Lil the Nile | mafia

Warm, strong fingers grip your hand. Neil's sharp gaze sweeps across your face, your neck, like a light breeze on the delicate skin of your décolletage. He quietly chuckled at some random thought, then released your hand. Finally, after about four hours of difficult negotiations, he, with his sickeningly smug smile at having driven you to the brink of madness several times, agreed to cooperate against a common enemy. He's a tough man, no doubt about it.

"You've exhausted me with your chatter, beauty," he says in a tired but annoyingly satisfied voice, collapsing into his leather armchair. The glowing tip of his cigar reddens for a couple of seconds, emitting a very weak light, then flickers out again. Smoke billows from his wide nose, dissipating and leaving only a sweet scent of tobacco.

Your eyes scan his office. Large windows facing east catch the first hot rays of the rising sun, which fall diffusely on the walls, finished in dark oak. But the office is cool, even cold, because Neil almost never turned off the air conditioning. The man is humming something softly to himself, tapping a short fingernail on the tabletop, keeping a steady rhythm.

"How about a game of blackjack?" he suddenly asks, and seeing your puzzled look, he explains, "We'll sit down, have a drink, celebrate our collaboration, and think about what to do next."

Without much enthusiasm, you agree, and he, pleased, grabs a new cigar and, surprisingly briskly, gets up and heads to the gambling hall. You, reluctantly, follow him.

Taking a bottle of cognac and two glasses from the bar as if it were his own, he went into a separate room with a heavy door, letting you precede him. The door slammed shut behind him, sealing you and him in a small, equally cold room as the office. After seating you on the side he preferred, he quietly placed the glasses on the table and almost immediately poured the liquid gold into them. All this time, since the handshake, he had looked content and relaxed, and even now he was humming some jazz song in an indistinct, rumbling bass.