Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
I ignored my cell vibrating with a text and kept scrolling the social media profile.
Was this what my life had come to? Sitting in an office, snooping on a CEO’s daughter and her fiancé?
Yes. Yes, it had.
And the chick seriously needed to lock her profile down. Not only did I know every freaking thing she had for breakfast, what the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen looked like, but the pictures she posted in her front yard showed her cars and the street.
Easy mark.
The fiancé wasn’t much better.
“Yo!” Theo poked his head in. “Zane needs you in the conference room.”
“Me?”
“That’s what he said.”
I closed my laptop and stood.
“Are you gonna decorate or leave the walls bare like Cash?”
I glanced around the cream walls of the office I’d be borrowing. They were indeed bare. As was the bookshelf. And I’d looked in the desk, all the drawers were empty.
But I didn’t know what Cash had to do with the office.
And decorating?
“This isn’t my office,” I pointed out.
“It’s Cash’s,” he told me.
Cash had a desk in what he called command central; it was outside of Garrett’s glass enclosure.
“He’s never used it,” Theo went on. “But now that you’re here, I bet he spends more time—”
“Now that I’m here?”
Theo stared at me like I’d grown a third eye.
“You work here,” he said slowly, like I had a screw loose and three eyes.
“I don’t work here.”
“You don’t?” Easton asked from behind Theo. “And Z’s looking for you.”
Two phones started ringing right while at the same time mine vibrated again.
“Whoever showed Zane how to group-text needs to be strung up by his balls,” Easton growled and stalked away.
“You know there are women working here,” I shouted at Easton’s back. “And you know it was KK who showed him.”
“Right, and you don’t work here,” Theo muttered.
I had no idea how knowing that Kira was the one who showed Zane how to send group messages translated into me working for Z Corps.
I also didn’t want to continue the bizarre and scary conversation, because I had a sneaking suspicion I actually worked for Zane now, so I followed Theo down the hall in silence.
We rounded the corner into the conference room just as Easton was pulling out a chair next to Kira. Jonas, Smith, and Cash were already sitting across from her. But no Zane.
“What’s going on?” I asked, as I took the seat Cash offered next to him.
“No clue.”
I looked at Kira who looked like she was lost in her own bubble, eyes focused on her screen, keys clacking, right eye twitching.
Not good.
The eye twitch was her tell.
Something wasn’t right.
Before I could ask her, Zane and Nebraska walked into the room, both of them staring straight at me. Neither moved to take a seat.
“Vinnie G contacted me,” Nebraska announced and my stomach dropped.
Quick as lightning, Cash’s hand went to my thigh.
“Did he find Damion?”
Garrett and Kira hadn’t stopped looking but neither of them had been able to find him. Which left me worried he had more resources than we knew about.
“He did,” Zane answered.
“And?”
Zane held my eyes with something that looked like understanding. “He’s dead.”
Cash’s hand on my thigh squeezed.
I felt my eyes narrow. “Dead? Like CIA cover up dead or not breathing dead?”
“I’ve asked Vinnie G to hold the body until we get there so you can personally ID him,” Nebraska told me.
Cash was already pushing back from the table. “Where is he?”
Nebraska frowned. “The farm.”
The farm?
“The place on the Eastern Shore? That farm?” I asked.
“How the hell did Damion get on the property?” Cash growled.
Zane speared Cash with a look that would make a normal man piss his pants.
“Vinnie didn’t pull back the contract on Damion, he just changed the perimeters.
Capture only. Seems he was salivating for a marker from the King.
His men found him in Vermont and decided to hand deliver him to you.
Outside of New Milford when they were stopping for gas, Damion thought it was his time to escape.
Vinnie’s guy accidently killed him when, in an attempt to get him back into the car, broke his neck.
Now Vinnie’s pissed because he doesn’t get his marker.
He’s also pissed because he gave Nebraska his word Damion would be delivered to Stella.
And he’s pissed because he feels that a broken neck was too easy. ”
A broken neck was too easy.
Way too easy.
“He’s dead,” I whispered.
Cash turned to look at me, but instead of meeting my eyes, his roamed my face.
Unconsciously my eyes closed. Then my head dropped forward as fury seared through me.
Dead.
Just like that.
Years of abuse. Years of torment. And that was it, an easy death.
