Page 43 of Made of Steele
The female agent playing his receptionist sat behind the front desk trying to look busy. The Conti brothers sat next to his desk. He pushed inside and found them arguing over how to price glitter. Here they were antiquities smugglers, heroin suppliers, and potentially killers, and they were fighting over a fifty-cent price difference.
Drew greeted his assistant. “Go ahead and take a break.”
She knew he was going to have a talk with the Contis that the guys wouldn’t want her to hear, so she grabbed her purse and hurried out the door.
Drew approached the men. “Never knew glitter pricing was so complicated.”
Sal swiveled to look at Drew. “You move the number of units we do online, and the price becomes critical. Got to mark it up enough to pay for handling the goods and not price ourselves out of the market, what with the Zon undercutting everything.”
Drew wasn’t an online shopper, but he knew Sal was referring to Amazon. Even if the brothers didn’t make most of their living off their craft business, it was important to their operation to be able to move illegal goods. Their truck fleet was instrumental in delivering products along the West Coast.
“Thanks for coming.” Drew dropped into the chair behind his desk. “Made my first deposit on the way over here.”
Aldo lifted his head from staring at his smartphone. “I’ll just look that up.”
“Hey, man,” Drew said. “I thought we’d developed some trust.”
“Not when it extends to money.” Aldo tapped his cell phone.
Drew’s fingers itched to grab that phone and run. The device had to hold information that could indict these men for their illegal actions. Drew shoved his hands into his pockets. He had to bide his time. Like he told Teagan. Slow and methodical. That’s what worked.
“You think any more about speeding up your deposits?” Sal asked.
“Thought about it.” Drew leaned back but connected gazes with Sal. “No offense, my friend, but how do I know you’re not playing me and Monty? Taking his money and running?”
“Don’t see as how you have a choice if he wants us to clean his dough.” Sal leaned forward and steepled his fingers together on the desk, looking bored by the conversation, but there was a sharp edge to his gaze.
Drew heard the man’s foot tapping on the other side of the desk. His tell. This was important to him. Meant Drew had to care even less and get Sal to beg for the money. Then maybe he could get him to let Drew move product too and bring the brothers up on drug charges before the antiquities investigation concluded. Worst case, he had them on money laundering now. Every word of this conversation was being recorded, and if Drew ran out of time before the op came to a close, he could leverage the recording to get them to flip on Rossi on the antiquities.
“Here’s the thing,” Drew said, playing it cool. “We really need you to have some skin in this game too. Something major to use as collateral.”
Aldo snapped his chair forward. “We’re carrying all the risk. Sure, you might be out some cash, but we’re the ones breaking the law.”
Nice! Admit it here in front of the cameras.
“Put yourself in my shoes.” Drew had to work hard to sound legitimately offended. “I ask you to put a mil in my account with no guarantee of return? You say no for sure.”
“I would.” Aldo glanced at his brothers. “Not sure about them. They like to take more risks.”
Drew relaxed back. “So what say you give me some product as assurance that the money will come back to us?”
“You want some glitter?” Sal cocked a smile.
His sarcastic tone crawled up Drew’s back, and he fisted his hands under the desk but made sure not to give away his irritation in any visible way.
“That’d be a lot of glitter.” Vito laughed and his brothers joined in, their deep voices booming through the small room.
Drew faked a laugh. “I was thinking more like glitter for the veins or nose.”
The brothers’ smiles fell.
Sal’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think we can provide that?”
“Come on, man,” Drew said, letting that frustration into his voice. “We’ve been dancing around this for a year. You’ve got product. I need assurance. We know each other now, and it’s time for you to ante up if you want to wash more of Monty’s money. Your cut is highway robbery. You know it. We know it. But we want to clean the cash. Let’s get this deal done so I can bring Monty fully onboard and you can make some coin.”
Sal picked at the cuticle on his thumb and glanced at Vito. They both nodded, though Aldo’s expression was more reserved.
“Okay, fine,” Sal said, not bothering to consult with Vito. “We set up a meet for tonight. Our warehouse. One a.m. when the guard is snoozing and doesn’t notice me looping old footage in the security feed.”
