Chapter 2

Armani Steele POV

Armani Steele stepped out of his private jet into the hot afternoon sun. He squinted his eyes against the blinding sun, pulling out his sunglasses from his pocket and putting it on. He breathe in the thick hot New York air and sighed.

The contrast in temperature between the two cities was a harsh reminder of how bad the deal had gone. A deal that had cost him billions of dollars and he was sure that his father was going to be on his neck the moment he met the man. If there was anything his father, Diego Steele, hates, besides his mother, it was loosing money.

Owner to the biggest company, Steele Empire and arguably the most richest business man in the country, one would think his father would be less bothered about loosing a few dollars, but no. In his father’s words, ' that’s someone’s pay'.

Things had been going so well, until Vito had decided to betray him and sell the cargo to another buyer over a few dollars.

Any other mafia would have killed him for double crossing them, and he would have, but, He felt that his uncle, Marco Steele was behind it, though he was yet to confirm it.

The man was hell bent on making sure that the company was not passed down to him, by messing with deals and his business.

He sighed, climbing down the stairs of the jet as he walked towards the SUV that was parked there, waiting for him.

Someone opened the back door for him, and he climbed into the car. He relaxed on the leather seat as he unbuttoned his suit jacket.

“ Where do I need to be?” He asked the person sitting next to him as he pulled out his phone from his pocket.

“ I would know if I was your personal assistant, but I’m not… “ someone replied next to him.

Armani turned sharply to the side, expecting to see his personal assistant and not his lawyer, who also happens to be his best friend too. Lorenzo returned his shocked look with a smirk of his own.

“ Why are you here?” he fired at Lorenzo, frowning at how casual the man looked. Lorenzo was wearing a plain blue shirt and jeans trousers which was different from his three piece suit that he wore everyday.

Lorenzo scoffed and turned to the driver with a nod. The driver started the car and drove out of the airport into the road.

Armani rolled his eyes at his friend, “ you still haven’t answered my question” he said.

“ how about, I came to give you a warm welcome… welcome home Mani… “ Lorenzo muttered.

Armani chuckled dryly, looking out the window, Nothing about the guy was warm.

“ Who are you and what have you done to my friend… “ he said, smirking.

Lorenzo’s response was cut off as his phone went off. He watched the guy pull out his phone and groaned when he saw the caller ID.

“ what!” Lorenzo spat, along with a series of curses after that before he ended the call. He wondered what had got the guy in this mood.

Armani waited for him to calm down before popping the question, “ is everything okay? “ he asked.

“ yeah… “ Lorenzo replied. He was lying, Armani could always tell when the guy lied. But instead of pushing it, he decided to drop it. If and when Lorenzo was ready to talk, he would open up.

Lorenzo passed him the iPad that he was holding. Armani looked at the device, and then at his friend’s face with an arched brow before collecting the iPad.

He stared into the screen, looking at the file that was opened. He didn’t need to scroll through to know what it was. The picture said it all.

He sighed, rubbing his temple, “ How bad is it?” he asked.

“ bad enough that your father is asking for compensation from the Ortega’s family… he looked ready to kill someone when I was called in this morning. I’ve been in a meeting since morning trying to sort out this mess… “ Lorenzo told him.

Armani nodded. He had been expecting this to happen ever since his mother had told him about her new fling. It had only been a matter of time before she pulled down both family names with her lewd and reckless ways.

He looked down and zoomed the picture on the screen of the iPad, a picture that showed his mother in a club, half naked and high on whatever white substance was on the table in front of her. Only God knows what kind of drug she had pumped into her system this time.

Two things his father hated was happening on the same day; his mother and loosing money. “… and?, Have you seen her since this was taken? What is her excuse this time around?” he asked.

“ She’s at the house right now. Locked up in her room… your father has banned everyone from seeing her “ Lorenzo said.

“ I’ve been doing damage control and threatening every media company to take down any article related to this. So far, it had worked, except that the little blogs and sites are having the time of their lives talking about this… “ his friend commented.

Armani released a long sigh, he had enough problems as it was, he didn’t want to be dealing with this. He still wondered how his father had managed to tolerate this for years. Even though she was his mother, he would have dropped her a long time ago.

He turned to Lorenzo, “ is that why you’re dressed like this… ?” He asked.

Lorenzo glared at him like he was stupid. He had to be forgetting something, he thought.

The guy snorted, “ today is my off day… I’ve been announcing this for over a month. I was supposed to take Keeley out for a father son bonding and then your family ruined it… “ Lorenzo whined.

Armani winced, yeah, he had forgotten about that. No wonder the guy was wearing casual clothes and grumpy. His father must have called him out of whatever he was doing. He felt sorry for Lorenzo though.

“ Sorry…” he muttered.

Lorenzo dismissed him with a wave of his hand, “ There’s also another case I want you in on…actually the main reason why I’m here… the police caught one of our associates yesterday. The boy was half dead, they think the guy overdosed on something…” he relayed.

Armani swerved his head to look at Lorenzo, “ we don’t deal on drugs Lore…” he said sharply. Their associates know this fully well that drugs was a no. They knew the rules.

Lorenzo sighed, “ I know… don’t know how but my source told me that he met up with a guy from Midnight club the night before. A deal must have gone down…” he said.

Armani closed his eyes tight, “ And the police?, How far are they sniffing?” he asked.

“ close… too close for comfort…”.

“ Well, I’ll be damned”.

He noticed that the driver had taken another route, not the one leading to either the company or the house. It meant he was meeting up with someone outside the Steele territory.

His father would have done this himself, but the man was gradually withdrawing from his position as President of Steele Empire and Boss of the Red Steel Mafia. So that placed him in charge of things from both ends.

Everyone knows that he has been in charge of business for almost a year, with his father merely supervising things. so it wouldn’t come as a shock if his father decided to announce that he was stepping down.

He opened his eyes, “ let’s get this over with… who do I need to meet to sort this mess?” Armani asked.

“ Andreas Ortega” Lorenzo smiled.

Armani groaned, “ really?, After the shit I just went through with Vito!?, I have to meet this dickhead too… “ he barked.

“ Yes… if he can make this go away, then yes… “ Lorenzo said.

“damn!,” Armani cursed.

The Prosecution Bureau office was not where he had hoped he would be going to after a long trip. Right now, he would give anything for a cool bath and sleep.

“ Get me everything I need to know about this case… “ Armani ordered.