Chapter Three
COBY
A week later, I found myself back at the Diamond Lounge. It was a Friday night, so the club was packed, but for the first time, I prayed that Ocean wouldn’t show his face.
I wasn’t here for him anyway.
Roshaun texted me an hour ago, saying he needed to talk to me and had asked—damn near begged—me to come here. Hunter and I had already been getting ready to go out, so I agreed even though Hunter had plenty to say about my dropping everything for my brother.
She wasn’t wrong, but I could never turn my back on Roshaun—no matter how much he secretly resented me or how many times he pushed me away. Besides, I had my own reasons for coming.
“Look at those bitches,” Hunter grumbled beside me. “You’d think that man’s dick was covered in bread crumbs the way the birds are flocking.”
My heart thumped inside my chest, and I followed her gaze in a panic toward the sections above us.
It was packed to capacity, but a moment later, I was sighing my relief when the DJ shouted out Fat Pack.
He was a local rapper who had recently signed a huge deal with Making Waves music group, and it seemed as if the whole city came out to celebrate with him.
It was rumored that the record label was owned by the Fola, but no one’s ever been brave enough to point the finger and confirm it.
Hunter loved Fat Pack’s music, so once she learned he’d be here, it was much easier to convince her to come with me, even though she had good reason not to.
According to her, Roshaun, who sacrificed everything to raise me after our parents died, was a snake in the grass.
Nothing I said in his defense would change her mind.
And their beef wasn’t one-sided either.
Roshaun thought Hunter was bad news, and while not even Hunter would disagree, my brother failed to realize that I was just as bad.
Hunter and I were two parts of a whole.
We shared everything, including our penchant for trouble.
Roshaun had only been a few years older than I was now when he tragically went from being my big brother to sole guardian. He never got to properly grieve our parents because of his determination to be strong for me. Hunter said I didn’t owe him shit, but I couldn’t see it any other way.
I caught her eyeing the VIP again and was about to ask if she wanted to go up there when my phone vibrated in my hand. When I glanced at the screen, I saw that it was a text from my brother.
Shaun: Where r u?
I sighed as I unlocked my phone and texted back.
Coby: Downstairs w/ Hunter.
Shaun: Meet me outside. Use the private entrance and come alone.
I wrinkled my nose at his request and sent another text, pressing my brother for more details to distract myself from Hunter dancing with our neighbor, Gary.
After five minutes passed with no response, I rolled my eyes and decided to get this over with.
I had my reasons for accepting Roshaun’s olive branch, since the last time we’d spoken ended with us not speaking for months.
Despite our age gap, we actually used to be close before our parents died, but I wasn’t so sure we could ever go back because of how much he hated my other half.
“My brother wants to talk,” I shouted over the music to Hunter.
She immediately straightened and dismissed Gary without a word. “I’ll come with you.”
Overhearing, Gary sucked his teeth and stormed off.
He’d been trying to get with Hunter for years, and a half-hearted dance was the closest he’d ever gotten.
I’d laugh if I weren’t terrified of what her rejection might lead to. Hunter had more restraining orders than bodies. Her presence was a siren call to any man who ventured too close, and sometimes they didn’t handle her refusal to grant them access very well.
I was just glad I didn’t share her effect on men.
I wasn’t ugly even by the most hating bitch’s stretch of the imagination, but Hunter had a natural sex appeal that I didn’t share. She exuded it even when she wasn’t trying. The girl could brick a dick in her sleep.
But it came with its own challenges too—such as her penchant for attracting stalkers.
Hunter had an obsession with guns and knives. She literally had an armory stashed in our apartment, so she could more than handle herself, but I still worried for her.
I shook my head at her offer, making her eye me like I’ve bumped my head and forgotten our bestie code. We’d both burn the world down before leaving the other behind.
“He said to come alone.”
Hunter pursed her painted lips in disapproval but didn’t argue. Unlike Roshaun, Hunter never tried to come between us despite her personal feelings.
“Wish me luck?” I said playfully to ease her worry.
“Your brother’s the one who’ll need it if he doesn’t cough up your money. We’ll just jump his ass until he does,” Hunter said, completely serious. “You know I’ve been dying to cut him.”
I chuckled before kissing her cheek. “And that’s why you’re my bitch.”
