Enforcer.
Killer.
Gun for hire.
Only now, I had power and wealth.
I had a waterfront condo that I still wasn’t used to, a closet of fancy dress suits I hated wearing and a title that didn’t quite fit right. None of it felt right without her.
“Nero?”
Davien’s quiet murmur brought me back to the present and the man glowering at me from across the desk. I’d forgotten about him.
“Yeah, sorry.”
My best friend studied my face a long moment, dark eyes assessing the way they seemed to be doing a lot lately. “You okay?”
I shifted in my seat, his attention unnerving me. “Yeah, just thinking.”
It wasn’t a lie.
“Mia?” The mention of her name had my head coming up. My confusion must have shown on my face because he nodded in the direction of my abandoned phone. “You’ve checked your phone nine times in the last five minutes.”
Anyone else, I would have told them to mind their own business. I would have shot them just to drive the point home. But there was no point lying to Davien. The majority of our time was spent alone in a massive condo neither of us felt home in, debating whether or not to simply track her down and drag her back with us. Davien was usually pro the hunt and haul idea. His logic was to get her home and talk about the rest once we had her back. Some days, I agreed with him. Other days, I wanted to find her simply so I could yell at her for leaving without at least talking to us. On days I felt levelheaded, I didn’t blame her for leaving and knew she’d had the right idea. But now wasn’t the time to think or talk about Mia.
“What were you saying?” I asked instead.
Davien eyed me a second longer before repeating himself. “There’s word amongst the men that Joaquin is back and stirring up shit. He’s been talking to Cortez’s old crew, trying to start an uprising, or some shit like this is The Hunger Games or something.”
Joaquin had become a pain in my ass since word got out that I was taking Cortez’s seat. He’d vanished the day of the meeting, no doubt booking it underground when it became clear Cortez was getting the ax. No one had heard from him in weeks, then suddenly, out of the blue, the fucker was popping up at every turn like a bad penny and trying to stir trouble with my new crew. It was no secret he was trying to overthrow me. In a perfect world, the seat would have gone to him after Cortez’s death. Getting hand picked to replace him hadn’t earned me any favors. Just a nutcase trying to undo everything I’d worked hard to create.
“Where is he?”
“Still no location. He’s being careful, but I have guys putting feelers out. I’ll take care of him once he’s found.”
I nodded, attention pivoting towards the window once more. “Keep me posted.”
“We might have to fire the cleaning lady.”
The random statement caught me off guard. My head jerked back to the man standing solemnly across from me.
“Olga? Why?”
Davien took in a breath that lifted his shoulders. “There was a smudge.”
I groaned and rolled my eyes even before the hint of a grin turned up Davien’s mouth.
“Right on those fancy windows you’re so fond of,” he pressed on, lips curling back over his teeth in a barely contained laugh. “Almost hindered some of that precious light you love so much.”
I pitched my pen at his head. It sailed past the asshole’s head when he dodged it, laughing. It hit the wall behind him and dropped to the carpet with a muffled clatter.
“Get out of here,” I grumbled.
Davien had made it no secret he detested the condo. He’d been against it from the moment Eduardo had gifted it to me and even more so the moment he’d seen all the windows. I wasn’t a fan, either, but it was better than piss-stained carpets and weird smells at all hours of the night. Plus, this was the kind of life I wanted us to be able to offer Mia when she came back. This was the kind of apartment she deserved, the really fancy kind with expensive furniture and a doorman and located in a safe neighborhood. It wasn’t to my taste, but it was free.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” I pressed when he continued to snicker.
“Nope.” His smirk broadened. “You get the full pleasure of my company.”
In all honesty, I wouldn’t have changed that for the world. The last two months had been a learning curve of bumps. Neither Dav, nor I had ever been in charge of an entire sector. It had been a nightmare to clean up initially, and even after eight weeks, there were still people like Joaquin who disagreed with the new street order, rebelled against the pay cuts, the change in routes and routines. We lost a lot of people the first two weeks. After the sixth, the majority slowly started falling into place. Most of them preferred the new way, the clean and discreet way. Those people lived in the neighborhoods we cleaned up. They had families there and the new way offered their kids a fighting chance. The rest were too deeply broiled in Cortez’s old way, in greed and a lust for power. They only saw dollar bills, not a future where we could have safe streets and still make money.
Yet, despite all the good we’d done, all the change we’d made, it didn’t feel like enough. There was still so much we had to clean and organize. The list refused to go down. Undoing years of bad business dealings would require years of commitment and work, and I didn’t have the manpower. I didn’t have enough feet on the ground to run the jobs.
I choked back the panic I could feel building at the back of my throat. My fingers bunched at my sides with the effort. Nails cut half-moons into my damp palms.
Maybe I couldn’t do this. How was I supposed to fix a system that refused to be fixed? It was too late to go back but going forward seemed impossible.
“Hey,” Davien’s grin dimmed, dark eyes lifted from my clenched fists to my face. “My company isn’t that bad, is it?”
“What’s next on the agenda?” I said instead, appreciating his attempts, but needing a distraction from my own doubts.
Dav pulled out his phone and swiped open the calendar. The level of his efficiency never failed to both impress and terrify me.
“We have a pretty open day,” Dav paused to swipe further down the list. “Nothing on the itinerary until tomorrow.” He switched his phone off and tucked it back into his pocket. “Eduardo did text this morning.”
I knew there was no point checking, but I poked my phone awake and peeked at the date, assuring myself it wasn’t the first week of the month and thus not collection time.
“What did he want?” I asked, pushing out of my chair.
“Just to tell us what an amazing job we were doing and...” He checked his watch. “You should reconsider taking him up on his offer to spend the weekend at his villa.”
I gave a grunt and moved around the desk to join him. “Still not interested. I want as little from that man as humanly possible.”
Dav nodded with a roll of his eyes. “No kidding. So, what did you want to do today?”
I shrugged, tugging at the lapel of my navy blazer. “I don’t have any plans. You’re welcome to take the day and do whatever.”
He snorted. “As your second, it’s literally my job to be so far up your ass that you become my human meat suit.”