I wiped the blood from the de of the knife on my shirt before turning to pick up my jacket off the chair behind me. For the past hour and a half, I had been beating the life out of Brendan’s best friend and making sure he didn’t leave out a single detail about what he knew.

    Turns out that he knew a lot more than he was willing to confess a couple of hours ago, before I was summoned to the basement of our shared club. I hated being summoned. My men knew that. They also knew that I had temporary custody of my niece and nephew. So, the fact that I had been drug out of my house in the middle of the night had me livid.

    “What do you want us to do with him, boss?” one of my men asked as I shrugged into my jacket.

    “Do I look like I give a fuck? Bugs get this nigga out of my sight before y’all have two bodies to bury,” I demanded.

    Brendan’s bitch ass was back on the radar after an overseas flight that took him from somewhere in South America to Rome. He was going on a world tour with my money. I just hoped that he was enjoying himself because if I had to fuel up my jets to go find him, they would never find his body. Once my team was done with Javier, he would never be found either. I didn’t have an ounce of remorse for the man who’d helped my enemy elude me for weeks by lending him ess to his private ne. After wiping the knife free of my prints, I tossed it at his feet.

    “The next time one of y’all muthafuckas call me and drag me away from my fucking family in the middle of the night, that nigga Brendan better be standing in front of you alive and well. Bring him the fuck to me!” I barked before proceeding to exit the building.

    After walking out of the building through the back entrance, I hopped into my running car and sped off. That was more than enough socializing for the day. I needed to get home to my family.

    Part of me wondered if Den knew that Brendan had been using his friend’s ne. My team had been tracking it but since Javier had failed to list his treacherous friend as a passenger, they had a hard time confirming that he was on board. Once the flights kept moving without his presence that was enough information to confirm that Brendan was using it to travel.

    As soon as I walked back into my house, I took my simmering anger out on Den. Her watery eyes neutralized me long enough for me to invite her to sit down and have a drink with me. Thest thing I ever wanted to do was hurt her.

    Clearly Brendan wasn’ting for her. From what I could tell, he wasn’t the least bit concerned what happened to her at this point. He didn’t give a fuck about her wellbeing after leaving her at his house to be snatched up by my psychotic ass. That burned me up even more.

    I poured her drink first, letting the warm liquid cover the big block of ice before passing the ss to her. I didn’t want or need ice, so the second empty ss was reserved for me. She peered over the rim of the ss with those glossy, doe eyes as she took a swig of her drink.

    I tossed mine back letting the heat sear its way down my throat. I was so tense that my neck was killing me. I rubbed my neck with the palm of my hand, moving my head from side to side before finally speaking.

    “Brendan’s ex-pilot friend confirmed that he’s using his ne to travel. He was in Italyst he knew,” I revealed.

    I don’t know why I told her that for sure. I think part of me wanted to see the look of surprise that shed in her eyes when I said it.

    “What does that mean for me?” she quizzed.

    “I don’t know,” I admitted, leaning forward to fill my ss again.

    Apparently, I was still pawing at my neck because she reached out and took over my neck massage. I quickly finished my drink then shrugged out of my jacket and let it fall behind me before dropping my head to the side and letting her tiny hands work out the tension in my neck. It didn’t matter how tight my muscles were, Den’s hands felt heavenly on me.

    “Take off your shirt,” she suggested, putting her drink to her lips and finishing it in one big gulp.

    My fingers moved to the top button and released each one of them until she was pulling it down over my shoulders. My breathing shuddered as she kneaded away the tension in my neck. I’d been robbed of millions of dors. I’d cut a man’s throat so deep that I almost beheaded him less than an hour ago. Now I was putty in this sweet woman’s hands as if I didn’t have a care in the world.

    “You’re always so tense. You never rx. Take your shoes off and kick up your feet,” she said, reaching for my shoes.

    “No,” I spat, pushing her away.

    I went to stand, but her hold on my arm stopped me. “OK, I’m sorry. I just wanted to help you rx.”

    “I don’t take off my shoes,” I said, shaking my head. I knew I had to sound crazy, but I wasn’t ready to borate.

    “Fine,” she said softly. The hesitation in her voice showed that I was losing her. I had to do something.

