6. Roman
SIX
ROMAN
“WELL, LOOK WHO THE CAT drug in?” Jade quips with that smart-ass mouth of hers. Her delicate heart-shaped lips would be sort of appealing, if I didn’t look at her like anything more than an annoying little sister and a competent assistant.
I admit that I look like shit.
I need a shower and a shot of something in my coffee, but I don’t have time for all of that before I meet with the old man. Joseph’s going to want to be assured that I have things handled.
“Is that how you greet the man who’s paying your rent?” I kid with Jade.
“You pay my salary, not my rent,” she says as she hands me a fresh cup of black coffee.
“Potato, potahto.”
The door to the conference room shoots open and two mounds of muscle who closely resemble each other barge into the room.
“The King brothers are here!” The younger, louder one named Cutter yells out like the town crier. “Knucklehead,” I respond, giving him a strong hug and handshake combination.
I give a simple head nod to the other brother, Camden, as he takes a seat in one of the large conference chairs by the window. His body language speaks volumes. He’s all about business today and is trying to exude an air of dominance in the room. He’s getting mentally prepared for Joseph, my father, someone who is not one of his favorite people right now.
“Boys,” Jade greets them with a smirk.
“Hey,” they both reply in unison. “Wassup Jade.”
The King brothers and I work for my father and the company, which he founded, Masterson & Associates (us being the associates). We are for lack of a better word “fixers.” We spend our days getting spoiled celebrities and other wealthy people out of trouble, and that’s a messier job than you would imagine. Not slick and glamorous like that chick on the television show Scandal made it look.
Jade works as a sort of an all-purpose assistant for the three of us, which basically means that she keeps us on point and runs interference between the three of us and my father a lot.
When I met her, we were teenagers, and she was getting beat up on a regular basis by her low-life ex who was addicted to painkillers and using her to fund his habit. She loved him, but thankfully she loved herself more, and didn’t go back to him after I beat the hell out of his high ass. I don’t have a lot of patience for addicts, probably because of my mommy issues, but that’s another story for another day. Jade and I have been friends ever since. In fact, she is probably one of my only true friends. Her and the Kings.
“You look like shit on a stick,” Cutter says to me while laughing heartily.
“What did you tell him?” I ask Jade to purposely ignore Cutter’s observation. “Where did he go?”
“Where did who go?” The cool as ice voice asks from the doorway.
With my back towards the all too familiar voice, I walk around to the buffet table to grab a handful of M&Ms out of a plain and slightly dented silver candy dish.
“Morning, Joseph,” I say half-heartedly to my father as a I loosely shake a few of my favorite candies in my fist then pop them into my mouth one by one.
“Morning? It’s damn near the afternoon. Why are you late, Roman? I believe you called this meeting.”
Standing tall with a stern look in his eyes, even at my age, my father still intimidates me. His salt and pepper hair and impeccably tailored three-piece suit make him appear quite formidable, and of course I’ve seen firsthand the rage that simmers behind that cool exterior of his. Jade quietly leaves the room as she always does when we have meetings, unless the old man requests her to stay.
“Had some stuff come up,” I say coolly.
“Stuff,” he repeats flatly, as if he’s annoyed.
I’m used to his disapproval, though. Joseph hates the fact that no matter how successful he is and how much money he makes, that I still sound like everyone from the old neighborhood. Full of excuses, he says. Our old neighborhood, and the people in it, is a place he would very much like to forget. Me, not so much. No matter how much money I make, I always want to remember where I come from. Unlike Joseph, I’ve never been ashamed of it.
Camden keeps a close but quiet eye on the old man as he smoothes his tie and takes a seat at the conference table.
“I called the meeting to discuss the MTV event, Johnson’s DUI, and to also assure all of you that things went smoothly at the club last weekend. We’ve got Henson right where we want him,” I say.
“And where’s that?” Camden asks sarcastically.
I really wished what’s her name had taken care of my Elizabeth problem, because I’m so fucking wound up by it, that I’m seriously considering beating the crap out of Camden just for being a smartass. I don’t need his attitude right now.
“Ready to sign the shittiest ass deal ever and sign over the club like we agreed,” I say.
The tension is practically bouncing off the walls of our small conference room. Camden’s mood sucks, Cutter is potentially a loose cannon, and I’m not in the mood for anybody’s shit. I hope that Camden can see that without me having to spell it out all across his face. We used to wail on each other for fun when we were kids, but we’re not those boys anymore. We’re grown ass men.
Camden smirks. “You mean the agreement to sign the club over to Joseph here?”
