Page 59 of Bad Men

The enormous, oval table taking up the majority of the room could only hold the five leaders of each sector and their seconds. Nero and Alejandro were given seats for being who they were, and I just tagged along wherever Nero went. Officially, I shouldn’t have been there. Eduardo had nearly put his foot down when Nero had brought me along to a meeting the first time. Nero had insisted. He’d threatened to leave. Not just the room but the organization as a whole. He’d claimed me as a sidekick of sorts. No one argued why an enforcer needed an assistant. Now, I got to sit and watch grown men argue over turf and beef with the outside sectors. My old man would have been proud if he’d lived long enough to see me at the table. In all his time serving Eduardo, he hadn’t mounted to more than a runner, a common foot soldier. He’d never even seen the inside of Eduardo’s house.

I was still thinking about that when I took my seat. I kept my face blank, refusing to give those fuckers a chance to catch the scent of fear. I knew very well I was the odd man out there. I wasn’t a leader or the right hand of one. I wasn’t an enforcer. By all accounts, I was no one. I had no business there and yet, there I was, making myself at home. It pissed a lot of them off. Everyone there had worked their ass off to earn a seat. It was the reason many of them thought Nero and I were fucking. The fact that we’d frequently shared women in the past didn’t help that rumor. Both Nero and I were confident in our own sexualities so neither of us gave a fuck what anyone thought. In Nero’s case, he had the body count to deter people from outright saying anything so stupid to his face. I didn’t care. The thoughts of others were just not that important to me.

Carlo Ruiz, Eduardo’s treasurer entered the room, looking disheveled in his gray suit and tie. Eyes encircled by a thick, dark ring of exhaustion blinked behind thin, silver frames. They opened slowly and scanned the room until he spotted me. Without a word, or a smile, he circled the table and held out a bony hand. He waited with pinched lips until I set the cashbox into his open palms. His head inclined once in what I always assumed was his thanks before he shambled from the room without talking to anyone.

I knew nothing about the man, except he kept Eduardo’s books … both of them. He never stayed for the meetings and I guessed he seldom slept because he perpetually appeared beaten and on the verge of keeling over. Nero guessed he owed Eduardo money and this was his way of paying him back; Eduardo never forgave a debit, but if he could get something worth his while in exchange, he could be swayed to make an exception. If that were the case, Carlo got off lucky. It did, however, make me think of Mia’s offer to do Eduardo’s math. The recollection both amused and horrified me still.

“Davien.” Eduardo stalked into the room, halting all conversation as if a switch had been flipped. “Where’s Nero?”

I immediately straightened in my seat. “Running behind, Boss.”

A series of creases formed between Eduardo’s graying eyebrows, lines of disapproval that sent a chill through the entire room. “Tell him to hurry up. I will not tolerate tardiness.”

Bobbing my head in what I hoped was a respectful manner, I dug out my phone, praying Nero had responded to my question mark and I’d missed the chime.

I hadn’t.

The screen remained absent of everything, except an email from my car insurance asking if I wanted to extend my plan. I swiped it aside and unlocked the device. Nero’s message box came right up, my message to him unread.

“Is Mia okay?” I wrote, not bothering to add that Eduardo was losing his patience; Nero would already know that, and Mia was more important.

I waited, silently willing a response to appear. Around my cracked phone case, my fingers tightened, turning my knuckles white.

“Ah, Alejandro.”

Eduardo’s booming voice jolted me out of my thoughts to focus on the elegantly dressed man stepping into the room. His dark eyes went from our boss to me before returning without ever missing a beat.

“Boss.” He gave an inclination of his chin. “Forgive my tardiness.”

I ignored the bullshit and peered past him, hoping Nero was right behind him.

The doorway stood empty.

I peered down at my phone again. No time had passed since I’d checked last, but it did bring to mind a million other concerns.

Had Alejandro not taken Mia home? Had he hurt her? Was Nero still waiting for her? But why wasn’t he answering my messages? Had Alejandro done something to him as well?

I was on the verge of lunging out of my seat and making a run for my car when Nero strode into the room, long legs taking even longer strides to his seat. His dark eyes met mine in the faintest flick, all the assurance I needed to relax in my seat. Neither of us said a word when he pulled out his chair and dropped into it.

Alejandro was watching us from over Eduardo’s right shoulder when I glanced up. There was nothing in his expression, the hard lines were a blank slate, yet his eyes burrowed into mine with a knowledge that made my fingers curl beneath the table.

“Good. Everyone is here.” Eduardo shifted higher in his seat and surveyed the men around the table. “Let’s begin. Alejandro?”

With a smooth sweep of his gaze, Alejandro shifted his eyes to our boss and the meeting waiting to unfold.

“Thiago what’s the news on the shipment?”

Thiago Cortez was our captain. He ran our small patch. He’d done so badly since my dad was alive. The guy was sloppy and irrational. Too many years nose deep in his product had left him paranoid and unreliable, but he made money and that was all Eduardo cared about.

Joaquin, Thiago’s second in command, stood just over his shoulder, hands folded in front of him. His dark eyes were pinned to the back of Thiago’s skull as if the world’s most interesting movie was playing across the bald spot.

Joaquin was the guy who cleaned up after Thiago and the main reason Eduardo hadn’t killed Thiago years ago. He was the one who made sure the wheels on the rusty machine continued to churn, made sure the product got to where it was going and the money never got lost. I had no actual feelings towards the guy one way or another. He’d always struck me as a teacher’s pet, a little weasel who enjoyed lurking in the shadows of someone more powerful, but I admired his loyalty to a man who could barely tie his own shoes without support.

Thiago wasn’t an idiot. He was dangerous. His unpredictability had gotten more than a few people killed in the past. Yet, he wasn’t as bad as some of the others at the table. He definitely wasn’t stupid enough not to recognize the thin ice he was on when Eduardo waited for his answer.

Thiago wiggled in his seat, a nervous gesture that drew attention to the beads of sweat on his brow and the tremor in the hands he hastily shoved beneath the table. “It was in route—”

“Was,” Alejandro cut in without ever raising his voice. “Last week, we discussed the new shipment rolling into the harbor this Friday.” He glanced towards Thiago. “That shipment was intercepted this morning by the coast guard based on an anonymous tip. Why are we only just hearing about this now and not when your contact reached out to you this morning?”

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