“I heard you’ve been looking for me,” I say in a steady voice, looking directly at Lorenzo Moretti. With my hands still up, I take a few steps forward and extend one hand across the table towards him. “Most people call me The Ghost.”
He stares at my outstretched hand for a long moment, and my heart beats out a surprisingly even rhythm. Things might be different between Alessio and me now, but when I first lured him to Wonderland, all I wanted was an in with the Morettis. I wanted the chance to pitch them the idea that Wildcliff would be better off with the Sleepless Reapers wiped out, thattheywould be better off. This is it, my shot to convince Lorenzo that they should help me, and if I have to stare down four barrels while I do it, so be it.
He doesn’t shake my hand, but he does set his pistol down on the table and wave for the others to do the same.
“Alessio,” he says. “Search him.”
My body tenses reflexively as Alessio slides his chair out and stands up. Thank fuck he said “Alessio” and not one of the other men, but I still don’t relish the thought of him patting me down like this. I grind my teeth and lift my jacket for him so he can grab the handgun tucked into my waistband. He pulls it out and sets it on the table, then moves behind me again.
“Are you fucking insane?” he whispers under his breath, his hands ghosting as lightly as possible over my body in a cursory check for any more weapons.
“Maybe,” I murmur quietly.
He goes all the way down to my boots before he stands back up and announces that I’m clear.
Lorenzo pauses for a beat, and I get the sense that it’s a power play more than anything. We all have to wait forhisinstructions, including me. I grind my teeth again, and I notice a flicker of a smile on his otherwise stoic face before he waves to Alessio’s empty seat.
I glance at Alessio for confirmation and he nods subtly. I sit down and Alessio stays standing behind me, his arms crossed and a slightly menacing expression on his face that I have to admit makes my dick a little hard. I wonder if he’d be up for a little roleplay sometime. He can be the intimidating mafioso and I can be the uninvited guest at their meeting… except my version will end with me railing him until he cries instead of the business discussion I have planned for Lorenzo.
No one says a word, but Lorenzo arches an eyebrow like he’s waiting for me to say something. Someone’s read a negotiation book or two, apparently. I don’t have the patience to wait him out though, so I sit forward with my elbows on the table and lay it out for him.
“I’m going to cut right to the chase here. I’m not going to pretend to know anything about your business, but everyone in Wildcliff knows you’re a practical man. You don’t relish violence, you use it as a tool. And it may not seem like it, but I’m the same way.”
“Is that so?” he says coolly.
“It is. The Sleepless Reapers are like dogs off their leashes, and if you don’t stop them, they’re eventually going to draw the attention of the feds.” I remember what Alessio said last nightabout Lorenzo not liking any kind of negative attention on the city, and the way his eyes narrow briefly, I know I’ve struck the right chord. “They’re sex trafficking and they’re making and selling meth. A couple of lab explosions or one trafficking victim going to a single cop outside of Wildcliff, and the feds will be swarming this city in a heartbeat.”
Lorenzo grunts in what I hope is agreement.
“So, you think it’s better that I let you keep up your sloppy killing spree instead?”
“No,” I say, and that seems to surprise him. His eyebrows go up again and Alessio shuffles his feet behind me. “You’re right, it’s sloppy and inefficient. They’re recruiting faster than I can kill them and taking out one low- or mid-level Reaper at a time isn’t doing a goddamn thing to save any of their victims.”
He grunts again. “So what’s your solution?”
“My solution is that I bring a Moretti brand bazooka to the knife fight.”
“You want our help.”
“Exactly. It’s a win-win situation.” I hold his gaze and my breath as I wait for his verdict. What if he says no and tells Alessio to shoot me? I’m sure he won’t do it, but that’ll be a mess of its own.
He cocks his head and narrows his eyes.
“Who told you I was looking for you?”
“The Reaper I took out last night. He taunted me as I was strangling him, said a couple of your guys had been throwing their weight around and asking questions,” I lie.
Lorenzo looks away for a minute, directing his attention to the nearby stage where a petite naked man is swinging upside down from the pole. I don’t get the sense that he’s actuallywatchingthe stripper though. More like he’s gathering his thoughts and just happens to be looking in that direction. He drums his fingers once on the table and my body vibrates withthe urge to glance back at Alessio. If Lorenzo decides I’m not worth the trouble, I’m not going to risk dragging Alessio down with me. No one has to know that he knows me at all.
Lorenzo turns his head back towards me and I hold perfectly still, keeping my shoulders square and my head held high. Whatever his decision, I’m not going to let him think I’m intimidated by him. I’ll walk out of here with my pride or die with it, I don’t mind which.
“You’ve got balls,” he says, and I nod. His lips twitch again. “The Sleepless Reapers have been a motorcycle sized pain in my ass for years. Xaviaro, Alessio, work with him on this. Bring Sparrow into the loop too. He knows the Reapers better than anyone.”
“Plus, if you leave him out, he’ll go feral and bite you again,” the man sitting directly to Lorenzo’s left says with a chuckle. If I’m not mistaken, it’s his brother, Elio, second-in-command and the far less frightening of the Moretti siblings.
Lorenzo scowls at his brother. “He didn’t bite me.”
“He tried,” the man on Elio’s other side, dressed in a raspberry colored suit says with a snicker.