Chapter 30 Ocean
OCEAN
I eased the car into the empty lot behind the club.
The city noise seemed muffled, replaced with the low hum of air conditioners and the faint clink of bottles from the back storage.
I took a slow breath, hands tight on the wheel.
Skye was safe with Ol’ School. I’d left her laughing, and that made me feel at ease.
When I made it into the club, Melina was leaning against one of the tall tables, laughing like she owned the place. Despite all the makeup she’d piled on, I could still see the bruising around her eye.
That laugh alone was enough to pull every bit of patience I had left down to zero.
“Melina,” I called. She froze mid-laugh, eyes snapping to me. “My office. Now.”
She fluffed her hair and tried to throw an innocent smile my way, but I ignored her ass and kept walking.
Every employee went silent.
By the time we hit my office door, I could feel the tension building in her.
I slammed the door behind us. The sound bounced off the walls. She jumped, startled, but tried to hide it with a fake laugh.
“You were out of fucking line,” I said, my voice steady. “You confronted Skye about me? Really? You think you get to dictate what she does, how she talks, who she’s around?”
Melina lifted her chin, trying to look unbothered. “I was just—” she started, but I cut her off.
“Shut the fuck up!” My eyes locked on hers, the air between us tense enough to cut with a knife. “I don’t care what you were just doing. That? That right there is crossing a line you don’t even understand exists.”
Her lips pressed together, her hands trembling slightly. I could see the flinch, the panic she was trying so hard to mask. And I didn’t care.
“I’ve never been into you like that,” I said, letting each word land like bricks. “And I’m not going to be. Not now. Not ever. You don’t get a say in my life. You don’t get me.”
Her smirk faded, and I saw her panic ripple beneath that conceited mask. “Ocean you don’t mean that. We have something special between us.”
“We don’t have shit,” I spat. I wanted to give her the real.
I wanted her to know that she was just a pawn in my plan to fuck up someone else’s life.
But that shit didn’t even matter to me anymore.
Her fucking with Skye was it for me. “I need you to pack up whatever you have here and get the fuck out.”
“What?” she hissed, stepping closer. “You can’t just—”
“Yes, I can,” I said flatly. “And I just did. You’re fired.”
Her face shifted through disbelief, hurt, anger, and then the familiar spark of entitlement. “You’re insane! You don’t even know what you’re doing!”
I didn’t say another word. I let the silence fill the room, the kind that makes people uncomfortable. I watched her pulse race, her perfectly manicured fingers clench and unclench.
She stormed out, slamming the door behind her, mumbling every insult she could spit in my general direction. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t move. The moment she disappeared, the tension in the room lifted like a fog.
There was a knock at the door.
It was Sanya.
She leaned casually against the frame, arms crossed, eyebrow raised. “Well, that was…something,” she said, a smirk curling on her lips. “I didn’t expect you to get here so fast after I called. I knew you were pissed off at her, but—”
“Pissed off doesn’t even describe how I felt.”
“I mean, I get it. She definitely crossed a line, but do you think what you just did was smart?” Sanya stepped in, closing the door behind her. “Considering the plan—”
“Plan’s off,” I snapped. “My focus is somewhere else.”
Sanya’s eyes flickered. She wasn’t dumb. She knew why I was doing what I was doing.
“And you’re…choosing her over your plan?” she asked, a mix of surprise and admiration in her tone.
I didn’t answer with words. I just nodded.
She didn’t need confirmation. She understood.
“Okay,” she said finally, a small laugh slipping out. “I guess I better make sure no one burns this place down while you’re…focusing.”
I gave her a look, sharp but approving. “You got this. Don’t screw it up.”
She grinned before walking out.
I leaned back in the chair, letting my fingers drum the desk slowly. My mind kept drifting back to Skye...to her laugh, to the way she looked when she was with Ol’ School, to that fire in her eyes that had made me forget how long I’d been walking around numb.
I picked up the phone and dialed Trace.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Need you to see what you can dig up,” I said, voice steady. “About that night…the one I told you about where someone violated Skye.”
“Ah,” Trace said softly. “You want details?”
“Yes. Everything you can get. I don’t care how long it takes.”
There was silence on the line for a moment, then Trace said, “I’ll see what I can find.”