No retribution.
The unfairness beat into my head.
I felt Cash’s hand wrap around the back of my neck. I heard his whispered, “Stella.”
I opened my eyes. Cash had his mouth open to say more. He closed it and stared into my eyes.
Ocean blue.
Clear. Beautiful.
Mine.
“It’s done,” I told him.
“Yeah, Stella, it’s done.”
Stella.
Lore was well and truly dead.
I was clean.
“You offered a mob boss a marker for my brother?” I asked.
“Of course I did.”
Of course?
Was he insane?
“Vinnie’s a mob boss! He could’ve—”
“Stella, you wanted your brother. Vinnie felt he had rights to him. I offered him a marker to insure you’d get to do what you felt you had to do.”
I felt something wet hit my eyes.
Wet that felt a lot like tears.
“You’d give a marker to a mob boss for me?”
“Stella, I’d do anything for you.”
Soul deep.
I pitched to the side, colliding with Cash. His arms came around me, but before he could pull me to his chest, I tipped my head and kissed him.
Not hot, hungry, and wet the way he normally kissed me.
Just a soft touch of my lips.
“Aw, who knew Cash was such a romantic?” Easton quipped.
“Nothing says I love you like doing a hit for a mob boss,” Jonas tossed in.
I smiled against Cash’s mouth. “Your friends are idiots, honey.”
“Just wait, they get worse.”
He pulled back just far enough to catch my eyes. “Let’s go tell Cara she’s having bestie time with Gia and Frankie after school and head over to the farm.”
Cara.
I closed my eyes.
Cash and Cara on the couch watching TV.
Cash painting Cara’s nails.
Cara combing Cash’s hair.
Us eating dinner together.
Together.
Us.
Our family.
Clean. Easy. Beautiful.
Damion wasn’t going to infest one more second of my life.
“No, tonight’s homemade pizza night and Cara has all her toppings planned out.”
“Are you—”
“Positive.”
“I’ll go ID him,” Jonas offered.
“I’ll head out with you,” Theo added.
Smith stood. “Me, too.”
“I won’t be too long, baby,” Easton told Nebraska. “But if you’re hungry, eat without me.”
I held Cash’s eyes and smiled. “Maybe your friends aren’t idiots.”
“Give them time, baby girl, and they’ll do something else idiotic.”
“Cashy!” Cara shouted, and before I knew what was happening, Cash gently shoved me back and was out of his chair, running out of the conference room.
I nearly knocked Zane over as I ran out of the door.
Cash was on his knees in front of Cara, hands on her shoulders, head bent in what I knew was a top-to-toes scan.
“Look!” she pointed to the box on the floor next to her.
I glanced at the box, but my attention went back to Ivy standing next to her with Rose hitched on her hip.
“Woman!” Zane boomed. “When I said no more pussy, I meant no more. I would wage a war in your honor but I swear on all things holy if that’s—”
Cash growled.
Zane grunted. “If that’s a cat, I’m going downrange.”
“What’s a pussy?” Cara asked.
Cash growled and looked like he was going to commit murder.
“Pussycat. But mostly we just call them cats,” I told her.
Eric came around from behind his mom, tipped his head up to look at his dad, and announced, “I like pussy way better than cat. Cat is boring. Pussy sounds fun.”
Cash scooped up Cara and gave Zane a scathing look.
“The apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” Jonas snickered.
Cash was stomping off when Cara put her hands on his cheeks. “Wait, Cashy, you didn’t see what was in the box.”
Unsurprisingly, Cash turned and went back to the box and looked down. “A turtle?”
“Yeah. It’s Eric’s. I want a turtle. Please.”
“Sure, sweetheart. We’ll go this weekend.”
We’d go this weekend.
Of course we would.
“Hard on the outside and soft in the middle, just like Cash.” Jonas laughed.
“Cashy’s middle isn’t soft. He’s the strongest King around.”
Cash leaned forward, kissed her forehead, and graced her with one of his smiles. The one that was reserved only for her.
“That’s right, sweetheart.”
He bent his head to her ear. Whatever he was saying made her eyes light up. She nodded. He said something else and she nodded again.
Then he turned and started to walk away. Cara’s free hand shot up into the air, Cash’s followed.
And together they shouted, “Cash is King!”