30. Echo
ECHO
I leaned back in my office chair and watched Damon lean over Gaia’s shoulders as she typed ten times faster than he did. The kid’s eyes were wide when he looked at Oliver, who was sitting beside her.
“She’s amazing,” Damon said, sounding as if he were in a dream and she wasn’t real. “I want to learn from you.”
Gaia chuckled but didn’t respond until she was finished with whatever had brought her up to my office from the one I’d assigned her on the floor below. She and Violet were still operating their personal businesses from the city.
“If you can find how to contact me after I leave, I’ll consider taking you on as an apprentice,” she said, bringing the laptop over to my desk. “I’m going home tomorrow, because my man misses me. But because I feel like we’ll be lifelong allies, here’s my gift to you.”
She set it in front of me, and then a phone beside it.
“This phone is a clone of Maleficent’s. Any messages sent or received can be read here.
It’ll also record the first ten minutes of every conversation and deliver an encrypted copy afterward.
Because I like to know who I’m targeting, I downloaded all of her text messages over the last year and noticed something interesting. ”
I took the phone after she pulled up Millicent’s text thread with Jayden, dating back to just before Forever lost her memories.
Meet me tonight. Same place. Need to feel you inside me again.
“Ayo, what the fuck,” I said, barely able to keep from laughing.
Always liked my women desperate.
Jayden’s responses proved he didn’t care for or even like Millicent. She was something to do for him.
I kept scrolling, skimming over messages until I spotted something that alluded to being about Jeremiah from right around the time she said he raped her.
You owe me.
I let that sick fuck have his way for your sake and now you’re abandoning me!!
Do you know what I’m capable of?
Answer me now or I’ll tell everybody willing to listen and ruin all of your plans.
Whatever happened from there until a few weeks back hadn’t been talked about over text, but I could still fill in the blanks. She’d told me she wanted revenge for what Jeremiah did to her, and what mattered to me at the time was getting close to Forever and sponsoring Violet’s stay in Everwood.
It made even more sense now.
Millicent’s questions about how close my baby and I really were, and the disappointment she expressed during our talk the other day at her bar, made more sense now.
Jayden dropped her after she did him a solid, whatever that entailed, and used funding his brother’s murder to placate. But from the most recent messages, the first was less than twenty-four hours after my encounter with Jayden, and they were involved again.
After he talked crazy to her on the phone that day.
I tsked.
Where was the self-respect?
“As you can see,” Gaia started when I set the phone down and leaned back. “There seems to be way more going on behind the scenes with those two. It’s the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.”
I nodded, agreeing with her point of view on the matter, and as if God was lining it all up in my favor, a text came through from Jayden.
Meet at fight night?
Her reply solidified my plans for the night.
Use my private entrance around ten. It’ll be easier to slip out at the start of the first fight.
This was exactly what we needed, irrefutable proof to scare Jayden into thinking he violated the engagement contract with Forever. Society rules were clear about fidelity during formal engagement periods, especially for arranged marriages between prominent families.
Making him cancel the agreement and then revealing Forever as my wife would satisfy me to no end.
“Oliver, do me a favor and ask my wife’s assistant what they got up for the night.”
She’d left without giving a nigga a kiss and then turned her phone off or locked it in the glove compartment, like in the past when she needed to focus.
“Fight night,” he said, still focused on his phone as he relocated to a chair in front of my desk. “We going? Carmen wants to know.”
I waited for him to give me his undivided attention, and my silence forced him to oblige.
“You got something more important to be doing?”
He smiled.
“Yeah, I could be fuc—”
“And on that cue, I’m out,” Damon blurted, packing up his shit. “Catch y’all later.”
Gaia followed him out with a smirk, but not before announcing she and Violet wanted in on fight night.
“I already know what you’re thinking,” Oliver said once we were alone. “No need to be my big brother right now, I’m a grown ass man and can pick the love of my life without your help.”
I hummed to keep from smiling; he wouldn’t appreciate that either.
“As long as it’s what you want, I don’t got shit to say about it.”
Who the fuck was I to judge, especially when my wife was somebody important to the Collective.
“That mean I can bring her to the compound? Might as well break everybody in while Forever’s reveal is still the topic of discussion.”
