25. Forever
FOREVER
Got a proposition for you.
My phone rang not even a second later.
Kai was always down for bullshit.
“Where you been?” he asked, sounding agitated. “Your father is about two phone calls from me strangling him.”
Right.
I’d been missing in action for a couple of days. Now that Demetrius and I split up to handle things separately, getting my dad off Kai’s back was on the agenda.
“Needed to take care of some things. I’ll be at your office in ten minutes.”
He sighed and ended the call.
Kai did business on the south side of Everwood in what we called the gambling district. He dealt in money instead of death, a true fucking outlier.
“Ms. James, Mr. James sent word for you to meet him in the conference room.
The conference room?
I smiled.
Of course, he decided to play disappointed big brother, to get something more from me other than cashing in on that favor.
Looks like we were both plotting.
“Did you know?” I asked the second I pushed through the glass doors.
He looked up from his phone, lips pulled into a deep frown.
“Know what?”
“That I’m married…” I took a seat across from him and flashed my left hand, wiggling the fingers in case he missed the rock. “To Demetrius Cannon of all people.”
His eyes went from my hand to me several times before he burst into laughter, head tossed back and all.
“Oh, you think it’s funny I lost every memory of a man I clearly loved enough to marry? I’m missing the joke in being lied to by my doctors about the severity of my accident, but I digress.”
He leaned forward, the laughter long gone.
“You serious?”
I nodded.
“So, you didn’t know.”
Kai was always the easiest to read. He didn’t give a fuck enough to mask his true feelings.
“Nah. Ain’t nothing that important for me to do that to you…” His entire face was screwed up in disgust. “That ring not a joke, huh?”
I held my hand out and admired the deep princess-cut red diamond. They were rare, and I wanted to know who my husband sourced them from, ‘cause there wasn’t a soul dealing in rare diamonds in our city.
“It’s very serious. And I think I might love him already, so I need my big brother’s help with something.”
Kai grinned.
“You’ve never laid it on this thick before, Forever. I can’t do anything but help now. Except…” he leaned back. “That doesn’t let you off the hook with my favor.”
His frown returned, and it hit me that his irritation had nothing to do with our dad.
“Which family’s loan is in default? And for how long?”
The two things he hated most were losing money and liars.
“Destiny and Seo-Yeon borrowed jointly…” he leaned back. “And we’re coming up on the fourth missed payment in a year. That was after two deadline extensions.”
I hummed, thinking about what Demetrius learned. Had to be connected to their secret meetings.
The LaPortes weren’t broke. As for Jayden and his family, they weren’t rolling in it like others thought. His dad was no good with money, and Seo-Yeon more than likely kept a private fund she used for personal expenses, not business ventures.
“I’ve told you about loaning to families close to ours, but it’s your lucky day. Send the loan contracts to Carmen, and I’ll handle it.”
He waved my little lecture off.
“That’s why I have a sister who can do my bidding when it’s a little trickier than normal. Now what do you need from me?”
I slide the hard drive Lucien gave me across the table.
“Make a few friends for me.”
At first, the plan had been to give Millicent’s position to Oliver and let Kai play the face for the public. But my brother had a gift, and getting people to talk was one of them.
I also felt Oliver would prefer to be somewhere else, so keeping Millicent close was our only option for now.
Make her a little stir crazy and then use it to our advantage.
“That’s easy. What am I looking for?”
I stood after checking the time; there was still one last stop for me to make.
“Anybody who talks freely about the Fairchild family. Good, bad, or indifferent, I want to know, especially if they’re low in rank.”
The lower the rank, the easier to manipulate.
“When do I get to officially meet my brother-in-law?”
I thought about it for a second.
“Do you really want to?”
He frowned and met me by the door.
“Fuck is wrong with you? We might move a little differently than normal siblings, but I love you regardless. So, yeah, I wanna meet my baby sister’s husband. Not the rejector, but the man who managed to tame your crazy ass.”
I chuckled and pulled the door open, feeling brand new all of a sudden.
Is this what my life was like before the job went bad?
“Whatever. Have you heard from your mother?”
Kai started to follow me to the elevators and then stopped.
“Actually, I haven’t…” he pulled his out and scrolled for a second. “Not since Friday. She called asking if I’d heard from you, then hung up after I said no. But I ain’t think shit of it. That’s typically how our conversations go.”
So fucking odd.
“Okay, I’m headed down to see her. She’s usually here on Sundays, right?”
He nodded and slid into the elevator to follow.
Kai had gotten his love for numbers from our mother. Her family was knee deep into gambling; it was one of the most lucrative underground businesses in Everwood.
Ironically, the only legitimate casino around was owned by her father, a man who didn’t claim us and never had.
“You think she went on a job?”
We both shook our heads after I asked. She hadn’t worked as an assassin in years, not since killing Demetrius’s father, and she’d come out of retirement to do it.
Now that I knew more, something about my mother taking that job as a favor felt more significant than before.
“Hey, Gina,” Kai greeted, stopping the weekend receptionist on the accounting floor from leaving her post. “Did Quinn make it in today?”
