Page 3 of Emeric

My eyes widened. They felt like they were going to pop out of my head. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“I have no desire to be seen with him.”

Lana sighed. “We’re not going to be visible to the public. I’m meeting him at a home. I’m not sure whose it is, nor do I care. This is about more than taking on a new client, Em. Someone like him can pay me well for years to come. He’ll need constant counsel. He’s looking for a new attorney to assist him.”

“There’s no sign of him stopping or retiring?”

“No,” she chuckled. “If you made as much as he did and were that powerful, would you quit? That’s a hell of an ego boost. He knows who he is and isn’t apologetic about it. We can’t forget how smart he is either. Jordan didn’t make it this far by fucking up and getting caught. Not to mention all of his legal businesses. He’s built an empire.” The Altair name was one everyone in Dremest knew, good or bad. Between Jordan and his brother, they had covered both halves of the city, except Perry didn’t dip his toes in illegal ventures.

“And you’re going to be the one who gets him out of the situations he puts himself in? I’d ask how you’ll sleep at night, but I’ve seen you work. You’ll do fine.”

She grinned. “I’m glad you agree. Can you stop worrying about me now?”

“No. You’re going to do what you want, regardless of what I say. Just be careful.”

In the process of putting her earrings in, she paused. “You’re not going to come, are you?”

“This is your show, not mine. I have no desire to work for him or any person who could bring their drama to our door.”

“That won’t happen. Another perk of working for him, not that we’ve ironed out any details yet, but I’m going to bring this up. If any part of his life meets mine, it’s to be handled on his dime. I’m not going to hire people to clean up messes that shouldn’t have been there to begin with. He can pay for it all.”

It was my turn to laugh. “You think he’s going to agree to that?”

“Only one way to find out.”

I had to give her credit; she had everything she wanted from this meeting memorized. If she didn’t get what she was after, she wouldn’t work for him. While the money would be great to put toward her starting her own firm, she wasn’t going to do it in a way she didn’t approve of. Working for a mafia boss was okay with her if certain things were in place.

Reaching for her suit jacket on the back of a dining chair, Lana put it on, then grabbed her leather bag. “You’re going to worry about me one way or another, but trust me when I say, I have enough to offer him that he can’t say no to my proposal.”

“I trust you, not him. Just leave me out of it.” I had enough to handle at my current job. Hopefully, I could work my way up and continue to prove myself.

Lana’s path wasn’t mine, and that was okay. My sister was tough, ruthless even. I hoped she knew what she was getting herself into.

1

EMERIC

Present Day

There were moments I was surprised to still be above ground. When my sister needed help and brought me in, I could usually handle it easily. Today was one of those times when I waited for my heart to finally give out from the stress I was under.

“You can’t be fucking serious,” I said.

Seated calmly across the table from me was the mafia boss of East Dremest. “You act like this is shocking.”

Dragging my hand over my face, I briefly thought about dropping my head to the table and banging it repeatedly against it. “It shouldn’t be. I’ll handle it.” Well, Lana should have. She was in court when the request came in to help Jordan. Enter me.

This wasn’t a typical I’ve been arrested, get me out of jail type of thing. This was a land dispute, except he was arguing about the land of a dead person who owed him money. The family of the man, who had no idea he did business with Jordan, was adamant Jordan had the wrong person, and the home they lived in was rightfully theirs. Now, I had to figure out how to keep a family from being unhoused while getting Jordan what he said was his. Why? Because I didn’t like to see anyone without a roof over their head. This family might not have known what the man did, or they were aware and were playing us. Either way, I had to fix it.

“I’m not heartless,” he told me.

“Uh huh.” I was working on two hours of sleep, thanks to an issue at the hotel I owned. Receiving a call about Jordan needing help made me want to weep. There was only so much a person could take before they combusted.

“I’ll accept money instead of the land and home.”

“I’ve already thought of that. I need to speak with the widow and see how flexible she is. We don’t want her calling the police, even though her husband was obviously buying large amounts of drugs from you.”