And I’m all in.

Fredrik

Present Day…

Five men, two on each side of me and another seated at the head of the dinner table my opposite, watch me with guarded eyes.

My gun was taken at the door.

“It is a peaceful dinner, monsieur,” the door man had said. “No weapons allowed.”

“Very well,” I had said and removed my gun from the back of my pants, placing it on the table.

I knew not to wear more than one as I’d surely be patted down before they allowed me inside. And I was correct.

But I need no gun.

Unarmed, I walked past a dozen guards carrying a bottle of wine and stepped into the belly of the beast surrounded by four of Francois Moreau’s most experienced men.

I knew in advance also that the wine I brought would be whisked away by one of the waiters and placed in the center of the table. Francois thanked me for the gift. It was an expensive French wine, after all, and it would have been quite rude of him not to thank me, even knowing that I came here to kill him.

“Is it true?” Francois asks casually, looking over the length of the table at me seated on the other end. “Vonnegut has a bounty on three of his former men? Including you?”

I nod. “I suppose the rumors are true for once.”

A slim, confident smile pulls the edges of Francois’ hard, weathered mouth. He has short graying hair, cut smoothly at the back of his neck and combed over to one side in the front, plastered to his small head by thick amounts of hair gel.

“And I suppose tis’ good that I have no interest in filling bounties for a man like Vonnegut.” His smile becomes more arrogant, as if I have him to thank for being alive in this moment.

I nod again and bring my lips to my wine glass, which isn’t the wine from the bottle that I brought.

The dark-haired man sitting to my left with a scar above his left eyebrow removes his white cloth napkin from the table in front of him. He unrolls it from its neat little arrangement and places it within his lap. The other three men sitting on the outsides of the table follow suit when they notice the waiters entering from a side door balancing full plates on their hands. Francois remains in the same position, not looking away from my eyes even when the waiter places his plate in front of him.

Francois steeples his hands, his elbows propped on the table.

“So, Monsieur Gustavsson,” he begins, “it is my understanding that you were sent here to get information from me on my employer, correct?”

“Yes,” I answer, but offer him nothing else. I prefer to make him work for the details I know he wants before he has me killed.

“And what makes you think that I am at liberty to give you such information?” He appears amused by the very prospect of it.

My expression remains standard. Cool. Calm. Unruffled. And he grows more nervous by the second by my absence of tension. I’m only one man. Weaponless. Sitting at a table amongst five other men who, most assuredly, are packing heat despite the doorman’s claims. I’m but one man in a mansion on a private land just outside of Nice, France, where at least nine other men armed with guns patrol the outside.

He must know that I am not just one man, after all.

I steeple my hands the same as his.

“Before this,”—I wave one hand at the wrist briefly—“lovely evening is over, I can assure you that I’ll have the information I came for.” I point my index finger upward gently. “But not only that, you’ll give it to me freely.”

He looks surprised. And amused.

Francois shakes his head and lifts his wine glass to his lips, afterwards setting it gently back on the table. He takes his time, the same as I have, by making me wait for more of a response. The blond-haired man sitting to my right eyes me from over the rim of his wine glass. All four of the men are dressed like Francois and myself. Tailored black suits and ties. Though I definitely look better in mine. And as if they were a collective, they pick up their forks and begin eating at the same time. Francois finally joins them, though I’m confident it has nothing to do with being hungry. He’s simply wanting to drag out his moment of pause longer than it needs to.

He chews and then swallows.

“Is that so?” Francois finally says with an air of authority and a smile. His shiny silver fork clinks against the glass plate as he sets it down.

“As a matter of fact, it is,” I say with confidence, as if I were simply telling him that, yes, it is raining outside, and welcoming him to step over to the window and see for himself. “I know your Order to be run by a man named Monsieur Sebastien Fournier. He took over last year after Monsieur Julien Gerard was killed in Marseille.”— Francois wipes his mouth with his cloth napkin and continues to listen—“I also know that your Order is strictly black market and that many of the men under Fournier are American, running American hits on innocent American women.”

Francois tilts his graying head to one side, thoughtfully.

“Oh come now, monsieur, you cannot make me believe that you, of all people, care what happens to a few innocent women,” he taunts me.

I remain unruffled on the outside, but on the inside, his words sting. And he knows this, otherwise he wouldn’t have brought it up.

Bringing my lips to my glass again, I meet Francois’ eyes from across the table, challenging him to test me further, without having to move a muscle in my face.

He smiles faintly and takes another sip.

I set my glass on the table.

“Well, I must say,” Francois cuts in, looking down at his food, “if you know all of this, what more would you possibly need from me?”

“I want the key to the safety deposit box in New York,” I say.

The lines around Francois’ mouth deepen with his smile. He looks up toward the waiter standing at the ready to his left and the waiter goes over to him.

“Please, do us all a kindness and open that bottle of wine that Monsieur Gustavsson was so generous to bring this evening.” He gestures toward the bottle with two fingers.

The waiter does as he is told and sets the opened bottle in the center of the table.

The other four men at the table all place their silverware back onto their plates, knowing that something other than dining is going on now and that they need to remain sharp. All of them wipe their mouths with their cloth napkins after taking a sip from their wine glasses.

Francois snaps his fingers and a small-framed woman with honey-colored hair pinned to the back of her head steps through a side entrance and scurries over to him. She is exquisite. Vulnerable. Frail. She wears a short black skirt that clings tightly to her hourglass form. I study the gentle slope of her bare neck and the fullness of her plump breasts underneath the thin white fabric of her blouse. She’s not wearing a bra and her nipples are like little beads of sex inviting me to devour them.

I would love to break her beneath me.

Briefly, she meets my dark gaze but looks away before Francois catches her. And in just that small moment, I could sense the tiny jolt between her legs.

“New glasses please, mademoiselle,” he orders and she scurries off to do his bidding.

“You like what you see?” Francois asks, noticing my attention on her as she leaves the room. “Perhaps I could offer you her services before our meeting comes to a close? I am a generous man, after all. Just because I do not plan to let you walk out of here alive does not mean I cannot treat you to life’s luxuries before you die. Think of it as a parting gift.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I say. “But I appreciate the offer.”

“Well, you should at least eat something,” he says, gesturing at the food in front of me that I haven’t touched.