My brother had that look in his eyes, one that said he’d find a way to bring her around regardless.
“Bring her,” I said, shrugging. “But be sure she can handle not being accepted right away. One society girl is much different than two, especially as closely connected as they are.”
Oliver leaned back, waving off my warning.
“As long as G likes her, that’s all I care about.”
“Your grandmother likes everybody until they give her a reason not to.” I stood and stretched, then reached for my phone and faced the window. “For the sake of your relationship, I’d give Carmen a heads up. Don’t sell a fairy tale you can’t fulfill.”
I checked Forever’s location and then called her personal phone, knowing she’d have it on her, unlike our secure line. It was time to say fuck the extra secrecy anyway.
“This is Forever,” she answered on the third ring, a smile on her voice that said she was fucking with me.
“New house rules,” I said, glancing over my shoulder to see Oliver slipping out and closing the door behind him. “No leaving without kissing me goodbye.”
Her laughter settled my spirit; it always had.
“You miss me, don’t you, big daddy?”
“Ask me that when I’m making you cry on this dick, baby…” I moved my chair out of the way and took a step back to lean against the desk. “Yes, I miss you. Can’t breathe too long with you either.”
She went silent on me because we both knew just how fucking serious I was.
“My brother asked to meet you,” she softly revealed. “I want everyone else to know about us, Echo. That’s why I leaked it to Destiny Holt. Who do you think she ran to first?”
I hummed, pleased to hear those words come from her mouth.
“It doesn’t matter, baby. She and everybody else were finding out soon anyway…” I checked the time and bit back a sigh. “I gotta go, but humor me tonight, alright? You’ll appreciate the reward.”
I ended the call before she could respond and left to gather my crew for the night.
An hour later, we were inside the Colosseum. It wasn’t what people pictured when they heard the name. Didn’t have ancient stone arches or no shit like that, just a converted warehouse in what natives called the dead zone, gutted and refitted with tiered seating surrounding three fighting rings.
“Damn, forgot how much I hate this place,” Oliver muttered, lips turned up at the distinct mix of sweat, blood, and cheap liquor that hung in the air.
He was to the right of me, Solei to my left, with Violet and Gaia drifting a few steps behind us.
I didn’t respond, too busy taking in our surroundings. The crowd was thicker than expected, yet the packed space still had people clustered in tight groups that spoke to Everwood’s division.
Known society members were near the bar to the right, only talking quietly to one another. Rejectors claimed the bar to the left, their laughter loud and unrestrained.
Between them floated the opportunists and information brokers, the ones who played both sides and profited from the gaps. People like Millicent, but less connected to the Collective than she was.
“I know you see her,” Solei whispered, bumping my shoulder as we moved to the left. “Your wife looks good tonight.”
I shifted my gaze without turning my head. Forever stood across the room, leaning against a support beam with her arms crossed. Kai stood beside her, saying something that made her smile. Their uncle stood above them on a raised platform, looking out into the crowd.
Forever’s pretty ass was in an all black body suit and boots that stopped just below the knee. A pair I was certain she got from the apartment across from mine. She had her hair out and slightly covering her eyes.
My baby looked good, but that was always given.
“Stay focused,” I said, turning away from her. “Keep your distance until I say otherwise.”
We separated after that, drifting into the crowd like we’d come alone.
I positioned myself where I could maintain a line of sight with both Forever and the tunnel leading to the private offices. Violet and Gaia found seats by the middle ring, near where Millicent sat, while Oliver struck up a conversation with a few business owners from our neck of the woods.
Solei headed straight for the betting table, low-key known for her love of gambling and winning.
The lights dimmed as my eyes met Forever’s. She lifted and dropped her eyebrows in acknowledgment, and I blew her a kiss in return.
“Make way for our first set of fighters of the night.”
I leaned against the bar and faced the middle ring as both fighters entered from different sides, one in all black shorts with two red stripes and the other in blue with white. Red meant society, black rejector.
The society initiate couldn’t have been more than a buck twenty, soaking wet. He had way too much nervous energy coming off him as he bounced on the balls of his feet.
His opponent, a face I recognized from roaming around Cannon towers lately, was much stockier and more in control of his emotions.