He doesn’t want to be seen with us either,” Griff says.
Griff texts Moss to let him know we’ve arrived, and then we head around the back as directed. Moss’s home is like a huge fucking resort with multiple residences, two pools, a tennis court, landscaped gardens, and a pool house, which is where he meets us, motioning us in.
“I take it from the fact you’re here that we’ve had a hiccup?” Moss says, looking at Griff.
“That guy was never going to do what you want,” Griff says. “We sorted the problem permanently.”
Moss stares at Griff. “He’s dead?”
Griff nods.
“Fucking hell.” Moss rakes his fingers through his hair, looking anything but pleased. “I didn’t fucking ask you to kill the asshole. I asked you to—”
“You asked us to handle the situation. We fucking handled it,” Griff says darkly.
“No, you fucking screwed it up. This is going to cause me the kind of heat I don’t need.”
Griff steps forward and grabs a handful of Moss’s shirt before forcing him back against the wall. Pushing his face close to Moss’s, he says, “This is going to get you your fucking mine. All you need to do is stop fucking choking on your balls and have a little faith.” He lets him go. “A fucking thank you wouldn’t go astray either.”
Moss pulls an envelope from his suit jacket and shoves it at Griff. He opens his mouth to speak but is interrupted when Mark Novak joins us.
“Griff,” Novak says, walking our way. He’s talking to my VP, but his eyes are firmly on me.
Every fibre in my being tenses with hatred as I stare at the man I despise more than I know what to do with. I want to wrap my hands around his neck and squeeze every last breath of life from him for what he’s done to me.
“Mason,” he says, fucking baiting me with that smug fucking smile of his.
Griff glances between Novak and me. He knows the history there and is rightfully concerned about what I might do. Stepping in, he says, “What the fuck are you doing here, Novak?” He also can’t stand the motherfucker, but is better able to control his emotions than me.
Novak continues watching me for a long moment before turning his gaze to Griff. “Who do you think you’re working for here?”
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” I say as my mind connects the dots right the fuck in front of me.
That smug smile of Novak’s grows. “That’s right, Mason. You’ll do what I say going forward.”
I jab my finger at him. “Like fucking hell I will.” I swing my face around to look at Griff. “We need to get the fuck out of here and never take another job from these assholes.”
Moss cuts in before Griff can respond. “That won’t be happening. Not when we’ve got a fucking dead body sitting between us.”
Novak’s brows lift. “A dead body?”
“Yeah,” Moss says. “Instead of threatening Jimmy, they killed him.”
Novak whistles low and looks at Griff. “It looks like your club will be doing my dirty work for a long time now.”
How Griff manages to keep his cool I don’t fucking know, but he does. “You’ve been trying to shut us down for three months, Novak, and now you want to work with us? I’m not buying it.”
“It seems I may have been hasty when I brought those laws in,” Novak says. “I think we can come to a compromise.”
Novak managed to push laws through when he discovered my relationship with his daughter. Laws that threatened to tear my club apart. I was arrested, along with six other club members on bullshit charges that didn’t land any of us in jail, but that fucked with us enough to be a constant reminder of what the state could do to us if they pushed the point. We’ve spent the last three months watching our back and being cautious as fuck in everything we do. I don’t know what Novak’s game is here, but it can’t be anything good.
“What kind of compromise?” Griff asks.
“The kind where you take care of my dirty work and I make sure your club stays safe.”
“That’s the kind of compromise my president will have to okay,” Griff says.
Novak nods. “I expect it is. You take it to him and get him to reach out.” His voice drops low and threatening when he adds, “The only acceptable answer is yes, though. Make sure you tell him that.”
Novak eyes me again before turning and exiting the pool