She hooked her pinky with mine like always before one of us made our usual vow. “Ride or die, sis.”
We kept our fingers locked as I slowly walked away until that last moment when we were forced to let go.
My stomach felt like it was caving in from the heavy dose of foreboding filling it.
I looked over my shoulder to see if Hunter felt the same.
She was still watching me, looking like she wanted to stop me, so I knew she felt it, too.
I forced myself to keep going because I’d rehearsed this moment a thousand times, and I wasn’t backing down.
It wasn’t easy asking someone for half a million dollars, but I just had to do it—like ripping off a Band-Aid.
Tonight, I suppose, was as good as any. Maybe Shaun would be in a good mood, and I wouldn’t be subjected to another lecture about how I’m too young to be trusted with so much money.
Our parents had left us both a small inheritance after they died. Roshaun had used his half as seed money to start his club with the help of an angel investor. Since I had been a minor when our parents died, the other half had been placed in a trust controlled by Shaun until I turned twenty-five.
My twenty-fifth birthday had passed nearly a year ago, and I had yet to see a penny. Hunter had been urging me for months to say something, but I’d been reluctant, knowing my brother would see it as a sign of distrust.
I ran my sweaty palms down the front of my green sequin corset once I reached the back of the club and the hallway that led to the alley.
It mostly went unused because it was meant for the celebrities Shaun paid to appear at his club.
Most of them preferred to use the front entrance to be seen and photographed for the blogs.
Instead, only members of the Fola put it to use, but they—he—didn’t make an appearance very often.
My steps faltered when I noticed a stoic man armed and dressed in a black suit, blocking the entrance. After two years of pining for their leader, I was now able to spot one of his goons from a mile away, so I spun on my heels without a moment’s hesitation and headed in the opposite direction.
Maybe I could find another way around.
“This way, Ms. Perry,” the man called out before I could take more than a few steps away.
Stopping in my tracks, I slowly turned with my heart racing and my skin flushing.
“What did you say?” He wordlessly beckoned me forward, but my feet refused to move.
Had Abel not given Ocean my message? “Sorry, no, I can’t,” I said while trying to sound like I wasn’t losing my shit. “I’m looking for my brother.
The hair on my arms rose when the goon nodded. “This way,” he repeated.
Oh shit.
Roshaun, what the fuck did you do?
“Oh…okay, thanks.” I hurried past, my unease growing when his shadow fell over me immediately after.
Peering over my shoulder, I clutched my mace a little harder as I scurried along when I noticed the giant following at a carefully measured distance.
I once again considered slipping past him to run back to Hunter.
My phone vibrated in my hand again, and I knew it was Shaun.
I didn’t know what had his boxers in a bunch tonight, but I was not in the mood.
Sighing, I quickened my steps as I followed the short hallway all the way down to the end.
I could already feel the cold air outside bleeding through the walls of the club as I grew closer to the exit.
I picked up my pace, praying my brother was in one piece.
The goon’s footsteps seemed to thunder behind me, and I knew it was all in my head, but I still rushed to press on the bar that should have released the catch, but it seemed to be stuck.
I slammed my hands on it repeatedly until it finally gave, and I stumbled into the alley.
It was small, with only a couple of dumpsters on either side and a single lane for traffic.
At the moment, it was filled with a line of black SUVs and a small army lined up like toy soldiers. None of them reacted to me charging through the door, and that dreaded feeling that this was all for me returned swiftly.
“Oh, um. Sorry.” I wasn’t about to turn myself into a witness, so I kept my eyes on the ground as I tried to back through the door again, only to find my way blocked by my giant shadow. “Excuse me,” I said with a huff to the goon.
He didn’t move or respond as he magically turned into a statue once more.
I was getting ready to make a fucking scene when a wet cough and a groan had me glancing over my shoulder to the one happening in the alley.
That’s when my legs nearly buckled from beneath me.
My brother was kneeling on the ground in a pool of his own blood. He was clutching his ribs with snot dripping from his nose and a wet crotch. “What the fuck? Shaun?”
Hearing my voice, his head shot up, and I could see from here that his eyes were swollen. “Coby—” He released another cough that had me taking a protective step toward him. “You’re here.” Cough. Cough. “Good.”
Good?