Chapter 34
Chapter thirty-four
Surprises
Nico
Islide my phone into my pocket and readjust my cock. That conversation with Tiffany has me wanting to leave this walkthrough and go to her office to do exactly what she suggested.
The last few days have been refreshing. I’ve been able to focus on repairing my hotels’ reputation and getting North River ready for its grand opening. Already, we are fully booked. There isn’t a room available for the next few weeks.
Even my brothers have been able to relax a little. Mason is in Dubai on business while Kaz and Salv are off in Russia. Things were finally back to normal.
“Sign off on this,” Stephanie says, sliding her tablet over to me.
I briefly read over the documents and place my signature at the bottom of the screen.
“Maintenance said they will have those light bulbs changed in the next few minutes.”
I dip my chin at Stephanie.
“Yo, Sai…Mr. Basille,” Ghost appears in front of us. The look on his face tells me something is wrong. “Can I have a word with you?”
“I’ll be back,” I say to Stephanie.
Ghost turns and heads down the hall. I follow him without a word between us. When he stops in front of one of the maintenance room doors, he turns to me.
“One of the housekeepers found it and brought it to my attention.” He pushes the door open, and I step inside. Stacked on top of each other are the last five missing gun crates.
The hair on the back of my neck lifts. This wasn’t good. What the hell are these doing here? Something was off. It wasn’t even that someone was able to come plant these crates in here; the question was why.
“We need to get these out of here.” My gut was telling me I needed to move quickly.
I pull my phone out of my pocket to make a phone call when it lights up in my hand. The unknown number makes my stomach drop.
“Hello?”
“You really thought it was over, didn’t you?”
I can almost feel the blood draining from my face. Ghost takes one look at me and pulls out his phone to make calls. I didn’t have to tell him what I needed. He’s my second in command because he always knows what to do before I do.
“We killed your puppet,” I snarl into the phone.
“You killed a puppet. You thought I’d only have one?” the Horseman’s laugh was taunting.
The sound of it alone had that fury boiling underneath my skin. “
Did it break your heart to have to kill your little driver?” He pauses as if he’s waiting for a response, but he won’t get one. “This isn’t over until I say it’s over, Nicholas.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
Laughter greets my ears again. “Right now, you should be more concerned about why those crates are in your hotel.”
Just then, noise from the lobby has Ghost and I both heading in that direction.
“And I’m telling you, I don’t know what this is about, but we have rights.” Stephanie is in the lobby facing off with a few cops.
“Have fun cleaning this up, Nicholas.” the Horseman says before the line goes dead.
“Mr. Basille,” Stephanie turns to me. “These officers say they have a warrant to search the premises.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, I knew I was about to have a long fucking day.
I turn to Ghost and without saying a word; I tell him to call Maseo and check those cameras. He dips his chin and pulls out his phone. I turn back to Stephanie.
“Call my lawyers.”
Four hours later, I’m walking out of the jail. I sat in that interrogation room for three hours waiting to talk to someone.
When the doors finally opened, it wasn’t an officer coming to speak with me; it was the commissioner. He apologized profusely for the inconvenience and told me the person responsible for this bogus search would be dealt with. I wasn’t shocked at his appearance.
By now I knew Mason had heard about this bullshit and had most likely cleaned up the mess.
I step outside of the building with Jordan Brooks, my attorney, by my side.
“Everything clears,” he says lowly for only us to hear. “Maseo sent over the video footage. It’s doctored up to look like some random thugs broke in and stashed the guns.”
I nod my head, still fuming that this bullshit even happened.
“Stephanie and your publicist are making sure this debacle doesn’t make the news,” he goes on to say.
Jordan has been with me for years. He knows me as Niccolo and Saint.
“Good. I want whoever signed that fucking warrant. Get me their information.”
He nods. Buttoning my coat, I walk down the steps. My black suburban pulls to a stop in front of the building. The door opens and Ghost steps out. Once again, the look on his face tips me off that something is wrong.
