“Dividends?”
“I’m cashing in, King,” she assures, “get ready to empty your pockets.”
“Everything I have is yours,” I assure her. “Sure this is where you want to go?”
“Positive.”
I search her face for shadows, in light of what just took place, and find none.
“I’m okay,” she assures me, reading my thoughts. She just killed two men. One to keep her gun, the other to take out the only real threat in the room, but I see no trace of regret, no remorse. But I know her heart, and the act she committed is something that could very well begin to eat away at her. But right now, all I see is a woman who did what she had to do to protect me.
“I forgot something inside.” I nod toward the house.
“No, you didn’t,” she says evenly. Searching for any sign of condemnation in her face, I find none. “Finish this,” she whispers softly before pressing a kiss to my lips.
“I’ll be right back.”
She nods and buckles into the passenger seat as I palm the door closed on the frame, and Beau barks at me from the back seat.
The thought occurs to me then that my entire life exists inside her Audi, a small but budding family. And if this is all I ever have, it’s more than enough.
Reining in my emotions, I straighten my spine for the task at hand and nod toward the men standing guard just feet away before I make my way back inside.
The shift is instant when Sean meets me at the front door, a loaded offering in his hand. I gather what I need from the living room before stepping into the kitchen and onto the plastic.
“Tobias—”
“It’s pathetic, really, Antoine,” I cut him off, “seeing you this way after all I’ve taught you over the years. Clearly, you weren’t paying attention.”
“You forget so easily that it was me who you sought for help.”
“I never needed help. I told you that. I needed resources, man-power, money, things I wasn’t able to acquire in a time that suited me. My impatience has always been a flaw. And seeking you out was my biggest fucking mistake. I told you I was a thief. And you were too ignorant to it, way too eager to play some fucking mentor to me. There was a better way than through you, but it paid off because I started stealing from you week one. Thanks for the tuition money.”
Antoine’s eyes flare.
“First, I want you to admit your best play against me.”
He doesn’t hesitate, too eager to gloat. “I might have called Jerry and made him aware of Miami to take care of your problem. I was doing you a favor, Ezekiel. You were taking too long to move in on Roman.”
He never knew I’d fallen for Roman’s daughter and discovered the truth about the nature of my parent’s death, which forfeited my vendetta against him. He assumed my fixation with Roman was the only thing keeping me from being at his side in France.
“So, if you got Roman out of the picture, you thought I would come running back to France and remain your errand boy?”
He shrugs. “I did not pull the trigger on your brother.”
Sean lunges for him, and I turn and hold him back as he fights me to get to him, nearly knocking me back, and I grip his arms. “Look at me, brother,” I urge as he grips my wrists to fight my hold. “Sean, look at me.”
Sean’s nuclear gaze flits to mine. “Let’s finish this, for us, for Dom.”
Sean gives me a solemn nod, his trust, and steps back, his lethal gaze flitting back to Antoine.
Fury rolls through me as sweat gathers at my temple with my restraint. It takes every bit of strength I have to slip my mask back into place and keep my voice even as I stare down at the man responsible for the worst years of my life.