Page 26 of Knights Game

“Why those?” Andrew Black asks, wincing as he shifts in his chair.

“Because I’ve shown an interest in them.” The Albanians watch all of us, it’s one of my men’s favourite games to give them the run-around.

“You are not next in line, Levi is,” Ricardo Langley says. “What authority do you have to be looking into ports on behalf of the Covenant?”

“Neither are you, Ricardo, but here you are.” He stares at me unamused, his posture screaming superiority. “In answer to your question, my own. I may not be next in line for the Westons—”

A whisper interrupts me. I shoot a bored look at William Kenton, who is now sniggering at this own joke.

“If you have something to say, William, use your big boy voice.”

“I said, ‘Thank God’.”

Roman shifts but I shake my head, a smirk tugging at my lips.

“And thank you for that riveting thought,” Levi says, bored, “but let’s let the grown-ups continue, shall we?”

“But what is needed is for the survival of my family, for this organisation—”

“You’re not even a Weston. The fuck you doing here, anyway?” William repeats.

I look to Robert who says nothing, then to everyone else in the room that allows this little turd stain to disrespect me and my name.

“Roman.” His name has barely left my lips, and a gun is pointed at William’s head from where Roman stands at the front of the room.

Chaos erupts around me as everyone at the table pulls guns out and aims them at me and Rome.

Everyone but John and Levi.

“Put a leash on the boy, and we’ll put the guns down,” I declare. “I’m trying to help you, as you seem to be incapable of helping yourselves. You have done nothing but watch for the last six months.”

Angry murmurs fill the room, and again my uncle holds up his hand.

“Luca may not be my direct heir, but he is my blood, he will be respected, and he will be listened to.”

John is a formidable force, even at sixty-eight. His bulk is still huge, and he’s still smart, but he’s lost his edge. The men in the room can’t see that, or don’t want to see that. Because it means admitting that they have all lost their edge.

“All I ask is that you give Luca ten minutes. Ten minutes to lay out a way forward, then we vote. So put your guns down, and, William, shut your mouth, before I let Roman cut your tongue out.”

“Now hang on a m-minute, John,” Robert stutters.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, this is ridiculous. Luca, carry on. William will keep his mouth shut, he is here to learn and listen. Let’s let his balls drop before inviting him again, shall we, Robert?” Asher Black says, putting his gun away.

The other men nod as a few chuckles are released, and the atmosphere relaxes.

“Thankfully,” I start again, “Matteus Garcia and I have already made a deal, and men loyal to the Covenant are already in position within the Nexus ports. You pay 22,500 pounds per kilo—the Albanians pay between four thousand and 5.2 thousand pounds, due to their business model. As it stands, we are unable to compete. That’s because we use wholesalers. Middlemen who up the prices.”

“The Dutch,” Levi adds helpfully.

“The Albanians have shown their hand, they want to disrupt our supply chain, and are leveraging their existing business model to create a new relationship with the Garcias. With men already in the Nexus ports it’s going to make shipment harder for them, they have routes from South America, not Europe,which makes it easy for us to disrupt their operations as we already have a stronghold there.”

“What about the Thames Freeport?” Terrance asks. “Surely getting it straight out from Italy reduces the risk of transporting across Europe?”

“There’s already a turf war between the Sokolov families, you idiot,” Levi snaps. “We don’t need to add the Russians into the equation to complicate things.”

“Let the Russians keep the Thames freeport,” I continue. “We need to prioritise these three.” I pull up the map where I have them circled. “With the Blacks’ distribution companies, we’ll be able to get the shipments into the UK and in turn the main cities, including London. We just need to make sure we aren’t consistent in our movements which should reduce the risk of any interception, government or Albanian.”

“But that doesn’t stop the Albanians and the Garcias’ business venture,” Robert points out.

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