Page 1 of Empire of Ache & Ruin

CHAPTER1

DO BRAVE DEEDS AND ENDURE

Tristan

“Your vodka martini, Mr. Archer.” The bartender sets my drink on the small table in front of me with a reverent nod.

“Thank you.” I unbutton my suit jacket and sit a little straighter. The scars on my back burn in anticipation. Tonight has to go as planned. “I’m waiting on someone. Leave the tab open, yeah?”

“Of course, sir.”

I glance down at my watch and simultaneously scan the swanky hotel bar on the Upper East Side. Over the years, I made it back to the States on business many times. But tonight, being home is about something else. How about that? After twenty years, I’m finally home.

“Tristan, look alive. The mobsters are here.” Gardenia, my hacker and childhood friend, speaks into my earpiece.

“Jesus.” I sit forward and sip from my glass to cover for the fact that her voice startled me. “I see them. And they’re not mobsters. They’re friends.”

“If you say so.” She lets out a breath.

Even though I can’t see her upstairs in her hotel room where she set up shop, I know she’s rolling her eyes at me. When I approached Gardenia with my plan a year ago, she was more than eager to pack up and move to New York City and help me. Though she never really got onboard with this part of the plan. Asking my friends Rex Valentino and Santino Buratti for help was a big gamble. Getting the Italian mob involved always carries a risk.

“They’re here to help.” I speak into my glass.

“Favors from the mob always come at a high price. You know that.”

“I haven’t asked them for anything yet. Relax.” I stand and button my jacket. “Shouldn’t you be watching my back instead of talking my ear off.”

“I can multi-task.” She types fast on her keyboard. “And here they are. Jeez, you didn’t tell me they were mega hot.”

I turn around just in time for my gaze to collide with the sight of the most intriguing woman I’ve ever seen. The sudden magnetic pull is…bewitching. From where I stand, I have the perfect vantage point. Her red dress falls in a deep v down her front exposing most of her shapely breasts. The silky fabric clings to the rest of her form as she enters the room with the grace of a delicate dove in flight.

The lust is immediate. Powerful. Alluring. In an instant, I can see her tight little body yielding to me, bending to my will. Problem is, I’m not here for her. I let her traverse out of my line of sight and focus on the task at hand instead—Rex and Santino.

While I greet Santino with an extended hand and a smile, the handful of patrons sitting at the bar and the scattered tables pause to stare at the beauty with the golden eyes. But it doesn’t take long before their collective attention shifts to my guests. Rex and Santino are not the typical businessmen. Danger oozes out of them.

Gardenia did her research before coming to the States. Rex is more than the reclusive billionaire-slash-sex club owner with politicians in his back pocket. And Santino is more than a real estate mogul with billions at his disposal.

I didn’t lie when I told my team they were friends. Santino and I met during his semester abroad in Oxford. He was the first person I told about what happened to Dad. And how, even at the young age of twenty, I couldn’t think of anything else but revenge. Seeing him again gives me hope that soon I will be able to set things right. My father’s murderer will pay for what he did. I’ve waited long enough. The wheels have already been set in motion, and now there’s no going back.

“You’re late.” I pat Santino on the back.

“We had business to attend to.” He points his chin toward Rex.

“This city doesn’t run itself.” Rex steps in and shakes my hand.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can we get some drinks?” Santino ambles to the bar. “We’re going to need a bottle of whiskey. Is this all you have?” He gives the bartender a disappointed look, pointing at the expansive selection of liquor lining the floor-to-ceiling shelves.

“We’ll take the Dalmore now.” I nod to the bartender, then gesture for them to take a seat.

“The man means business.” Rex sits on the club leather chair, smirking.

“You had me going all over England looking for that bottle just for this?” Gardenia scoffs in my ear again.

I sit across from Rex and Santino, cutting a quick glance to the security camera to our right. Even though we are childhood friends, Gardenia is more like a pesky little sister to me. But that’s not why I asked her to come work for me after she graduated from uni. Her hacking skills are the best back in the UK. Something that served us well on this little recon mission. In two days, she managed to infiltrate our hotel’s security system as well as the cameras covering the whole block.

“I want his head on a platter,” I say as soon as the server leaves to fetch our bottle.

Thirteen years ago, ever since Mom told me the truth about the burn scars on my back, how Dad died doing the honorable thing, why we lived most of our lives in hiding, I started to plot my revenge. The billions I amassed since graduation, the friends I collected most of my adult life, and even my education were all meant to serve this very specific purpose one day—to finally catch my father’s killer and make him pay.

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