“Anyway,” Ryuji continued. “It’ll throw him off, and it won’t make him think we’re about to kill him.”
I shook my head. “And wecan’tkill him, Ryu. Not yet.”
His eyes glinted. “I can set up my .50 caliber and blow his chest apart. Easy.”
I leveled a look. “I know Max well enough to know he’ll have some sort of plan in place in case he dies. Killing him will only create more problems right now, especially if he dies in front of the board. That’ll be a giant mess without the reward we probably expect.”
“Leona is right,” Obi agreed. “The criminal underworld operates one way, but if we want to take full control over the Vero business empire, we have to operate within the rules of that sphere. Fight corporate fire with fire.” He paused, clearing his throat. “I have something to share about one of the other board members.”
“Yeah?” I raised an eyebrow, trying to contain the small smile on my lips. Obi?Talking? Heaven above, the world was about to end.
“I did a job for him a few years ago to solve one of his personal problems, and I knew having him as a contact would be beneficial one day,” he said. “We can use some evidence to blackmail him into supporting you.”
I chewed another bit. “But wouldn’t that make you look bad? Blackmail and all?”
“We must use whatever tools are at our disposal,” he replied with a shrug. “I formed the Shadows for this reason, to eventually use the work we did in way that would benefit me. As far as I’m concerned, this was exactly the plan from the beginning.”
Wynn tilted his head to the side. “I’ve always wondered how you decide what contracts to take and what to decline.”
Obi pursed his lips, glancing at me. I leaned back in my chair. “The facade has always been the highest bidder wins the contract. But that is not actually the case. I selected our clients based on what strategic benefit they could provide me in thefuture. If a bidding war increased the price of our services, there was no downside.”
Ciel crossed his arms over his chest. “Benefit for you? Not for us?”
He exhaled. “For me, in the past. For us, now.”
“But this board member?” Cas said. “You’re confident what you have on him can influence him to support Leona over Max?”
“Yes, if what he did were to go public, he’d lose everything.” Obi waved a hand. “He is a weak man. He will bend to our will. Though he does carry a lot of weight on the board. Once he outwardly supports Leona, others will follow.”
“Ciel, can you get information on the other board members?” I asked. We needed to know exactly what made them tick, especially if Max had any leverage against them already. I wouldn’t walk in there unprepared.
“I’ve already started,” he replied. “I’ll have a full report later today.”
I smiled, reaching across the table to grab his hand. “Thank you for working so hard.”
His blush went all the way to his ears, but he just nodded.
“We need to review the floor plans of the restaurant and make sure we can have all the exits covered in case anything goes wrong,” Wynn said.
“Yes, nowthatI have ready,” Ciel said. “Let’s make sure we all understand the complete layout and are ready to run if needed. We’ll play it on the safe side.”
“Cas and I have been there before,” I said. “We can walk you through it on top of the plans.”
Obi reached across the table to refill all our waters with a pitcher. “When we are finished eating, we will review them.”
“Okay, so Cas and I will go inside and talk to the board,” I confirmed. “I’ll get them to vote on giving me my father’s old seat. Once I have a seat on the board, I can start makingmoves to take control of the pieces of the business we can use—specifically, the construction jobs and transport routes we use for our gun trade.”
The rest of the guys nodded their agreement.
“Chip away at Max’s empire piece by piece,” Wynn said. “Once we take everything away, he’ll crumble.”
I grinned.
“Speaking of that, I think it is time we start approaching the other Families,” Obi said. “From the account numbers, we have the evidence that your father was paying Tommaso for his help in bringing the Albanians to the city. We can take that to them and show that by allying with the Tommaso Family, Volpe is just perpetuating the same issues. He is directly contributing to human trafficking.”
I rubbed my eyes with a sigh. “The account numbers give us leverage, for sure. But I swear, I have this gut feeling that Max is up to something.”
“The Albanians have been quiet here in New York,” Wynn said. “Do you think that’s related?”
