Page 112 of Arranged Obsession
My father’s sitting at the head of the table. Padraig Whelan seems like a man carved from granite. His eyes are hard and slate blue, and his mouth is set in a perpetual scowl. Beside him to his left sits Adriano Marino, much younger, though more physically imposing. He’s large and handsome with a piercing stare.
At the other end of the table is Ruslan Morozov. He’s sitting back in his seat, hands folded over the slight swell of his gut. Taras is on his right side, and I swear, the Russian general flinches when I give him a tight smile. I’m tempted to wave, but that’d be a little bit too much.
I take a seat in the space between the two parties, entirely at ease.
“The details of the venture are going to matter,” Ruslan’s saying, looking unhappy. “But I understand the merits.”
“We’ve spent a long time hammering out exactly how this is going to work,” Adriano says. He glances at my father. “I believe we’ve settled on a very profitable business model.”
“Absolutely,” Dad agrees.
“But cutting you in should be fairly straightforward.” Adriano pushes a folder over to Ruslan. I pass it along down to the Russian Pakhan. He gives me a look, head tilted curiously, but looks back down at the papers.
“The split seems equitable,” he murmurs, lips pressed together as he hands pages over to Taras. “Generous, given the situation.”
“We see this as a long-term proposition,” Dad says, doing his best to sound like he means it. Meanwhile, I know for a fact that he wanted to make Ruslan suffer, and it was Adriano who convinced him to take this alliance seriously. “With your source of product added on to the Marino’s already generous portion, we’ll have enough income over five years to control the entire city.”
“Assuming the other families sit back and do nothing.” Ruslan snaps the folder shut. “This is good. Better than I expected.”
“We know,” Adriano says simply. “What we’re offering is a bit of a good faith test. Padraig will release your product from his custody, and you will be allowed to use our delivery network to sell on our territory. If that goes well, we’ll move on to next steps.”
“This is apparently preferable to killing each other,” Dad adds with a dramatic shrug. “Although I can’t see how.”
Ruslan laughs, a dark glint in his eye. “We so do love a good murder.”
“Killing is expensive.” Adriano doesn’t look amused. “Do you know how much it costs to get rid of one body? To bribe the police? To make sure witnesses keep their mouths shut?”
“I don’t leave witnesses and I’m good at making corpses go away for very cheap,” I say helpfully.
Everyone stares at me. That was probably not the right time.
Adriano shakes his head and continues as if I hadn’t spoken. “War costs too much. Even if you win, which you won’t, you will fucking lose. I’d rather shit on a gold toilet than kill a bunch of dumb assholes.”
“I do love gold,” Ruslan agrees, nodding slowly. “It’s a good offer. But there are problems.” He holds up a finger. “You killed my nephew. You killed my accountant. These things are big problems for me.”
“I’ll send their families a condolence card,” I offer, smiling sweetly.
Dad gives me a look. “Not the time, Cormac.”
“Just trying to be helpful.”
“We can’t compensate you for those losses,” Adriano says. I like the Don of the Marino Famiglia. He’s all business. I can see a bit of my feather in him, though she’s light and pure, while he’s just another miserable bastard. “However, this deal will more than make up for it.”
“Yes, perhaps, but I have a demand.” Ruslan stares at me, cold and brutal, before looking to my father. “I have a young daughter. She’s very pretty. Very smart. Maybe a bit too willful, but—” He makes a sweeping gesture. “What can you do? Nobody is perfect.”
Dad’s eyes narrow. “What do you need for her?”
“A husband, actually.” Ruslan’s smile is vicious and he laughs at the surprised look on my father’s face. “What, you think only the Italians want to marry their daughters off? I’m not a stupid man, Padraig. I can see how this little deal can fall apart a thousand different ways. But if one of your sons marries my daughter? That could be worthwhile. That would go a long way toward quieting dissent in my organization.”
I’m tempted to tell him to fuck straight off. The idea of my brothers marrying a Russian Bratva princess makes my skin crawl. But this time I keep my mouth shut, and my father finally speaks.
“We’ll discuss that more soon. But I’m open to the idea.”
“Wonderful.” Ruslan claps his hands together, grinning amiably. “Then I accept your proposal.” He says something to Taras in Russian. Taras gets up and walks to a bag leaning against the wall. Everyone tenses as he reaches inside, but he only brings out a big bottle of vodka, grimly uncapping the top and pouring shots into glasses. “Now we drink to consummate our beautiful new relationship!”
The meeting ends with lots of toasts to good health and way more alcohol than is reasonable. The Russians leave first, nearly stumbling out together. I’m tempted to kill them here and now and be done with all this, but I think my wife wouldn’t be happy about that, considering how it would only prolong the war. I end up alone in the hallway with Adriano while my father escorts Ruslan to the elevators.
“I didn’t expect that to go so well.” He stares off after the Russian, shaking his head with a deep frown. “I have a feeling this alliance won’t be so simple.”