    “I hadn’t talked to my sister in almost ten years by the time she called and asked me to take the kids. We had a good life here. She worked as my assistant, but she didn’t have to. Ang loved taking care of me. It’s only been us since we ran away from ourst foster home when she was sixteen and I was thirteen. She found a drug dealer boyfriend to live with who was nice enough to take me in and teach me the game.” I snorted a sarcasticugh at the memory of Cole teaching my young-ass how to cook crack.

    “I grew up in the foster care system too,” Den reminded me.

    “I recall. It was one of the things that drew me to you. That first night, I asked if you had family in the area and you told me you grew up in different foster homes before running away. I felt like you might be the one person who could really see me. Ang used to be that person. Even after I met Monique, Ang was my world.

    “Over the years as I came up in the ranks, I started making investments and learning about business. Our roles reversed and I became the caregiver. I always made sure that my sister was straight no matter what. When I bought thisnd, there was nothing on it. Ang didn’t see my vision, but she was down for whatever I wanted. I let her handle the bills and make sure that everything ran smoothly. I didn’t have to worry about anything but making money. She started seeing one of the niggas that worked for me. I didn’t like it, but it was her life.

    “Even when I realized that she was using the same shit that had destroyed our lives and gotten us snatched away from our mother, I loved her. When I found out she was funneling my money into an ount for him to try to undercut me I gave her twenty-four hours to get the fuck out of my house. She knew to get the hell out, but that didn’t stop her from trying to contact me for the first couple of months asking for a loan. After I changed my number, I never heard from her again until six weeks ago when she was being arrested.”

    “I’m sorry that happened to you. Losing your sister must have been hard,” Den sympathized.

    “Hmph. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision. We were all each other had until she let that nigga get in her head. I risked my own rtionship to let her live here. I built that upstairs apartment with her in mind. I bought the house down the street for her, but she wanted to live with me. I was grateful that she wanted to stay close to me. My fiancée was livid when she found out that Ang would be living with us, but she eventually got over it. Within the next two years, she was gone too,” I chuckled bitterly. “I don’t know how the hell I let somebody y me again. Not watching my money close enough for the second time cost me millions.”

    “For the record, Brendan and I didn’t talk about personal stuff. We didn’t spend time getting to know each other and falling in love and all that. He was just a means to an end. He showered me with gifts and gave me money since I was unemployed. I just wasn’t into him like that. He asked me what I was in college for and then made a mockery of my ambitions to work with kids. You asked me about my dreams the first night we met. I just thought you were making small talk and trying to figure out a way to make your move or offer me money for sex like the other guys who came there. Still, I liked that Brendan, someone with money and some level of influence, was actually interested in me. It felt good for a man like that to actually want little ol’ me.”

    “There’s nothing little about you,” I told her.

    “I mean I know that’s true. I’m five-ten and almost two hundred poundsst time I got on a scale.”

    “I don’t mean your stature. I mean your personality, your aura, your light. They’re all big and bold. There is nothing small about you in general. You’re amazing and beautiful and special, Den. Don’t let anything or anyone make you feel any differently.”

    “Being in his presence made me feel special at first, but it didn’t take long for me to discover he wanted a pretty, young maid. It wasn’t bad because at first being at his ce cooking and cleaning was a distraction from all the shit going on in my life. I was looking for a job and he gave me money, so that helped. As a matter of fact, that was our agreement. Since he was the one who fired me, I felt like he owed me that much. He was just a rich guy that gave me money and somewhere to stay from time to time while I worked on getting my shit together. I only have a few more semesters of school left.”

    “Then I can open a day care for you,” I stated.

    “King and Evie will both be in school by then. You won’t need me,” she said, unaware of how false her statement was.

    “We’re going to a ck-tie event tomorrow night,” I said, changing the subject.

    “By we, do you mean me, or just you and the kids?” she asked, narrowing her eyes.

    “I mean you and I.”

    “Just us?” she questioned.

    I chuckled. “Yes, Den.”

    I stood because I needed to put some distance between us. I was getting too close and forgetting the nature of our arrangement. I had to move. Besides, I needed to get rid of the bloody shirt. As soon as we were no longer touching, I missed her warmth. It was time for me to shower and go to bed.

    “Is it formal? I don’t know if I have anything to wear,” she stated.

    “A team will be here tomorrow at four to help you get dressed. We leave at seven.”

    “OK, I guess.”

    “Good night, Den.”