Chapter 7 - A New Future Beyond the Mafia Empire
The Blackthorne organization survived, but Adrian did something nobody expected.
He began cutting pieces away.
The narcotics connections his father had tolerated disappeared first.
Then several protection rackets.
Then the businesses that existed only to hide illegal revenue.
Moss complained.
Old allies threatened to leave.
Adrian let them.
“You’re dismantling your own empire,” Harper told him one evening.
They were sitting in the conservatory.
The same room.
The same marble floor.
Harper’s cheek had healed into a thin scar.
Adrian poured coffee.
“My father built an empire.”
“And you?”
“I’m trying to build something I don’t have to leave to another son who spends half his life cleaning up what I was too afraid to change.”
Harper looked at him.
“Another son?”
He froze.
Then realized what he had said.
Harper smiled.
“That was interesting.”
“I meant hypothetically.”
“Of course.”
He looked annoyed.
She liked him annoyed.
It made him less frightening.
Evelyn entered carrying a deck of cards.
She had good days and bad days now.
The family no longer pretended otherwise.
Adrian had hired specialists.
More importantly, Evelyn had agreed to let them help.
She pointed at Harper.
“Are you working?”
“Not tonight.”
“Good. He works too much.”
“I know.”
Adrian sighed.
“There are two of you now.”
Evelyn sat.
“That was always my plan.”
Harper laughed.
Three weeks later, Adrian asked Harper to meet him in his office.
A contract waited on the desk.
She stared at it suspiciously.
“What did you do?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s generally when you’ve done something.”
“Read it.”
The title said Operations and Risk Coordinator.
Harper looked up.
“What is this?”
“A job.”
“I have a job.”
“You’re a terrible maid.”
Her mouth dropped open.
Adrian continued calmly.
“You break glasses, lose linens, forget which cleaning products belong on wood, and once managed to lock yourself inside the pantry.”
“The lock was defective.”
“You were holding the key.”
“That is irrelevant.”
He tapped the contract.
“But you remember conversations almost word for word. You notice changes in people before security does. You recognized my mother’s distress when trained staff missed it. You understood Mercer’s motives before my own people did. And you walked into a situation everyone else would have walked away from.”
Harper read the salary.
Her eyes widened.
“This is absurd.”
“It’s market rate.”
“For what market?”
“One in which people who save my life are difficult to recruit.”
“I didn’t save your life.”
Adrian leaned back.
“We’re still pretending that?”
Harper looked at the contract again.
“What would I actually do?”
“Review household procedures. Coordinate with medical staff. Identify gaps security overlooks because they’re thinking like security instead of normal people.”
“You mean tell your terrifying employees when they’re being stupid.”
“That will be approximately forty percent of the position.”
She smiled.
Then she became serious.
“I won’t be your charity case.”
“I know.”
“And if I think you’re wrong, I’ll say so.”
“I’m painfully aware.”
“And my father comes first.”
“Yes.”
“And Evelyn gets to tell me when she doesn’t want me involved.”
“Yes.”
May you like
Harper picked up the pen.
She signed.
