Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
CARTER
B ending Kai over my desk and fucking him senseless was a terrible fucking idea. It’s all I can think about, even two weeks later. It’s clouding my judgment, and I’ve been making stupid mistakes at work. A few times, one of the lower accountants that works at Azure Blue had to come to me with an error I made or one I didn’t catch when I was going over the books. One thing I’ve prided myself on is my work, but all I can think about is how tight Kai’s ass was.
I’ve never fucked anyone that felt so fucking good, so fucking hot inside that I almost lost my head. Ever since my dick was in him, I feel…something. A buzzing under my skin every time he’s near. An awareness before he even steps in any room I’m in. It’s like my cum is a beacon inside him and I feel a jolt in my system when he’s close by.
Gavin has noticed my behavior, making snide remarks every time my head snaps around to Kai. I try not to make it obvious, but I can’t help it. I marked him, so now he belongs to me.
But that’s a foolish thought. I spent years, decades even, hating him. Hating his family. How can one fuck have me so goddamned confused? And why do I want to fuck him again?
It won’t happen. He said one fuck to get me out of his system and that’s all he’ll get. Even if I want nothing more than to sink into that tight hole of his and fuck him until he cries. Then I’ll lick his tears and make it all better for him.
No, I don’t want to make anything better for him. I want Kai the fuck away from me, so I don’t have these conflicted feelings. Kaison St. Clair is the enemy. Even though we’re married with this bullshit truce, he’ll always be the enemy.
“Ready?” Gavin asks, checking his guns as he waits by my office door.
I log out of my computer at Azure Blue and stand. I pull my suit jacket on—something Dad was happy to see me in—and check that my weapon is hidden. Even though there hasn’t been much chatter about the family after us, I don’t want to take any chances. A threat could be anywhere; I don’t want to be caught with my pants down when it appears.
We leave through the service entrance of the casino to ensure no one sees us and Gavin hurriedly drives off once he’s behind the wheel of my bulletproof sedan.
He drives down the expressway, weaving in and out of traffic before he exits on the highway and goes back the way we came. After he’s sure no one is following us, Gavin drives at a more sedate speed until we get to St. Clair’s Constructions headquarters.
Kai doesn’t know I’m coming, but I figure the element of surprise will be on my side and he’ll let me look over his books. Something about what Charlie keeps saying about signing over the company to him is tripping up my spidey senses. It’s almost like he’s trying to sabotage his son’s business. I think he doesn’t want to see Kai succeed. He already gives him shit for being gay—maybe he thinks that because he doesn’t conform to what he thinks he should, Kai shouldn’t have anything. I want to make sure my assumptions are correct.
As we drive, I see sign after sign for Kai’s construction company outside of vacant or in process builds. If his company was doing too badly, no matter who he paid off, he wouldn’t be getting contracts. Something is off about this entire situation.
We pull up to Kai’s company about thirty minutes later. The headquarters is about twenty minutes away from us, in a smaller, less busy city called Abway. It’s a good location for a legitimate business. Even though the name is connected to the St. Clair family, it’s separate from the illegal shit we do with the drugs, guns, and murder.
I don’t see Kai’s car, but that’s probably for the best. I won’t have to fight him to see what I want. Any stooges that are in here now will back the fuck down when Gavin puts a gun to their heads.
That’s not necessary though. I step into the office and see a small pale man with large glasses and a frightened air around him sitting in a small office. Judging from the pallor of his skin, I doubt he gets out much besides coming in to work.
“Can I help you?” he asks, pushing his glasses up on his nose. Gavin runs his eyes over him with his eyebrows knitted together. I’m not sure what the look is for, but I don’t want to ask. I won’t be distracted by my weird friend.
Turning to the man, I answer his question. “I’m Carter St. Clair-Whitlock. I’m?—”
“The boss’s husband. Yeah, I know.” He pushes his glasses up again. “He’s not here. Do you want me to leave a message?”
“No. I need to see his account ledgers.”
“Okay. Would you like to use his office or the accountant’s?” That was easier than I thought.
