Page 89 of King of Greed
I was painfully aware of the cold metal against my skin and the seconds ticking by. There was a strong chance I wouldn’t walk out of this elevator alive, and the only thing I could think of was Alessandra.
The grand opening was in full swing. Did she think I’d forgotten about her? That I wasn’t going to show because I was too busy with the buyout? It was her big night, and I might ruin it the way I had so many other things in the past.
I didn’t fear dying as much as I feared never seeing her again.
Regret hardened into determination.Fuck that.We’d just gotten back together, and we had our entire lives in front of us. I wasn’t letting that go without a fight.
“Why do you care so much about the bank?” I stalled. If I could distract Roman for just one second… “What difference does my buyout make?”
“None to me. A hell of a lot to my client.”
“It’s funny.” An acrid taste welled on my tongue. “You talked so much about loyalty, yet here you are, choosing a client over your brother. So much for family.”
His jaw ticked again. “Don’t pin this on me. If you’d listened— ”
“To an anonymous caller using a voice distorter? I can’t imagine why I wouldn’t take business advice from someone like that.” I could barely hear my voice over the thudding of my heart. “At least be honest. There’s a part of you that’s always wanted to do this. You wanted to make me pay for my betrayal, and this is your chance. So do it. Right now, face to face. You’ve waited fifteen years for this.” I grabbed his wrist and forced the gun tighter against my skin. “Do it.”
Click.
My heart outpaced my breaths. Oxygen thickened into sludge, and acrimony raked across my skin like razor blades.
My brother’s eyes blazed, and for a second, just a second, I thought that was it.
But then Roman hissed out a curse, and the sensation of metal disappeared from my skin. He stepped back, his gun still trained on me.
“If I don’t kill you,” he said, “they’ll kill both of us. Unless…”
I waited, suspended between relief and dread.
“You give up the deal. Walk away from DBG, Dom, and I might be able to convince them to let us live.”
“Done.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Roman knew me too well to take me at my word. “If I let you leave and you complete the buyout anyway, no amount of security could save you or me. It won’t be about the client anymore. It’ll be about their reputation, and they would go toanylengths to protect their reputation. Trust me.” Shadows crept through his eyes, the echoes of horrors better left buried.
The hammer of my pulse caused my veins to hurt.
I’d planned to do exactly what he suspected. I would walk out, sign the deal, and hunt down whoever was behind tonight. I wouldn’t rest untiltheywere dead, every single one of them.
“It’s a bank.” Roman kept his gaze on mine. “One bank. Is it worth what you might lose?”
The hammering intensified.
It should’ve been a no-brainer. Give up the deal and live without looking over my shoulder every day. But the DBG buyout wasn’t aboutone bank.It was about the culmination of everything I’d tried to do since I was old enough to realize I didn’t have to stay in my shithole town.
No one had ever bought a bank this size before the age ofthirty-five. I’d be the first. It would be afuck youto every naysayer I’d encountered and every teacher who said I would amount to nothing. No matter what happened after, it’d ensure I go down in the history books.
Immortalized. Unerasable.
It would be security and my legacy.
I wasn’t afraid of Roman’s mysterious backer; I had my own connections and enough money to bury them alive. But winning wasn’t guaranteed, and I wasn’t the only one at risk.
How much was I willing to gamble to achieve everything I’d ever wanted?
“The ball’s in your court, Dom,” Roman said, his voice low. “What will you choose? Your legacy or our lives?”
CHAPTER 42