“
Pas de problème.
I do not mind your silence none, Carterina.” A devilishly handsome smile appeared on his face, lighting up his bright green eyes. “My colleagues and I can surely think of worse than spending the day sitting in the presence of beautiful women …”
“Surely. I agree,” one the other heads added.
The men chuckled softly.
Carter and Davina’s eyes met at the same time as she crossed her eyes at the man’s words. Carter suppressed a laugh and turned back to Frédéric. “You no longer have to charm us,
Frédéric. You have the meeting you’ve been after.”
He placed his hand to his heart. “I tell only truth, dear Carterina. I’ve been looking forward to this meeting with you all week. You are a hard woman to get in touch with.”
“You are aware that she is married, right?” the well-educated, and brutally honest Iman Niaria asked softly. “Your flirting is as pointless as it is frustrating. This is not fucking happy hour at a night club—”
“Although I for one wouldn’t mind a drink right about now,” Catsianna “the flirt” Kuznetsova giggled. She was the dark caramel-skinned seductress of the crew. She was very smart, and her kiss could kill … literally. Carter fucking loved her. “Go easy on the poor man, Iman.” she pouted playfully. “He called us pretty. It was sweet.”
Katya rolled her eyes. “Your past is showing, Catsianna,” she smirked. “You may want to tone it down, dove.” Katya blinked at the glare Catsianna shot her and crossed her long legs while smoothing down the front of her pencil skirt. Katya, in Carter’s opinion, was by far the most fascinating of the women. She was a genius in the subject of science, a wiz in money and business, and she had an interesting obsession with making bombs … Yes, actual bombs.
“All right, ladies,” Carter quieted them, then motioned to Frédéric. “Why don’t you begin by telling us your idea, Frédéric? Silas tells me it’s positively devious …” Another benefit of having Silas in her life, Carter was always two steps ahead of
every-fucking-one
. Silas had intelligence everywhere in the underworld, which meant the man knew everything that happened before it even happened. That was why he had hated Nathan so much to the point of trying to assassinate him—something they had since moved past—Nathan had been able to surprise him too often, and Silas didn’t do surprises. In fact, he hated them.
“Of course,” Frédéric said. He cleared his throat then began. “It is the Moreau …”
Carter nodded. “Dominique Moreau’s family.”
Another Unione Corse family. It was was led by a man that was considered a legend in the criminal underworld.
Frédéric gave her a nod. “To make long story short, I want them out.”
Carter’s brow arched. “Really …”
“The Moreaus have had it out for me and what belongs to me for the past ten years. I have proof of betrayal and sabotage.”
Gasping, she placed her hand to her chest. “Sabotage. How so, Frédéric?”
“They’ve crippled my business. Last week alone I noticed some buyers of mine talking to Moreau.”
“Are you certain that it’s not just you? Perhaps your products and services are lacking.”
“Moreau has made sure of that, believe me.” He leaned forward on the table. “I have a theory.”
“Please share.”
“I think Moreau has become power hungry. He has no interest in the unity of Unione Corse anymore. Dominique and his clan are trying to take over. They don’t just want to take out my clan. They want yours, Guiles, all of us.”
Sighing, Carter shook her head. “You still have given me no proof of this.”
“Is my word not enough, Carterina? What do I gain from lying?”
“Power, money, associates, and territory,” she said honestly. “Moreau is a very powerful family. Not to mention that there were rumors that your father had an issue with the Moreau clan before he died.”
“And now I understand why,” he yelled as if trying to get through her. “Dominique Moreau is a callous man.”
“Dominique is a legend,” Carter said matter-of-factly. “He was a part of the French connection for God’s sake. The others will fight for him. They’ll go against you.”
“Not if I have you and your army. I will not need anyone else. Your mother built a very strong empire. We can start a new secret society. One that is not run by this faux legend.” He stood from his seat and called over one of his men. After he whispered something to him, the man jogged over to the front door and walked outside.
Frowning in confusion, Carter glanced over at one of her men lining the walls of the warehouse and motioned for him to follow.
Soon the man returned, but his hands weren’t empty. He carried not one, but three very large paintings. “Does he need help?” Carter asked, noticing the man struggling a bit.
Frédéric nodded. “You may have your men take them. They are yours.”
“Mine?”
He smiled. “My gift to you, in hopes that you and I will be working together side by side very soon.”
“They are paintings.” Carter’s men laid the three large paintings in front of her.
“From my gallery.” Laughing softly he snapped his fingers, and one of his men came forward with a knife and handed to him. “May I?” he asked, holding the knife in his hand.
“
Oui.”
Carter nodded.
Frédéric walked to her, and she stood from her seat. “What is that you have for me, Frédéric?”
He smiled as he stood next to her, a bit closer than he needed to be, but Carter paid him no mind. She was too curious.
“Touch it,” he instructed.
She looked at him with smile. “You have a knife, and the only thing you say to me when I allow you to come near me with it is
touch it
.”
He chuckled. “Will you please touch the painting, Ms. Stone?”
“Mrs. Salerno,” she corrected. “I have my husband’s last name, Frédéric …”
“Hmm. Oh yes,” he said, sounding annoyed, “the husband.”
“The very big, and very scary Russian that would have your head for standing so close to what belongs to him.” Carter nodded when the man took a step back away from her. “Now tell me about this gift.” She placed her hand on the picture. “Hmm …” It definitely didn’t just feel like a picture.
“Do you feel it?”
“Feel it?” The only thing Carter felt was insulted, but she didn’t show it. And he was very close to feeling the sharp end of her knife. He was beginning to move closer to her again. “Let me see the knife.” When he handed it to her Carter positioned it at the edge of the painting. Slowly she cut the rim of the painting on all sides, set the knife aside, and then lifted the upper layer of the thick paper. “Money … you’ve given me money.”
