The Story of Blood and Roses

"To think that you would compare us to cops," I snorted.

"That's what you wanted to be!" he shrugged. The tone of his voice made it clear that he found the idea gullible, and I knew that it probably was. Morals be damned, being a cold assassin was so much more fun than being under the thumb of too many people and working in a uniform.

"I did, but see me, now? I'm so much cooler," I remarked. He rolled his eyes and then extended his hands, palm up at me. I realized after a few seconds that he was asking me for my cell-phone and not my hand.

"I suppose you're cooler," he said as I handed over the phone to him. "Now, pull out all your acting skills and act like a shrewd, but nice mobster." And then his eyes turned cold and he typed into the cell-phone furiously.

He pulled the phone away from his ears and discreetly pressed the loudspeaker icon on the screen, making the sound filter through the room. The insistent ringing of the phone left me jittery. I wondered anxiously as to who would pick up the phone. I almost missed the serious look on Anthony's face as he instructed me to be the first to speak. I was mostly at a loss as the ringing abruptly stopped and the person from the other side spoke up.

"Good evening, Nolan," I greeted. I could hear him suck the air in from the other side. It took him a few minutes to compose himself and I couldn't help but feel a bit smug that he recognized me immediately.

"Ma'am," the tenor of lingering fear was nothing but a pleasurable experience. He didn't have anything to fear, though. He was in a higher position than me under one of the highly respected and feared arms dealer slash mobster on the planet. I hadn't met half of them; he had probably shared a drink with all of them.

"Nolan," I said trying to put on a professional voice. "Could you hand the phone over to Mr. Luke Darcy? I need to speak to him about a pressing matter," I said lightly. I think I heard a choke from the other side of the phone. From beside me, I heard a low snickering coming from Anthony. I turned to him and gave him a wink, to which he shook his head with an amused smile on his face.

"I do not understand what you are saying, ma'am." There was undisputed control in his voice. It was like he had switched roles in a matter of seconds. It was a fascinating turn of events. Now, he sounded like the man that I had heard speaking to Joe.

"Nolan, let's not pretend that we don't know what is going on here. We should act maturely and treat this like the business that it is." I found Anthony looking at me with impressed eyes. "Could you please transfer the call for Darcy? I really need to speak to him."

"I'm extremely sorry, but that's not possible right now. Maybe you should call back later." The reluctance he showed in replying made me sure of the fact that he was trying to stall or dodge the conversation before it hit him.

"Mr. Murray will not be pleased to hear that you refused his call because of some issues that we had in past."

"Darcy is not here."

"Nolan, please let Luke know that I am anxiously waiting for him to call back." It was Anthony who seemed to be the trump card. The cool texture of his voice could make a shiver crawl up one's spine. He had the hard look on his face that despite being invisible to Nolan would reach his ears without a doubt.

"I will ask him to call you back, Mr. Murray." The quiver in his voice gave his weakness away. Luke was really not near him at the moment, but not far enough that he couldn't reach out. He'd have to tell Luke about the call and he would be reprimanded for not handling it better. I could imagine that speaking to me was not a priority, but not giving head to the boss of the most dangerous enemy of your boss would blasphemy as he knew it.

"He'll be calling in five minutes," I concluded when Anthony had cut the phone. He nodded and then plopped down on the sofa. "They are going to be extremely defensive from what I heard from Nolan. I'm a weak spot at this moment because I'm the person they do not know. I think we are going to be fine." Again, he just nodded.

"Listen..." he began, sitting up. "We're going to renegotiate the drug deal with them first. We will cancel the deal we made with Nolan officially, and then propose continuing to buy their goods if they give us back the shipment." I quirked a brow, a bit distressed that there was no goading taking place. "They will obviously refuse. We then go into goading them." A hint of a smile makes his lips quirk and gives me a knowing look. "I lead him into either attacking us or having a motive to carry out an operation to get the shipments back."

"Is there going to be definite signs of goading?"

"Lots of it," he assured me with a chuckle.

"Two minutes to go," I counted.

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