CHAPTER 143
ROMEO POV
The office was as quiet as it could be. The kind of quiet I needed to actually get work done.
The spreadsheet didn't balance.
It should have. Antonio was usually meticulous, but the numbers on the weapons shipment kept circling back to a missing margin.
I tapped the end of my cigarette against the ashtray, eyes never leaving the document as the smoke curled upward in a slow, disciplined line.
The whiskey beside me had sat untouched for a while. Then I took a small sip—more habit than need—and set it down again.
The door opened without a knock.
"I'm regretting ever bringing you back to your smoking habits," Antonio announced as he stepped inside, a heavy file tucked under his arm.
I didn't bother answering. My eyes stayed on the open paper in front of me—shipment records, coded transactions, a list of men who owed us favors and men who owed us fear.
Numbers. Ink. Order. Things that made sense.
