Business Arrangement

Part 7

CHAPTER 7:

THEY SAY THE youngest in the family is the most innocent. The one who trusts all, believes all and always does what they're told. It couldn't be more backwards in my family. Mother played a game of chess with me every night, not Lauren-who preferred sneaking out to party with friends who liked her only because of the desirable interest in paparazzi and with Astrid, she was different in a way she preferred reading and business work with Dad. See, my parents weren't uptight snobs who freely handed me over to the madman of a mobster, who was right now trying real hard to find a way to kill me and make it look like an accident.

I was practicing my chess when he flew past like a machine on steroids in the living room of my parents villa, his expression a menacing contrast to the cold stoicism flickering on Archer's and Darren's, "How could you have gotten access to my aircraft five thousand miles away?!" He asks me, voice a deep guttural sound that whacks against the walls of the villa.

I move a pawn and write down the step.

He struts forward and slams his hands on the table, rattling my work.

Before he slaps it all down to the floor.

I lower my notebook down on the table and raise a hand to stop Philip and two of my other guards from stepping in as caramel eyes fume above me, "Gangster males are referred to as the most related to Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens, do you want to know why?" I ask him, tilting my head at him.

"You destroyed two of my planes. Do you fucking think this will stand, bitch? That and you will explain to me in great detail what the hell you did to me to make me tell you-" I cut off his ripped dialogue of useless demands and genie-in-the-bottle wishful thinking.

"-the truth? You spilled too much of your plans, and now I'm less inclined to fall in love with an abominable snowman who flails his hands without claws? Without sharp teeth? You're almost thirty and still have no idea who's in charge here. See, what am I benefiting here now that you're inner motives have become hysterically clear? You obtain power based on a woman hanging off your arm, I think you should feel angrier towards your gangland council due to the fact they don't see you with power on your own podium, don't you think?" I ask him, leaning back in my seat.

His left eye twitches.

I give him a shrug, standing slowly and walking around the table, "It's caveman textbook, and honestly insulting for men. I am betting men run the organisations and prefer harems, don't they?" I snort, rolling my eyes as I move to my shelf and climb up the small ladder, pulling out a book titled 'Cosa Nostra'-and I turn to face him.

He stares at me in disbelief.

I show it to him, "Textbook-step one, and this is hilarious, find a woman." I point to the page, it definitely doesn't say it, but he snatches it from me, reads the sentence and then looks up at me with a deadpanned, dry look that colours the overall 'caveman' look.

Darren grabs the book from him, "There are books on the historical factors of-are you shitting me?" He whispers, breathing it all in as Archer raise both eyebrows at the sight of lists of names inked in italics on the next page.

Ender stares me down, "What did you give me to make me talk?"

"Trade secret." I accent, gesturing with the pinch of my fingers.

He grabs my wrist in a taut move, but I twist out of the hold before it could get strong enough to render me in his grasp. His nostrils flare like an elephant trained to kill, and yet scared of mice, I slide in a move he won't expect and pinch a spot beneath the bicep, knocking his wrist. I steal one of his rings while he's occupied with the numbness in his arm and pocket it while he grits his teeth and suddenly narrows his eyes.