But I don’t.
I pull away, take a step back, and leave her panting in the bathroom.
It’s only fair, after all.
Since it’s her favorite place in the world.
Walking back to my seat, I can’t help but chuckle. The guys side-eye me, but I ignore them.
It’s a full five minutes before Skye returns to the seat across from me.
I lift a brow, browsing the menu without looking at her. “Do you have a problem?”
“Nope,” she mutters under her breath, leans back in her chair, and buckles her seat belt, closing her eyes.
Skye Matthews thinks she can fool me, but I know better.
I was right.
She didn’t sleep. At first, she had attitude, but it didn’t take her long to start to talk . . . to Gideon, not me. She’s still pissed at me for leaving her teetering on the edge.
Now that we are finally in the car in Miami, I tell her what’s going down. I’m going to take her to look at the site for the new building after my meeting. Then we will meet with the property developers.
We pull up to my residence first. It’s a newer purchase, made after I stepped into my current role in the business. However, even though I’ve only owned the residence since I was about eighteen, the area of Miami is where I spent half my childhood. Specifically, the land I’m considering buying. Before it was sold, it had been in my family for years.
“I need you to stay here while Gideon and I take a meeting.”
It will give her time to cool off. Drop the attitude.
“What do you expect me to do?” Her voice is clipped, and I know she’s still pissed.
“Go over the papers I have set up for you in my office. It has all the numbers and pricing for everything. Prepare for the meeting we have later with the realtors. I’ll be back shortly.”
“Okay,” she says as she steps out of my car, and three members of my team escort her into the house.
“Let’s go,” I say to Christopher, who’s driving.
Gideon turns from the passenger seat to look at me.
“Everything set?”
“Yes.”
Today, I hand over the last bit of control. Today, I introduce Gideon to my supplier. As merely the distributor, I keep all access points in my drug business private. That way, I can never be cut out.
I learned from a lot of former cartel associates about how to run my empire. I watched them, saw their mistakes, and adapted my uncle’s business to never make the same mistake.
The one and only mistake I ever made in this business was letting my personal vendetta lead my decisions. The road I’m about to take is dangerous. To mitigate the fallout, I’m handing over the empire to my right-hand man. That way, I only fight one battle at a time.
After today, Gideon will run this aspect of the business, and I will focus on taking Felix down for what he did so many years ago.
A while back, I stopped dealing with the cartel. All that is left of that part of the business is the pills. But after today, my legitimate business and my vengeance are all that remains.
Fifteen minutes later, we pull into the large estate of Emil Keller, the man who supplies me the MDMA he produces in his home country of Holland. Like all aspects of the business, Emil appears to be a successful business tycoon who owns a shopping mall in South Florida.
It’s a front.
He’s the son of the largest underground organization for ecstasy production in the EU. I know him because we went to boarding school together. That’s where my plan for mass power, corruption, and payback was established.
When I met Emil, his father made pills, and my family distributed coke. Years later, when I wanted to sever ties with the cartel, I got into business with him. However, as the opioid epidemic hit, I wasn’t the only one changing focus. Bernard was already a thorn in my side. First, my father’s enemy. Now mine.
But with Emil’s help, I made a big enough fortune to finally go after the man responsible for my fucked-up life. It will feel good when he confesses his role in my pain, and I can rid the world of him once and for all.
26
Skye
And here we are again, back in the car, driving to a location to buy.
I should think about all the paperwork I did, how everything is in order, but instead, I feel hot, achy, and needy.
My five minutes in the bathroom to calm down didn’t help. Nor the hour that he left me alone to do god knows what.
Nope. I will not let myself go there.
Think about why you’re here.
The land. The land. The land.
The price for the land is right, and as soon as I see the location and cross-check it against some stipulations in the contract over building rules and regulations in the area, I’ll most likely advise Tobias to sign.