Page 64 of Sinful Blaze

And I have to admit, he was on to something great. Not only is the range something he built from the ground up—legally, no less—it’s served our family as the best place for arms deals to really go down.

We keep the good items in gleaming display cases up front for the public to peruse.

We store the scary shit in the back for the clients I’m trying to land via Senator Brennan.

“Speaking of meetings…” Sofi pulls up the calendar on her phone. “Shall we schedule another one with the senator?”

“Get me one with his wife and my answer will be yes.”

Her brow pops up. “Are you sure? You know how she is with…” She gives me a onceover. “Well, you know.”

Yes. I’m aware. I don’t need a reminder.

“Senator?” Valerii chuckles, drawing the attention of the other vors in hearing range. “Something we should know?”

I side-eye my sister, who suddenly finds something better to do on her phone. Ah, fuck it. Might as well let them know now in case things go sideways and we get raided. Or worse.

“I’ve been in talks with Senator Brennan regarding a lucrative contract with the military,” I explain. “We’re hammering out the details, but the goal is to make Chekhov Industries a primary provider of weapons and ammunition to the armed forces.”

Almost everyone seems excited for this news. Only one guy, who doesn’t rank high enough to be in this conversation, pipes up with dissent. “What? Are we going patriotic now?”

“And you are…?” I snap at him.

All eyes turn to the kid. He can’t be older than twenty.

He’s all bravado mixed with the sheepishness that comes with realizing his mouth should have stayed shut—but it’s too late to back down.

I walk over to him, calm and collected, but the other men know better. They part to let me through without question.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“Tyler, sir.”

One of my other vors interjects on his behalf. “My nephew. He’s new.”

“Clearly.”

Tyler grimaces at me like he’s waiting for me to go nose to nose with him. He’ll get what he wants—but not in the way he’s anticipating.

“Since you’re new here, Tyler, here’s a crash course on how this business works.” I loop an arm around his shoulders and steer him to look out over the green target field with me. “What do you see out there?”

He shrugs. “Targets. Grass. Bullet casings and shit.”

“Right. But you can see it, yes?”

“Um, yeah. Everyone can see it.”

Somewhere off in the distance, I hear Sofi groan at this kid’s idiocy. She knows what’s coming. So do the vors, who have all taken several steps back.

“Everyone can see it,” I repeat. “Good. So you’re not as fucking blind as I thought.”

Tyler stiffens. Good.

“If you can see that, and everyone here can see that, so can the goddamn government.” I fist my hand in his hair and tug hard so he has nowhere to go, nowhere to look, but where I allow him to. I pull my own handgun from the holster and he starts to quiver. “I don’t know if you were too deaf, stupid, or high during your initial orientation, so allow me to remind you what a ‘front’ is. It’s exactly what everyone can see because we want them to see it. We want them to use it, and buy it, and enjoy it. We want witnesses. Because when we need to do things that are best done out of sight…”

I press the barrel of the gun into his ribs.

“… no one will notice until it’s too late.”

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