“You underestimate yourself.”
He really didn’t. Cooper was skilled enough, but there were more talented people out there than him. “Are you going to tell me what I’m doing here?”
“You’re joining my team. You passed the initiation already.” Red gave him the same strange, dead-eyed smile. “Congratulations.”
“I already have a job, thank you.”
“Yes, I know all about your little Russian family business.” Red leaned forward, invading Cooper’s space. He smelled like menthol but not of smoke, as if maybe he’d been sucking on medicated cough drops before he’d come in. “Aren’t you tired of managing small tasks for petty gangsters? What you do now is small potatoes. What I’ll be using you for will make us millions upon millions upon millions.”
A chill ran down Cooper’s spine. It was never good when that much money was on the table. He’d learned that over the years. He started subtly testing the restraints again, even though he knew it was a lost cause. “How do you know so much about me?”
“We have a mutual friend. Said he had a little hacker, talented but meddlesome.” That smile of Red’s was really beginning to creep Cooper out. “You must have really pissed Sergei off.”
Cold dread sank in Cooper’s gut. Sergei. Here it was, then. His retaliation from beyond the fucking grave.
“Sergei’s dead,” Cooper said with a calmness he didn’t feel. He didn’t like thinking about how Sergei had died. If he thought about it, he could see it, and it hadn’t been a pretty sight. A bit anticlimactic, though, for all that there’d been fountains of blood spraying everywhere. Sergei hadn’t even had to beg Ivan for his life.
Would Cooper beg Red? Probably. His pride wasn’t stronger than his survival instinct, he didn’t think.
Red didn’t even flinch at the news. “What a shame,” he said dryly.
“You’re still not going to let me go?” Cooper asked, already knowing the answer.
“No.”
Cooper sat with it all for a moment, considering the computers in front of him, the Mafia background this man must have had to have been in Sergei’s circle of communication. He thought of what he knew of RedRabbit, before he’d known him to be Red.
Cooper knew this type.
“You want me for what? Data breaches? Ransomware? Siphoning off bank accounts?”
Red shrugged a shoulder. “How about all of the above?”
“Why do you needmespecifically?”
Another shrug, although it was belied by the intensity of Red’s gaze. “You dropped into my lap. And I meant it before—you’re good. You have a reputation, even among those who don’t know the gangsters you play with. And if this goes south—and it’s more likely a matter of when, isn’t it, in this day and age?—then you’re the perfect scapegoat, given your background.” He gave a little smile, like he was confiding in a friend. “I wouldn’t do well in prison, I’m afraid.”
Cooper swallowed. “And if I refuse?”
The smile dropped. “I kill you and find someone else.”
Well, cool. There was the panic again. “Why don’t you just send me home?” Cooper asked, hoping he sounded less frantic than he felt. “No harm, no foul.”
Oh God. Panic was making him talk like a frat boy.
Red shook his head. “Oh, but I made a gentleman’s agreement, you see. Sergei wanted you gone, one way or another.”
“Sergei’s dead,” Cooper repeated.
“I believe you. But the family he was working his way into are still around, even if your boss…wounded them. I’m not planning on making enemies this early by reneging. On top of that, you’ve seen my face. You know one of my handles. I don’t trust you on your own.”
“Youchoseto show me your face though. It didn’t happen by accident.”
Red shrugged again. Unapologetic. Unbothered.
“That’s…pretty ruthless.”
Red cocked his head. “Given our mutual connection, you must realize you and I have similar business backgrounds. We’ve worked for similar men. You can’t be around people like that for long without catching a little ruthlessness.”
