Chapter 11
Cyn
The next day
We looked for Josiah all night with about ten of us searching Vegas high and low, going to every hospital or clinic we could find. It was almost as if Josiah had disappeared into thin air.
Tania and I eventually came to the same conclusion: he had run off, said fuck this wedding, and got cold feet about marrying my friend. She was upset last night. She cried, and we cried with her, because seeing her sadness hurt me to my soul.
By morning, we decided that on our last day there, we would pack up, try to eat something, and then go home with hopes that he was at least safe and not harmed somewhere. But we made a pact that when we found him, we would all beat his ass.
Once we packed up, we went downstairs to the café. Tania and I both got food, while Ari just ordered a cup of coffee. When we sat down at the small circular table, it was quiet because no one knew what to say until Tania spoke up first.
“Y’all tell me why I’ve been so tired the past couple of days. I feel like I was fucking drugged or something. I’ve been yawning nonstop.”
“Well, we have been up almost twenty-four hours.”
“Yeah, I know, but this feels different. It’s just weird.”
“I don’t know when you would’ve gotten drugged, or who would’ve drugged you without getting the rest of us.” Ari finally spoke up after being quiet for the past hour.
“Yeah, you are right. Maybe this is just an anxiety thing. I’ve read about stress yawning before.”
“Yeah, probably.” Ari shrugged her shoulders.
Once we finished the coffee and the crêpes, we walked out into the lobby with our bags and met up with Josiah’s family. They were sitting on a bench with their heads down, all pissed off that they came here for nothing.
“What time does your plane leave?” I asked Josiah’s brother Joseph.
“Man, I’m not leaving here without my brother. I don’t give a fuck. And you shouldn’t be either.” He pointed at Ari.
“What do you mean I shouldn’t be either? It looks to me like your brother left me here. He’s not hurt, he’s not in jail, so where the fuck is he?”
“I don’t know, you tell me. The fact that you’re even thinking about leaving is crazy. You know Josiah wouldn’t just get cold feet and leave you. That nigga loves you. He was supposed to be your husband.”
“Exactly! So where the fuck is he?”
“Ask yourself that, Arianna. You been here with him all weekend with no contact and didn’t give a fuck apparently.”
Ari stepped closer to Joseph’s face.
“Look, I called him all weekend, every chance I got. You know what, just shut the fuck up talking to me! I’m not in the mood for your shit right now.” Ari turned away from him, but he continued talking shit.
“And you think I’m in the mood?”
“I don’t give a fuck!”
“I know you don’t! That’s the fuckin problem!”
The yelling got loud enough to pull eyes from every direction, and before security could make their way over, I grabbed Ari’s hand and pulled her out of the lobby and outside the hotel.
“Listen, do not let them get you more upset. They’re just mad because they spent their last to come here, and their brother did some crazy-ass shit.
You heard his mama. Josiah runs away when he is stressed about shit.
He pulled this stunt in college years ago when he went M.I.A on everyone for a week. ”
“I know. I just can’t stand it. It’s so fucking dumb.
They are so fuckin dumb.” I hugged her tightly, letting her cry on my shoulder until she got it all out.
Ari wasn’t one to show weakness, so I know it was a genuine feeling coming out of her.
I let her cry as long as she wanted to. As long as she needed to.
When her tears stopped flowing, she sat down on the curb, and I joined her, wrapping my arms around her. The wind was coming through Vegas something serious, and for the first time since we’ve been here, it was genuinely cold.
I noticed a Maybach pulling into the pickup loop, and it was no concern to me until Hawk of all people stepped out of the front seat.
The valet man rushed toward him and got brushed off like he didn’t exist. Hawk’s eyes then locked on me, his chin lifting slightly, signaling for me to come over.
“What is he doing here? I’ll be right back, Ari.”
“Okay.”
I stood up from the curb and walked over to him, heading toward the driver’s side, but he motioned for me to get inside.
“I can’t leave my friends. We’re about to leave for the airport soon.”
“That’s nothing to be concerned about, Cyn. Just get in the car. Let me talk to you for a minute.” I looked back towards Ari, who was now joined by Tania. I guess she was finally done cursing out Josiah’s family on behalf of all of us.
I got in the car, and he pulled off immediately, completely disregarding the fact that I’d just said I was heading to the airport.
“So, what’s up?”
“You were just going to leave Vegas without calling me? I thought you and I were better than that.” His diamonds flashed through his lips
“I was going to call you. I’ve just had a lot on my plate. We still can’t find him, and my friend is really upset.”
“Yeah.”
He sounded exactly how someone like him would respond with little empathy. Short and dry. But I didn’t really expect anything more. He doesn’t know Josiah.
“Well, I was coming over here to catch you. Hoping I did anyway. There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“What’s that?”
“Alright, to make a long story short, you know how I told you about Nina, and how she’s been holding contracts over everybody's head around her?”
“Don’t tell me she found out about us.”
“No. She didn’t. It’s not that. I just told her I wasn’t ready to get married and she flipped shits on me. See, Nina and I were under contract. I took over her father’s company, and part of that deal was making her my exclusive domestic partner, if you will.”
When he said that, it all started to make sense.
