no turning back

• twelve •

elijah

". . . terms of the contract . . . inherent risks . . . holding fees and container costs—"

The man's incessant droning voice stopped at the ring of my cell phone. Although this was an important meeting, the representative sent over from the Murphy brothers talked in such a monotone voice that it nearly put me to sleep.

Graham and his brother, Geoffrey, were wheat and corn farmers that we convinced to use our logistics and freight shipping services. They were powerful stakeholders in the region's vegetable farming industry.

Winning a contract for transporting their product would be highly lucrative for us and good for the cover business.

There was endless potential in working with the Murphy brothers, which was why we'd worked so hard to make a pilot shipment work. We could access new counties and states and open the door for transporting contraband to new places around the region.

Starting over from basically scratch was not ideal, but our mafia would soon be more powerful than ever. I was working myself to death to ensure of its success.

I glanced at my phone screen to check the caller ID. Seeing it read 'Cyrus,' I sighed.

Initially, it agitated me that he was using that name, since it was both of our middle names, but I understood that obscuring his identity was for the best.

Now that I had a prison record, I couldn't go under the radar. To the world, he was just a civil engineering student. He could be my eyes and ears anywhere.

It also allowed me to use his alias to conduct business myself in the background. We looked enough alike that even the warehouse staff couldn't tell us apart. We used that to our advantage and simply let everyone believe we were the same person.

I had to continue laying low to keep the feds from locking my business down again. If they did, I could expect to spend a lot more time in prison and I wasn't all that interested in spending any more time away from my money or my angel.

"Excuse me," I said. "This could be important."

The man leaned back in his chair with a nod. "Of course, Mr. Zare."

"A moment alone," I added curtly.

"Oh, of course." He bolted out of the office.

I rose languidly to my feet and accepted the call, drawing the phone close to my ear. My legs carried me to the window of the conference room that overlooked the sprawling, lush forests of central Arkansas.

"What?" I said.

"What's the status of the big contract?" Raman asked.

"They're signing tomorrow."

"About fucking time. We need to get things off the ground."

"Things are going smoothly," I snapped. "Now, you just interrupted my meeting. Do you have anything important to discuss?"

"No. Shit's so boring around here."

My eyes skimmed over the landscape, admiring the twists and turns of the silted river through the city.

"And her?" I asked.

"Fine. Gave her a lift out of the rain like you said."

"Any issues?"

"No."

My mouth turned down slightly at that. Why is she so willing to get into a man's car?

A hot spike of jealousy stabbed through my chest. Raman was getting the privilege of doing all the things I wished I could be doing with my angel.