“His.” I step further into the room. “Who are you?”
“Oh. I’m Percy. Mr. St. Clair’s assistant. My dad works for his dad.”
Huh. He looks like he’s afraid of his own shadow. I’m sure whoever his dad is treats him how Charlie treats Kai. This isn’t a business for the weak, but it’s the fault of the father for not preparing him.
“Where is everyone else?”
“Everyone is off for the rest of the day. They just finished a build for the convenience store in Salsey.”
He shows me into Kai office, which is neat as a pin. I breathe in deeply, catching a faint whiff of the cologne he wears. It has burrowed into my senses since I fucked him.
When I’m settled behind his desk, Percy boots up Kai’s computer and inputs a password. “It’s my password, but I have access to everything Mr. St. Clair does. If you need anything else, let me know.”
I nod and take off my jacket, settling in for a long few hours. Kai’s business has been open for a while, so I have to go back to the beginning to see if there are any discrepancies.
After I boot up the software, I go through the ledgers. I call Percy in to grab me a notepad and a pen and get to work. I faintly hear him and Gavin talking, Percy’s voice high and frightened, but I tune them out.
Two hours later, I rub my dry eyes and glance down at the notes I’ve taken. I’m not sure what Charlie is talking about. Kai’s business is extremely profitable. He’s making money hand over fist, spending money on quality items, but getting them at a bargain. He pays his employees above minimum wage, while still retaining a maximum workforce. To put it shortly, Kai has a good mind for business. Which leaves me to wonder what the fuck is Charlie on about. I’ll have to dig more into it, see what the real problem is.
There’s also an issue with the books that I’m sure Kai doesn’t know about. Despite him saying he doesn’t need my help, that’s the furthest thing from the truth. His bottom line is off. By almost twenty thousand dollars this month, close to thirty last month. If I’m right—and I know I am—someone is stealing money from Kai.
Shaking my head, I go back to the front of the office where I see Percy taking frightened glances at Gavin. Gavin is only slightly larger than me, but his shrewd brown eyes and the hard set to his face ensures most people are scared of him. I’m used to seeing his mug, so his permascowl means nothing to me. I thought I heard them talking a few hours ago, but maybe my mind was playing tricks on me.
“Let’s go, Gavin. Thanks, Percy. And do me a favor.”
“Ye-yes sir?” His voice trembles and I have to fight not to chuckle.
“Don’t tell your boss I was here. I’ll tell my husband myself.”
He sighs gratefully and nods. “Yes sir. Thank you, sir.”
When we get to the car, Gavin gives me a long look. “I see you’re getting used to that word.”
“What word?” I ask, though I know exactly what he’s talking about.
“Husband.” I scowl. “Don’t sweat it, boss. You two would actually make a good couple if you stop throwing punches all the time.”
I scoff, though it’s half-hearted. Ever since I stuck my dick in him, I’ve been thinking the same thing. No denying that our sex was hot. It was like Kai was made for me, his hole molding around the shape of my dick. And his moans. God, his moans. They burrowed into my brain, the memory of them cropping up at the most inopportune times. I’ve been walking around with a semi ever since we fucked.
“It’ll never work. We hate each other.”
Gavin smirks as he pulls away from Kai’s company. “Do you?”
I don’t answer, just stare out the window at the scenery passing me by. Do I hate Kai? Have I ever? I’ll venture to say I don’t really know him. His family and mine have been at odds since before I was born. It was expected of me to not like the enemy.
But he’s not the enemy anymore. He’s my husband. We’re supposed to be allies. What’s the point of us being miserable when we’re stuck together for years, decades even?
Fuck, it’s all so perplexing. Sex always confuses things, and my head is all fucked up. Namely because I want more. Unfortunately for me, Kai said once to get me out of his system.
I clear thoughts of my husband from my mind when we pull up to the warehouse to meet with the Colombians an hour later. My other men are parked in an SUV already waiting for me with the product. I had them meet me here since I was going to Kai’s company beforehand. Going over his budget was nagging at me, so that had to be done before I took care of my real business.
