Page 104 of Vengeance

“You have a phone ringing,” Undertaker says.

Jennings turns and realizes it’s the satellite phone. “I have to take this.”

“Of course,” he says and walks out of the Chapel, shutting the door behind him.

A number with the Russian country code shows up, but it’s not Ivan. “Yeah?”

“Molloy?”

“Depends.”

“This is Boris.”

Yeah, that doesn’t fucking help, buddy. “Okay.”

“I am Ivan’s boss,” the man says, his accent thick.

“Oh, I was under the impression he was the leader with a group of other leaders.”

“He likes to think he is. I got a call from an angry Irishman.”

This could go one of two ways, and Jennings hopes it’s good. “I’m not sure if you’re calling for an apology-”

“I fucking love angry Irishmen. Seems you and your men took out a decent number of their men. He is not so happy, and he wants peace. If you keep going, he will lose all of his men in the States. Over three hundred men in three nights?”

“Two nights,” he answers. Holy shit, the plan worked.

“He says he is willing to make a truce happen. He would like Dimitri for the shitstorm he caused, and I told him I would need to talk to the leader of the Drifters to discuss what we need to do to make this happen on our end.”

Here goes nothing. “Well, to make us square with the Slashers, we want O’Malley alive to do with as we see fit. But I need something from you to make us square with the RIO.”

“With us? What issue do you have with us?”

“The lack of support we received when this whole mess started. I’ve graduated from working with Dimitri to working with Ivan, and Ivan doesn’t seem too willing to play ball with us. He refused to call in the Bratva to assist, and he’s been yanking our chain. Considering this is beef that started over on your turf, not ours, we expected more cooperation from our partner. Especially with how much money we bring in.”

Boris coughs, and Jennings doesn’t know if he’s angry. “I had no idea you asked Ivan for assistance. We would have sent help.”

“Are you someone he would need to talk to in order to make those types of arrangements?”

“Yes, I am. I’m the only one he would speak with.”

Interesting. “Well, he has only a few days left to make arrangements to assist us, but I think we’re right in assuming he isn’t going to. He refused to work with us until we threatened to walk and bring an enemy to the organization that is bigger and badder than you are. He said he needed two weeks to get things arranged and discuss with the powers that be to get approval. Now, it feels like he may be working to become an enemy instead of a supplier.”

“You threatened to walk? We have an arrangement-”

“And this arrangement doesn’t work for us anymore, especially after our women have been targeted and tortured. Now, we can make a clean break after we make the swap of Dimitri for O’Malley and call it a day.”

Laughing, Boris says, “If you leave us, you cannot sell from anyone else. Assuming anyone will work with you.”

“Yeah, we’re not sticking with that. And we told Ivan we have enough information on you guys to shift the authorities your way. We also know which INTERPOL men and women are in your pocket, so if you come for us, we will give up the bigger fish. Like I told Ivan, you are the bigger fish, Boris. And we have connections to an organization that would destroy you and smile while doing it.”

“You told all of this to Ivan already? That you have information on us and want to walk?”

“Just to be clear, we don’t want to walk away from the RIO because we’ve been very lucrative together. What we don’t want is your organization fucking yanking our chain and using us as the stateside scapegoat to whatever the fuck happened overseas. Our women are scared and don’t feel safe anywhere. The Slashers got into our fucking clubhouse and chained them to beds while we were in Church. To say it’s out of control is the fucking understatement of the century.”

A long pause comes from Boris’s end, but Jennings refuses to say anything. If they’ve been disconnected, so be it. If not, he’s not giving up his position. Right now, in this moment, he has the upper hand.

“What would we need to make this arrangement sufficient for you again? There have been clear mishandlings, and you know as well as I do that you are our largest client.”

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