22. Harrison
22
HARRISON
“H ow do you like it?” Sawyer drawls over the video call.
I tap the controls behind the bar to watch the thing skim along a ceiling track and descend down a column on the other side.
“The photographer bots are even bigger, sales-wise,” he goes on.
I scan the club, empty except for a skeleton crew preparing for tonight’s show.
Since Rae walked out on me last night, I’ve needed to prove I’m not coming unhinged. Which is why I’m at Debajo, running my business.
I hang up with Sawyer, and the robot comes down the track across the ceiling, bringing a Post-it note.
Apologize , it says.
“Don’t tell me I hurt your feelings last night,” I toss at my second-in-command as Leni rises from behind the bar.
“Hardly. Your brother and girlfriend on the other hand…” With a cloth, she wipes down the surface. “What’s between you and your family is your business. But you can’t afford to cut your own clubs off at the knees indefinitely.”
The steel edge under Leni’s voice makes me blink. She’s always been a friend and an advisor. But right now, she doesn’t get how close we are to blowing this all up.
The door opens, letting in heated conversation exchanged between security and someone outside.
“What is it?” Leni demands.
“Some guys out back in the parking lot thinking they can sell,” security replies.
I stomp for the door, but the security guard clears his throat. “He’s gone, Mr. King.”
Lucky for him . God knows what I would’ve done in my current mood.
“Ivanov doesn’t sell at Debajo again,” I tell Leni. “If one of our patrons buys so much as a pill on my property, I swear to God I will fire everyone in that establishment. Do whatever it takes to stop it from happening.”
She hesitates before nodding. “On it.”
* * *
Two hours later, I’m back at the villa, cursing my brother and wondering whether Raegan’s lying in bed without me, when the call comes in from Debajo security.
“Senor King, it’s about Leni,” the man says. “They were waiting for her. She tried to stop them...”
I’m in my Ferrari and tearing down the driveway. I don’t look back to see if my personal security is following in their car.
The person who’s stood by me for the last decade is bleeding on a table in the emergency room.
When I arrive at the hospital, I barge in the doors and demand to see her.
“She sustained multiple wounds. She’s in surgery,” a doctor informs me.
The blood drains from my head. “Call me the fucking second she’s out,” I command.
I head out the front doors, kicking a garbage bin on the way.
It’s my fault Leni felt she needed to defend Debajo with the same fierceness I’d defend it with. To stop a deal in progress in the alley, not noticing she was outnumbered or thinking it might be a trap. But she’s not me. And Debajo isn’t hers.
An ambulance pulls up, so I round the corner of the building, more to avoid their eyes than to give them space. There’s a garden, and I grab a tall plant with red flowers by the stalk. I tear it out of the soil.
Another.
“Senor—“
I whirl to face a janitor with his cart. Whatever he sees on my face has him backing down, hands lifting as he disappears toward the parking lot.
Sweat beads at my brow, my neck.
My jacket is the next victim. I drag it off, then throw it in the dirt.
My knees buckle as I brace against the side of the building.
I yank my phone out of my pocket and stare at a picture of the four of us at the villa. Leni, Ash, Raegan, and me. Plus Barney’s head stuck between Rae’s legs.
I’ve hurt them all by knowing them. They’ve all stood by me.
Until Raegan’s words last night.
“I am doing you a favor.”
In my quest to punish the man who caused me pain, I’ve punished everyone I love. I wanted to protect them, and I hurt them instead.
My eyes burn.
An object on the ground glints at my feet. I bend to pick it up.
My mother’s ring.
I’ve been carrying it around. Through everything .
Those words inscribe themselves on my heart with a blade duller than the one Mischa used back in boarding school.
I thought I was doing the right thing. Maybe she did too. Maybe they both did. They thought they were doing right by Ash and me. By people who worked for them.
I need to fix this. If I lose everything I’ve built, every damn penny, I need to make it right.
I hope it’s not too late.
I pull out my phone and type out a text because I can’t speak.
Harrison: Leni’s hurt. Someone attacked her outside Debajo. At the hospital now.
The ring back in my pocket, I stare at the photo once more. The woman I love looks at the camera with an amused smile. Before we took the picture, she asked if this was some kind of family portrait.
Leni said, “It’s as close as we’re going to get.”
It is.
Once, I knew how to look after my own. Raegan was my most stubborn challenge—she wouldn’t let me love her, wouldn’t trust me or rely on me. Somehow, I was given the most exquisite fucking gift of being the man by her side while she figured that out.
Now, she’s the person who called me out when I stopped being that man.
I’ve never prayed, but my gaze finds the sky.
Forget destruction. I need redemption.
I will do anything to make this right. Leni, Ash, Raegan. Everything.