidnapping women and punishing them and shit.”
He fought a smirk. “I do what I need to do.”
I scoffed, pressing my lower back against the edge of the counter.
Draco folded his arms, leaning against the counter edge across from me. “Are we going to have any problems with her father? He knows a great deal about you and me. You told me he’d keep quiet, but with you and the girl fucking like rabbits—”
“He won’t be a problem. He may be upset, but he wouldn’t jeopardize himself like that, let alone his own daughter. That’s information he’s withheld for years, and not only that, Kandy would be upset if he ran his mouth and it backfired on me. His bond with her would be destroyed, and that’s the last thing he wants rig
ht now after everything that’s happened to her.”
“Yeah, speaking of what happened to her—Mario tells me some ex of yours stabbed her?”
I dropped my arms, agitated at the thought of Kelly.
“What happened?” he demanded.
“A woman named Kelly Hugo came to my old house, saw me and Kandy in my bedroom, and had a knife with her when she came up. I wasn’t fast enough and thought she was coming for me, but she was going for Kandy. She stabbed her.” I swallowed thickly. “Kandy was pregnant and didn’t know it, but she miscarried. Because of where she’d stabbed her, she may not be able to have kids anymore.”
For once, he actually seemed surprised about something. “Damn.”
“All she got was a slap on the wrist. She’s in a psych facility right now, and I’m sure it’s a good one—one that treats her like she’s at a fucking retreat. Her parents are wealthy, and they had a good lawyer pleading her case. They bought the judge off and placated her parents with a bullshit restraining order and fifty grand.”
Draco’s head cocked, jaw flexing. “What does Kelly know about you?”
I looked into his eyes. “A lot of things.”
“Stop fucking playing with me and speak, Cane.”
I huffed. “She knows I built Tempt on drug money. Knows about my mother’s drug habit and that my father was the one who mentioned naming the wine Tempt while he was drunk one night. He’s out of jail right now too, and I’m worried she’ll get a hold of him once she’s cleared and give him more ammunition and reason to go against me. I don’t need him getting a cut of my business or being anywhere near me or my family. I have lawyers working on securing everything, but Kelly’s family knows people too—”
“Do you want me to get rid of her?” he asked.
I frowned. “What?”
“You heard me.”
I pushed off the counter. “Things aren’t like they used to be, Draco. You can’t come over here trying to be Jefe, especially when there’s a price on your head. Shit, even talking to you could have me arrested.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,” he said. “And you know you don’t have to worry about me. I always take care of myself and never leave any evidence behind. Do you want her taken care of?”
His question both agitated and fueled me, the conflicting feelings fucking with my head. Of course I wanted Kelly out of my hair, but with all the things Draco could do, I wasn’t sure if it would backfire on me or help in the end. Kelly knew too much, though, and I promised Kandy we were fine now—that she didn’t need to worry about Kelly anymore. But Draco…having him do anything to her at all, was too much of a risk.
“Let me think about it,” I told him, and he took a step back.
“Fine. But remember that Tempt is my company too, and if there is a threat or anything targeted at it, I will end it before letting it get in my way.” He walked to the patio door. “I’ll be directing my people to this home address and will be back in a few days.” He opened the door, pushing loose tendrils of his hair back. “She’s just a human, and humans are easy to break and even easier to get rid of.” He looked me over. “Don’t let this new life make you weak.”
With those words, the door closed, and he was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
CANE
I checked my backyard twice before going upstairs to get to Kandy.
She was sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for me. When she heard me coming, she hopped up, clasping her hands together, her eyes wide with worry. “Is he gone?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
“Is he coming back?”
I looked away. “Most likely.”
She sighed, rushing toward me. “I didn’t think he’d show up…not like that. With a gun,” she gasped. “W-what did he want?”
“He wants to invest some more money in Tempt.”
“Oh.”
I sat down, and she took the spot beside me. She breathed unevenly, like she was still trying to catch her breath from what had happened earlier. I reached for her hand, holding it in mine. “He’s really fucking scary, Cane. If he’s coming back, I should probably go home.”
“He only said and did that stuff for show. He likes to feel in charge—like he owns the room. He’s the one who has always told me that knowledge is power. The more you know about someone, the more power you have over them.”
“You know a lot about him?”
“More than I care to admit, honestly.”
“Is he as bad as the media portrays?”
I nodded. “Oh, yeah. Don’t underestimate him. He’s quick to make a move if he feels threatened or if he’s crossed.”
Her eyes got bigger. “Have you ever crossed him?”
“Wouldn’t be alive if I had.”
She fidgeted a bit. “God, this is insane. How did you even start working with someone like him?”
