38.

Vincent Giovanni

Really? She knows the guy, just fucking great.

“Oh my gosh, you have not changed a bit, still as beautiful as I remember,” the little British prick says with a smile.

“And still the charmer,” Julie replies with a giggle.

She’s giggling at the motherfucker.

“Okay, you’re here for me McCredie, not my girl,” I say interrupting their catch-up session.

“Your boyfriend lacks in the hospitality department love,” he says and takes a seat on my couch.

“Julie, can you please excuse us for a minute?” I ask.

She looks up at me and I raise my brow, she nods and says goodbye to Thomas and leaves, I wait until I hear our bedroom door close.

I pour myself a glass of whiskey and sit down across from him.

“I’m glad you could make it,” I say, “I didn’t think you would.”

“Miss the opportunity to meet the most hated man in Europe, never.”

I chuckle, “So why take my ship hostage?”

He laughs, “Getting down to business, I like it and to answer your stupid question, why not? I had the means to do it and I did.”

“You’re telling me that you did that for fun?”

He shakes his head, “No, I did it, so you could call me here and we can discuss business and maybe provide a solution to both our problems, the Russians.”

Now I’m interested.

“The Russians? Who said they were a problem,”

“Those little Nazis have always been a problem, all they do is drink vodka and make their money stealing from other gangs and I quite frankly think that it should come to an end, and ever since you, my dear friend killed their boss, there have rumours of a new boss being put in office in the coming week.”

I take a sip of my whiskey and savour the butter yet smooth taste, “Get to the point McCredie,”

“I need an army and weapons,”

“Weapons, I can give you but an army not so much,” I reply.

“Look my drugs aren’t selling and I need tough hounds on the street that are willing to get down and bloody to keep the drugs going,”

“McCredie, I don’t deal drugs, I’m not involved in drugs and I do not want to get involved in drugs,”

He leans forward and looks at me, “Are you sure about that?”

I glare at him and lean forward.

“Because one of my boys, saw your cats pushing a consignment a few days ago,” he says and pulls out him phone from his pocket.

“Proof?”

He shows me his phone and I see a picture of Juan, holding a box, outside of a club.

“There could be anything in that box,”

Thomas laughs, “Denial is a dangerous thing my friend. If you look really closely, you can see my emblem on the box, the box was carrying 2 pounds of cocaine and he delivered it to one of my clients clubs downtown.”

I zoom into the picture and I see the snake emblem, he probably had a good reason for doing it, maybe a favour for a friend or something, he would never break that rules like that.

“I’ll have to investigate that,”

“Fine by me but I’m here to talk about the weapons,” he says, “I want something small, quiet and smart, I’m willing to pay cash.”

I gulp down my drink, “Payment?”

“Cash on deliver,” he says.

I smile, “How many do you need and when?”

The next few minutes are spent discussing the deal and I must say I’m fairly impressed by this British fool, he’s business etiquette and mind set, although I don’t approve of his methods on getting my attention, another thing that’s at the fore front of my mind is how he knows Juliet, is he an ex, and old friend, family member or ex college.

“Well, Thomas, I look forward to doing business with you, I hope you’ll be there for tomorrow’s meeting.”

He stands up, “Likewise Vincent, I hope you can deliver on your goods.”

“I will, all you have to do is make sure that you have my money,” I stand up and we shake hands.

“Well I best get going, wouldn’t want you to keep the madam waiting,” he smirks.

We walk to the door and I’m really trying to resist the urge to ask him but if I don’t it’s going to eat me alive.

“So how do you know Juliet?”

He raises a brow and chuckles, “Are you sure you want to know?”

“Yes, I do, Mr McCredie,” I press on.

He lets out a sigh, “We dated back in high school, before I left to go back to London to live with my mother.”

That is exactly what I didn’t want to hear.

“Oh,”

He laughs, “I’m the one that got away, I broker her heart by making her believe that we would be together forever, and then I just up and left without saying a word,”

“But she seemed so happy to see you, why would she put on an act?”

“That’s the thing about Juliet, you never know if she’s being real or just putting on an act, everything she does lie or truth is believe but she still finds a way to keep you interested and captivated, and her beauty only adds to it,”

I let out a sigh, “That’s definitely her alright,”

“But one thing is certain, when she loves, she loves whole heartedly, now compromise, no deceit, just pure love and once you betray that love, well that’s another thing,” he adds.

“Thank you, McCredie,”

We say our goodbyes and I watch him leave.

I go upstairs to our bedroom and I find her fast asleep in bed, she still has her clothes on, leaving me with the wonderful task of undressing her and putting her pyjama’s on. I lift her from her position and take her jeans and t-shirt off and slip on one of her oversized t-shirts and a pair of boxers, grab her make-up remover and some wipes and carefully remove her make-up. Once that is done, I get undressed and only remain with my underwear on and get into bed next to her.

The conversation with McCredie has only left me with more questions than answers, who is she? She never talks about her family or where she’s from or ever her past? Gio didn’t give me much that night on the hill because he too didn’t find any other information apart from her basic information, she’s almost like a ghost, no family, no connections, she just exists.

I look over at her and I can’t help but wonder, who the hell is Juliet Ferguson?