Page 12 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
Then his gaze turned darker. “But you are also, in looks, in manner, in stubbornness, your father’s son. But I am not my father’s son. I am not a politician as my father is. I am not well-built and handsome and ladies do not find me attractive at all, as they do you. I am a man who wants to overthrow my father’s corrupt government and every government like it. From Servia to Kosovo. From Bosnia to Herzegovina. From Russia to Ukraine, I am the leader of a mercenary group who needs that arsenal you can provide for us. But I will not allow you or anyone else to take food out of my children’s mouths upfront, with nothing to show for it yet.”
“Nice speech,” said Niko. “Really nice speech. But what the hell does it mean? You don’t show up here and change the rules. We already decided the split. Half and half. Fifty million up front and fifty million when I deliver the goods. That’s already been decided.”
But Boris was already shaking his head. “Yes, in normal circumstances that is how it is done. But that will not do for us.This is our first collaboration with you. We know you can move the product for us. And indeed your ways are quite ingenious. But it is as yet untested. We cannot go half up front on a first collaboration. That would not be . . . What do you say? Prudent of us?”
Niko began to sweat. He only hoped Boris didn’t see it. He needed every bit of that fifty million upfront and he needed it like yesterday. His massive but stressed fashion house had agreed to merge with an even bigger corporate entity that would put his business back on sound footing after Covid walloped it. But the downpayment, the fifty million, was already due with a no-change deadline in forty-eight hours. He was relying on this deal to see it through.
“I have to have,” he started saying, and then caught himself. He had to contain his desperation. He needed that money so badly he could taste it, and now this clown was talking about giving up only a quarter upfront? “I was born thirty-one years ago. Not last night. So stop bullshitting me. We agreed to half on the front end and half on the back end. That’s the only reason I’m here because we agreed to those terms and those terms alone. That’s the deal.”
But Boris could see the desperation, and he was not above exploiting it. “What I do not understand is your sense of urgency, my friend. As you should know, I am not a man who enters into deals lightly.”
“Then why are you changing the terms?”
“I do my homework,” Boris continued as if Niko hadn’t interrupted him. “Your father is Marcellus Drakos, no? Is he not the aeronautics wiz? The jet maker? The billionaire? Is he not the brother of the powerful Alex Drakos?”
“They’re half-brothers,” Niko was quick to point out. “And even then in name only. They don’t even speak to eachother and never will. Had you truly done your homework, you would have known that little fact.”
“I would have known that half-brothers do not speak to one another?” Sarcasm dripped from Boris’s voice. “Oh I am so sorry to hear of such an unusual thing.” Boris and his partner at the table laughed.
Niko couldn’t believe his life had spiraled so out of control that he would be forced to do business with these buffoons.
“But even with a father of such esteem and with such Drakos pedigree,” Boris continued, “you scrounge around as if you are a pauper’s son. As if you have nothing but yourself and your dying company to rely upon. Or at least I assume it is dying given your need to deal with people like us. But why is that so, Nikolas? Or do they call you Niko? Does your father hate you, Niko? Are you not his favorite son, Niko?”
Nobody was his favorite son. He was a father who expected total loyalty from his children. In return they would get money, power, and position from him, but little else. Which, for most people, would be more than enough. But not for Niko and his siblings. They wanted the one thing their individual mothers had always wanted from their father, but their father had never been willing to give to their mother’s nor to them: They wanted their father’s attention. They wanted their father’s unconditional love.
Marcellus gave Niko and each of his siblings a one-time gift when they graduated college, and he made clear it was up to them to take that money and sink or swim. All of his siblings banked their money and decided to swim with their father: They all worked for him. And they all were doing well for him. But even they didn’t have fifty million dollars laying around to toss his way, and he’d never ask them to toss it anyway. But that was what he needed, and every dime of it, just to keep that merger on track.
And his father? He’d remove his name from his mouth if he ever found out that a son of his had allowed himself to fall into such dire straits. He was hard like that, and the older he became the harder he got. “My father is not an option,” Niko said. “He’s off the table.”
Boris smiled. “Not an option. Off the table. What an odd way of speaking of one’s own father. How can your own father be off the table? I have never heard of such a thing.” Then he shook his head. “You Americans,” he added, and he and his partner grinned again.
But Niko shot back. “Coming from a man who wants to destroy his own father,” he said, “that’s rich.”
That comment caused that grinning look to leave Boris’s face. But Niko couldn’t care less. He was responding to Boris’s fascination with who his father was only to buy himself some thinking time. He had to figure out a way to convince Boris to give that fifty up front or the deal would be meaningless to him. The merger would fall through. And that wasn’t going to happen.
He entered the fashion world when he was twenty years old, as soon as he got that inheritance from his father, and he never looked back. Despite some hiccups along the way, he made it to the top and stayed there for nearly five years. But when Covid hit and subsequently after Covid, he’d been on a downward trajectory.
But he still knew how to roll. He’d been around backroom deals even before his inheritance. Although he and all of his siblings shared the same father, most of them had different mothers. And each one of their mothers were the kind of lovesick ladies who all seemed to care more about keeping their powerful father in their beds rather than getting away from him in the best interest of their children. But whenever their father was around, which was almost exclusively during their always-required monthly family dinners, he taught themall about the ruthlessness of bargains. And the one thing Niko leaned above all else was to drive the hardest bargain at all times, and to stay on that pedal no matter what. To never slow down. To never back down. To be willing to walk away even if it meant losing momentarily. Strength and nothing but, according to their father, always won out in the end.
But what Niko never learned was what to do when this was your last hope, and walking away wouldn’t mean a temporary loss, but an out and out permanent collapse of all he’d built up?
But he had to rely on what his father taught him. “Take it or leave it,” he said with clenched teeth, projecting that strength, “because a deal is a deal. Fifty million up front like we agreed, and fifty million when I deliver the shipments. And you know my track record. I will deliver.”
It sounded great, but Niko’s heart dropped when he realized Boris was more than willing to leave it.
“Take it or leave it,” Boris said as he and his partner stood up. Niko stood up too.Never let them see you sweat. But it was obvious he was sweating, physically and metaphorically.
Then Boris smiled. “Take it or leave it,” he said again. Then he frowned. ”Who do you think you are dealing with? I eat and spit out men like you for breakfast. Take it or leave it you say to me as if I am your punk. I tell you what. Not only will I not take it, but guess what? I am taking you.” Then he nodded at his bodyguard. “Get him,” he ordered as he was turning to leave.
But Niko had been in tough spots many times since he’d been dealing with unsavory characters like Boris and his partner. He knew he had to act fast or he wouldn’t get the chance to act at all. He jumped over the table, knocking Boris to the floor. As the bodyguard and the second man at the table all were coming for Niko, he pulled out his own gun and quickly moved Boris in front of him, to use him as his human shieldwhile he was getting on his feet. Boris’s bodyguard and his partner both had their guns drawn in the crowded club where nobody seemed to realize what was happening right away, but they couldn’t fire on Niko. Boris was in the way.
Niko took full advantage of the crowd and hurried backwards, his gun on Boris’s men and Boris as his shield, until he got to the exit doors. “Come out and I’ll kill him,” he yelled to Boris’s men and they stopped their progression. Then he removed Boris’s gun, threw it across the club, and walked out backwards with an angrily cussing Boris as his prisoner.
When he backed all the way to his blood-red Ferrari Roma, he turned Boris around, punched him so hard he fell backwards, and hopped in and took off.
He could see Boris’s men coming out and shooting as they ran toward his vehicle, but he was out of that parking lot and already near the end of the street before any of their shots stood a chance.
It looked like a clean getaway.
