Page 34 of Jordan

I pressed the button for the third floor once I was inside the elevator. Rolling my neck, I let the tension bleed out of it and my shoulders. This would be good for me. I could threaten Leeland, and maybe draw a little blood.

Sheldon waited for me outside the room. He had this quietness about him where he could be in the room and wasn’t noticed. Listening, taking everything in, that was one of his skills. Sheldon had his finger on the pulse of my building and the people within it without being asked. That alone gave him value.

He was slender and toned, not overly built. He also had the calmest voice of anyone in my organization. The way he questioned a person even had me falling under his spell, wanting to do what he asked. Beside his voice, the reason I kept him employed was how deadly he was. He was a master of poisons, knowing the exact dose to kill someone and what to use, so it would be difficult to trace by a medical examiner. There was an entire closet in his home here lined with vial after vial of his concoctions.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t handle Leeland on my own. I needed Sheldon’s voice, his calmness. It helped center me, which I required more than ever.

“I wasn’t told to bring anything,” he said as I approached. His blond hair fell forward, partially obscuring his face.

“No, not for this. I might need you to speak to him. I can’t have him showing up here like this again. He’s on my last fucking nerve. And with…” I dropped the sentence, not wanting to mention Hartley and Vail.

Sheldon nodded. “Understood. Just so we’re clear, no one will get past me to hurt them. While your muscle could take Gil down, he’d never expect me.” I shouldn’t be surprised he knew about the men I had in my place.

“I will kill for them without hesitation.”

“I figured.”

Opening the door, I stepped inside and came face-to-face with Leeland. “Jordan, finally,” he exhaled. “Trying to get in front of you is like seeing God.”

“If you’d like to test that, I can certainly attempt to send you there. With the things you’ve done, my guess is you’d head south.”

He waved me off, ignoring my threat. “I have more for you.” His hand trembled as he raked it through his dark slicked-back hair. “There are more than guns this time. I have the purest cocaine you could ever get your hands on.”

“I don’t need that.” I already had someone for my drugs. “How much of it have you had?”

“What? Oh, not much.”

I closed the distance between myself and Leeland, Sheldon shadowing me. The time for restraining myself was over. “You come to my home, to the place I sleep, and start yelling in the street about guns!” I couldn’t contain my anger. “I might have cops at my disposable but not all of them. You don’t stand in my fucking city and say that shit.”

Sheldon’s hand gently grazed my arm, letting me know he was on my left flank, so I didn’t lash out and shoot him.

“Leeland?” Sheldon asked.

His eyes latched on to Sheldon’s. “Yes?”

“Why don’t you tell me why you came here today?” He pulled a chair out and sat but Leeland remained standing.

We were in a large room that doubled as a meeting space. There were cabinets along either wall, with a few round tables and chairs. It looked innocent enough. In the cabinets were weapons and plenty of them. All in safes behind panels that would need my fingerprint to open. Leeland didn’t open the doors before we arrived. If he had, Barry would have seen him on camera and told me.

“Jordan and I have been working together. I wanted to tell him I had more to offer him.” Leeland swiped under his nose as his eye twitched. He needed to get the fuck out of my building.

“But that’s not the real reason,” Sheldon said. “What’s your motivation?”

“A beautiful woman who has the power I crave.”

“What else?”

“She wears these heels that would feel good pressed to my throat. It’s not only that. She also has connections. I could be more than I am now.”

“And you want your cock buried in her too.”

“Of course. I want her to be mine. With the access I have, plus her connections, we could build an empire.” I barely remained where I was. The way Leeland spoke sounded like he wanted my territory.

“You know Mr. Altair rules Dremest, correct?”

“The east side.”

“No, all of it. The Altairs and the Dremests go way back. You don’t come here and try to take over, do you?”

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