Page 37 of Vicious Rule

The image of my father finding out about what I’m doing behind his back with Nico flashes through my mind, and it takes every ounce of willpower not to wince. Helix Rule isn’t a man to fuck with, but he’s kept me under his thumb for far too long. Anyway, it’s not like I’m stabbing him in the back or planning to take over the family. I just want a little piece of the action for my own, something I can pad my bank account with just in case a rainy day comes along.

“Not at all.”

“Great! Have you thought any more about the women? Guns and drugs are all fine and good, but they don’t bring in anywhere as much as selling women does.”

I fucking hate the idea of trafficking women. Hell, I’d hate the idea if it was men. People are messy. They come with emotions that get in the goddamned way. Guns and drugs are simple. What anyone does with them once I take my money has nothing to do with me.

But women are a completely different story. Women cry. They beg. They plead for freedom and make life a living hell if you can’t ignore them, which I’ve never been able to, unfortunately.

“I’m really not looking to get into that right now,” I say, hedging my answer slightly so as not to scare him off. “Anyway, your family already handles that in this part of the country. Don’t you think they’d be pissed if they found out we were competing against them? I’m not trying to step on any toes here.”

My father’s order to get rid of all the Olivetti family echoes in my head as I say that to Nico. They likely won’t be around long enough to retaliate for the two of us disrespecting their turf.

Still, I don’t want to be involved in selling people.

Nico waves off my concerns, strangely enough. “My family has more than they can handle. They’d thank us for taking some of these women off their hands. But it doesn’t matter since they won’t know who’s behind the deals anyway since we’re keeping everything hush-hush.”

I can’t put my finger on why, but something about this feels off. It’s not a moral thing. I don’t give a fuck about morals. Never have. No, this is something darker.

He’s up to something. But what?

“I’m not sure. This is supposed to be a side gig for me, not something that gets a target put on my head when your father and brothers find out a rival is part of the reason they’re losing money.”

Throwing his head back, Nico laughs. “If you think you’ll be a target of their anger, imagine what would happen to me. I have to live with all of them. No, they’ll never know. Trust me.”

The last thing I plan on doing is trusting Nico Olivetti, but it’s obvious he wants our business arrangement to include trafficking women. So if he wants it that badly, let him handle it.

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll deal with the guns and drugs, and you deal with the women. That way both of us get what we want. Sound good?”

His slight frown tells me he isn’t entirely pleased, but he agrees to my terms. “Okay, I’ll handle the women. That probably works best since we’re focusing on what each of us knows.”

I stand from behind my desk to walk around to escort him to the door. “Excellent! Let’s meet in a few days once you get your side of our business going. I’ll work on my side in the meantime.”

As we shake hands, he says with a sly grin, “Don’t forget to pay attention to that beautiful woman of yours. You wouldn’t want to lose her.”

“Not to worry. Sasha and I are inseparable.”

What I want to say is I don’t ever want to hear her name in your fucking mouth again.

When he leaves, I pour myself a stiff drink to take the edge off my anger. He needs to watch his step when it comes to her. I’m not going to tolerate his comments about her much longer.

I hear the door open and see Sasha staring at me with a look of complete suspicion. She may be perfect in nearly every way, but this curiosity about what I’m up to with Nico is starting to get on my nerves.

“You know, this not including me in your meetings with him makes me wonder what you’re up to. As I keep having to say lately, I’m supposed to be your right hand, Alex.”

Downing the rest of my scotch, I keep the angry words I want to say to myself. Kissing her, I say, “Trust me. It’s nothing. Boring work stuff. Nothing I need your help with.”

She grimaces and opens her mouth to say something that’s probably going to piss me off, so I kiss her again and slide my hand down to cup her ass. “Don’t sulk. You told me you didn’t like being around him, didn’t you? I’m just trying to do what you want.”

Sasha levels her disbelieving gaze on my face. “Do you expect me to believe that? Jesus, Alex. You really must think I’m stupid.”

“Not stupid,” I say as I give her ass another squeeze. “Not at all. Now don’t we have better things to do than talk about another man?”

She studies my expression through eyes like slits and shakes her head. “Just tell me you aren’t doing something that’s going to get us killed. Can you tell me that?”

I have no intention of dying anytime soon, and I certainly don’t want anything to happen to her either. My life is full of danger, but I think I can be honest when I say to her that nothing I’m up to will get us killed.

“Tell you what. I’ll do you one better. Not only am I not doing anything that’s going to get us killed, but when this partnership begins to pay dividends, I’ll have even more money. How about I promise to take you somewhere incredible once that happens?”

---