"Darcy is not here."

"Nolan, please let Luke know that I am anxiously waiting for him to call back." It was Anthony who seemed to be the trump card. The cool texture of his voice could make a s.h.i.+ver crawl up one's spine. He had the hard look on his face that despite being invisible to Nolan would reach his ears without a doubt.

"I will ask him to call you back, Mr. Murray." The quiver in his voice gave his weakness away. Luke was really not near him at the moment, but not far enough that he couldn't reach out. He'd have to tell Luke about the call and he would be reprimanded for not handling it better. I could imagine that speaking to me was not a priority, but not giving head to the boss of the most dangerous enemy of your boss would blasphemy as he knew it.

"He'll be calling in five minutes," I concluded when Anthony had cut the phone. He nodded and then plopped down on the sofa. "They are going to be extremely defensive from what I heard from Nolan. I'm a weak spot at this moment because I'm the person they do not know. I think we are going to be fine." Again, he just nodded.

"Listen..." he began, sitting up. "We're going to renegotiate the drug deal with them first. We will cancel the deal we made with Nolan officially, and then propose continuing to buy their goods if they give us back the s.h.i.+pment." I quirked a brow, a bit distressed that there was no goading taking place. "They will obviously refuse. We then go into goading them." A hint of a smile makes his lips quirk and gives me a knowing look. "I lead him into either attacking us or having a motive to carry out an operation to get the s.h.i.+pments back."

"Is there going to be definite signs of goading?"

"Lots of it," he a.s.sured me with a chuckle.

"Two minutes to go," I counted.

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