Page 9 of Traitor
I blinked. “Yes. I am.”
His eyes locked with mine. “Well, I can assure you that I employ the only person that’s better at this game than you are. So, if you don’t mind, I need to get back to my business call with the only lawyer I trust. I’ve got a lot of kinks I need to work out, then I need to turn my attention to the highest bidder on your head. Guard.”
“No, no. No no no, don’t close the door. Just wait a second, Lorenzo!”
But, his bodyguard closed the door anyway, leaving me in the dark as I stood there in shock.
Someone better? He already had someone employed that was better? No way. No fucking way. I had confidence in a lot of things, sure, but if there was one thing I knew, it was my talent. My knack for being in a courtroom. My knack for seeing things others didn’t and using them to turn the tides for any client that hired me. There was no way in hell he had hired someone better than me. There was only one person better than myself at this game.
And there was no way on God’s green earth my mother would work for a man like him.
Right?
4
Mateo
I stoodon Lorenzo’s front doorstep for a while before I finally knocked. The entire journey here, I thought about my dinner with Ronnie. I thought about the seed I had planted and I wondered where in the flowering process that idea was. I knew it was risky coming here with the intention of opening my wallet. But, if money and power were the only two things Lorenzo was after, I could give him both.
Whatever amount he wanted for Char, as well as the ‘power’ over me he wanted to wield with her presence.
On the one hand, I didn’t like the fact that he wielded actual power over me with Char’s kidnapping. I wanted her back more than I could stand, if anything because I could only imagine the horrors she was putting up with underneath his ridicule and torturous tactics. I wanted to save her, yes, but it was more than that.
I wanted to whisk her away with me so she’d never have to endure the kind of hardship that came with my life ever again.
After raising my hand to knock again, the door whipped open, and there he stood in all his suited glory. A cheap suit, of course, but a suit nonetheless. And when his eyes swept over my body, I rolled my shoulders back.
A tactic I had learned from an incredibly resourceful woman.
“Come to grovel, I take it?” he asked.
I blinked. “Aren’t you at least going to invite me in?”
Lorenzo stepped off to the side. “Join me for a drink on the back porch.”
I stepped through the threshold and swept my eyes over all of the doors. None of them struck me as a place he’d stash Char, but I didn’t want to cross anything off my list yet. His house wasn’t nearly as expansive as my place, and as long as I could keep him entertained my men could easily sweep this place to find her.
I just needed to keep him occupied with negotiations.
“So, how are things?” Lorenzo asked.
I decided not to answer him and followed him out onto the porch. He poured each of us a glass of whiskey and I picked it up, not bothering to sit down. I threw it back and found him grinning at me from his seated position as he relaxed with his own drink. Sipping it, as if nothing were wrong.
As if the balance of the entire world hadn’t completely shifted.
“Won’t you sit and enjoy the view for a few minutes?” Lorenzo asked.
I cleared my throat. “I’m here to buy Miss Pettigrew back from you.”
His eyes slowly rose to mine. “I have to admit, I figured you would’ve already attempted to steal her back by now. She’s been with me almost a week.”
I cocked my head. “Just because you play dirty doesn’t mean I have to.”
He rose to his feet. “That a threat?”
I slid my hands into my pockets. “No. More like a judgement of personality. We’re two very different people and we play with two very different sets of cards. Nothing wrong or bad about that, just a simple fact.”
“She offered her services to me, you know.”