I sighed, rolling my neck. “I heard about him through the grapevine. Many of them warned me that he would probably kill me before he heard me out, but at that point in my life, I had no choice. At first, I was selling stolen goods to people, but I wasn’t really making any money from it, and my mother was in the hospital because she’d almost overdosed on coke, and I didn’t have the money to pay for the bills. While she was in the hospital, the doctors discovered she needed a kidney transplant. I was at a loss.” I looked down, and her eyes were wide and glossy.
“And then what?”
“I met this guy named Horacio who sold for Jefe. Your dad told you about Horacio, I believe. Anyway, I told him I wanted in—that I’d do anything to make some money, so he had me start selling for him first. I was so good at it that he took me under his wing and had me pushing heavily. I sold coke to people all over the city, some rich and some poor. I think word got out that I was selling so well and being very discrete about it, so much so that it reached the ears of Jefe. Jefe wasn’t a man of many words. He thanked me by giving me more to push, which meant more money for both of us, but he would never meet up with me. I made so much that I could afford to pay off my mother’s medical bills, pay for my college classes, and keep Mama’s kitchen full of groceries…but to me, it wasn’t enough. I wanted out of selling. I wanted out of that shitty neighborhood. I wanted to do something bigger, so I got my business plan together, packed up a bag, and when the next delivery came, I took a big risk and followed my supplier.”
“What?” Kandy gasped.
“I know. I was young and dumb. I mean, everyone knows not to sneak up on a man like him. I’d told a few people that I wanted to see him, but they told me it was impossible and that I was an idiot for wanting to see him anyway. I didn’t care. I followed the supplier all the way to Texas. He stopped at a warehouse that was in the middle of nowhere. I watched from my car for a while. Jefe didn’t show up until later that night. I knew without even seeing pictures that it was him. The way he dressed was different from everyone else. He wore suits and nice clothes and all this fancy fucking jewelry. I didn’t really have a plan, and honestly, I didn’t need one. I was snatched out of the car before I was even given the chance to think it all through.”
She gasped again.
“Some man with white hair dragged me to the warehouse with some big man following behind him. I was scared for my fucking life. I was so stupid, thinking some cartel leader would hear me out. They tossed me in a room, and I waited for almost an hour before Jefe came inside. Instead of killing me on the spot like I thought he would, he asked me who I was and what I wanted, all with a gun pointed at my head. I told him I was his top money-maker in Georgia right now. I was the one pushing so much of his product. To my surprise, he heard me out, but he didn’t lower that gun. Not for one second. Some big guy came into the room with my notebooks and binders, tossing them on the table. Jefe asked what they were for, and I told him it was for a business I wanted to launch, and that I wanted to collaborate with him—that I wanted out, and that I could double his money if he went the route I wanted
to take. I told him I’d been working on it since I was nineteen, and that I had really put a lot of thought into it. At first, he wasn’t interested. He told me I was a dumb motherfucker to even bother seeing him. I thought I was dead…until he told me he wanted me to set up shop to sell over fifty kilograms of cocaine.”
“Holy shit,” she breathed.
“I went back home and sold that shit. I sold it to the kids I went to school with and even the business owners I had worked for before. I went to a simple community college in Fayetteville, North Carolina. They were bored there, and I carried the thrill. The coke that I was selling was some of the purest. It couldn’t be topped, and was the best on the East Coast, so it wasn’t that hard to sell. It only took me a month to get rid of it all.” I swallowed hard. “Lora helped me.”
“She did? How?”
“For the first few months, she sold it to her friends and perverts around the neighborhood who always catcalled her. When she was eighteen, a friend of hers hooked her up with a job working at this exclusive escorting club as a host. I had her give it to the girls that performed, and had them sell it to their clients. I’d dragged her into it, all for my own personal gain.” I dropped my head. “I was good at it, though. Too good, and Draco noticed. He noticed a lot of things. I told him I’d sold it all within a month, but didn’t hear from him for three months after that. By that point, I’d graduated college and everything. Then one day he showed up in my city. Popped up right at my apartment. He had one of his men put a stack of money on the table—two million to be exact—and told me he was investing it into my company privately as a start-up. He told me that if I wanted out of selling drugs, that the money he gave me had to be doubled within a year. It wasn’t wise of me to take the deal. For any business owner, it was hard to double that much money that fast, especially for a new business, but see, the thing about Jefe was that I had no choice. With him it was either push his cocaine for the rest of my life, or invest his money and make a profit off of it. I didn’t have any other options. If I didn’t do one or the other, I was dead. So I took my chances. I took the money and within ten months, I had doubled it…but not legally.”
The Cane Series: Complete 4-Book Box Set Page 67