Roses & Ruin

Chapter 31 (Anthony)

       Lexi blew me off the other night. Usually when someone has to cancel at the last minute they'd tell you why they were canceling. A family member in the hospital, stranded with a flat tire, or suddenly deathly ill, something. Not Lexi though. She just said she couldn't make it and that's it. 

It left me fucking wondering all night why she didn't show up.

    Was she nervous? Scared? Overwhelmed? She could've told me if she was and we could've skipped the club and just had sex at my place or something. But Lexi doesn't seem like the type to chicken out. I think she'd be confident enough to tell me she wasn't into the idea.

So why cancel? What came up?

I hated that I thought about it all damn night. It's exactly what I don't want. To get overly invested.

After Mia I just don't want anything serious. I want carnal pleasure with a sexy woman and that's the extent of it. Lexi seemed to understand that, which is why I enjoyed going back for seconds and thirds, but I won't chase her.

Something came up and we'll leave it at that.

        I had far more important things to worry about anyways. I had a lot of pressure on me to secure the deal with the Russians. I had the stress of this Irish war in the background of all this. Not to mention our hyper vigilance to the Irish attacking when the damn Russians get here.

 They'd take it personally, and the Russians would end up attacking us too for putting them in the middle of something they don't give a shit about. We need peace for the next several weeks. 

        The entire reason for the Russian's to make negotiations with us is so that we can open a new channel of business through them, expanding our reach and doubling our product and revenue.

Domani's father hadn't felt ready for that for many years while the Russian's were after us with the idea. They wanna expand in America, it just made sense to work together when we wanted the same thing.

Domani's father has rejected the idea for years, but now Dom feels ready to take this on. He said it's time.

        My problem with the Bratva is that I don't trust them. They're crazy. I've heard stories. Why get into bed with psychopaths? But it's all about money and power at the end of the day and Domani wants that. All of it. And honestly so do I.

I wanted to rise in the ranks and I have been. Helping Enzo take over the Rizzo crime family business has put me in a position of power. If we secure this deal with the Russian's then I'm essentially running that too.

Well, I wouldn't be running it alone. This would be an endeavor that Alessandro, possibly Elio, Enzo, and I would take over.

Dom will always have a piece of the pie, and he'll absolutely be involved in this too, but he's pushed a lot of the responsibility on us while he runs the large empire he already has.

        He has New York, but he wants the Irish gone so he can take Philly, and really all of New England for himself. That's where the Russians come in. They have a hand in Boston already, they want to expand with us into Philly, but they don't wanna fix the Irish infestation they want us to deal with that.

It's just a lot of back and forth shit. A lot of illegal business. A lot of dangerous bullshit.

The Russian's are willing to negotiate deals though, so that's what I'm focused on. Girls, sex, none of that matters if they blow my cock off for offending them in some way, so I gotta watch my next few steps closely.

I have to be smart about this. That's what Enzo and I have been prepping for this week and now the day's finally here.

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