Someone who seemed to be so in tune with that gangster side didn’t seem like the type of man to have everything Hawk owned.
Not saying being rich is only for bougie people, but Hawk is young, and I can tell that gangsta mentality is still fresh in him.
“Oh wow. That’s crazy.”
“Yeah, and when I told her I didn’t want to be with her anymore, she threw the contract up in my face and told me that I’d lose everything without her. I used to believe her until I actually looked at the contract.”
“And what did it say?”
“Basically, it says she has to be my domestic partner. However, the major loophole is that the contract uses the term "Domestic Partner," and I’m guessing that’s because we were young and her father wanted us to get married on our own terms. The only thing is, with it saying domestic partner, that didn’t cancel out the option of me getting married to someone else.
And with marriage being a higher legal status than a domestic partnership, once I have a wife, she becomes my only domestic partner by law, which makes the contract unenforceable on Nina’s end. ”
“Wait a minute, so you have to get married to someone else to cancel out her contract?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, it sounds like you gotta figure that shit out. But hold on, I thought you two were supposed to get married like really soon.”
“We were next week. And I really don’t want that shit to happen because I feel like she’d have even more control over me from that moment. Once Nina and I get married, I will have no way out of that shit then.”
“Oh, I see.”
Everything was slowly clicking for me. Nina seemed to have thought everything out without making sure all the holes in their contract were sealed.
Sounds to me like Hawk had someone knowledgeable of the law looking into the agreement, which everyone should.
I was dumb myself for signing that contract in that room with her the other night without reading it.
Only getting a lawyer in the restroom before a threesome just sounds crazy when I think about it.
“So, Cyn.”
“Yes?”
“How do you feel about becoming my wife and primary domestic partner?”
“Huh?”
The words sat between us, thick and unreal, like the air had shifted without warning.
“Excuse me, what? What does that even mean?”
My heart jumped hard enough that I felt it in my throat.
“It means if I marry you, I’m out of the bond I have with her.
I know it might sound like me and you stepping into a contract of our own, but it’s not even like that.
Listen, we get married, the contract with her is done.
Clean. And if a year from now we decide this isn’t what we want, we go our separate ways.
But I trust you, and I always trust my gut about people.
I’ll make sure everything is handled right, and you can walk away from this a millionaire when it's all said and done.”
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. My chest tightened, palms damp, thoughts colliding into each other too fast to make sense. My lips moved, but my voice wouldn’t follow.
“You okay Cyn?”
“Yeah, I mean, I’m just so confused. Why, why, me?”
“Look, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I’m in love with you, shit, I’m just getting to know you.
But I had a good time with you. You made me feel good.
And where I may not know much about you, I can tell that you are the complete opposite of Nina, and that’s what I need right now.
Foreign queens and kings have arranged marriages all the time, and they do it for benefits more than love, and that’s kind of what I’m trying to do. ”
He shifted closer to me.
“There aren’t many women in Vegas I’d even bring back to my place. But you give me a vibe. You move different. You make me feel like I can trust you, and I’ve always been good at reading people: feelings and energy. I don’t ignore that shit. Everything in me says you’re solid.”
My heart was racing now. Not exactly excitement, not exactly fear, but something dangerous sitting right in the middle. One of those moments where saying yes or no changes everything.
“But what about Nina? What about the contract I already have with her?”
“I’ll pay for it. Whatever she’s owed for you breaking it, she can have it. She can have it all. But she’s not about to leave me with nothing after I put so much time and energy into this company. So, what do you say? Will you be my wife and become a millionaire overnight?”
I didn’t know what to say. My mind was loud, way louder than the car, louder than the city sliding past the windows.
I told myself to breathe and just focus.
This wasn’t how I imagined marriage, but I’d also never imagined ending up in Vegas watching my friend’s fiancé disappear into thin air either.
Life clearly didn’t care about my plans.
Hawk’s words, You don’t have to say yeah, replayed in my head.
That mattered. He wasn’t forcing it. He wasn’t cornering me, but he was making it clear he needed me, and usually people like Hawk didn’t need anyone. Men with power and options didn’t ask. They took. But here he was, offering instead of demanding, explaining instead of commanding. That had weight.
I thought about where I came from—wanting stability and wanting security.
Wanting to feel chosen instead of temporary in every man’s life.
Wanting a life where I didn’t have to struggle so hard to stay afloat.
I’d always told myself I wasn’t materialistic, and I wasn’t, but I was tired of simply surviving.
I know that this wasn’t just money. This was protection. Leverage. A door opening that I’d never even been close enough to knock on.
I squeezed his hand back before I could overthink anymore, before fear talked me out of something that felt bigger than fear.
“This isn’t how I pictured my life going, Hawk, but maybe that’s the point.”
My chest felt tight, but not in a bad way. More like standing at the edge of something high, knowing once you jump, there’s no climbing back up.
“If this is really clean and I’m protected and not walking into something I can’t walk away from, then maybe saying yes is the right thing to do.”
“So, we getting married?”
“Yes, yeah, I guess so.”
I hurried the words out before my heart changed what my mind was thinking. I just hoped my mind was wrong and my heart was leading me to something good. Something that is changing my life for the better.