Chapter Sixty-Seven
*An Alliance of Shadows*
The meeting place was a private room in a discreet, members-only club downtown. The air smelled of old leather and expensive whiskey. Axel Lax sat in a high-backed chair, his cane propped beside him, his expression one of bored suspicion.
Naomi Louis sat across from him, her posture perfect, a picture of calculated elegance. She had requested this meeting. He had agreed out of morbid curiosity.
“You have five minutes, Mrs. Louis,” Axel said, not offering her a drink. “I fail to see what the mother of my brother’s… wife… and I have to discuss.”
“We have a common problem, Mr. Lax,” Naomi began, her voice smooth as silk. “The merger of our families. You see it as a threat. I see it as… a mismanaged opportunity.”
Axel’s eyes narrowed. “Opportu
