She laughs louder and I have no choice but to join in, too. Together we walk into the dirty, messy, disgusting clubhouse. When I do, my stomach sinks at what I see.
MOUNTAIN
Fuck.
Gavino Santoro is waiting at the drop off when I arrive. I had hoped to get this shit unloaded and be gone without a hitch. Him being here, it means that it won’t be a drop and go situation. This is most likely why Dragon insisted I come here and do this run myself.
The door slowly opens as I guide the truck backward into the empty warehouse. When it’s completely inside, it shuts and only then do I jump out of the truck. I watch as Gavino makes his way inside through the door at the side of the building.
“Mountain,” he greets, holding out his hand.
Jerking my chin up, I take his outstretched palm and shake it. “Santoro,” I grunt.
“We need to talk, friend.”
Friend.
The word means so much and yet it means nothing all at the same time. “What’s this about?” I ask.
He shrugs a shoulder, then jerks his chin toward a small office in the corner. This place is fashioned much like the warehouse at the clubhouse, and his office is much like my own. Following behind him, I leave Eagle and a few of Gavino’s men to unload the truck.
Slipping into the office, I walk over to the sofa against the wall and sink down with a groan. I know that I’ve been sitting on my ass all day, but driving and relaxing on a couch are two totally different kinds of sitting.
“What’s this about?” I demand.
He tilts his head to the side, bringing his hands up and touching them in a steepled position with his elbows on the table. His eyes focus on mine, he watches me for a moment, then lets out a grunt.
“The work you’ve been doing, the vigilante work…”
I hold up my hand to stop him, knowing that he’s going to tell us that we need to stop and I agree. It has to stop somewhere, we can’t go on forever like this. Except, he doesn’t stop. Instead, he just continues to speak.
“I like it. I like it a lot. I have a proposition for your club. One that I wasn’t willing to compromise by talking over the phone to Dragon.”
“What do you want?” I ask, not wanting to beat around the bush any longer. I have a place to go, a woman to find, and a life to get started.
He chuckles, leaning back in his chair, his eyes on mine, never leaving. “I want your club to continue their vigilante work. I also want you to flush out some people here in the city.”
“Like?”
His lips curl into an evil as fuck grin. “I have it on authority that some very high people are into very evil things. I want them gone. I have replacements for their positions, replacements that will benefit me, and in return, benefit your club as well.”
“I’m going to need more than just your word that it’s going to benefit the Beasts,” I grunt, leaning back as well.
Gavino nods then stands to his feet. I watch as he makes his way over to the window and focuses out at the men unloading his product. He puts his hands behind his back, clasping them together as he watches.
Then, as if he’s finally gathered whatever thoughts he needed, he turns his head and looks at me from over his shoulder.
“Money then?” he asks.
I shrug a shoulder. “Makes the world go round,” I murmur.
“Women?” he asks.
Shaking my head, I lift my hand and wrap my fingers around the back of my neck, squeezing to release tension. “Got one of my own, now.”
“Ah,” he sighs. “Miss Leighton Eloise Richardson,” he practically purrs.
My spine straightens and I shake my head. “How the fuck did you know her name? How the fuck did you know she was mine?” I growl.
His lips twitch. “Is she, yours though? You have yet to brand her,” he states.
The fuck is right. I haven’t officially claimed her, but I’m going to once I find her. I’m not going to fuck around, not anymore.
She’s mine.
Only mine.
“She’s mine,” I grind out.
Gavino walks around his desk, leaning his ass against the front as he grabs ahold of the edges of the wood.
“I have known of her. Her father was an associate, not that I dealt with him, I did not. However, he had connections and often purchased from me, since I have the best products and I am the best.”
“Women?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Never. I don’t sell my women like that. They are worth too much to me to just piss away. And honestly, whores or not, they are people and how he treats them, it’s nothing short of animalistic.”
“Even your virgins?”
Gavino shrugs a shoulder. “I sell the experience of having a virgin. I do not sell the girl off to be some man’s slave.”
I hum, leaning forward on my elbows. I wish that I knew if this was the truth. However, he did make it clear when we called him for help that he would not supply women to just succumb to their deaths. But that doesn’t stop the fact that he trades women like cattle back and forth to and from Ireland.
“I’m not sure what to trust with you, and normally I couldn’t give a fuck less, but this, all of this is dirty as shit.”
“You’re smart not to trust me just because we have dealings together. However, on this, I am not going to budge. You will do this for me, the terms are the only part of this that is negotiable.”
“Seems you think you have me backed into a corner,” I grunt.
Gavino shrugs, he is obviously unbothered by my observation. I know that I’m probably right, he thinks that he has me backed into a corner and that I’ll agree to whatever he wants. What he doesn’t know is that I don’t do well being caged, never have, never will.
Chapter Twenty-Three
MOUNTAIN
Walking out to Eagle, I jerk my chin at him before making my way outside. I pace next to the metal building, surprised that you can’t hear fuckall that’s going on inside. I’m glad for it, because I do not want Gavino to hear this, not at all.
“What the fuck has you acting like a caged cat?” Eagle asks.
I laugh, his observation completely fucking on point. “He wants our help, terms are negotiable, the job is not,” I begin to explain.
“The job is not,” he murmurs. “As if we’re his men, his employees.”
“Yeah, I’m rubbed the wrong fucking way, to say the least,” I grunt.
The issue is, I can’t call Dragon, not right now. Gavino is right, this isn’t something that can be said over the phone. Which means terms cannot be met over the phone either. He’s asking a hell of a lot from us right now, and I, for one, don’t like it.
“We don’t have much of a choice, do we?”
I shake my head once. “Morally, no. I can’t turn tail and walk away with him knowing men who are hurting kids like that and wanting them gone.”
“Why now?”
I shrug a shoulder, then open my mouth, but Gavino starts to speak, walking out of the door beside us.
“Now, because I finally have men who will do it. I could send my own, but I have been busy with the famiglia, with my own takeovers and issues. This isn’t something that we can go in, take care of, and disappear as easily as you. I’ve been keeping an eye on your dealings, the way you’ve done business, and I like it.”