Enforce(53)

I wasn’t sure if I was elated or not.





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

We own the world.



Nixon

“ONE MORE STOP.” I took the next exit and sighed as we pulled up to the bank. Just something else we owned next to car dealerships, garbage companies — hell, sometimes it just felt like we owned the freaking world. I’m sure it looked that way too when you typed our name into a search engine.

Anthony was going to flip his shit, but I figured the best way to let him know about the dire situation was to wave her in front of him like a bull. I could text him, but seeing her in the flesh, yeah, it was going to be one hell of a day. Besides, she couldn’t just walk around with that type of cash.

So what if we had GPS trackers in every card we made?

So what if I was using it as an excuse to make sure she was never out of my sight?

“The bank?” Trace looked up at the spiky modern building.

“Yup.”

“Why?”

I let out a laugh, “Asks the girl who’s carrying around thousand-dollar bills. I take it you don’t have an account?”

She hung her head, shoulders hunching. Damn it, sometimes she was so fierce it knocked me on my ass; other times, like a beaten puppy.

“Well, let’s go then.” I jumped out of the car and grabbed her hand, leading her toward the glass four-story building.

“Nixon, where’d the rest of the suits go?”

I didn’t answer because there were enough lies for the day, couldn’t really say “Well, they’re all downstairs drinking coffee and watching you on the big screen while cleaning their guns.” The bank was another hangout for lots of the men; nobody would dare attack me there. It was a freaking fortress, not to mention it had some of the best security in Chicago.

We walked right past all the desks where people were answering phones and working and went into the elevator.

She let out a little gasp as it descended into hell. Ha, kidding — just Anthony’s main office, but it sure felt like hell sometimes.

The doors opened, the smell of fresh-brewed coffee burned my nostrils as I dragged Trace down the hall.

“Hey, Priscilla, where’s Anthony?” I asked, almost hoping I could just do everything myself without Anthony seeing Trace first.

She didn’t look up. “Oh, you know, sharpening kn—” Her mouth shut she glanced up and offered her hand to Trace. “I’m sorry, and you are?”

“Trace. Trace Rooks.”

Priscilla nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing in on the necklace that just so happened to have turned to show the glaring Alfero family crest. “Rooks, you say?”

“Yup.”

“Doesn’t sound like—”

“Pris, we need to open an account.” I leveled her with a glare.

Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. Yeah, bitch was trying to put two and two together. I made a mental note to take care of that later. Make sure she didn’t talk to any of the men; that’s how rumors spread, and that’s how heads rolled — literally.

“Of course you do. I’ll just let Anthony know you are here.”

I shook my head. “No need. I’ll let myself in.”

“Enter at your own risk, Nixon.”

“Come on.” I tugged Trace’s hand and went down the stairs through the hall of bosses — men who served us or were actually bosses of our family. I purposefully didn’t look at the newest picture — the one of my father. Hell, if I had it my way, it wouldn’t have gotten the honor of a spot on the wall. But respect was everything, and it was my job to show the men that yes, even though I’d killed him, we still respected blood — unless we were double-crossed; then we just killed them.

I pressed my thumb against the magnetic strip. The door opened. “Anthony?”

“In here.”

I walked into the wide office and grimaced. All the windows were open looking out onto the pond. To Trace, it would look like a penthouse.

“We need to open an account.” I hoped he’d keep the questions to a minimum and just work his magic on the computer.

“We?” Anthony turned around.

My uncle turned, leveling me with a curious stare before setting his cold blue eyes on Trace. He looked just like me; then again, Chase and I could be brothers for how similar we looked. When we were little, people thought we were twins, rather than Mo and I.

I cleared my throat. “Technically, she needs to open an account. I would have gone to one of the other branches, but lucky girl has thousand-dollar bills.”

Anthony’s eyes widened briefly before he turned to Trace. “What did you do? Rob a bank?” He cracked a smile. Awesome, so now the man had jokes when I was ready to lose my freaking mind with all the information I had stored.