Maria is one of “the girls,” and she hasn’t been anywhere close to welcoming. But as I watch her grin and run her fingers through her hair, I wonder if maybe Angie is right. Maybe it’s all in my head, and I just haven’t given her a chance. I’ve never really had a close group of girlfriends, so I’m not sure how it’s all supposed to work.
“I don’t care if you don’t want to go.” Angie pouts, throwing her damp rag at me. “I’m making the executive decision.”
I laugh, shaking my head as I finish restocking the cups for the morning.
“Hmm.” Maria pops her gum loudly, her dark eyes searing into the side of my face. “You don’t wanna go?”
I shrug. “It’s not that, I just…”
“Probably for the best,” she interrupts. “I don’t think the JR is your kind of place.”
My spine bristles and I stand up straighter. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She smirks. “I mean… it’s not for children.”
“Maria, come on. Don’t be a bitch,” Angie pipes in.
Maria laughs. “I’m not. I’m just saying. What if he’s there? Can you imagine? She’d be scarred for life from even being in the same building and run home to tell her daddy.”
I lift my chin. “My dad isn’t even in town.”
She cocks her head, her lips thinning. “Your nanny then.”
Irritation spikes through my gut, and a need to prove her wrong clicks my decision into place, pushing the words off my tongue. I look at Angie. “I’m in.”
“Yes!” Angie claps her hands.
Maria’s eyes glint. “Hope you can handle it.”
“Give me a break, Maria. She’ll be fine. It’s a bar, not a sex club,” Angie scoffs before turning toward me. “Don’t listen to her. Besides, we only go there so she can try and get the attention of her mystery man.”
“I will get his attention.”
Angie tilts her head. “He doesn’t even know you exist, girl.”
“My luck is bound to change at some point.” Maria shrugs.
Confusion makes my brows pull in. “Who are you guys even talking about?”
A slow grin creeps across Maria’s face, and a wistful look coasts across Angie’s eyes.
“Hook.”
2
James
“There’s a new proposition on the table.”
I pour two fingers of Basil Hayden into the crystal tumbler, adding one ice cube, and savoring the flavor before I turn to face Ru. “I wasn’t aware we were taking any new propositions.”
He shrugs, lighting up the end of his cigar and puffing. “We aren’t. But I’m a businessman, and this one has massive potential.”
His voice is muffled as he speaks around the roll of tobacco, but years of soaking up his words as gospel make him easy to understand.
Roofus—known to the world as Ru—is the only person in my life worthy of my trust. He saved me from hell, and I’ll never be able to repay that debt. But the courtesy only extends to him, which makes it difficult when he decides to bring new people into our operation.
He’s grown reckless with age.
“One day, your inability to turn down potential will get you killed,” I tell him.
His eyes narrow. “I have no intention of dying and leaving my legacy to a Brit.”
I smirk. All of this is mine anyway, he just doesn’t like to say it out loud. Doesn’t want to admit the student has surpassed the master; that he only holds the reins because I allow him to. It’s been the truth since the moment my uncle’s blood spilled under my hand eight years ago—the day I turned eighteen. I gutted him like the worthless fish he was, then used the same blade to cut into my steak at dinner, daring anyone to question why my fingers were stained with red.
Ru may have the title of boss, but it’s me they all fear.
Setting my glass on the edge of the desk, I sit down in one of the wingback chairs. “Your mortality is not something I particularly like to joke about.”
Sometimes I truly believe Ru thinks he’s untouchable. It makes him sloppy. Makes him trust too easily. Allows people to get too close. Luckily, he has me, and I’ll slice my knife deep into the belly of anyone who tries, reveling at how the life drains from their eyes while their blood drips into my hands.
I guess when you’ve experienced the things I have, you learn quickly that immortality is only granted through people’s memories.
Ru leans forward, resting his cigar in the ornate ashtray on the corner of his desk. “Then pay attention. We have someone who’s interested in being a new partner.” Ru grins. “Wants to expand our distribution. Run our pixie to new corners of the universe.”
