Page 35 of Dirty Empire

“It’s too early to tell the gender, but I do say that women have an intuition about this kind of thing.”

Everything starts to feel real as I look at the screen. In several months I’ll be holding my newborn baby in my arms. She would call me Mom, and I would give her the world. Dr. Raina turns a knob on the machine, and the sound of a heartbeat fills the room. A tear rolls down my cheek. I couldn’t care less about the potential of this baby having Miles’s DNA because she’s my baby. The baby I never thought I’d be able to have.

“Would you like a copy?” Dr. Raina asks, referring to the ultrasound.

I nod my head. She turns the lights back on and gives me a tissue to wipe the goo off my stomach. She hands me two copies of the photos, and I put them in my purse. When I get home, I will hang them on my wall so I could see her every single morning.

Chapter Fourteen: Loose Ends

Maverick

As I walk back through the new building for the energy company, my cell phone vibrates. The building is coming along great. Demolition is over, which means walls are going up, and I can envision some of the layout.I pull my phone out of my pocket. The incoming call is from a private number.

“This is Maverick,” I answer.

“I’ve lost millions because of you.”

I don't recognize the voice on the other end of the line, but whoever it is, has some balls to come at me.

“You’re a dead man walking.”

“Oh, yeah? According to who?” I ask.

“According to me. You put me on blast. We had a good operation flowing.”

Who the fuck is this? I try to wrack my brain to come up with an answer. I always have enemies, but none that I can think of that I’d attacked recently. Then it hit me; the sting operation with Miles. It fucked a lot of people over. I put the arms trafficking business on blast. If someone were making a deal with Vladimir, they would have been fucked over since he was spending time in prison. They might not have known that Vladimir was in on the whole thing. Son of a bitch.

“All you had to do was keep your mouth shut.”

“Who the fuck is this?” I grit out. My fist clenched at my side. This shit is why I want out of the business. People like this who pop up, think they’re tough, and can take me on. They’re fools and inconvenient.

“Careful. Watch your step. I have people in positions that you don’t know about. And I know about your little girlfriend too. The rescue.”

So he must have had some involvement with either Miles or Vladimir. Maybe Vladimir fucked him over, and the blame was falling to me. Either way, the fact that the underworld is aware of my relationship with Hazel only served to piss me further off. The last thing I needed was a weakness.

“Bring it on. I’ll be waiting,” I say.

Click. The line silenced. My hands were shaking. Who the fuck is this? I stood there for a moment staring at the phone. What the hell was that about?

I storm out of the building, stepping around tools and walking past construction workers.

The black market industry is a dark and dangerous world at times. I knew that going straight would take some effort, but I didn't expect a hit this soon. I wasn’t quite sure how to react to this situation.

Should I be alarmed?Or was it someone just trying to rattle me?

Threats were one thing, but since he knew about Hazel, I can’t sit back and see how this panned out. I have to stop this before it becomes an issue. I’m in no position to go to war with anyone right now, especially over something I probably have nothing to do with. Once outside, I get into my car and call Mike.

“Boss,” he answers on the first ring.

“I just received an interesting phone call, actually a threat, from a private number. The voice was disguised with some kind of voice app.”

“I’ll get Freddy to run some triangulation diagnostics on your number, and I should be able to pinpoint the origin of the call. I’ll call you back shortly,” Mike replies.

I hang up and head back to the house. Whoever this was, he has to be an amateur. Anyone with some skin in the game would attack first. Threats were meaningless without action. You never want to give your opponent a heads up. It’s how Miles was able to storm onto my property.

Meet me in my office; I texted Mike before walking into the house. On my way to my office, I spot Hazel sitting at the dining room table. Her legs are pulled up on the chair. She’s wearing a pair of shorts that show off her tan legs. In front of her is a laptop and a notebook. She looks hard at work as if she’s planning something. She is probably planning to get away from me. I can’t blame her. She’s in danger right now, and she doesn't even know it. She would be safer away from me, away from all this bullshit.

I get to my office and sit in the chair. A few minutes later, Mike walks in.

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