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“I’ll check with my informants and see what I can dig up, and Marko can get his hackers and spies on it,” I said with a straight face.

“I’ll have myresearch analystshack their systems and also speak to myintelligence officers,” Marko said pointedly, narrowing his eyes at me as he emphasised the names.

As always, I sniggered at him referring to his hackers asresearch analystsand his spies asintelligence officers.

He hated them being called hackers and spies. He said what they did was way more than those terms implied. I agreed. However, I also liked getting a rise out of him. The word hacker didn’t bother me because, frankly, it was more badass, and I actually preferred the word spy because it conjured up images of James Bond, fast cars, sexy women, and pens with poison darts. That tickled me to no end, and not much else did these days. So, I milked it as often as I could.

He shot me another annoyed look, and I shot him an innocent one right back.

“Enough, go get it done. We don’t have time for your annoying brother antics. I want to know who is behind this, and I want the proof now!” Miki said, shaking his head at us both.

As the older brother, he was used to our squabbling and having to keep us both in line, but he knew deep down it was all in fun.

“Sure thing,” I said, giving him a mock salute, and he rolled his eyes in exasperation at me before he and Marko headed out.

I called Sergei back and checked that he had adequately dealt with the dealer’s body. There was no need for any unwanted police investigation.

Then, I spent the next hour on the phone with my own men and some of our informants, trying to get some more information. I spoke to whomever I could. For the rest, I left messages to get back to me urgently with any relevant information.

I wondered how Glowacki would take the news that he was being set up again and two of his own men were working against him. He’d be livid when he heard he had traitors in his ranks again.

Apart from us, Glowacki and his sons, a few of our closest men, and two of the cops on Glowacki’s payroll, nobody else knew that afterthe incident, our alliance, along with our respect for Glowacki, strengthened significantly. They assumed that it was as shaky as it once was. We were happy to let everyone, especially our biggest enemies, think that. It was always best to never fully reveal either your strengths or weaknesses. However, it had obviously meant that, on this occasion, whoever was behind the latest attacks—and I was definitely not convinced it was solely the Malia Boys—saw our apparently shaky alliance as exploitable.

Eventually, having had no luck gaining any additional information, I headed back out to the Main Hall.

I was making my way over to where I saw Romi and Sonia dancing together when I heard an angry woman shouting, “Why, you insolent little madam!”

I immediately turned and headed towards her instead.

I noticed Derrick, Marcie’s assistant, was dabbing at the front of a plump woman’s dress. He said something, obviously trying to placate her and very obviously failing. Romi and Sonia headed towards the scene, too.

It was time to do some of the schmoozing I hated.

CHAPTER 7

GRACIE

STILL SATURDAY NIGHT - ANOTHER INCIDENT

After I had run away from the gorgeous Russian guy, I ran straight into Derrick.

“You alright, sweetie?” Derrick asked, seeing my reddened cheeks.

“Sure, just a bit hot and only narrowly managed to avoid a disaster with a tray of drinks,” I told him.

“Okay, well, I am going outside where it is quiet to give Marcie a quick call and update her on how everything is going. There are still a few hours to go, so why don’t you take a breather and then head back out shortly?”

“Will do,” I nodded, thankful that he was too busy to notice my overly flushed state.

My hands were shaking as I downed a glass of water and then splashed a little on my face. I badly needed to calm and cool down. I was always shy around the opposite sex but never quite as bad as this. The Russian guy didn’t even speak to me.

I didn’t know what I was so embarrassed about. I might have spilt a little drink on a guest, but she had been sweet about it and knew it wasn’t my fault. It was his. I might have been caught openly admiring him, but so what? He was gorgeous, and no doubt many women openly admired him. Besides, he hadn’t seen me, so really, I had nothing to be embarrassed about.

I needed to get a grip on myself and get back out there before Derrick noticed. I had a job to do and couldn’t let a minor incident and a hot guy stop me.

After several deep breaths and a few affirmations, reminding myself that I’d got this, I felt calmer and headed back to the main hall. I decided the best thing to do was to stay away from the hot male—and any others for that matter—and keep focused on the job I had to do. Surely I’d be able to get through the rest of the night without any further upsets or embarrassment?

I walked through the room with a tray of desserts, stopping to offer one to a plump, elderly woman in a long red dress, which was at least two sizes too small for her. As I neared her, someone pinched my bum making me jump in fright, and the whole tray upended. The desserts went flying towards the woman, covering her in cream, strawberry coulis, and small bits of cake and fruit.