Hopping out of the car, I motion for my guys in the other car to bring the product inside.
Dante Lopez, the head of the Colombian family stands by a row of tables, his men and workers behind him. He grins when he sees me, holding his hand out for me to shake. Out of all the families that have territory in our small slice of South Jersey, Dante and I get along best. I know his family is content to run his business far away from Yorkley where our territory is.
“Good to see you, Carter,” Dante says, his deep Jersey accent sounding familiar. Like me, he does business for his father to prepare to take over one day. “You’re early.”
I nod and incline my head to my guys so they can put the cases of heroin, coke and pills on the floor by Dante’s feet. “We have some trouble down in our part of the city, so I wanted to make sure you had what you needed before shit went south.”
“Shit,” he says, shaking his head. “We’ve heard faint whispers of trouble in your area. Any ideas of who it is?”
“Vague ideas,” I tell him honestly. “It’s nothing we can’t handle.”
Dante steps forward, dropping his voice. “If I hear anything, I’ll let you know. Since we are so far away, there’s not much I can do from here. But I’ll help where I can.”
I clap hands with him and pull him in for a one-armed hug. “Thanks Dante. We’ll keep our ear to the streets.”
His men bring out the cases of money and transport them to the SUV. Dante and I talk about his next delivery, then we head out.
Kai is on my mind as we drive back to Jersey. Well, not him. His company. Someone is skimming off the top. I don’t like Kai, but I hate stealing even more. If the St. Clair’s are anything like us, they pay their people handsomely to earn their loyalty. Judging from how much money the company rakes in, I’m sure Kai pays more than what is state mandated. That means he has a greedy bastard on his payroll that thinks he’s worth more than he’s paid.
I’ll have to take over as lead accountant for him. He probably delegates the responsibility, expecting his people to be loyal. But he shouldn’t be stupid.
“Take me to see Kai,” I tell Gavin. “I need to?—”
My words are cut off by a large explosion in front of us. The car that has my money and my men in it shoots into the air, now turned into a metal fireball.
Gavin wrenches the wheel of our car to the left, barely avoiding the SUV as it falls to the ground. “Out of the car, now!” he yells when he slams on brakes.
I do what he says, stumbling out of the car, grabbing my gun as I run across the pavement. The warning came not a moment too soon. I’m barely ten feet away when our car suffers the same fate, erupting into a ball of fire.
I’m thrown onto my back, the fiery air singing my face and racking against my lungs.
With effort, I roll onto my back, trying to find where the attack came from. I make out two figures running towards a sleek sedan, one with a rocket launcher over their shoulder. They have on masks, covering any identifying markers I could pick up to try to suss out what family they belong to. The license plate of the car is also covered, so I can’t make that out either.
How the fuck did they know we were here? We’re on the back roads going back to Yorkley. A road we always take.
Fuck, we always take the same route, so it’s not hard to deduce where we’ll be when we leave town. How did neither Gavin nor I realize we were being followed? I looked through the rearview mirror and side mirrors often. How the fuck did they get the drop on us?
Clambering to my feet, I flick the safety off my gun and aim at the tires of the sedan. I fire off shot after shot, hoping to flatten one of the tires so I can catch up to them. I’m not sure how, but I’ll find a way. I hit one tire, and the car spins out, but the driver is able to regain control of their car quickly and speed off.
“Fuck!” I shout to the air. I slide my gun back into the holster. Turning around, I see Gavin standing beside the road, surveying the damage while also checking our surroundings. The men in the lead car are beyond saving, the SUV an inferno of twisted metal.
I pull out my phone to call Dante. He’s only about twenty minutes away. He and some of his men can get here faster than my family.
After I tell him what happened and he promises to send some guys to help us out, I call Dad to give him the news. “I’m not sure how they knew we were here, but they’re fucking with us, Dad. They almost killed me and Gavin.”
His voice is tight with emotion as he asks, “Are you okay?”
“Fine. Might not have any fucking eyebrows, but I’m good.”