Gina looked between us and then shook her head.
“She hasn’t been here in weeks, actually. We thought you knew.”
Weeks?
“What kind of business are you running here, Kai? How did you not notice your head of accounting hasn’t been working?”
Our mom was only doing the job for fun, and she hadn’t missed a day since Kai begged her to keep his books straight per society standards.
Everwood was a cesspool of illegal activity. Anything was game, especially for a decorated member. Still, some preferred to rig an already rigged game, and my brother was one of them.
“I only go looking for people who aren’t doing their jobs.” He shrugged. “Our quarterly reports were finished early.”
When did she ever finish reports early?
Quinn was a weird lady; she purposely moved slowly and to the beat of her own drum. Never controlled, but always compliant.
What are you up to?
And then it hit me.
“I know where she is…” I met eyes with Kai. “You can get back to work. I’ll handle the default this week.”
He nodded but looked reluctant to let me go. I left anyway and headed straight for my ma’s apartment in the neutral zone.
She’d only used it for jobs, but if I had to guess, it was still very much her business hub.
I checked my glove compartment for the access card she’d given after I became the broker, then called Demetrius before going inside.
“You miss me already?” he asked after picking up.
The man didn’t know how not to flirt. He couldn’t even hold it back with another man’s wife, all to get me riled up.
“I want to suck your dick so bad,” I all but moaned, holding back my laughter.
He chuckled, and it vibrated through me nicely.
“Stop fucking around, my baby. Everything can stop if you want my dick in your mouth.”
He was such an intentionally nasty nigga. The seeds he’d planted hadn’t gone unnoticed.
I could tell he wanted me to understand the lengths he’d go to please me, even if that meant stopping plans to do so.
No matter how small, my forever.
No matter how big, my pretty dragonfly.
His voice echoed in my mind, and immediately, I began to laugh.
“Have I told you I obsess over the things you say to me? How you say them to me. Your voice, it…”
“Echoes in your mind,” he softly finished for me. “I know, baby. That’s why I’m echo to you. And you’re forever in my heart.”
My forever.
I wanted to tell him I loved him, and needed to badly. The first time had to be in person, where I could see his face and the weight on his shoulders being lifted.
I craved that for him.
“Baby, I have to check in with my mom, but I changed my mind about us staying apart tonight. Save a spot for me in bed, okay?”
He hummed, and I hung up before his next set of words made me fold. I dropped my location in our thread with the exact floor and apartment number, since leaving electronic devices behind was required to enter.
I tucked my necklace and unlocked her door.
“Ma!” I yelled, disabling the alarm but leaving the door slightly ajar. “Why didn’t you tell Kai about taking weeks off from work?”
She was standing in the kitchen with her back to me, and when she turned, I couldn’t believe what the fuck I was seeing.
“Who the fuck did that to your face!”
I walked toward her, and she actually flinched.
Flinched!
Her left eye was swollen shut, dark purple bruises all over her neck and arms. Never in my thirty-one years of life had I seen my mother this beat up.
Not once.
“You’ve never come here before,” she said, mouth muffled by something.
I didn’t mean to be rough, but I gripped her chin tightly to really take in the damage.
“Was it Eliel? Do you want me to—” She pricked my neck with something, and I stumbled back, instantly realizing my mistake. “What the fu…”
The effects were almost immediate.
My body gave out into her arms. Whatever she’d given left me feeling limp, my head spinning, and her words muffled.
Fuck me for not dropping everything to suck my man’s dick.
“I’m sorry, baby girl.”
My mom’s voice cut through the fog, and I shifted, slowly opening my eyes to find her standing over me.
Did I pass out?
“Have you been taking your meds, ma?”
I sat up, and she took a step back, in nothing but her bra and panties, while touching her neck where I gripped mine.
“They want to hurt you,” she whispered, looking everywhere but at me. “I can’t let them hurt you.”
Clearly not taking her medicine , I thought, pressing my palms to my head.
She had to be in a manic state; it wasn’t the first time, and more than likely wouldn’t be last.
I never understood why her need to be protective heightened during an episode. And always directed at me, never Kai.
“What did you give me?”
She mumbled something I couldn’t understand and then got down in front of me.
“Listen to me, Forever…” She pushed my hands from my face and replaced them with her own. “You have to be careful. Don’t let your father trick you into anything, especially marrying that mixed boy. His eyes are evil.”
I took a deep breath, wrapping my fingers gently around her wrists.
“Ma, I can’t legally marry anyone…” I pulled her up with me and switched places, gently pushing her onto the bed. “And even if I could, it’d never be him.”
She let me lay her down and pull the blanket up to her neck.
“I have to get you some help,” I whispered, feeling her forehead with the back of my hand. “What happened this time?”
I didn’t expect her to respond and turned to leave, but she stopped me with words that really stirred the little girl still living caged inside of me.
“You don’t remember, but he’s hurt you before. Be careful, okay?”
My head spun for the second time today; I could feel myself falling, but instead of hitting the floor, a pair of arms I recognized caught me.
What the fuck did that mean!