“I bet you will.” Carmine stares at Jacob for a long moment. “You disrespected me. I need an apology.”
Jacob laughs in his face. “I’ll apologize when you grovel at her feet first. Otherwise, you can get the fuck out of my office.”
Carmine stares at him, nostrils flared, eyes wide. Dee looks tense, like he’s about to do something. But Carmine turns away. “Wrong answer, Jacob Lofthouse. Your family name isn’t going to help you here.”
“I bet it’s not. Get out, Mr. Caro.”
He shakes his head and walks over to his partner. Before they open the door and leave, Carmine looks back. “I’ll give you two days to come up with the money. Two days to make it all right again. I don’t care how you do it, but you got two days.”
“Then what, Mr. Caro? You’ll come break my knees?”
He stares at him. “Yeah. I think I will.”
The two men leave the office.
Jacob lets out a frustrated growl. He follows them to the door then slams it shut. He turns to me, seething with rage.
“Those fucking fucks,” he growls. “Those pieces of shit.”
“Jacob.” I stand up. “It’s okay.”
“The way he talked to you was not okay. That wasn’t fucking okay at all. If they weren’t who they are, I would’ve hurt him, Valerie.”
“I know.” I walk to him, heedless of who can see inside. “I know, Jacob.”
He grabs me and pulls me against him. He kisses me tight then shakes his head and steps away.
“This is fucked.”
“Why don’t you just pay them?” I ask. “You have the money now, don’t you?”
“I have it. But I don’t want to give it to them anymore. Not after the way they spoke to you.”
“Jacob—”
“It’s not okay.” He looks at me and shakes his head. “We can’t reward men like that.”
“We can’t fight against them either,” I say. “You don’t have to stand on pride. It’s not worth it. They don’t care about pride.”
He snorts. “You’re right about that.”
“Please, Jacob. Just pay them.”
“No.” He goes to his desk and sits down, leaning forward. “No, I won’t pay them.”
“So, what?”
“So they can come and try to take what they want, if that’s what they need to do.”
I linger there, watching him.
There’s no getting through right now. That’s pretty obvious. I want to go over and talk to him, try to calm him down, but I’m afraid it’ll only make things worse.
And he needs to know what my bosses want.
God, so many moving pieces. And they all hinge around Carmine and his associates.
We need to prove what they are, but it’s so obvious to me already. And clearly Jacob knows it as well. But if I go and tell my boss then everything here will be ruined. Jacob’s name will be dragged through the mud along with FLFM and everything he’s built.
I can’t let that happen.
“Come see me tonight,” I say softly. “Can you do that?”
His eyes are fierce. “I can do that.”
“Good.”
I turn and walk to the door. “It’ll be okay,” I say before I leave.
He doesn’t answer. He doesn’t look like he believes me.
Not that I can blame him.
I sit back down at my desk and open the Carmine account. The numbers all look good. In fact, some of the investments I made are starting to pay off a little bit. They’ve made around ten grand in just a few days.
Good for them. Not quite the half a million I need to make, but a good start. I don’t think I can invest them out of his hole in two days, but I might as well start laying some good long-term groundwork.
Because if these guys go down, so does FLFM, and I can’t let that happen.18ValI’m a knot of nerves, anger, and energy when he shows up on my doorstep later that night. I answer in a pair of yoga pants and a thin t-shirt. I love the way his eyes move down my body, lingering on my breasts, barely covered by the fabric.
“Come in,” I say. He follows me to the kitchen. I pour him some wine and lean against the refrigerator. “You okay?”
“I think so.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking this whole situation is more fucked than I knew,” he says, his voice low. “I’m thinking this whole thing is a mess.”
“Yeah, true. I guess that’s true.”
“And nothing’s working out the way we planned. We’re still not sure about Carmine.”
I hesitate. “Aren’t we? I mean, come on Jacob.”
He looks away. “Look. I know it seems obvious. The way they act and shit, but that’s not proof.”
“It’s enough though.”
He looks back at me with a frown. “Enough for that?”
“My bosses.”
He snorts. “They can’t make a case based on that. So far, as far as I can tell, no laws have been broken.”
“Not exactly. But Jacob…” I trail off. I step forward, moving closer to him. “They want to get warrants.”