“My sources say it does. When I know who specifically, we’ll talk and I will let you know. In the meantime, you need to help Storm and the team clean house at their company. I’ll send everything to them now.”
Aspen ended the call and handed it to Storm who eyed her suspiciously. She felt intimidated by him and his superiority.
“Okay, Silas is working on getting India to a safe location while we save your company, guys,” Aspen told Storm, Weston, York, Zin, and Winter.
“Dmitri said that Iakov told India to tell you to remember who you work for. To remember whose woman you are,” Storm announced.
“Yeah well, about that.”
“Aspen.” Porter said her name through clenched teeth.
“The man’s delusional,” she retorted.
“Aspen.” Storm raised his voice.
“Okay fine, about that meeting I had when I ditched your two security guards. Well, during that meeting I found out that my sort of boss, Gary Sparks, was being forced to sell his company to Andrei, not you guys, even though I had Gary ready to call you and make a deal. That kind of went amuck because apparently, due to your whole mafia territory thing, Andrei wants to take you over. He was already moving in on your territory at the clubs, the bars, hotels and even the construction deals. Well, until I negotiated that deal with Cartwright and sealed the deal for Dmitri who in turn planned on hiring you guys at Pro-Tech as well as Liberty Construction to do the jobs.” She took a breath and continued to explain everything they had been working on including in the last three weeks at Pro-Tech.
“How the hell did you do all of that?” Porter asked.
“How the hell did you know that there are spies in our company?” Winter asked her.
“Well, back to that little visit in Andrei’s restaurant in the back room. He told me he had people planted in there ready to sabotage from within, in case he needed to discredit your company. Hence, the one problem you ran into a year ago with the ex-boyfriend hiring your guys to find the girlfriend and kill her. Never mind a few other close calls more recently that I was able to nip in the bud rather quickly. By the way, I’ll have a confirmed list to you ASAP when I get access to my laptop upstairs. You can begin firing these assholes pronto. And don’t worry, between Dmitri and I we came up with the idea of you hiring more retired military personnel so they can support their families now that they’re out of the service.”
“Holy fuck. You’ve been pretending to work for us while pretending to work for Andrei?” York asked, sounding outraged.
She shrugged her shoulders.
“You let that fucker kiss you in his office? He had his hands on you, Aspen?” Zin asked.
“Please calm down. This is going to work out. Dmitri and I have the entire thing figured out. There’s just the issue of the Star Haven program Dmitri started and supported. Apparently, Sotoro and a few others like Demyan, have been using the program to snag potential employees as well as high-priced hookers. It seems these women have been working in the back rooms of some of Andrei and Demyan’s clubs. Clubs that Dmitri is interested in taking over.”
“Aspen.”
She continued to talk about the list of people she had come up with and about working with Dmitri.
“Aspen.”
She looked at Storm since he raised his voice at her.
“All this time, you’ve been working with Dmitri, uncovering this potential takeover, risking your life in a world that your brother and all of us have been trying to protect you from?” His voice raised on the last word as he stepped toward her. Instinctively she stepped back.
“Let’s take this upstairs,” Winter said.
“Let’s not. I’m seeing fucking red right now, Aspen. Fucking red. Do you have any idea what kind of danger you’ve placed yourself in by dealing with men like Andrei and Dmitri?” he scolded.
She could tell he was extremely angry and so were the others. They all looked upset with her. “I explained to York and Porter, how I was in a different mind frame until recently.” She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she shyly looked at her brother then back to Storm, Winter, Zin, York, and Weston.
“I didn’t care about living or dying, only seeking revenge. You have no idea what it feels like, what it felt like to know that man was responsible for my abduction, and that he continued to corrupt the innocent of society. I knew exactly what I was getting into. I knew the dangers and I didn’t care. All I knew is that I could get Andrei back the best way I knew how to. By hitting him where it hurts. His damn fat wallet. So if you’re angry at me, if you think I’m stupid and don’t understand exactly why we’re here right now, then so be it. My only focus now is saving your company, protecting India and all the men I love, whether you like it or not,” she stated firmly as her voice cracked with emotion.
They just stared at her with blank expressions until Storm pointed at her and curled his finger for her to come to him.
Is he serious? Does he actually think I’ll walk right into the punishment I’m sure to get for all these crazy stunts I pulled?
“When a made man, a mafia boss issues an order to come, you better damn well do it fast,” Porter said from behind her.
She glanced up and over her shoulder at her brother. He looked just as firm. Then she noticed he and his team bow their heads toward Storm and then walk from the porch.
Winter cleared his throat and crossed his arms in front of his chest.