“Get back here as quickly as you can. You’re not the only one that got hit. The St. Clair’s did too. Indigo Arc Casino was hit with Molotov cocktails. The restaurant is burned to the ground, as well as the entrance to the main floor. Luckily, a waitress saw the person before he threw the cocktail, and she got everyone away from the doors. The restaurant was closed, so no casualties.”
“Son of a bitch,” I curse wildly, wanting to hit something. It would be easy for whoever is trying to take our territory to just off us and be done with it. So why are they playing these games? To fuck with us, that’s why. It’s all a game to them. They want us to know that they can do what they want because we can’t do anything about it. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Dante and his guys show up a few minutes later. They’re able to extinguish the flames and use a tow to get the twisted clumps of metal that used to be our vehicles on the back of the bed. I say a silent prayer for the men I lost today, remembering their names so I can pay my respects to their families. All arrangements will be taken care of by our family, of course.
Clean up takes almost three hours. Dante loans us one of his guys, having him drive us back to Yorkley. We don’t speak the whole ride, my mind going a thousand miles an hour. I almost died. If Gavin hadn’t ordered me out of the car, I would have.
I don’t see any emergency vehicles when we pull up to the casino, but yellow tape is still stuck to the doors of the building. We head to the back entrance, trudging through the filthy alley.
We make our way to the small conference room, finding it packed with my family and the St. Clair’s men. Voices bounce off the wall as everyone tries to be heard over the other.
When Dad spots me, he breaks away from conversation with Charlie, coming over to wrap his arms around me. He hugs me tight, sighing against my shoulder. “How are you, son?”
“I’m good, Dad. In one piece.”
He pulls back and holds me at arm’s length, nodding as he folds his lips in. “Yeah, you are. Good.”
I look over his shoulder and see Kai watching me and Dad’s exchange. His eyes hold a curious expression, as if what he’s seeing doesn’t make sense.
A pang shoots through me as our gazes clash, his gray eyes flashing with…something. He’s so fucking hard to read. He holds his emotions close to the vest, and it fucking sucks because I need to know what’s on his mind.
I force myself to look at Dad, to give him the rest of the bad news. “The money from the deal is gone. We lost almost three million today.”
He curses, shaking his head. “Fuck. They really hit us hard. I’m glad you’re okay though. That’s more important than the money.”
“Yeah, but that three million is coming out of my account.”
“You bet your ass it is,” Dad says with a bark of laughter.
Charlie comes over, looking angry. “I’m glad you can find humor in all this, Dominic. My fucking casino is fucked.”
Dad turns to him with a raised eyebrow. “And my son almost died. I could give a fuck about your casino. You can rebuild.”
“Use Kai’s company,” I pipe in. “It would save you millions instead of going with someone who will charge you an outrageous price.”
Charlie waves me off as Kai approaches. “I would never. His materials are cheap, and he cuts corners. I’d rather use someone reputable.”
With a snarl, I step into Charlie. “What the fuck is your problem? Why are you so against letting your fucking son help you? What kind of fucking father ?—”
Kai steps between us, facing me with his face twisted in irritation. “Chill out, Carter. You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Anger builds inside me as I stare at Kai. How can he take his father’s side, knowing he’s not only a shitty father, but a shitty businessman? He’d rather take an opportunity from his son than allow him to help him out. Who does that? Charles St. fucking Clair, that’s who. Why my father thought it would be smart to attach ourselves to that fucking snake is beyond me. “Why are you letting him talk to you like that?”
From behind his son, Charlie says, “I’m just telling the truth. Kai knows it and I know it. The sooner he hands me over that debt trap, the better for this family. Or you can sell it and put money back into this family and stop wasting your fucking time with a venture that’s not paying off.”
I know for a fact that’s not true. I saw the account ledgers. I know what Kai has and doesn’t have, and that construction company is a fucking gold mine.
Kai swallows roughly before turning to Charlie. “I’m not selling. To you or anyone else. St. Clair’s Construction is mine.”
“Well change the fucking name and stop embarrassing this family with your failures.” With that, Charlie stalks away, standing with my Dad and other men as they discuss what our next steps are.
