“Explain again why we’re spending a perfectly good Saturday night out there?” Sterling asks, slipping on a pair of brand-new kicks.
“Who cares why? Just think of all the photo-ops,” Dane cuts in, answering Sterling’s question before I have the chance.
And not at all in the way I would’ve answered it.
Joss rolls her eyes from the armchair beneath my window, shaking her head at Dane’s vain ass.
“Do you make any life decisions without thinking about selfies?” she asks.
Gazing at himself in the floor-to-ceiling mirror opposite my bed, Dane smooths his eyebrows. “I gotta give the people what they want,” he teases, knowing it’ll get under Joss’s skin.
It does. She stands, pushes both hands down the front of her jean shorts, deciding she’s had enough of us already.
“I’ll be down in the car when you three prima donnas are done getting ready for the ball,” she says with a playful sigh. “Not being the prettiest girl in the room is getting kinda old.”
We laugh, but the moment she passes to walk into the hall, Dane’s eyes are lustfully glued to her in those tiny shorts, taking it all in.
“I don’t know why you don’t just hit that already,” I say with a sigh.
He faces the mirror again, fixing his collar.
“It’s simple,” he reasons. “I refuse to be the asshole to ruin something so perfect.”
His honesty catches me off guard and I pause, rolling the sleeves of a black button-down to my elbows. “Well, damn. I think that’s the realest thing you’ve ever said.”
“Which is fuckin’ sad,” Sterling chimes in, shoving his wallet into the pocket of his jeans.
Then, we’re ready.
I kill the lights in the penthouse on our way to the elevator. It’s not until the doors close and seal us in that Sterling revisits his earlier question.
“So, we’re slumming it on the crap side of town for … what reason again? Sorry, just still trying to wrap my head around this.”
My back rests against the wall as we descend twenty-plus floors. “Because I have a message to send,” I explain. “Can’t have Southside thinking she can escape me. She needs to know I’ll be everywhere, until I say she’s had enough. Her job, her hood, everywhere,” I add.
I don’t mention it, but showing up and pissing her off again serves a secondary purpose. Like fixing whatever malfunction I had last night when I touched her. I just need to remember how much I like seeing her broken, and all will be right with the world.
My brothers are silent, probably because I’ve never gone this dark. But if they knew what I found, knew what I’d seen in the past, they’d be raging, too.
There’s an unknown history between my dad and me, information only the two of us share. Well, us and the cunt I caught him with exactly a decade ago. He always had a soft spot for young blondes and seeing Blue in his phone only proved he hadn’t changed. The only difference is, unlike the first time I caught him cheating, I’m old enough to do something about it.
Like, break his newest conquests soul in two.
“You can’t defeat an opponent unless you know what makes them tick,” I explain. “So, to answer your question, that’s why we’re going tonight. Once I know what’s important to her … I can go in for the kill.” I add.
And in case it isn’t already clear, I’m going to enjoy that shit.
