Page 57 of Defiled Innocence

“That would work too, but not as much fun.” Another door shuts from his end. “You want me to find out the price?”

I sigh. Enough money exchanges hands just for me to get my shipments through that port, now I’ll probably lose half my profit on this order just to get it out of there.

The Kozlovs will never set up business in this city.

“Get me the number.”

“And other shipments? If the Kozlovs have gotten to the port authorities to get this order delayed, what’s to say they don’t do it again? What if they’re getting a cut of the bribe? Your cost ofdoing business here will go up. If they really want into New York, this won’t be the last attempt to get you and the Romanovs out of their way.”

“I thought you didn’t like dealing with the business end of this shit?” I question. Kost would sooner put a gun to a man’s head than try to negotiate a deal. While his way has proven to be lucrative for us in the past, it’s not the way I work. Keep things above board as much as possible. At first.

If a body has to drop, it will. I don’t fuck around, and if anyone tries to cross me, they find out quickly how I handle the bullshit.

It’s just not my first move.

“I don’t, but I know how this works.”

“Can you find out how close Yusef Zhukov is to this situation? If they are getting a cut of the bribe, there won’t be one.”

“I could have this handled in one night, you know.”

“Not yet.”

“Right. We’ll try it your way, but you know in the end, my way will get it done.”

I laugh. “I know it will, and then I’ll have to move operations to a new port.”

“You might, yes.”

“Get the information, but I think you’re right. We’ll probably need to go at this your way. Just not yet.”

“Fine. Your way first. Now. Tell me about this wife. You really married the woman?”

“I did.” I drop the pen and run my fingers over the edge of the desk.

Amelia hasn’t left my thoughts for more than a few moments today.

It’s been tempting to have Boris sit inside her building so I could have updates on what she’s up to, but I decided against it. She’d put her claws away last night with my family. Fightingwith her every day won’t prove to make a happy marriage, so I decided to give her space.

Not too much.

Boris sits outside her building to be sure there’s no issues. Just because the Kozlovs are keeping their attack on us in Russia doesn’t mean they haven’t deployed anyone to New York to make a personal attack.

“Why would you do that? You’ve gone this far in life with escaping the clutches of marriage, why ruin it now?”

“Maybe when you’re all grown up, you’ll understand.”

He grunts. “I’m thirty-three and I have the world by the balls. I’m as grown up as it gets.”

“Fucking your way through Europe and North America isn’t the legacy you think it is,” I snort.

“Asia, too. I was in Bangkok last month.” I can imagine the arrogant grin playing on his lips with that statement.

“I hope you see a doctor regularly.”

“One of the best.” He laughs. “You like this woman then?”

“She’s—” My sentence gets cut off by the door to my office flying open and banging off the wall.

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