“Kai,” I say, reaching out for him.
“Don’t.” He snatches away and walks over to the gathering. I growl in frustration before I walk over and join the discussion.
Kai is a fucking idiot. Father or not, I wouldn’t allow anyone to talk to me the way Charlie talks to him. Dad and I have gone toe to toe a number of times, but he’d never talk shit about me to the fucking enemy. Charlie takes some sort of sick pride in feeling like he’s knocking Kai down a peg or two. I swear I hate that fucking cocksucker.
From what the waitress saw, a white man with dark sunglasses and shaggy brown hair threw the Molotov cocktail. That’s not much to go on, since there are probably hundreds of men that fit that description from the Fensters and the Russians. Gavin and I didn’t see anything worth noting, so we’re all at square one.
The only thing we can do is meet with the Fensters and the Russians to try to sus out which one it might be. Dad and I still have our reservations about Juan and his family, but less so than the other two. We don’t trust anyone, but the Reyes family seemed the least likely to encroach on our territory.
“I’ll keep reaching out to try to get in touch with the Fensters and the Russians,” Dad says when no one has any bright ideas. “Hopefully by the time we figure all this shit out, we’re all still above ground.”
We disperse, not having anything else to discuss.
When I spot Charlie heading out, I walk behind him, catching up to him when he gets to the burned out restaurant. It’s covered in soot, most of the wall on the far end caved in from the height of the flames. It still smells strongly of smoke, so much so that I have to wave a hand in front of my face to get clear air.
Charlie glances over at me with a frown. “And you think my son’s shitty company can fix this? You’re fucking delusional.”
“No, you’re a fucking snake.” Charlie turns to me with a venomous expression. He doesn’t scare me. I meet his glare. “You just want his company for yourself. I see what you’re doing. Keep disparaging him so he’ll hand it over and you can take all the profits. How can you do that to your son? What, him being gay is that much of an issue that you don’t think he deserves anything else?”
“He deserves to burn in hell for embarrassing me with his perversion. My son, a fucking queer. How can any father stand to look at their kid when he turns out like that? All I’ve given him, and he likes dick.”
I rear back, looking at him incredulously. “You’re a fucking idiot.” His face reddens further, and his hand goes to the inside of his jacket. But I’m quicker. My gun is out and aimed at his forehead. Charlie freezes. “Don’t you fucking dare. You listen to me, and you listen good. Kai is mine. You will not talk to him anymore. You won’t come near him again. You’re done.”
“Too fucking easy,” Charlie snarls. “You can have him.”
“I already do.”
Kai chooses that moment to round the corner. “What the fuck? Carter, put your fucking gun down!” He rushes over and pushes my hand away, standing in front of Charlie. “What the fuck!”
“Your husband is just showing me who’s in charge, that’s all,” Charlie says easily. “Think about what I said, Kai. Give me that company and I’ll turn it around for you.” Then he saunters away without a backwards glance.
“You’re out of line,” Kai snarls, stepping into my space. “You don’t get to threaten my dad because you have a bug up your ass.”
“Well, excuse me for making sure your father doesn’t snatch your company from under you. Newsflash, Kai, he’s trying to take your company because it’s profitable.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” he whisper shouts. “I know him better than you do.”
“Yeah? Then you’ll know no matter how much you kiss his ass and try to be the perfect son, he’ll never fucking love you. Why do you insist on trying to get his approval when you’ll never get it?”
Kai rears back as if I slapped him. Hurt flashes in his eyes, and he’s not quick enough to cover it.
“Shit,” I say, my heart squeezing for a reason I can’t pin down. “Kai?—”
“Fuck you, Carter,” he says through clenched teeth, then storms off.
I watch him leave, my stomach sinking to my feet.
Before I can go after him, Nico jogs behind him, shooting me a look over his shoulder. I flip him the bird, which makes him scoff. At lease he’ll have someone with him while I try to figure out how to fix what I just fucked up.
I was supposed to figure out a way to get me and Kai to stop hating each other. Looks like I accomplished the opposite.