When Empires Fall

First Collision

Chapter Three: First Collision

Zane’s POV

Unlike Roman, I have heard a lot of things about Liam. He’s young, fierce and calculative. He had just took over from his father who the leader of the Romano empire before he fell sick, and Liam, as young as he was, had to take over from him. I was so sure that he was not capable of handling the empire but surprisingly, I have heard of all the achievements his organization has accomplished. Roman set up a meeting where we would all meet and I was still not over the fact that he didn’t trust my organization enough.

“So we’ll just be here waiting for him?” I asked with irritation

“Yes”

Right there I knew I wouldn’t like him. We waited about an hour before he arrived.

“Oh what a pleasure to see you,” Roman said with a little sarcasm

“I don’t have the whole day.”

I flared up immediately.

“You don’t have the whole day? We have been waiting for over an hour for your spoiled ass”.

“Zane, that’s no way to talk to our guest,” Roman said, “Please let’s all calm down”.

“I think we all have an idea on why we are here, I have explained everything necessary to Liam but I’ll explain why we are actually here.”

“Liam just took over from his father. Does he have any experience in any of this?” I said.

“Excuse me?? I don’t think we have met and I don’t know you so mind the way you talk to me” Liam said

Liam is more than capable. I believe him joining us will lead us to the suspect faster” Roman said trying to clear the air.

“Hmm, let’s see what he can do” I said

“I need you both to understand how important this operation is my wife, my children, my restaurants every single thing I have worked for I cannot and will not lose them and maybe you guys haven’t been informed if I don’t get adequate results by the specific period of time I give all of you there would be severe consequences of which one of them is being killed. You definitely don’t want to mess with a mafia legend,” Roman said angrily.

I could tell Roman was really upset but I don’t think I genuinely fear being killed. The only thing I fear is losing everything my father and I have worked for.

“Zane come to my office right now” Roman said.

“That’s no way to speak to him”

“He was evidently rude and disrespectful,” I said

“Oh – that’s what this is about” Roman said.

“What are you talking about?” I asked sounding confused

“You are well aware of what I am talking about. You see Zane I have played this game very well. I know exactly what’s going on’

“Will you just get to the point already?”

“You are mad that I made someone else join you and you also think he is really young to take up any operation” Roman said with his smirk on his face

“That’s not true” I denied

“I could see it in your eyes so much anger but if you deny it that’s fine but don’t let whatever you had going on in your head jeopardize this contract”.

“Sure” I said. A part of me wanted to leave everything at once and focus on my organization.

“I have a first assignment for both of you because this time, we’ll do it my way and I may have a concrete lead on who the suspect is, so I’ll pass this information to Liam tomorrow we meet” Roman said hastily.

I went to the club to ease off my anger and I got laid with a woman but I dismissed her immediately because for some reason it made me even angrier.

The next morning

“Adrian. I got a mail from Roman asking if we have deployed our soldiers to his house” I asked

“Yes sir we have and they are fully undercover” he replied

“Anyway, I’ll see you soon. I have a meeting with Liam and Roman”.

“Good Morning everyone,” Roman greeted

There was barely any response.

“Let’s just get straight to it. So, I need you both to come up with a plan on how to get to the people working of the suspect. I expect that by the end of the day you both must have come up with something solid that will lead us there and I need you guys to implement it by today. You can both get to work”

Roman created a workspace where we can both work individually alongside him. For today we decided to use mine.

“As you can see, I don’t have time for this I have a plan already and we’ll use mine” I said at once

“We were both instructed to do this individually and come together” Liam said.

“We’ll use mine and that’s it”

“Why?” Liam asked

“Because I said so, and besides your incompetent,” I said.

“We will use my plan,” Liam said.

“Let’s see whose plan we’ll use then”

Liam brought his plan to me and was bent on us using it then we both decided to do it separately and see whose is the best. But to my surprise we were able to trace down these people but Liam single handedly did it using my idea. But that didn’t change anything. As days passed by Roman made sure we were occupied he made us travel together which was a hassle, but Liam turned out to be exceptional and not spoiled like I thought but I still didn’t like him. When we got back from the trip Liam was on constant calls but I knew it wasn’t related to our operation so I overheard him on the phone one random afternoon.

“What do you mean you can’t find the cash!!” he said angrily

“Sir, it is not my fault. I think someone has been stealing from us”

“I haven’t gotten any cash from the shipment we sent to Dubai. We’re running really low on cash and I’m stuck here with these people and I don’t think I am getting out anytime soon, Marcus” Liam said

I have never really seen this side of Liam, and it looked like his mighty organization was in a bit of financial struggle. I didn’t want his attention to slide away because I needed to be done with this whole sad operation so I asked Adrian to wire some money from an offshore account without anyone knowing.

Adrian’s attention was gradually returning, and he asked for us to go to a café during one of our breaks and when I got there I found him reading.

“You’re seriously reading right now?” I asked him.

“Would you prefer I stare at you instead?”

I laughed under my nose. “So how was Roman able to reach you because I knew your father and the dangerous activities he carried out in New York?” I asked.

“The thing is that Roman is really smart and desperate too. He knew it would be hard to get to me so he blackmailed me into his mission of exposing me and taking down my empire but that didn’t sell me until he said he’ll reach my father and that was what did it for me” he said.

“Well, that was almost the same thing he used at me” I said

As Liam talked I could not to stop admiring how beautifully shaped his eyes were and then I found myself sweating.

Why would I think of him that way?