“Fascinating.” I dust a piece of lint off my suit jacket. “Who is it?” I ask, purely to appease him. I have zero interest in bringing on someone new. We’ve been using our current drug runner for the past three years, and I vetted him personally. Watched him sweat through his clothes while he watched our pixie dust get loaded on the plane, hidden inside crates of lobster. Sat next to him in the cockpit through the entire flight, twirling my hook blade through my fingers as he pissed himself from the nerves.
If you want to ensure someone’s loyalty, you have to make sure they understand why you deserve it. And I’ve made sure that people understand the end of a blade hurts worse when the person wielding it enjoys causing pain.
Ru wipes his hand over his mouth. “You’ve heard of NevAirLand planes?”
I freeze in place, the blood in my veins icing over. I’m quite sure I’ve never mentioned that name to anyone, especially Ru.
“Can’t say that I have.” My jaw tics.
“Well, you must be the only one.” Ru laughs. “The owner, Peter Michaels, just moved here.”
My heart slams against my ribs. How could I have missed this? “Oh?”
Ru nods. “He’s looking for a new adventure.” He smiles, his slightly crooked teeth gleaming. “It’s only fair for us to welcome him in properly, let him know how things around here work.”
My hands twitch with the rage that spikes inside of me whenever I hear Peter Michaels’s name. I reach out and pick up my tumbler, my grasp tight around the crystal as anticipation blooms in my chest.
How fortuitous that the man I long to kill is serving himself to me on a silver platter.
“Well, I think this sounds like a wonderful opportunity.” I smile.
Ru picks up his cigar. “I wasn’t asking your permission, kid, but I’m glad you’re on board.”
“So, when do we meet with him?” I sip from my drink, trying to tame the quick beats of my heart.
“I meet with him tonight. Alone.” He narrows his eyes.
My gut clenches. “Let me go with you, Roofus. You shouldn’t meet him alone.”
Ru sighs, running a hand through his ridiculous bright red hair. “You’re too intimidating, kid. I need this meeting to be friendly.”
Can’t argue with him there.
“At least take one of the boys.” The thought of Ru alone with Peter Michaels sends a chill up my spine.
Ru blows a ring of smoke in the air.
I lean forward, knuckling the top of his desk. “Roofus. Promise me you won’t go alone. Don’t be foolish.”
“And don’t forget your place,” he snaps. “I run this, not you. You answer to me. How about you show your gratitude and, for once, just do as you’re fucking told?”
My teeth grind at his tone, and if he were anyone else, I would thank him for the reminder right before I cut out his tongue. But Ru gets away with a lot of things that no one else does.
I first saw Ru when I was thirteen—two years after I was shipped to America to live with my uncle. Reading in the library, I heard a commotion down the hall and went to investigate the noise. Peeking through a crack in the office door, I watched, mesmerized, as a large man with olive skin and dyed red hair loomed over my uncle’s desk, threatening him within an inch of his life, a gun at his temple and menace bleeding through his thick Boston accent. It was awe-inspiring, truly. I had never seen my uncle cower before anyone. It was usually his favorite pastime to see others fall to their knees for him.
As a politician, it happened publicly often.
As a person filled with rage and perversion, it happened in private even more.
So, I found this mystery man enthralling, and took to following him when he left, desperate to emulate his power. I suppose you could call it obsession, but I had never known anyone like him. Had never seen someone command obedience from a man who ran the world.
I wanted to know how to do that too.
But, at thirteen, I hadn’t mastered the art of being undetected, and Ru knew I was stalking him all along. Took me in and taught me everything he knew. Introduced me to the streets of Bloomsburg and kept me sane through the nightmares that plagued my sleep.
So, I’ll defer to what he wants, because there isn’t a single soul on this planet that’s taken care of me the way he has.
There was once, but that was long ago. Another lifetime, really.
“You’re right,” I say. “I trust your judgment. It’s everyone else’s I don’t.”
Ru laughs and opens his mouth to respond, but a knock on the door interrupts.