Chapter 15
Zacian “Zay” Wells-Leveau
“Born Into It, Ready or Not”
Ares and I had been locked in long before money got loud and names started meaning something different.
Before Forbes. Before his French ties. Before the weight of families that didn’t look like us but wanted to own us.
He was my best friend because he never flinched around me.
Never tried to out-alpha me. Never treated me like muscle or a liability.
We grew up knowing exactly who we were and what came with it.
When Malik was killed in the streets, I watched Ares grieve in class. His shooting was all over the news, but the only nigga that asked if he was okay was me. We had been tight ever since then. Told him he had a brother for life.
Now we were grown with real problems.
I was an heir whether I liked it or not.
A Black mafia family with roots nobody talked about out loud.
The Laveau name meant power in rooms you’d never see on Google.
We posed as Wells. Clean. Corporate. Forgettable.
Even Ares didn’t know my birth last name.
I’d been trained since I was a kid not to speak about the family name to anybody. Was my father’s right hand before I even understood what that meant. I knew how to move bodies and money before I learned how to process feelings. That was intentional.
What I didn’t know until that morning was that my sister had become a problem so big it could start a war.
My mother called me early. Her voice tight. My father didn’t say much. He never did when shit mattered.
“Yuna needs to come home,” my mom said.
I already knew that part.
“She needs to get clean,” my dad added. “And she needs to remember the life she was born into.”
Then my mom said the words that made my stomach drop.
“She’s marrying into the Delacroix family. To Ares.”
I laughed at first. Straight disbelief.
“She’s not marrying my best friend,” I said. “That’s not happening.”
My father finally looked at me then. Eyes cold. Not angry. Decided.
“It isn’t up for debate,” he said. “Get her home. Get her clean. Prepare her for marriage in nine months, or we will have a war on our hands.”
I stood there staring at them like I didn’t know them.
I wanted to argue. Wanted to say they’d lost their damn minds. Wanted to remind them Yuna wasn’t a bargaining chip.
But then I stopped.
Because if she was going to be forced into something, better it be my best friend than some old pervert looking for a broken girl to own. Better it be someone I could watch. Someone I trusted with my life.
That didn’t make it right.
But it made it tolerable.
Everything Ares had said that morning at the gun range started clicking together. The marriage. The pressure. The way he looked like he was being boxed in from all sides. These muthafuckas were trying to change our lives for us. But yet, I have in. I needed to get my sister anyway,
“Fuck it,” I said. “I’ll go get her.”
I didn’t tell them I was going to talk to Ares first.
I drove straight to his office.
When I got there, he was sitting behind his desk.
He looked up and smirked. “You look like you carrying bad news.”
I shut the door behind me. “I am.”
He leaned back. “Go head.”
I took a breath. “I know who you’re supposed to marry.”
That caught his attention.
“And I know who she really is,” I added.
He didn’t interrupt. That’s how I knew he was listening for real.
“First, I need to come clean. Me and my sister’s real last name is Laveau,” I said. “Not Wells. That’s just what we have to use to look clean. I’m sure you understand that.”
His brow lifted slightly. “I do… but keep going.”
“It’s Yuna,” I continued. “That’s who they want you to marry, bro.”
For a second, he didn’t say anything. Then he laughed under his breath.
“I remember her.”
“You ain’t seen her in years,” I said. “And you don’t know the rest.”
That’s when his smile faded.
“She’s on drugs,” I said flatly. “Meth. Heavy. And it fucked with her head.”
He sat up straighter.
“How?” he asked.
I clenched my jaw. “She was manipulated. By a nigga introduced to her as our uncle. My father’s driver. His name was Dale.”
Ares didn’t move.
“Yuna and my dad weren’t getting along at the time,” I said. “She confided in Dale like family. He convinced her to run away. Took her to Hollywood. Told her he’d help her chase her art and modeling career my father kept her from… for this reason.”
My voice dropped. “It was sex trafficking. The nigga Dale handed her off, made her his girlfriend because she looked exotic. Then he got her hooked on meth, because he was on it.”
Silence filled the room.
“My father killed both of them,” I said. “Found out it was all a setup to bring our family down. To ruin Yuna’s value so she wouldn’t be married off to align us with another wealthy family.”
Ares stared at the wall like he was watching something play out in his head.
“She was raised to be a wife,” I finished. “And now she’s on the streets.”
“This is a lot,” he said.
I exhaled hard. “Bro, I have to save my sister. And I’m gonna need your help.”
Ares finally sighed. Long. Heavy. “What you need me to do?”
I leaned forward. “Don’t turn your back on her.
I know she can get right. This isn’t her.
But I’m about to go grab her off the streets in Hollywood.
My satellite been showing her sitting in a fuckin’ alley.
Just come with me. Stand back while I get her.
She doesn’t know anything about you yet.
And she’s terrified of men who look like us.
She been through too much in the last four years. ”
He nodded slowly.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s go.”
And just like that, everything changed.