“Nothing else, princess,” I said, putting my hand on her thigh. “We just need to show them how badass you are, and how we’re going to crush Max. The rest will fall into place.”
“Perfect.” She grinned. “It’ll be cool to see some of the old guys again. I basically grew up around them. I can’t wait to show them how much I’ve grown.”
I kissed her temple. “They’ll be proud of you, just like I am.”
“Barf,” Ryuji said. “Let’s talk about our trip to LA. Want to hear about our hotel room?”
Leona snapped her head toward him and narrowed her eyes.
“Actually, I want to hear about this Felix guy,” I said. Ciel had sent the dossier on him to all of us. “Do you think we can trust him?”
Obi adjusted the rearview mirror but said nothing. It didn’t take a genius to know that something went down between them all and Kofler. Wynn and Ciel had alluded to some dark shit, but I still wasn’t sure of the truth of how they killed him.
I bet it was everything the fucker deserved.
She crossed her legs. “We’ve spent the last four days getting the quick and dirty overview of how Kofler’s operation worked.Felix definitely knows what he’s doing, but the question is whether or not he’ll turn around and stab us in the back.”
“That will not happen,” Obi said from the front seat, hands gripping the steering wheel.
Ryu huffed a laugh. “Better not.”
“What happened with Kofler that makes you so convinced?” I asked.
Leona frowned. “We had to kill him.”
Something about the way she saidwehad me sucking in a breath. “We? Who killed him?”
She hesitated. Ryuji nudged her knee from her other side. “Be proud of it, little vixen. You are a goddess.”
My eyes went wide as I took in Leona. “Youkilled him?” I turned a glare on Ryuji. “I thought you were supposed toprotecther. What the hell were you doing?”
“I handed her the knife myself. Showed her exactly how to slip it between his ribs,” he responded, eyebrow raised in a taunt. “She doesn’t need protecting. She needs unleashing.”
“You killed Kofler?” Wynn asked, turning in his seat.
“I had to make a point,” she said. “Nobody fucks with us.”
“That doesn’t mean you had to be the one to do it,” I replied. “They should have handled it for you.”
“She’s a big girl, she can do the dirty work herself,” Ryuji said.
“Are you fucking seri?—”
“Guys,” Wynn warned. “Stop.”
“Can we talk about Felix? I want to talk about Felix,” she said, her hands balling into fists in her lap. She avoided my gaze. “Obi’s going to stay in touch with him. He’ll send us updates, and we’ll visit once a month. Either he’ll come to New York, or we’ll go to LA. It should work out fine with Ryuji’s new club.”
Nobody replied, letting an awkwardness fill all three rows of the SUV.
“Are you okay?” Ciel asked her from behind us.
“Yep,” she said quickly. “We also sweetened Felix’s deal by giving him five percent of every successful deal he can broker and deliver. If all goes well after six months, that’ll raise to seven percent.”
Ciel whistled. “That’s a pretty substantial deal for him.”
“Yeah, well, hopefully it’ll keep him out of Max’s ear and firmly planted in ours.”
“Max will keep trying,” I said grimly. “Taking out Kofler will be a huge hit to his bottom line. If he can’t sell the guns, he’ll start to get more aggressive. We can also expect the Camorra Italians to put pressure on him. He’ll have no option other than to try and regain that business.”
