She rolls her eyes. “You’re twenty, girl. Cut the cord.”
I give her a half-hearted smile. She, like most people, can’t understand what it’s like being Peter Michaels’s daughter. Even if I wanted to, there is no cutting the cord. His power and influence reach every corner of the universe, and there isn’t anything or anyone that escapes his control. Or if there is, I’ve never met them.
The bell above the front door chimes, Angie’s friend Maria walking in, her long black hair glinting off the overhead lighting as she saunters to us.
My brows rise as I glance at her, then back to Angie. “What kind of place is gonna let a twenty-year-old in, anyway?”
“Don’t you have a fake ID?” Maria asks as she reaches the front counter.
“I definitely don’t have that.” I’ve never snuck into a bar or a club in my life. “My birthday is in a few weeks, I’ll just go out with you guys next time.” I wave them off.
Maria eyes me up and down. “Angie, don’t you have your sister’s ID? They look… similar.” She reaches out and touches my brown hair. “Just show a little bit of that body and they won’t even look at the face on the card.”
I laugh as I brush off her words, but my insides tighten, heat surging through my veins and lighting up my cheeks. I’m not a rule breaker. Never have been. But the thought of going tonight, of doing something bad, sends a thrill rushing down my spine.
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.