Noble Intentions: Season Four Read Free

and the Old Man had turned on each other. And over what? Something to do with a woman and Jack Noble?
    No, even the concept of loyalty only got one so far. If a concept could be packaged into something similar, then his group would be considered as loyal as
    they came. Which meant a quarter to a third were scamming and skimming off the top. To be expected, though. Charles did it when he was coming up. He
    presumed Feng did as well. Didn't mean he had to accept it. He'd already decided that would be the next order of business.
    From the compound, Charles's captains oversaw day-to-day activities. From the high-rise, Charles worked on broadening and expanding his empire.
    Opportunities existed that Feng never bothered to investigate. The money the Old Man had, which now belonged to Charles, meant a chance to move into
    businesses other than drugs and racketeering and selling secrets. And now that things had been handled and he expected operations to run smoothly here on
    out, that was precisely what he planned to do.
    Charles reached for the binoculars. He followed two women, one brunette, the other blond, as they jogged through the park, honing in until their brightly
    colored running shorts disappeared behind the thick leafy cover. His gaze lifted over the tops of the trees, down the shimmering, hazy corridor of 5th
    Avenue. His eyes switched focus from the cityscape to the reflection of the three men seated behind him.
    "Which of you thought this would be a good idea?" Charles turned, folded his forearms across the top of his expensive high-backed leather chair. It
    swiveled to the left until his weight settled.
    The first guy that spoke drew Charles's wrath.
    "Shut up," he said before the guy managed a second syllable. "All three of you are lucky I brought you down here and didn't have you dismembered and
    dissolved in the compound basement."
    The looks on the faces of the men were as varied as they were. Each had come up in Feng's organization in a different manner. None of that mattered,
    though. They remained loyal to Charles when others hadn't. They carried out his wishes exactly as requested. Until the final slaughter.
    "Didn't I say," Charles said, "that Mikey C. was off-limits? He was the only one from the old regime, from back when I was a damn grease monkey working in
    the garage, who remained neutral in the face of change. He had ties with groups outside our organization that wouldn't talk to me. Now we lost him, we lost
    them, and we lost a lot of damn money."
    None of the three men spoke.
    "I said don't touch him!" Charles kicked his chair, sending it to the left. It toppled over on its side. Caster wheels spun without resistance. "But now
    his body is torn into pieces and floating in the damn river."
    Sunlight shone against the sweaty foreheads of the men across from him. One snuck a peek toward the office door, presumably in a failed attempt to locate
    Charles's bodyguards.
    "We didn't know he was gonna be there," the guy named Paolo Almeida said. "I mean, once we started, he came out from a back room where I guess he was
    banging some whore. Charles, man, he saw what we was doing. He reached for his piece. I had no choice." The guy closed his eyes and flinched, having given
    up the critical information Charles searched for.
    Charles leaned back against the window, massive arms crossed. "You two, out."
    Paolo remained seated while the other two captains rose and exited the office.
    "What are you thinking right now?" Charles said.
    "I'm wishing I'd kissed my wife before I left today."
    "You're single."
    Paolo shrugged. "Figure of speech."
    Charles smirked. "Well in that case, if you had one, probably woulda been a good idea."
    "Look, I'm telling the truth. It was me or him. I had no choice."
    "Yes, you did." Charles pushed off the window and planted his thick knuckles on the desk and leaned over it. "You could have known who the hell was in the
    damn house before going in, guns blazing."
    Paolo said nothing.