Mafia King's Contract Breeder
Chapter 18 She’s Too...Messy

Chapter 18: 18 She’s Too...Messy

Emmanuel POV

The night was my domain.

I stood at the precipice of Sagres Tower, looking down at the city I intended to rule.

It felt good to be high up in the sky. Puts more distance between me and the dirt that I crawled out of with blood under my nails.

After all these years, I finally crawled my way back to the top of the world, where I was born.

I had acquired this building only one year ago – a business acquisition by one of my holding companies, all very legitimate. Now it was my new home and center of operations.

A building with my name on it in the heart of the Federation.

This was where the rich and influential dwelled, the tycoons, the politicians, the old money heirs. This was the seat of power.

And—

This was where my biological father’s family lived.

They did not make their money with cleaner hands than mine. They simply had more time, more generations under the same name, to put a polite facade over their thievery, murder, and lies.

Take a loaf of bread, and they will call you a thief.

Take an empire, and they will call you a conqueror.

My life was a study in graduating from the former to the latter.

They call me a child who should not have been born. Blood and fate conspired to keep me on my knees, starving, begging, but I refused to stay there. I refused to be defeated.

It had taken ten years to turn East Windlem into my personal kingdom. Now, I would bring death to their doorstep.

Somewhere in the near distance, I knew my dear father and half-brother were losing sleep.

I hoped that they were enjoying the ’gifts’ I had sent as much as I enjoyed their ’greetings’.

—

The elevator arrived with a quiet ding.

Callum Dover stepped up to my right shoulder with the silent step of an assassin.

"The Cobras have returned from Kensington Hills," he reported, not bothering with anything so inefficient as a greeting. "The surveillance has been planted."

"Yes, I read the mission report," I said dryly, "But tell whoever is writing it to get to the point faster. And that using ’therefore’ five times in one paragraph doesn’t make him sound any smarter."

Dover shrugged.

"It was Shen Kai. You know how he loves to sound intellectual."

"That explains it," I muttered.

Dover chuckled.

Then he shot me a furtive look, the corner of his mouth twitching in a sure sign that he had something to say, or ask, that went beyond strictly professional.

"So — Lara Brinson," Dover said. "The whore you asked me to pick up for you."

"Yes?"

"What do you think of her?"

"I think..." I said slowly, lifting my eyebrows, "she will do what I need."

Dover let out a huff of air.

"She is not your usual type," he said.

I gave him a side-glance.

"If only people knew you were such a gossip, Dover."

You’d think he would have learned his lesson about keeping his mouth shut after how many times it almost got him killed.

"I’m not a gossip," he protested. "I am — reasonably invested in understanding anyone that gets close to my Boss."

"Her background check was clean, no?" I said absently. He had handled the background check, after all.

"Yes," Dover said. "Just a matter of personality."

"What do you mean?"

"She’s too..." Dover paused as though searching for words. "Messy."

"Messy?" I echoed.

"Emotional."

A pair of vividly green eyes flashed in my mind’s eye, bringing with it a burst of sudden heat. I took a larger gulp of scotch, letting it burn down my throat.

That much was true.

Her body was what caught my attention to start with, but her personality was making things more interesting.

"She does have an attitude about her," I said. "Spices things up a little, why not? Not a concern as long as she is not working for someone else."

"You should have seen the fuss she kicked up when I told her there would be a strip search."

An amused smile curved my lips.

"You found nothing?"

"No." Dover thought for a moment, then chuckled. "She brought a little pink vibrator. I let her have it back."

"Did she," I drawled.

There was a lesson to be taught there.

My little toy was certainly not allowed to entertain herself without my permission.

Dover’s gaze moved along the skyline before returning to the middle distance.

"Is this really necessary?" He asked. "If you want a child, Vienna would have a baby for you, no questions asked."

I shook my head.

"Vienna won’t do. I will not mix business and pleasure."

I glanced at Dover’s impassive face.

"Did she want you to ask?"

I was aware of how Vienna felt towards me. She had been a useful subordinate ever since we were both children stealing and begging in the streets of East Windlem.

An exceptional woman, not like the rest of the greedy, selfish lot.

Such unwavering loyalty was valuable in someone tasked with personal protection, assassination, and all manner of dirty work in between. She carried out my orders without question. She worshiped me like a god, a sentiment I liked to maintain. And I could not be a god without distance.

"No," Dover shrugged. "Just seems neater to me, considering she is someone you already trust."

"To be my blade. Not to be my..." I grimaced.

"Emotional entanglement would only ruin a perfectly good subordinate for me."

My heir does not need a mother.

It would only make him weak.

For a moment, a memory flitted through my mind—

—

Dirty, unfamiliar streets. A slamming car door.

"Mama, where are you going?"

"Get out, boy! Your father doesn’t want you, you’re of no use to me! You’ll only hold me down!"

The car sped away, leaving only the stench of fumes and poverty.

—

Dover’s voice cut through the untimely recollection.

"And you think emotional entanglement is not an issue with this chick? Lara?"

I shook my head, dispelling the last echoes of my mother’s voice.

Mother, ha. A womb that birthed me, nothing more.

"Please." I took a sip of my scotch. "It is a transaction, that is all. I get an heir, she gets money. And we both have some fun along the way."

Dover pulled a face that he quickly smoothed over. I caught the edge of it reflected in the dark glass.

If he had any further opinions, he kept it to himself.