My father rises smoothly to his feet. “Is there something you want to say to me, Camden King?”
I watch Cutter shift in his seat a little. He’ll go ape shit if he thinks his brother is being threatened, although that doesn’t bother Joseph in the least. He knows I won’t let that happen. Regardless of my issues with the old man, he is my father and the boss. I won’t let tempers get out of hand.
“I just need it to be crystal clear who and what we’re doing all this work for,” Camden says.
“You work for me. You have always worked for me. I AM this business, and if you don’t want to work for me any longer, all you have to do is say the word. I have no interest in employing unhappy people.”
I have considered the fact that there is a small possibility that Camden and Cutter are speaking directly with someone at a competing agency behind my father’s back. Few can be trusted in this game, and not everyone can get things done like we can. We rarely fail at what we do, and that’s a big commodity in this game. I can see how another agency might assume that the boss’s son isn’t going to go anywhere, but that perhaps the King brothers could be persuaded to leave Masterson & Associates. I just hope that isn’t the case. I have no interest in finding out that two of my oldest (and only) high school friends would be so willing to stab me in the back. I think I’d rather live in ignorance.
“Is that right, Joseph? You care about my happiness? About my brother’s happiness?”
Camden is leaning back in the chair with his arms crossed and legs stretched out in front of him. I feel like I’m missing something. I know Joseph gets under his skin sometimes, but now I’m starting to wonder if something else is going on between them.
Joseph squints his eyes at both brothers. “I care as much as I should care about an employee.”
Cutter’s fists are clenching. He’s going to blow if I don’t diffuse the situation.
“I’m meeting with Henson in a few hours,” I interject. “I need to run if I’m going to look half decent before I get there. We’ll talk about the awards show and the DUI later. You’re fine with the contract details right, Joseph?”
There’s a moment of silence in the room as each man is considering what they are going to say or possibly do next. Joseph smoothes his tie again and turns his head to look at me. I know him. He’s giving me the Masterson once over. Observing my body language. Trying to assess if there’s anything I’m hiding. I know it well, because I do the same thing to men every day. Sometimes it’s so fucking clear where I get my trust issues from. I’m not hiding anything though. I just want him to get the hell out of the room before somebody blows.
“The details are fine. Of course, if you can negotiate less, then do so, but make it look believable. It can’t look like a shakedown. We’re not mafia or gangsters. We’re business owners.”
I know all of this already. He’s drilled the art of our brand of business negotiation into my head a hundred times, but I still nod my head to him in understanding and respect.
“Got it.”
Then I walk over to the safe and get my gun. A five-year-old Beretta that’s never failed me yet. While I’m checking the chamber for bullets, Joseph walks up behind me.
“I need to speak with you briefly about family business.”
“All right.”
I give Camden and Cutter a look that asks them to leave the room, and frankly I’m relieved because that means that I don’t have to give Camden my “what the fuck” speech, because I don’t feel like giving it, and I sure as shit don’t feel like arguing with him. I already get it. What reason would a fixer like Joseph need to own several Philadelphia nightclubs? And why is it our job to make these deals happen for him? He hasn’t been paying us extra.
So yes, I get it. Camden feels like we’re getting dicked over, and so do I. I’m just not sulking and pouting over it like a twelve-year-old kid. My father can run his business however he wants. It’s up to us whether we are going to put up with the terms. That’s why when the right opportunity presents itself, I’m going to stop working for him. Stop doing this shit period. I’m not stupid. I know that Joseph has no intentions of passing the business on to me. All I am is a well-paid, glorified henchman. Muscle. The enforcer. Plus, I think the crazy old man intends on living forever.
“Your cousin is coming to live with Juliette and me for a while.”
“What cousin?” Joseph doesn’t keep in touch with his only brother and my mother has no siblings.
“Juliette’s niece. The one you buried up to her eyeballs in dirt when she was just a little girl.”
This conversation was boring me to tears. Everything always comes back to Juliette. His sun, moon, and stars. It’s nothing personal against her. I like her ... but enough already.
“And?”
“She’s in trouble. I don’t know the details, because her parents refused to tell Juliette everything, but Juliette is worried sick.”
“Is she pregnant?”
“Not that type of trouble. Our type of trouble. I need you to find out what kind exactly, and then I need you to handle it. Nothing messy, Roman. Just handle it. Come by the restaurant early tonight, and I’ll introduce you to her.”
This is just fucking great. Another non-paying side job for Joseph.
Babysitting, my little cousin.