The five wonderful women on her team found this amusing. Carter, on the other hand, didn’t find it funny.
“Why would you give me money?” she asked.
“I don’t like to call it money, Carterina. I call it encouragement.”
“Encouragement?”
“This will encourage you to align with me in the coming war.”
Okay, now Carter was amused.
The coming war
? The man had to have been out of his mind. They were fucking Unione Corse. Did he actually think that the families were going to break down the wall of a secret society that went back generations for this dumbass?
Carter shook her head and pressed the layer of paper covering the money back down. “Isabella …”
Isabella Silviara, the former Isabella Bonaducci. Carter loved her more than words could express. So much so, that the soon to be twenty-one year old currently lived in the guest house on the estate that Gabriel had previously occupied. Once a young woman so broken and weak. She had chased Carter down after the dinner party from hell in tears, but now … she was a far cry from the quiet, abused young woman. Now, she was Spook Steele’s star student, far more talented than Carter ever was. Isabella was Carter’s silent angel of death. She had only just begun her career and was already extremely well-known within the criminal community … which explained the sudden fear that swept through the room when Carter said her name.
“Isabella, love. Will you go stand at the other end of the table please?” Isabella rose from her seat and walked across the warehouse to do as instructed. “There will be no war, Frédéric.” Deciding to linger no more, Carter took her seat. She had a full day ahead of her before she could go home to cook for the family dinner tonight. The sooner this meeting was over, the better … “Unione Corse is what it is because of those that have come before us. To go after a family of prominence like Moreau is suicide.” As she spoke, her men drew their guns and killed every guard that had arrived with Frédéric Rinieri. The expressions on Frédéric and his fellow leader’s faces brought a smile to Carter’s face. “Thank you,” she said to her army. “I was hoping to get them all out of the way quickly. You all can go outside and wait for us now. We’ll be out in ten minutes.” Without questioning her, the men exited the warehouse, leaving Carter and her team of five alone with the five leaders of the Rinieri clan.
“What is this? What have you done?” Frédéric backed away from the table.
“I’ve done nothing. It is you that has managed to anger the wrong people.”
“This isn’t right! I got information about you from a reliable source. He told me that you were also displeased with the hierarchy of the secret society.”
Carter chuckled. “My biological father is not a reliable source. He did not tell you that I was displeased with the hierarchy of the secret society. He told you that I was displeased with a high ranking family. You only assumed that he was talking about Moreau …”
“You fucking cunt!” he shouted. “Do you think I’ll allow you to get away with what you’ve done? Do you have any idea who I am?”
Carter couldn’t care less about the names he had called her. Honestly, the past three years of her life had forced her to grow up, and calm down. That temper issue she’d once had was pretty much a non-issue most of the time. And being called names like child, cunt, and bitch, didn’t bother her anymore. She had been called worse. She couldn’t go full-on killer every time it happened. That would just be exhausting.
Carter looked at him with cold, emotionless eyes. “You are no longer a man of great power, Frédéric, so I advise you to lower your tone. You have sought to penetrate the wall of the secret society and now you have been cast out. The families have already voted. You are now an outsider.”
“So they send a child to get rid of me?” he shouted. “They send a girl and her
girlfriends
to wipe out a family that has aided in the development of Unione Corse for decades!”
“We put straws in a cup, and unfortunately I drew the short one. So yes, it will be I and my girlfriends that cut the heads off a few snakes today.”
“You stupid bitch. Do you honestly think my fellow leaders and I will just surrender to you? Do you think we will not fight?”
Carter rolled her eyes, unimpressed by his threat. “I appreciate you flying all this way for the meeting today. I’m a working mother of three my schedule doesn’t allow much travel. If you did just surrender it would cut this,” Carter glanced at her beautiful diamond covered Chanel watch, and saw that it had already been three minutes, “seven minute meeting down to just four minutes.”
“Listen to her, Frédéric,” Davina said softly. “You and your colleagues have no way of leaving here alive.”
Catsianna nodded agreement. “You will not be dying a good, honorable, or loyal man, but you still have a chance to die a smart one.”
“The more you speak, the more vicious your death will be. It is obvious that we couldn’t care less about your threats,” Iman added.
Katya laughed softly. “Carterina told an army of men that are here for our protection to leave us in a warehouse with five men whom are bigger, physically stronger, and armed … If a woman shows no fear when doing such a thing, who is it that you think should really be shaking in their boots?”
“You, Frédéric,” Carterina answered for the man. She looked at his fellow leaders. “All of you have a reason to fear. Isabella …”
Isabella was a creative woman, with a gift for making her own weapons. Such beautiful, fresh ways of cutting four different necks open with one circular blade. With just a slight move of her hand, she released the blade and four men had wide open necks in a matter of seconds. Her trick was a personal slingshot method. She released the blade, but it always came back to her because it was connected to her in some way. For those that could throw and catch fast moving sharp objects, the creation was a dream. Isabella had made one with a knife attached to it for Carter on her last birthday, then she’d taught Carter how to use it. It was very sweet.
Silence fell over the room while Carter turned her chair to face Frédéric. He lifted his hands in surrender and shook his head pleadingly.
“Please do not kill me,” he begged in a breathy whisper.
Carter arched a brow.
“Have mercy. If you let me go, I will disappear. I promise you. You will never see me again, nor will the others know that you let me go.” He fell to his knees, desperately begging her. “You are a kind woman, Carterina. I can see this in you. You are nurturer, a mother … I have a family. I have five sons that need their father. Will you leave my wife a single parent?”