Chapter Ten #2
“I guess we don’t have to ask how you two have been spending your time because it clearly wasn’t talking,” Priscilla scolded.
“Glamis is the seat of our family,” she explained with an impatient sigh and a hint of loathing for both me and the Kilpatrick family estate.
“It’s where the Boss and his family stay, but we’ve all called it home at one point or another. ”
“Anyway, now that you’re here,” Ocean intervened before I could check her ass.
“I have a job for you two.” He walked over to his wallet on the dresser and plucked a black credit card from it before returning to the door, where his cousins still stood.
“Coby had to leave everything behind when she moved in with me. She needs a new wardrobe and all of the other bullshit y’all spend my money on. You think you can handle that?”
“Shopping!” Chiara squealed before snatching the card from Ocean’s fingers. “I can’t believe you’re crazy enough to trust us with the black card. Ooh! Coby should come with us. We can have a girls’ day and get to know her better.”
“Nah,” Ocean said.
“Why not?” Priscilla challenged.
“Because I said so.”
Oh, boy. Feeling Ocean’s dominance rolling off him in waves, I rubbed my nape nervously.
Priscilla must have too because she backed down with a roll of her eyes and one last glance at me before spinning on her high heels and leaving the room.
Priscilla didn’t seem to care one way or another if I came, but Chiara seemed genuinely disappointed as she turned and reluctantly left, too.
“There,” Ocean said with a panty-melting grin directed at me like he was proud of himself. “That should keep their nosy asses out of my business for a while.”
“What was that about? Why couldn’t I go with them?”
Ocean was halfway to the ensuite when he paused and regarded me with a raised brow. “You wanted to?”
“Not really. But I’m curious why you didn’t want me to.”
Ocean didn’t respond right away, turning to disappear inside the bathroom, so I followed him. “I don’t really have the men to spare right now.”
“Okay…and?” Ocean didn’t respond as he pulled out the first aid kit and sloppily patched himself up. “You think I’ll run, don’t you?”
He simply stared at me through the mirror as he wrapped his shoulder.
His dark eyes warned me to drop it before he moved away from the sink to turn on the shower.
After shoving down his sweats, he stepped under the cold spray.
He must have really wanted to avoid a fight because he didn’t even wait for the water to turn warm.
For a few seconds, I was distracted watching the water sluice over his dark skin as he washed himself with a thick bar of soap.
It took too long for me to realize Ocean still hadn’t answered me.
He turned his back on me to continue showering. I narrowed my gaze on his strong back and tried not to be distracted by the way the muscles bunched and flexed as he moved.
Ocean still didn’t trust me.
Did I trust him?
Maybe a little, but not blindly. At least…not yet. And not in the way I trusted Hunter.
If she told me to wander blindfolded into rush hour traffic and that I’d make it unscathed, I wouldn’t think twice about throwing myself into danger.
I wasn’t there with Ocean yet, but I would like to be.
“Your cousins seem afraid of you,” I said, changing the subject. “Is there a reason why?”
Besides the obvious…
Ocean’s attention finally returned to me, and then he beckoned me inside the enormous shower. I only hesitated half a second—worried that he’d distract me from the answers I wanted—before I untied the sash on my robe and let it fall to the heated floor.
The water was warm by the time I stepped inside, but not to my liking, so I turned one of the many matte black knobs on the wall before facing Ocean, whose expression was pensive as he drew me close.
I didn’t even notice the sponge in his hand until he tugged on my wrist to lift my arm out in front of me.
“They’re not afraid because of something I’ve done,” he explained as he slowly ran the lathered sponge up my arm and back down again.
“They’re afraid of what I could do once I have the power.
Priscilla is…protective of Chiara. The two of them try to stay on my good side so that I’m not tempted to marry Chi off to the first abusive asshole who offers me the slightest advantage. ”
“Why would they think you’d do that?”
“Because it’s what my father did to Priscilla. And what our great-grandfather did to his sisters—Priscilla and Chiara’s great-grandmothers.” Ocean flinched suddenly, but before I could ask what was wrong, he flinched again. “Argh. Shit.”
“Wha–”
“Argh! Argh!” He yelled while leaping to the other side of the shower, where he huddled in the corner out of range of the water pouring down like a rainfall.
