Chapter 17
Ares
“Even Rock Bottom Looked Good On Her.”
Iwas riding passenger with my right-hand man, who was now my future brother-in-law. We were in his blacked-out Maserati, headed toward Hollywood.
What he told me at my office, I wasn’t ready for.
He was a fucking Laveau, and I let that he was from a black mafia family go over my head. Then, his sister Yuna was supposed to be my bride.
And she was an addict.
Unbelievable.
She was a woman he held close to his heart, so I couldn’t react. Couldn’t say no to his face.
Truth was, I knew Yuna more than he thought.
Six years back, I was checking for her. Her smile.
Her infectious laugh, her light green eyes.
Her body I already had. Back when she was a party girl, spending Daddy’s money on her friends.
I took her on a flight to Vegas, fucked her, then she blocked me.
Heard through a mutual she didn’t like rich niggas like her brother.
First woman to ghost me since high school.
That was when I started juggling multiple women, swearing she didn’t bruise my ego.
Now I had to marry her.
And I knew she would fight it once she found out.
Twenty minutes later, we pulled into the alley behind an apartment building on Vine.
Zay stopped at the entrance. His high beams cut through the dark.
A woman was bundled up against the wall.
Barefoot.
Glass pipe to her lips.
We both froze.
“That’s my Yu-Yu,” Zay said low. I heard the break in his voice.
“That’s her?” I asked, staring.
“Yeah. She worse than last time I seen her.”
I shook my head slowly. “Why you ain’t get her out of this shit sooner, bro?”
“I tried. She runs. She fights. She is angry at the world.”
“And I’m supposed to fix this?”
“I don’t know, bro. But I gotta try. If you don’t…”
Before he finished, his bodyguard Ralo knocked on the window. He’d been driving a Sprinter that had been trailing us.
“You want me to snatch her up, boss?”
“Nah,” Zay said. “That’s too traumatic. Let me talk to her.”
He looked at me. “You can get out. Just stay back.”
I nodded and stepped out, pulling a blunt from behind my ear.
“Let’s go.”
I leaned against the hood and lit up while Zay walked toward her.
My eyes locked in.
She was dirty. Barefoot. A head full of natural dirty-blonde curls tangled around her face.
And still beautiful.
That was the part that pissed me off already.
Even like this, she stood out. Black girl, Romanian blood mixed in, rare features. Green eyes that didn’t belong in an alley.
“Damn,” I muttered.
I didn’t know what I felt.
Angry. Disgusted. Protective.
All of it at once.
“Sis,” Zay called gently.
She jumped, stuffing a pipe into a plastic bag like it was gold.
“Zay? What are you doing here? I told Mom not to send you.” Her voice was softer than I remembered.
“I’m checking on you. You don’t need to be out here like this.”
“I’m fine. I don’t need anyone. I’m grown. I got a friend helping me with an apartment this week.”
He ignored that and crouched near her. “What you drawing?”
“A man.”
“Who?”
“Nobody. Can you leave, please?”
I pushed off the car slowly and walked closer.
I had to see her up close.
“You used to show me your drawings all the time,” Zay said. “I still got the one you did of me. I framed it.”
She looked up at him, eyes sharp. “We not kids anymore. I’m not that girl and never will be.”
“You can be,” he said. “Just come home. If you don’t want to be around Mom and Dad, fine. I’ll take you somewhere else.”
That’s when her eyes cut to me.
“Yuck. What is he doing here?” she asked through clenched teeth.
I couldn’t help it. I chuckled under my breath. “The audacity.”
She stood up fast. Fire in her eyes.
“You trying to judge me, you fake French nigga? You wasn’t judging me when I fucked and ducked you. Bet you didn’t tell Zay that.”
She laughed and shoved me.
There it was.
The girl I remembered.
I didn’t flinch.
Didn’t react.
I just looked at Zay.
“Bro, you’re being too nice. Snatch her up, Ralo. Toss her in the van. She out her damn mind.”
My voice was calm. Authoritative.
Her eyes snapped back to me.
“Oh, so you’re running the show now?”
I smirked slightly. “Yeah. And you’re in my alley, and can’t stay here.”
Zay hesitated, then nodded at Ralo.
In one swift move, Ralo lifted her over his shoulder.
“Let me down! This is kidnapping!” she screamed.
Zay grabbed her three designer bags off the ground.
Dior.
Even rock bottom looked expensive on her. She was down on her luck and hadn’t sold her duffel bags. That let me know she was still holding on to who she used to be.
I bent down and picked up her sketch pad.
Looked at the drawing.
A man.
Strong jaw. Light brown and green eyes.
I stared at it longer than I should have.
Is that me?
“Come on, bro!” Zay shouted.
I tucked the sketch pad under my arm and walked back to the car.
“Drop me at my office. I need to see Marcel.”
We rode back in silence. I thought he was going to ask me about what Yuna said about us, but he didn’t.
All I knew was this.
My future bride was an addict.
And Marcel had some explaining to do about the Laveaus letting their prized possession fall into drugs and trauma.
Zay pulled up to my glass building.
“I’m getting her right,” he said. “Not for you. For her. I can’t see her dead out here.”
I nodded. “I hear you. We’ll talk.”
We dapped up.
I stepped out and tossed the sketch pad back onto the seat.
Inside my office, I called my pilot.
“Get the jet ready. I’m flying to France tonight.”
“Storm over Marseille. Grounded for twenty-two hours.”
I stared out the window at the city lights.
Then I called Naomi.
Because I couldn’t fly.
And I damn sure wasn’t sitting alone with this.
However, as I waited for Naomi to give me an answer, I thought about my night in Vegas with Yuna…