Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
AUDRY
I was at a bit of a loose end after the meeting with the Triad. We were still at the trial phase with the virus and George needed me close, in case of anything. But otherwise, nothing else was happening. I wasn't included in the meetings or given access to operational procedures which, seeing as that was my ultimate goal, was a bit disappointing.
I couldn't just sit around waiting for Marco to see the light, so I decided to nudge him in that direction by bringing up Aleksandr Yegorov. I knew the man was his nemesis, and maybe I had some info on him that Marco didn't.
One day after dinner, I cornered him on the veranda as he smoked a cigarette. “Mind if I steal one?” I said as I took a seat next to him, and he passed me his own. I took a drag and passed it back.
“So, what's the deal with you and Yegorov? Are you friends now or what?”
He glared at me. “Never.”
I nodded. “That's what I thought. But then I looked into it and I saw that you never exacted any revenge for what he did. What's up with that?”
He snorted derisively, inhaling deeply from the cigarette before passing it over. “Politics,” he grunted.
I cocked an eyebrow. “You gonna let politics keep you from revenge?”
Slowly he shook his head. “Just waiting for the right time.”
I barked with laughter. “The man might die while you're waiting for the right time.”
He gave me piercing stare. “What is it to you?”
I shrugged, “I don't like him either. Plus, he wants to kill me, so getting him off the board would be advantageous.”
His mouth twisted with contempt. “So, you want me to kill him for you?”
“No. I want you to kill him for you .” I said earnestly.
He just laughed.
I turned in my seat to face him, pointing the cigarette at his face, “I showed you what I did to him. What I didn't tell you was that I gathered a whole lot of information on that man. Information I'm willing to turn over to you.”
He gave me a cynical look. “In exchange for…?”
I smiled. “Call it a freebie. This is me building up trust between us.”
He sniggered, “Trust? Sweetie, I gotta tell you, I never trust thieves.”
“And that is a good policy to have overall. So, my challenge is to show you that I can be trusted despite the fact that I stole from you.”
“Good luck with that.”
He blew smoke into the sky, his eyes on the starry night. My eyes were on him. He was an enigma wrapped in gorgeous body, and I was determined to unwrap him, down to his raw ingredients.
“So, all that aside,” I lifted my hand making a shoving gesture, “do you want the info or do you not?”
He turned his head lazily and blinked at me, then shrugged. “Why not? The more I know about that man the better.”
“I have some juicy tidbits. Maybe even something to help you get around your council, or politics, or whatever.”
He sat up, “Really?” His eyes narrowed. “Like what?”
“Well, for one thing, his partnership with the Mexicans, which he basically wants to use to undercut the rest of you. I'm guessing your council doesn't know that.”
His eyes gleamed. “Yeah I'm guessing they don't.”
“So, you really can't do a single thing without this council's approval?”
He shrugged. “Every organization has its rules.”
“Honor among thieves and that?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
I shook my head ruefully, “You’d think that the one advantage of being an outlaw was that you didn't have to obey any rules. Go figure.”
He snorted with amusement. “You're not an outlaw. More like a chaos goblin with poor impulse control.”
I glared at him, something really cutting on the tip of my tongue.
Professional. I reminded myself swallowing it down. Poor impulse control, my ass. If I had poor impulse control he'd have a knife in his chest right now. I would be screaming bloody murder, and stabbing him continuously, the smarmy smug bastard.
“What do I have to do, to make you take me seriously?” I asked instead.
He turned towards me, his face serious, “I do take you seriously. What makes you think I don't?”
I blinked at him caught wrongfooted yet again. “You just called me a chaos goblin. What about that sounds like you're taking me seriously?”
He shrugged. “Two things can be true at the same time. You can be completely chaotic, and also dangerous. Goblins are not exactly benign beings.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, absolutely not sure if he was paying me a compliment or insulting me. He got to his feet, “Well, I'm gonna turn in now. I bid you goodnight.”
I stared up at him, still trying to figure him out. “Good night.”
I watched him walk away, no nearer to deciphering the mystery that was Marco Cassio.
The next day I paid a visit to George in his den. “Hey man, can I borrow your laptop again? I need to do some corporate espionage stuff.”
George laughed as he passed me the machine. “Sure knock yourself out.”
I took a seat across from him and opened the laptop. “Thanks.”
The first thing I did was to not log on to the network to see if that would cause any alarms to go off. Nothing happened.
So far so good.
I opened instant message and sent Kylie a ping. She responded immediately.
Hey boss. Been worried. Good to hear from you.
I smiled. It was good to hear a friendly voice, so to say. I proceeded to tell her everything that had happened, including Marco calling me Amy in bed. She gave all the suitable responses, and even asked if I wanted her to do some research on her.
