Page 3 of Room One Hundred and Five

“Glad we are on the same page. Since we don’t wanna be here anymore than you do, let me get down to the nitty gritty. Seven point five million for an in and out job. Steal your father’s paintings, keep them hidden so you can do whatever insuranceclaim you’re going to do. You know there are easier ways to pay off gambling debts. Say… pull the money from your bank account and be done with it.” She looks all three of us up and down with a calculating edge to her appraisal of our attire, ending her evaluation with a pointed look at my ring.

“Astors are said to have enough money to buy this country if they wanted.”

Her gross assumptions can lead to misunderstandings that end up with people getting hurt. But I don’t have the time to school her, nor the back up muscle, on the dangers of believing every rumor they hear. They are only half true.

“Are you in or out?” I see no need to explain my actions more than I already have. A signed contract by her some-times employer is all that is needed. If it’s not her, it can be someone else.

“I’m in, but if you want me to safeguard the booty I lift and paint a bullseye on my ass, there’s a storage fee involved. You have shady people on your ass and I don't want them on mine without a little padding, if you know what I mean.”

“Hazardous pay,” Emilio grunts out his retort, pulls out a slip of paper and hands it to Big Red. I pop open the driver’s door ready to be done.

I point to the paper. “Use that for the vault. It changes every thirty-six hours, and the clock started twelve hours ago.”

Once we are in the car and moving to the upper level parking garage, Stefan finds his voice again.

“Are none of us going to talk about the bigger problem?”

I know what Stefan’s referring to. I catch his gaze in the rearview mirror. “I don’t see how it would help. My father doesn’t control Astor Enterprises anymore. I do. He can’t blackmail me into fathering a child so he can die happy knowing there’s another Astor in line for the throne.” It sounds ridiculous saying that out loud. I’m not about to pull an innocent woman into our world knowing she would be in danger for the foreseeable future.

I maneuver my Mercedes into our designated parking spot and kill the engine. We sit there in silence for a minute just staring at the cement wall in front of us. I know what we are all thinking. My older sister tried to please my father. The only thing her efforts earned her was an early grave for herself, her husband and their unborn child.

Our father promised her the holy grail and given she loved money it was an easy sell. He offered her the position at the helm of the family multi-billion dollar real estate and development business if she would give him grandchildren. He didn’t care about them having his last name. All he wanted was to go to his grave knowing my sister would leave Astor blood behind when it came her time to step down.

None of them took in account the rot built into the foundation of our family business. No one paid attention to the dangers within our own walls when they were passed over and the throne of the Astor empire was handed to my sister on a silver platter.

Watching the last part of my father’s soul leave his eyes when we buried her broke a part of me. I vowed to find a way to bring back life to the man who loved us with all his heart.

With the mounting debts, the cannibals wanting to devour our company from the inside out and the sharks looking to takeour place at the top, I don't think my promise is realistic. Not anymore.

Beside me, Stefan straightens his tie and fiddles with his cufflinks like he has something on his mind and wants to counter my thoughts. He doesn’t enjoy getting sentimental and frankly neither do I.

“You’re not thinking straight, Adrian. Your father is a lost man. We all miss Ashley. But damn. If we don’t do something to keep him from ruining the company, we might as well fold now, let them cut us up and sell off everything in pieces. Just…fuck.”

Stefan’s words drop off, lost in the freshness of Ashley’s passing like the rest of us, no doubt.

Emilio pulls out his silver lighter and flips the top open from the back seat.

Open. Closed. Open. Closed.

Click. Click. Click.

“Say what you have to say, brother.” I can’t take much more of the clicking and keep my cool.

“Emilio is right. Someone has to stop your father. He’s making enemies every damn day it feels like and we are the ones keeping him from getting an early grave. How long before someone tries to off us to prove a point to him?”

It wouldn’t be easy, but it could happen.

I nod. “I know. We’re going to fix this shit. Tonight was just the first step. Once we get our hands on the insurance money, we can bail out my father, get back on our feet and dust off the rubble and reclaim the power the Astor name once carried. Ifound a lawyer willing to get his hands dirty and dig up dirt on the snakes trying to rip into the company.”

The mood shifts in the vehicle to one of relief. “Good. When do we meet?”

“He’s set to come to the apartment upstairs tomorrow. He wants payment in cash.”

We’re trying everything to keep our heads above water while we dig out from under my father’s mistakes. I rake a hand through my hair. Some days I wake up wondering what would happen if I just dropped off the face of the earth and was never seen again. Stefan and Emilio would follow me, but it would leave their families devastated to never see them again.

“If giving your father a grandchild will settle him down, I don’t see the downside.” Emilio falls silent. I follow the change of topics and watch him turn pensive through the rearview mirror. He pulls a smoke out from a silver case and taps the end of it against the shiny metal a couple of times before meeting my gaze again. “Would having a family be so bad?”

His voice is rough with emotion. The pain buried in his tight expression eats at my soul. He’s given up so damn much to help me keep Astor Enterprises alive. Stefan has too. They’ve wanted a family for a while now and I’m tired of telling them it’s not the right time.

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