Just a Bit Ruthless (Straight Guys 6)

“Are you threatening me?” Luke said with a grin.

Roman’s eyes lingered on his smiling mouth for a second. “Not at the moment.”

Luke folded his hands on Roman’s broad chest and put his chin on top of them. “Are you, like, a Mafia boss or something?”

Throwing his head back, Roman laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Luke said, shooting him an affronted look. “Are you going to deny you’re a boss of organized crime? That’s basically what the mafia is.”

Roman still looked amused. “I don’t think of myself in those terms. I make money, I’m very good at making money, and sometimes the way I make money isn’t legal. The more money you have, the more powerful and influential you are and the more enemies you get. The more enemies you get, the more ruthless and careful you must be. Otherwise some people might get ideas.”

Luke frowned, considering it. “I’ve never thought of it that way.” He looked at Roman. “Don’t you get tired?” he said softly. “Isn’t it lonely? What do you need so much money for, anyway?”

Roman gave him an unreadable look. He brushed his knuckles against Luke’s cheek. “Are you sure you’re Richard Whitford’s son, baby?”

Luke felt himself redden. He wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t even the most ridiculous endearment Roman had ever used.

“Are you implying my father is the same?” Luke said.

Something cold and hard flickered through Roman’s eyes. “In some ways, your father and I are cut from the same cloth.”

“I know,” Luke said. “I mean, I’ve suspected that he’s involved in some shady dealings for a long time. I would have been a fool to be completely blind to it.” Luke hesitated before meeting Roman’s gaze. “What did my father do to you?”

Roman closed his eyes, looking disinterested in continuing the conversation. But, to Luke’s surprise, he replied, “He thought it was acceptable to lie to me. As a result, he put me in a very sticky situation and I ended up owing a lot of favors to people I’d rather not be indebted to.”

Luke’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean? What did he do?”

He started thinking Roman wasn’t going to answer when he did.

“I have very few principles and limits,” Roman said. “But everyone who has dealings with me knows I don’t break them. Your father made me inadvertently break one of them.”

“Now I’m dying of curiosity,” Luke said, tapping Roman’s chest with the tips of his fingers.

Roman opened his eyes, a corner of his mouth twitching. “Remember what happens to curious kittens?”

“Cats,” Luke corrected him.

“Kittens are baby cats,” Roman said with a completely straight face.

“I’m not a baby cat,” Luke said before laughing. “Also, this conversation is totally ridiculous and evil men aren’t allowed to be ridiculous. You’re veering off the script again.”

“Maybe I’m not evil,” Roman murmured, carding his fingers through Luke’s hair. “Maybe I’m just misunderstood.”

Luke snorted. “Right. So, what precisely did my dad do?”

All traces of amusement disappeared from Roman’s face. “We had an agreement. Whitford needed safe transport for tons of illegal goods from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to several European countries.” He shrugged slightly. “You can get smuggled goods in those countries for next to nothing if you know the right people. It’s business, pure and simple, and as long as those goods aren’t drugs, I don’t care. Whitford’s goods were loaded on my train. For a price, obviously.”

Luke didn’t like where the conversation was going. “What happened?”

Roman’s lips thinned. “My trains are guarded, but usually it’s just a precaution unless there’s a specific cause—the trains aren’t checked and are ensured safe passage through most borders. Except the train was attacked in Poland. A car exploded, four of my men died, and the whole debacle attracted too much attention to the train. It was searched and tons of cocaine were found.” Roman’s eyes hardened. “Cocaine certainly wasn’t in the deal.”

Luke winced, remembering something from his research on Roman prior to their meeting: Roman’s father had died from overdosing. “But I haven’t seen even a hint of that scandal when I researched you, so you must have hushed it up?”

“Of course I did. But it wasn’t easy with the deaths involved. And I don’t do drug trafficking, so I didn’t have the necessary connections. I ended up spending millions to hush it up and owing a lot of favors to people I’d rather not owe anything. Worse, the whole ordeal damaged my…business reputation in certain circles. In this line of work, you don’t want to be known as someone who gets caught. Conveniently, your father didn’t take any damage at all, even though it was his mess.” Something ugly flickered in Roman’s pale eyes. “It was supposed to be a routine run, nothing dangerous. Sometimes casualties are unavoidable, but those men didn’t sign up for that shit. Some of them had families. It wasn’t Whitford who had to explain to a bunch of kids that their father was dead.”