With that, her two former tormenters walk away as if they’ve won some major battle. Maybe they did. She isn’t sure.
Cristian does speak the truth, undeniably.
The Kings and the Romanos have an arrangement.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Boss,” Mason calls out to Derrick. “We have a problem.”
Damn it! They have many problems right now and the sound of Mason’s voice doesn’t bold well.
Derrick, in his drunken stupor, doesn’t bother saying anything. His brother doesn’t even look like he cares anymore. His condition worsened after the night of the gala when Stella refused to return home with him.
His prayers were answered as well but nothing more. He’d begged to be able to see and feel Ariana just one more time. That’s exactly what he got because Ariana left with Stella as soon as the confrontation with Isabella was over. The two women didn’t bother to take a seat at their table.
“What is it?” he asks Mason since Derrick wasn’t going to ask.
“We tracked down the two bartenders that worked at Eden that night. They’re both dead. The cocktail waitress who served you in the VIP room? Body found with her throat slit. And the guy rumored to work the security room that night? He was found this morning with almost every bone in his body broken,” Mason relays.
“Fuck!” he growls. “They cleaned up after themselves.”
“Their security feed isn’t backed up to a cloud?” Derrick now asks from his seat with some amount of clarity.
“No. No back-ups. Never were. Probably because of what goes on behind the scenes in there. I think they take what they need and delete the rest,” Mason answers.
“Someone has to know something,” he says to the room.
“Nah,” Derrick slurs. “It’s just the final nail in the coffin. So, if I’m losing my wife and son anyway, when do I get to put a bullet in that conniving bitch’s heart, brother?” Derrick asks.
Right this fucking minute. That’s what he wants to tell Derrick. But he can’t. It would be a death sentence for Derrick and their whole family. That’s probably going to include Stella and Rian too even though they’re with Don Mazzilli now. But he doesn’t even know what’s happening within that circle.
“We’re fucked,” Chase announces when he stalks into the office with Rory behind him.
“What happened?” he asks. As if this day can get any worse.
“Romano must be putting the pressure on,” Rory answers. “Buyer backed out last second today. Didn’t even bother to show and when I finally got him on the phone, he said he can’t give a reason. Just that it’s a pass.”
“Don Romano or the two Romano skanks?” Derrick asks.
“Does it matter at this point?” Chase asks with frustration. “You should be careful who you call skank. One of those skanks can be your new baby mama. Or yours, Adam.”
“FUCK YOU, CHASE!” Derrick yowls and bolts upright from his seat.
His twin stalks over to confront Chase but stumbles like the drunk that he is along the way.
“Christ. Look at you!” Chase yells at Derrick.
“Stop it! Cut it out,” he barks out to his two brothers.
They’ve had their fair share of disagreements before but the tension and drama since that night are on another level nowadays. It doesn’t help that business has been dwindling as if they are being boxed in. Well, more like shut out.
“Boss,” Elias pops up from behind his screens. “Our shipment at the northern port was denied by customs.”
“The one with McCullen’s clearing?” he asks in disbelief.
Elias grimly nods. This is fucking with their alliance too? Oh, for fuck’s sake!
“FUCK!” Chase roars into the room again, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.
Derrick, on the other hand, bursts into uncontrollable laughter like he’s lost his fucking mind. And maybe he has. His deliriously drunk brother plops himself down, right on the rug in the middle of the office, and continues laughing.
Rory settles himself down into a chair and puts his feet up on the coffee table to enjoy the shit show. Not that he thinks his little brother is enjoying anything. But this is definitely a shit show now.
“Can it be possible that it’s not any of the Romanos?” he asks no one in particular. “Can this be Mazzilli?”
“Great. We don’t have just one Don pissed at us. It could be two. One of which is THE Don,” Rory says. “Great job, big brothers.”
“I’d say we’re fucked sideways like a fucking drive-by,” Chase says and sits down into Derrick’s now empty office chair at the main desk.
“I’ll see if McCullen or Gaston can pull the weight or clear some red tape,” he tells everyone.
He’s going to have to call them personally for this and try not to divulge that Stella is pissed the fuck off with the Kings right now too. That’s if she hasn’t told her BFFs anything about anything yet.
Ariana. What he would give to lose his hand in her hair and pull her into him right now.
Everything they’ve worked for is going down the drain and all he can think about is her. Just one more touch. It might not be enough but at the moment anything will do. Anything to keep him going through this fucking insanity. A month apart from her is nothing good for him.
“Adam,” Rory calls out to him. “I know how you feel about Ariana. We can walk away from all of this if we’re going to get shut out anyway. You don’t have to stick to the arrangement. We have enough money to take us anywhere in the world.”
“You think Romano is going to let us walk away that easily? Or Mazzilli?” Chase asks. “Matteo needs this to go through. I don’t know for sure why yet but I can feel how badly he’ll push for it to happen. And this would be the snub of all fucking snubs if we walk.”
“Stella isn’t going to come back to me anyway.” Derrick’s truth hurts him just as much as the pain of losing Ariana. It’s raw. It’s real. “So, do what you want to do, brother. Take Ariana and leave if you want to. All three of you can leave.”
“You want us to run with our tails tucked between our fucking legs and leave you? Live in hiding and shit?” Chase asks incredulously.
“If it means you all get to be happy with who you love, then yes,” Derrick says everything as if he’s already laid down and died.
The weight of Derrick’s words silences everyone in the room. They aren’t hopeless yet but Derrick didn’t seem to care.
Truth be told, he isn’t sure if he cared either. He’s still thinking about how to earn another moment with Ariana. He’s willing to grovel at this point. There’s no taking back what’s been done but if he can just be granted one more touch. One more kiss. Even another second in her light. It might taper off his craving of her, his addiction.
“I know how you feel now, Derrick.” He can’t even look at his twin. “Stella gives you light. You bathed and basked in it. You craved it and felt cleansed in it. I get your obsession with her now. I used to feel like that around Stella but it was always brief and I knew it was never going to be permanent for me…until Ariana.”