Ties That Bind by Elizabeth Blair

lost count ages ago.
    “Mitch?” Jimmie was eying him, apparently having expected some form of response.
    “I don’t usually drink with others,” he managed with a crooked grin, “I become a philosophical fool and start evaluating my life. Makes me pretty shitty company, if truth be told.”
    “I don’t get drunk with other people,” Jimmie agreed even though it was clear to both that he couldn’t stand now even if he wanted to. “Usually because that’s the easiest way to get a bullet in the back of my skull or say something that should remain private. Guess that means I have to hire you so if I say something stupid you’re at least on my payroll first.”
    “Better to shoot your own employees than a stranger’s?”
    Jimmie chuckled, his head dropping backwards with his laughter. “Something like that, yeah.”
    “Who is after her?” Mitch asked in a low voice, glancing around to make certain no one was anywhere within hearing distance.
    “Everyone thinks I’m going to shoot you for putting her in danger, Mitch,” he said waving around. “They’ve all disappeared to keep from being called as witnesses.”
    “They don’t know you very well.”
    “No,” he shook his head. “Not at all. And to answer your question, I don’t know any reason someone would be after her. We tightened security after Coppell, just like all the families and, of course, after Alex’s death. But no one should want her.”
    “From the inside?” Mitch expected an immediate denial but when his question received silence, he turned a quizzical look Jimmie’s direction.
    “It’s possible,” he murmured. “Not likely but entirely possible. We’ve done a lot of expanding recently. There could be people among us-”
    “No need to explain further. I’ll dig around for you. About the west coast-”
    “Nicolai Terenari.” Jimmie didn’t miss the flicker of recognition that passed across Mitch’s face. “You know him?”
    “Intimately.”
    “Care to elaborate on that?”
    “No.”
    Jimmie didn’t bother to try and scrutinize him having learned that, unlike most men he came across, information was not likely to be persuaded from Mitch. Not that he particularly required additional information about Nicolai. Raised in the boroughs of New York, worked his way up through the street gangs to take over his own business, eventually branching out to the west coast where he had remained for the last decade...his story made him the generic poster child for a gang leader. He was universally heralded for his ability to make multi-million dollar deals but, unlike families in the east, Nicolai’s death toll was notoriously high. Rather than striking deals and negotiating, he paved his corporate ladder with sprays of bullets, leaving no one left to oppose his impending takeover.
    The pinched look on Mitch’s face told him that some previous dealings with Nicolai must have soured him on the man. This, in Jimmie’s mind, was only another credit to Mitch’s ability to discern character. He sent him a lopsided grin and pulled himself to standing, wobbling a moment as he tried to find his footing. “Let’s go find you a room before we both pass out, hm?”
    Mitch nodded silently, his mind teeming with drunken memories and conflicting emotions regarding the man whose family he had just agreed to join. Jimmie seemed legitimate in his thought processes, sound in the manner in which he evaluated and discerned the problems that were facing him. Rather than jumping to conclusions, he gathered his information, listened to the words of those who were there and then came to his own conclusions. A rarity among the criminal minds he normally associated with. Even Sonny ran forward on rumors alone, his Italian temper always managing to get the best of him.
    Stripping off the clothes he’d now been wearing for two days, he stepped into the glass shower in the room Jimmie had offered him. Hot water washed down his back and he dropped his head