Ocean and I stared at each other with matching confused expressions when I continued to stand under the water while steam quickly rose around us, fogging up the glass wall.
I placed my hands on my hips. “What is wrong with you?”
“You don’t feel that?” he yelled.
“Feel what?”
“That water is scalding, Coby! The fuck are you trying to do? Give me third-degree burns?”
Rolling my eyes, I spun on my heels and quickly turned the knob until it was halfway between where he had it and where I wanted it. “Better?”
Ocean held out his hand to test the water, and I choked back a laugh as he returned to me. I didn’t want him thinking I did it on purpose, so I schooled my expression into a concerned one, and he smirked before letting out a laugh of his own and shaking his head.
“So your family is like old school, old school,” I remarked, picking up where he left off. I was even less convinced of how well I’d fit in with his family if they were still doing arranged marriages.
“It’s not about tradition. It’s about power. It’s about control.” Ocean moved on to washing my neck. There was a deep furrow between his brows, telling me he wanted to say more but wasn’t sure he should.
“Please continue,” I whispered, wanting to know more about Ocean’s family, and what I was getting myself into.
His gaze flew up to meet mine, and he seemed to understand what I was asking.
“Once James got a taste of it,” he said as he started washing my other arm, “there was nothing he wasn’t willing to do to keep it.
My great-grandfather and his younger brother, Rory, left Ireland after Rory was caught having an affair with a married woman.
When the husband confronted Rory in a bar and nearly killed him, James stepped in and saved his brother.
What they didn’t know was that the man they killed was the nephew of a gang lord, who put a price on their heads.
Nowhere was safe, so they fled to America. ”
I inhaled when Ocean paused to dip the sponge between my legs.
And I say again…a girl could get used to this.
He seemed to need to take care of me—like he was proving something to himself—and I couldn’t help but wonder why.
“A few months later, James found his brother beaten and lynched, and he knew that he would need someone watching his back if he wanted survive, so he put together a crew. They called themselves the Brothers of Rory. At first, their aim was freedom, but they realized there was no such thing without money. They didn’t just need to survive.
They needed to thrive. It was the Prohibition era, and while Black folks could own property and businesses, it wasn’t that simple—shit, it still ain’t—so James and his crew found their fortune in speakeasies.
That evolved into smuggling, illegal gambling, prostitution…
the list goes on. The Brothers of Rory became more than just a brotherhood trying to survive.
They became an organization attracting attention—good and bad—and as their riches grew, so did the distrust among the founding members.
The leaders didn’t trust that James wouldn’t eventually get greedy and cut them out since he was so big on blood ties, family, and building a legacy.
My great-grandfather became a powerhouse, but he was far from invincible, and he knew it.
Everything he’d built was being threatened, so he concocted a plan.
The Brothers of Rory had been born from the loss of his brother—his blood—so he believed that bringing blood in was the only way to ease the tensions within the crew. ”
Ocean inhaled deeply as if he wasn’t proud of whatever part of the story came next. It was even more evident when he stopped washing my stomach to turn me until I was facing away from him.
“As I told you, James had two unmarried sisters—Davina and Frances. He lured them over here with the promise of a better life and forced them to marry his partners. James also married and promised his partners that once children were born of their unions, their induction would become permanent—irreversible even by him.”
“And did they have children?”
Ocean nodded. “Many, but they still didn’t trust James, so his partners wanted to ensure they had backups if one of their children were to meet an untimely death.”
“How moving.”
“Once the first of the new generation was born, the Brothers of Rory became known as the Fola. Or as the streets like to unofficially call us—the Blood mafia. The only way in or out was to spill blood or give it—an offering only the Boss could accept.”
“Blood In, Blood Out,” I uttered, reciting the Fola’s chilling motto. I’d always wondered what it meant.
“Exactly,” Ocean confirmed.
“Well, that’s a relief.” Ocean turned me to face him and then lifted his brows in question. “Honestly, I thought it meant you all stood in a circle, slitting your palms and pouring your blood in a golden chalice before taking turns drinking it.”
Ocean barked out a laugh and then slapped my ass so hard it stung. “No, smart ass.”