Aww, that’s nice of you, but she’s dead, so I don’t think you’ll find much that can help me. Focus on Yegorov. Give me paydirt on him and we are in with these people.
Aren’t you in now? My logs tell me you’re using one of their devices.
Yeah, but there’s a limit to what I can do on here. I tried to log into their accounts but I just get error messages. Marco’s passwords aren’t working and the back door I left in his device has been closed.
It’s a good thing I love a challenge.
Yeah. These gangsters just might make a worthy foe.
Eyes on the prize, Audry.
Yeah yeah.
I logged off and sat back. I wondered…what was the prize I wanted to win, this time?
George looked up at me, eyebrows raised. “You done?”
“Uh yeah mostly. I wanted to check on the progress of my virus, but I can’t log in to that. Could you help me?”
He shook his head, “Sorry. You don’t have clearance for that. But yeah, your virus is a success. We’re raking it in. Also, we’ve sent our first cargo with the new courier, so we’re waiting to see if the Triad notice that they’re short on cash flow before payment is due and what they’ll do about it.”
“Fingers crossed, huh?”
“Fingers, toes, everything. If something goes wrong and they suspect us…” He shook his head, then gave her a somber look. “Obviously I tested your virus, but we’re trusting you here. If you screw us over, there’s going to be nowhere you can hide.”
I felt a bit of a chill at those words, but shook it off. He wouldn’t be the first gangster to threaten me, and certainly not the last. “I understand,” I said quietly.
He nodded and returned to his work and I returned to mine. As much as the Triad deal was a test run for them, it was also one for me. If the virus worked on the Chinese operation, I could escalate it to every organized crime family represented by the council. They were individual entities, but the council had links to every system and could access basic information.
That was literally all I needed. A way in.
Once I controlled them all, there’d be no stopping me and my stepfather would have no choice but to declare me the heir to his legacy. There was nothing he admired as much as ambition and this had to be the most ambitious project any con artist had ever attempted.
I flicked a glance at George, his warning flashing before me, multiplied by all the crime bosses. If I survived this attempt, it’d probably be a miracle.
“George?” I said.
He looked up at me. “Yeah?”
“Why did you ask me about Amy that one time?”
He blinked in surprise. “Uh… well, just the resemblance, I guess?”
“Resemblance? Everyone keeps talking about that, but I haven’t seen a single picture of this Amy anywhere. If she was the boss’s fiancée, shouldn’t there be photographs of her around?”
“The Capo had them all removed. He couldn’t stand to look at her. Guilt, y’know?”
I shook my head slowly. “No, I don’t know. I thought the Bratva killed her.”
“Yeah, they did. And why did they do that?”
I frowned in thought. “To fuck with Marco?”
“That, or she was collateral damage. Either way, he blamed himself.”
I felt a frisson of pity for Marco and ruthlessly clamped down on it. “Do you happen to have a photo of her?”
He gave me a look. “Even if I did, it’s not my place to show it to you. You want to know about Amy, ask the boss.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. That was the last thing I wanted to do. Talk about awkward. “Fine. Thanks for nothing.”
George gave me a sympathetic smile and a shrug. “Them’s the breaks, sugar. Now are you done snooping or you need some more time?”
I grinned at him, closed the laptop and handed it back. “I’m done. Thanks.” I got to my feet and walked out.
I fiddled with my bracelet, which contained the microchip I could use to monitor my virus. I had activated it on the system so that the next time George logged into their system accounts, I’d have my in too. Once I was in, I could transmit the details to Kylie. I had to be careful about that though, because I knew they were watching me, both physically and electronically, waiting for me to make a move.
“Hi Audry.”
I whirled around to see Lucia approaching me. My eyes ran over her figure. She was wearing a white figure-hugging dress with black accents. “Hi. You look hot as fuck. What’s the occasion?”
She grinned at me. “I’m off to town. Got some business to take care of. Wanna come with?”
I quirked an eyebrow. “Really? You want me to come with you on a business deal?”
She shrugged, “You went with Marco.”
“Yeah, but he needed me for that one.”
“Maybe I need you for this one.”
I gave her a long look. “Alright then. Let me change into something more…” I looked her up and down, “appropriate.”
“Yay.” She clapped her hands excitedly. “Girls’ trip.”
I shook my head at her before turning towards the stairs. Mentally going through my wardrobe, I decided to go with the grey pencil skirt I’d acquired with a white chiffon blouse. It had a large bow in front like they did in the eighties and bell sleeves. I like the way it looked on me – very Pepper Potts. I added a red lip and silver hoop earrings before running down in black kitten heels to join Lucia. If she wanted to provide me with a front row seat to their business dealings, who was I to say no?