Chapter 2 #3
“You can.” She chuckled, her smile increasing after a bit of silence.
“Being loved by an Akel man is like floating on air. They consume you completely, taking all you have to give and filling you with their essence. The power, the strength, the pride they feel from having you by their side. I know my son. He’s a carbon copy of his father.
Selfish and demanding, but when you have him, you have all of him.
He implanted his heart and soul in there after stealing yours for safekeeping.
It’s deliciously scary how skilled they are.
My husband is even selfish in his absence because he refuses to release me.
” She shrugged. “But I’m his to keep and always will be. ”
“Kincaid’s complicated in a way that I’m struggling to keep up with, but I do love him.”
She laughed hard before sipping her tea. “Indeed you do, sweetheart.”
I expelled a cleansing breath. “However, because I love him, I can’t love my father. I can’t even get to know the man who’s a part of my existence.”
Her eyes narrowed just a bit. “What do you mean?”
“I know who my father is. I just found out, but there’s bad blood between him and Kincaid.” I scoffed. “That’s why I’m here. You’re babysitting me because your son doesn’t trust me to make the right decisions. He thinks I’m going to do something dumb.”
She frowned a little more. “Who is your father?”
“Eli Manchester.”
The color drained from her face and her eyes closed. I watched as she swallowed hard before her eyes slowly peeled open.
“You know him?”
“Come with me. I need to show you something.”
She was suddenly anxious and it had something to do with my father.
This was only getting worse. We moved through the house to her husband’s office.
The look, the smell, and the feel reminded me of both Kincaid and his father.
The space mirrored the office Kincaid kept in our home, but that wasn’t the only memory that surfaced.
My mind drifted to the day of his father’s funeral, and my mood soured a little thinking of his ex.
His mother opened a drawer and lifted a key she had used to unlock another.
After digging through files and folders, she handed me a stack of photos.
My stomach grew queasy at the sight of a woman who had been beaten.
Her face was bruised with black and purple marks, and her eyes were swollen to the point of being unable to open.
After sifting through several of them, I noticed a label printed in the corner of the last one.
Corinne Akel
“Is this . . .” My eyes lifted to meet hers, and she nodded.
“Yes. The history between the Manchesters and Akels is torrid and entangled. Everett, Eli’s older brother, and Yusuf were close.
They came up together, but the two were different and always would be.
Yusuf’s life was laid out for him. His father and grandfather were connected, which meant he would be too.
I met Yusuf in college. I was an undergrad while he was in the last year of gaining his master’s.
Everett didn’t attend, but he was always around because they were good friends.
I was struggling, barely able to keep my head above water.
Being a product of a system that wrote me off seconds after my eighteenth birthday wasn’t always easy.
” We shared a look of understanding before she continued.
“Yusuf says I was a fighter; always had been. He fell in love with me, and that was that. Things were good . . . until the time came for Yusuf to take his place officially. I had no idea what the hell was going on between them, nor had I any idea of the type of man who stole my heart. Everett did and wanted to be a part of it. He assumed his friendship with Yusuf would grant him acceptance, but The Families are very selective. There are so many layers of how things work. I still don’t fully understand.
I damn sure didn’t back then, but what I knew was that Everett would never be what my husband was.
When the time came, he would be left behind.
Everett tried to convince Yusuf that they could be great doing things independently.
His father had his hands in a few ventures that he deemed worthy of praise.
Guns and enforcement. They strong-armed businesses to pay for their protection.
The Manchester name was tainted and he wasn’t respected.
The Families do illegal things, but they maintain a certain level of honor.
They have rules. Their members own businesses and build legacies to balance the dark side of things.
That’s what Everett didn’t understand. There was no comparison to his family and the Akels.
With Yusuf, there was no choice to be made.
His destiny had been decided before he ever took his first breath. ”
Her eyes met mine, communicating what I already knew—the same as Kincaid’s had.
“I was out with friends late one night. After they drove me home, he caught me at the door, forcing his way in. Everett wore a mask to hide his face, but I had been around him enough to know his eyes, his scent, his voice. He beat me until I was barely conscious, then told me to tell Yusuf that if he took his place with The Families, I would always be a target.”
I felt my body tremble from the thought. I was now in the same place she had been all those years ago. Loving a man whose existence placed me in harm’s way.
“Everett was desperate and assumed if he couldn’t convince Yusuf to deny his place, the threat of losing me would decide for him.
He wanted my husband to believe my being attacked was connected to The Families.
Everett knew how much Yusuf loved me. What he didn’t count on was that I could identify him. ”
“What happened?”
“Yusuf married me and took his place with the syndicate. Everett went missing. They found his body months later. Someone shot him in the head and cut out his heart. The heart was delivered to Everett’s family before his body was found.
From what I understand, Eli is the one who found what was left of his brother at their parents’ home. ”
“Did he do it? Was it Yusuf who killed him?”
She nodded softly.
“Does Kincaid know?”
“He knows I was assaulted right before I married his father. He just doesn’t know by whom and he never will if I can help it.
He found the pictures and demanded answers.
His pride wanted to end the person who put their hands on me.
I know what my son is and what he’s capable of.
There’s enough darkness in his life, and I refused to add to what already exists.
I never told Kincaid what Everett had done to me all those years ago.
His father wouldn’t either. The Akel men are black and white with some things.
For the women they love, they lose all sensibility.
Everett was no longer breathing, but his brother was.
Eli would have been a target for the anger that Kincaid couldn’t extend to Everett.
I didn’t want him in that position. Neither did his father. ”
“If he didn’t know, why are they at odds?”
“He felt his father’s hate for their family.
He understood the silent warning, even if he didn’t know why it had been given.
Kincaid never questioned his father about certain things.
Yusuf’s word was law. Over the years, Eli and my son simply became enemies because that’s how life plays out sometimes.
The universe’s cruel little joke, I suppose.
Things are different now. Eli found a way in.
He became a useful resource. He changed the legacy his father built, and instead of strong-arming businesses, he presented the business owners with an offer they couldn’t refuse, and they paid him willingly.
He’s connected by default. I don’t know all the details, but he can’t be touched without approval from the syndicate.
If you push, Kincaid will break the rules.
He’ll lose everything, but he won’t care.
He won’t think straight because all he’ll see is you.
Yusuf didn’t think when it came to Everett; he moved off rage and regretted not being there for me.
My son is his father in more ways than one, the same as Eli is also his brother. ”
She was telling me this as a warning to stay away from Eli.
“I know your heart is at odds. There are holes you yearn to have filled, but trust me when I say Eli is poison of the worst kind. Some men don’t deserve the love of others because they’re not capable of giving it in return.
They’re also not capable of handling others with care.
That man will hurt you one way or another if you let him get close, and that will destroy my son.
So I’m asking you to trust him, please.”
I nodded. She lost her husband and was begging me not to be the reason why she lost her son.
The only problem with making that promise was that I would never know my father.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that I wanted to after what I just learned, but I couldn’t deny that a seed had been planted, a sprouting possibility of having a connection.
I now understood the consequences and refused to be the person responsible for doing damage to Kincaid or his mother.