When Empires Fall

The Pact

Chapter Two: The Pact

Zane’s POV

I knew my father had so many enemies, and I was terrified of finding out if Roman was going to be the start of our downfall. What exactly does this man want from me, I thought to myself. I was deep in thought forgetting the sun was up. There was a knock on the door – is that Roman? I thought again

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“It’s Adrian sir”

“You can come in” I said with a sigh of relief.

“I expected Roman here” I said

“He doesn’t want to meet here” Adrian said

“Then this meeting cannot happen then” I said “If he wants to reveal anything then he’s free to do so but I should be the one calling the shots”

“Sir it’s best we just do what he says for now that man poses as a really dangerous threat to us” Adrian said

He’s right I don’t know this Roman can do to us

“Where does he want to meet”

“He said he'd send the address to me now,” Adrian said.

“I have other important meetings this should be hasty”

“Sir let’s be on our way I have the address”

When we got there, I expected to see a feeble looking old man full of words. But Roman was tall, hefty, comported and did not look his age.

“I did not expect you to be here,” he said.

“You left me with no choice.”

He had this smirk on his face and there was something dark about his features I could not explain.

“What exactly do you want from me?” I asked.

“We don’t need to ru-

“I don’t have time for this nonsense,” I said sternly.

“Okay, I need protection.”

“Protection??”

“Yes”

“What makes you think I can offer you protection” I asked

“Because you can” Roman said, “I have known your father for a while and I know how powerful your empire is”

“I’m listening”

“If you don’t know I have restaurants I own and control”

“Like your frontline business,” I said.

“It used to be, but now that’s all I have. You see I was way powerful back then, and I used to have all the empires under your feet, even your father’s.”

I looked at Adrian and there was this look of confirmation he gave me.

“What your father never told you was that I used to have every organization in my hands until I thought they were independent enough to go. Basically, I own your father and I used to own New York”

“So what happened to this mighty elephant?” I asked.

“Everything has an end, and I was ready to put that behind me and start a new life and I guess it’s not just meant to be” Roman said.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Someone is after my life,” he said with a pause.

“Oh”

“My family and business are in danger”

“Have you seen them and do you know what they want?” Adrian asked.

“No, but they send letters and death scares to my home.”

“What do they say?” I asked.

“They said they want revenge for something I did in the past, and they know who I really am, they won’t hesitate to expose me.”

The smirk on Roman’s face was no longer there as he had a lot of fear in his eyes.

“Now what do you want me to do for you?” I asked

“I want you to find them and bring them to me, not only that, I need to have my family and business covered from these threats, so I want you to dispatch your soldiers all over while we investigate.”

There was a long pause between us.

“I’ll pay you handsomely,” he said.

“And what if I don’t agree to these?”

He came close up to my face.

“I know your mother, I know every single person you own, and I can make them all disappear within seconds. Besides I can expose you without you knowing it was me.”

“You don’t want to know how dangerous I can be. I am more deadly than my father”

“I am well aware and that’s why I chose you for this,” he said.

“So do we have a deal?” he continued.

“I’ll send my own terms through Adrian. When do we start?”

“Oh right now,” he said with that smirk.

“Have a great day sir” Adrian said as I walked out.

While in the office, I instructed Adrian to gather and inform everyone involved in this operation. I genuinely wanted this to be over as fast as possible. I organized a search team to carry out this investigation, bringing my best people to seat and, for some reason, Roman expected us to report and meet him every day.

One week later

“I am not satisfied with the results!” Roman yelled.

“Just because we work together now does not give you the right to raise your voice at me,” I said, challenging him.

“My son was attacked,” Roman said with a deep breath.

“How did that happen?” I turned to Adrian.

“Sir we tried all that we could but they still managed to get through,” Adrian replied.

“Bunch of dullards!” I exclaimed.

“We are sorry sir” Adrian said bitterly.

“Roman we’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise,” I said.

“You better do or I’ll have to do something about it myself.”

I could see that Roman didn’t believe me anymore. My only concern was with my organization. Why aren’t we performing as we used to? Am I slacking off in my training? While thinking, I got an email from Roman saying we should meet privately.

“Roman, I am sorry for what happened earlier,” I said.

“About that… I am having another organization join yours,” he said.

That means we are not capable enough, I thought to myself.

“I feel we’ll get to this person if you both work together.”

“Work together??” I asked

“Yes, his name is Liam Romano, boss of the Romano organization. He’s pretty young but don’t underestimate him”

“This was never in our deal,” I said.

“But it is now,” he said with a big smile on his face.