Page 157 of Savage Roses
The security guard we’ve paid off helps Arturo in getting Brenda where she needs to be. Before any of the security Lucius has brought in can descend on her in the lobby, they swoop in, insisting she’s another advisor of Saito’s. She’s simply arrived late.
The guys on Lucius’s payroll take one look at her, exchange glances at each other, and then let them pass.
The ignorant fucks don’t seem to notice that Brenda’s Chinese, not Japanese, and wouldn’t belong to the Yakuza.
From the second the elevator doors open on the conference room floor, Brenda’s in character like I hoped she’d be. She rushes toward the conference room doors as if harried, her arms flapping and her eyes and mouth wide with panic.
The final security guard attempts to stop her, but she ducks under him, yelling about how she’s running late. His attempts to stop her fall flat. She makes it through the double doors to the conference room.
Right away, all the heads seated around the long table snap up. Lucius sits at the front, meaning he doesn’t need to shift. He’s staring straight at Brenda once she’s stumbled inside the room.
“SamaSaito!” she cries out, her bob-cut hair slapping her in the face. “I am so sorry for being late!”
Everybody’s heads flip in the same direction—they turn from Brenda in the doorway to the other end of the room where Botan Saito sits beside his trusted advisor. Both men knit their brows and mutter to each other under their breath. Probably conferring what the hell’s going on.
That doesn’t slow down Brenda. She makes it all the way over to Saito and his advisor before somebody demands to know who she is.
De Trolio jumps up from his seat with both hands gesturing to her. “Anybody care to explain what the fuck’s going on?”
“Who is this?” Saito asks.
Brenda dismisses the questions with an airy laugh. “Don’t you remember? You hired me,Sama!”
“No, you are mistaken,” Saito answers. He looks to his advisor, who stands and attempts to usher Brenda away.
For an amusing minute, there’s chaos. Saito and his advisor tell Brenda they have no clue who the hell she is while the others seated at the table break out in sidebars. De Trolio yells over everybody, still with impatient demands to know what’s going on. Kozlov has started outright complaining about his time not being respected.
However, the only person to sit back and do nothing is the most powerful man in the room.
Lucius sits there and observes the insanity with his stubby sausage fingers stippled. His eyes track everybody’s movements in the room, beady and shifty, and his composed expression tells me he knows what’s going on.
That this is nothing but a distraction. Stalling on our part in hopes we’ll throw him off.
We have to be fast—we’re already making our next move.
Stitches has hacked into the network to set it in motion. Meanwhile, I’m leading the charge on our big arrival.
“Enough!” De Trolio shouts over everybody. He draws his pistol, cocking the hammer, and pointing it at Brenda. “You’ve got five seconds to tell me who the hell you are, or I’m painting the walls with your brains, sweetheart. And… go.”
Brenda squeaks, still in character, holding her arms up in alarm. “Is this not the Northam Bank quarterly meeting on budgetary expenses? My apologies! I have the wrong meeting. Hehehe. You’d be surprised how often that happens—”
She’s bustling toward the door, but several of the enforcers present, some Mancino and others Giancola, step in her path and block her off.
“What’d you say, Boss? What should we do with the bitch? Clearly, she’s got nefarious intentions,” says De Trolio.
Lucius peers at Brenda long and hard, his eyes as beady as they can go. “Let’s keep her. Sit her down. She’s among friends.”
His choice shocks the others. Several of them hesitate as if daring to wonder if their ears are playing tricks on them. Then they swallow down any objections and follow through, shoving Brenda down into one of the few empty chairs.
Even she’s shocked. Her complexion pales, and for the first time, she’s breaking character. Lucius wouldn’t keep her for any good reason—he knows.
But it’s too late. We’ve infiltrated the building, let in through a side entrance thanks to Lev and the turncoat security guard.
“Now that everybody’s here, even our special guest,” Lucius says to everybody gathered around the long table. “How about we go ahead and begin?”
“At last,” Kozlov mutters under his breath.
Lucius pins his fellow criminal peer with a beady-eyed glare. “You’ve got somewhere else you want to be, Vlad? This is a rare occurrence, the five of our Families coming together. I hope it’s clear how important this meeting is.”