“There’s been an accident.”
Just those words have my heart racing in my chest and my head spinning. My breathing grows so loud I’m sure everyone around can hear the labored sound.
“Jake was injured pretty badly. He’s in the hospital. It was touch and go for a while, but he’s stable now.”
“Where’s Tiffany?”
It’s not that I didn’t care about Jake’s life, he was family to me. However, Ghost isn’t telling me about Jake before he mentions my wife for no reason. Something isn’t right.
He looks down before back at me, and I can already see it in his eyes. “She’s missing.”
My fucking legs go weak. I nearly collapse to the ground but regain my strength before I fall. Noises are swimming in my head, and the lights are too bright. My world is fucking falling apart.
“Mason is on his way back, and so are Kaz and Salv.”
Ghost continues to talk, but it all sounds like he’s communicating through a cup. I can’t lose Tiffany. I can’t dream of surviving without my fucking wife. Is she scared, hurt? Has someone already taken her from this world? Even the thought of that has me clutching a hand over my racing heart.
The guns make sense now. The Horseman had said, have fun cleaning it up.
He knew that I had the connections and the means to get out of that bullshit situation.
He didn’t plant those guns because he thought I’d go down for it.
No, he planted the guns so it would keep me busy long enough for him to take my wife.
My phone rang. It’s my regular phone and not the one I conduct Saint business with. Pulling it out of my pocket, I glance down at the screen but didn’t recognize the number. With Tiffany missing, I answer it anyway.
“Hello?”
There is a hesitation, but then the caller speaks. “Well hello, little brother. It’s been a minute.”
It has been years since I’ve heard that voice, but I’ll never forget it.
“Why the fuck are you on my phone, Marissa?”
Every time Tiffany has asked me about my sister, I get the same twinge in my chest. When I first left William Bone’s, I couldn’t contact my sister. None of us could reach out to our existing families. We were practically on the run.
It wasn’t until I was fifteen that enough time had passed and we had made enough money and connections that it was safe to reconnect to those we left behind. Only Kazimir and I had someone worth connecting with. Or so I thought.
When I first reached out to Marissa, she wanted nothing to do with me. I tried to tell her my theory about Walter, and she shot me down, told me to leave the past where it was. It wasn’t until I was about twenty that she came looking for me.
At the time I didn’t see the correlation, but later I realized it was by this time Walter had lost damn near everything.
Nonetheless, I took my sister in. Took care of her and supplied her with anything she could ever want.
At the time, Saint was making a name for himself in the underworld, but I was nowhere near who I am today.
I’d saved up nearly two million dollars to invest it into my first hotel purchase. It wasn’t nearly enough, but I was closer to the main goal. Then one day, the money went missing. I had a guess who had taken it, but I didn’t want to believe she could steal from me.
When I confronted her, she lied and said that Mason had done it and was trying to set her up because she had shot down his advances. I didn’t even have to question my brother to know it was a lie.
He had already shown me a video of her trying to pressure him to fuck her, and he’d actually shot her down.
I was pissed that she stole from me, but I was even more disgusted at how easily she’d lied on Mason.
I had a thing about loyalty, and she had just proven she couldn’t be trusted.
After getting my money back, I kicked her ass out of my apartment and went no contact with her.
Which brings me back to why the fuck is she calling me now.
Marissa chuckles. “Wow, you’re testy. I wonder does it have anything to do with the guns I put in your hotel maintenance closet.”
Icy dread seeps down my spine. “You’re working with the Horseman?”
Ghost’s gaze narrows. I shake my head, letting him know I can’t explain right now.
“You can consider us partners.”
“What do you want?” I seethe into the phone.
“Your attention, little brother.”
“My attention?” I let out a low chuckle. “You must have a fucking death wish. When I get my hands on you, I’m going to—”
“—Do nothing. Want to know how I know?” She pauses for a dramatic ass second. “Cause I have your pretty little wife.”
All the sound rushed from around me, and fear had me paralyzed. Marissa has my full attention.