Page 107 of Scarred King
“You can get lost, too,” Mariano says to Johanna and pushes her away roughly. She almost falls on the table behind her, but manages to keep her balance and stand up. He pinches her thigh and when she grimaces in pain he laughs. I realize in disgust that she’s waiting for her tip, but he just leans forward and takes his drink from the table. She turns to Mike and he tilts his head to the side, signaling that she should leave the table. Johanna leaves immediately with a disappointed look on her face. She doesn’t look at me again and I hope that she’s embarrassed because I’m shaking with anger. I can’t understand why she’s stooped to this awful pathetic situation.
“Friends, shall we go to the bar?” Ilan asks and stands up without waiting for an answer. One by one the men stand up and start walking towards the door. I stand up and tuck my fan in my belt. Liam puts his arm through mine and we follow them. I feel relieved that this part is over.
“Where’s Ilan’s father?” I ask.
“Mordechai never comes into the club, so he’s probably waiting for us in the bar,” Liam answers and I notice that he looks concerned.
“It will be fine,” this time I feel the need to calm him down and he turns to me and smiles in surprise.
“Everything will be fine when I know that you’re out of here.” He stops in front of the connecting door. “Elena, stay calm. No matter what happens, remember that I won’t let anyone hurt you.” He opens the door and we enter the bar.
The square tables have been pushed together to form one long rectangular table. Mordechai and Ilan are sitting at the head of it. The Italians are on their left and the partners are on their right. Liam pulls out a chair for me and I sit down next to him.
“Beauty and the Beast,” Mordechai says and laughs. “Every time I see you with him, I can’t understand how the hell he managed to get something as special as you.”
“Thank you, Mordechai.” I smile at him and realize thankfully that his presence reassures me.
“Lady and Gentlemen,” he says humorously in his calm voice, “let’s get started because I have a wife waiting for me at home.”
He hands out some papers to the two men sitting beside him, each takes a copy and passes the rest down the table. When I receive my copy, I see that it’s a map of the city divided into areas, each marked with a letter.
“You have turned this city into a jungle,” he says, looking at the map. “And when you make trouble, we are all watched closely. I suggest we return to the way the city was divided before the war, and each side can go back to enjoying its own profits.” I study the map and look it up on the internet on my phone, quickly scanning each area displayed.
“This is not acceptable to us,” Carlito says, as he plays with his gold necklace. "They started the war over a girl and humiliated us. We should be compensated.”
I turn pale as I realize that I’m the center of attention again.
Mordechai looks at Liam, who nods his head. “We understand their position, therefore we will repeat the offer we made at our previous meeting. They can have our best area for three months, and then return it to us.”
Ralph hisses a curse and now Mordechai looks at Carlito.
“Six months,” Carlito responds grimly, looking only at Mordechai. Ralph starts shifting nervously in his seat and Liam places his hand on the table in front of him, signaling him to calm down.
“In any other situation I'll tell you to fuck off,” Liam says calmly. “But we really are here to reach a compromise. So, if my friends here all agree, we will grant your request.” He looks around at his partners and they nod. Ralph curses in German again but nods his head once. Then Liam turns to look at me.
“What?” I whisper, not understanding.
“Does the Duchess agree?” he asks with a small smile.
I realize fearfully that this is actually an issue of surrendering on my behalf, but there is no choice. I nod and pray for this show to end.
“Then—” Mordechai leans back.
“Wait!” Mariano cuts him off. “We want to go over the rules, yeah?”
I look around me. Unfortunately, it seems the meeting isn’t over yet. I sigh and go back to surfing the net.
“It's important to us to keep our distributors alert, so we thought of exchanging two identical areas.” Mariano points at their area, Z, and then at my partners’ area, W. I run a search for the names of the neighborhoods and read the information online.
“Those areas border each other,” Liam says in confusion. “Same type of population and same size. I don’t understand why we should make this pointless exchange.”
“I told you,” Mariano says indifferently. “We’re just trying to make some changes for our distributors to keep them on their toes.”
I snort in disgust and everyone at the table falls silent and looks at me.
“Duchess, what do you have to say?” Ralph sits up and looks eager to hear.
“Nothing… I don’t think it’s important,” I mumble, mad at myself for talking out aloud.