She dropped her fork and leaned toward me. “We don’t do something, we lose hold. All hold. Soldiers. What little territory we have left, and you know there isn’t much. We gotta rebuild. We had to do that five years ago, seven, ten, before you or I even took our offices at the warehouse. So it’s safe to say that right now, the time is so ripe to do it, it’s rotting off the goddamned vine and I’m not gonna rot with it.”

At her vehemence, and frankly, the veracity of her statements, I shut my mouth.

“I know he’s not going to take it well, that’s why I didn’t talk to him about it in the first place,” she carried on. “But he has no choice. It took me years to sort out all the shit I needed to sort out under the nose of Valenzuela and Seth Townsend’s boys still sniffing around, keeping tabs. Not to mention that fucking motorcycle club, the Nightingale men, Delgado’s commandos, those two fucking Sebring brothers and every other player who keeps tabs on the Denver streets.”

“It’s impressive, Georgie,” I told her the truth, but keeping my face perfectly impassive, especially after her mention of Nick and Knight.

Her annoyed, frustrated eyes warmed.

“And the boys will be relieved,” I went on.

She nodded, again picking up her fork. “They will. Dad will too, he gets over it and gets with the program. It’ll help, you sussed out this thing with David, taking care of the family. We get the legitimate side producing again, rebuild our stronghold in the turf we’ve got left, start pushing for more. Valenzuela has a soft spot for me. I’ve been buttering him up for months.” She grinned and finished, “Finally, for the House of Shade, I see good things.”

She shoved pasta in her mouth and started chewing, still grinning.

I was not grinning.

I did not see good things.

I saw labs that were always in danger of being sniffed out by rivals or law enforcement and wondered what steps Georgie had taken to be certain those labs were not tied to anything Shade. Another conversation we would have, just not one at a public restaurant.

I also saw our boys who would soon have product on the street and this would not go unnoticed, not by anyone. Those “anyones” would wonder where we got it and our boys obviously were more vulnerable with product in stock than they were when our cupboards were bare and I didn’t feel we were in any place to keep them protected.