Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
D owntown Oakridge was laid out below Kaine’s tenth-story window, but none of it interested him.
His office had been meticulously designed by his younger sister, all in the hopes of keeping his tiger calm and settled while he did his day job.
To others, it would appear sterile. One wall was windows, the others painted a sedate gray.
Two shelves full of books on business codes and logistics flanked his simple oak desk.
One landscape covered the other wall, but the rest was bare.
There were no pictures lining his desk or anything that a wandering eye could use to obtain information about him. It was exactly as he and his tiger liked. Nothing about the space was warm, matching his work persona perfectly. He wasn’t even comfortable in his office, why should anyone else be?
Before his grandfather had died—been murdered—Kaine had never bothered to enter this section of the building, never mind this office. Now, with his new position, he and his tiger were forced into surroundings that made them both antsy and restless.
The title on the door proclaimed him CEO of HB Inc, a brokerage firm that acted as an intermediary broker. They stood in the space between buyers and sellers for all types of transactions…including their most lucrative: murder.
It was the perfect cover for the Aces guild and had served to keep his family off the radar of humans and law enforcement alike.
The company had started wholly legit, his great grandfather founding it and making their family’s money.
Beginning as a catering company, it expanded to his family owning most of the service industry in the town.
No elite, be they Black or white, could throw events or parties without going through his family.
As time passed, however, his great grandfather made mistakes that reduced the family’s fortune; but for the hustle of his grandfather and the pivot he made into more illegal activities, they would’ve lost it all.
Were it up to Ezra, he would never be seated in the leather chair his grandfather had occupied for decades, but Henry’s untimely death had taken him out of the field and into boardrooms that dealt in millions of dollars every day.
Surprisingly, his tiger took to the position.
The ruthless animal had channeled all the brutal callousness that had made them so good at killing people into brokering deals that made him and his clients a lot of money.
But Henry Browne expected no less from his grandson and had planned accordingly.
Kaine graduated high school and college at the top of his class, his MBA and Masters in Finance finally being dusted off for use.
It wasn’t as though he hadn’t spent time working at HB Inc.
All of his siblings put in their fair share of time at their grandfather’s firm.
Of the three of them, Kaine had been best suited for the work, and Henry made sure his eldest grandchild would be prepared to take over both positions.
The job was just challenging enough that it kept both Kaine and his tiger out of trouble. During the day, he brokered deals between legal companies, and in between time, he managed the assignments of the many assassins on his family’s payroll.
Sighing, he drummed his fingers on his desktop as he flipped through the figures in front of him.
He’d already loosened the tie at his neck and rolled the sleeves of his tailor-made poplin dress shirt.
Like his surroundings, the clothes came with the job, quiet elegance from Italian designers that whispered wealth and subtle power.
Kaine had been born into the life and still, some days even the silken threads chafed.
None of the numbers he stared at registered. His mind was an hour away from his office in Eastfield, on her.
Lucinda Bryant.
He clicked out of the screen that he was supposed to be studying and pulled up the background check he had performed on her.
Getting her name had been a bit of challenge, especially since he didn’t want anyone aware of his interest. His job came with danger, and before he subjected her to that, he wanted to be sure he and his tiger were right.
Kaine didn’t use social media, but Lucinda did, and to get access to the images, he’d created a burner account.
He could already hear his brother’s taunting if he ever found out.
He’d stalked her account like the hunter he was, his eyes taking in everything from where she spent her time to the people she surrounded herself with.
She didn’t go by Lucinda. To her friends and cousins, she was Lucky, and he found that the name fit her perfectly.
He observed it all, filing away the information to use for when he was finally ready to approach her.
He could admit that he’d studied her pictures for an unholy amount of time in the past week.
She was fucking gorgeous and vivacious and even through the screen, he could feel her energy.
His tiger moved through his body restlessly.
He had a few things to wrap up, but his animal wasn’t going to wait much longer to find and introduce themselves to her.
Kaine sucked his teeth as the private line to his office phone rang. Only a few people got through to that line. His siblings would’ve called his cellphone, so that left his parents. He lifted the receiver and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Yes?”
“Is that any way to answer the phone for your mother, Ezra?” Vivian snapped.
His eyes flickered to Lucky’s picture on his screen, her smile quelling the irritation he normally felt with any conversations he held with his parents. That was…interesting.
“What can I help you with, mother?” Kaine ignored her scolding.
On his desk, he reached for the knife his sister called his emotional support weapon. Flipping it open, he let the blade dance across his hand as he awaited his mother’s nagging.
“The silent auction for the children’s hospital is this evening. I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget.”
“Griff won’t let me forget, mother. He gets paid to manage my schedule.”
Vivian sighed, a dramatic release of air that conveyed her irritation at her eldest son. “Are you bringing a date? You’re nearly forty, Ezra, and now that you’re the Ace of Spades, you need to be stable. There are a few?—”
“I’ma stop you right there, mother. I’m not interested in any of the female shifters from dad’s church.”
The last thing he needed in his house was a woman who would turn around and tell his business to his parents.
His father didn’t have a congregation. He had a church full of cult members, and while Kaine attended out of habit and to keep up appearances, he wasn’t one of Jeffrey’s “faithfuls,” as he and his siblings called them.
“You missed church two Sundays in a row, Ezra. People will start talking.” Vivian changed the subject, knowing her son wouldn’t be moved.
Kaine swallowed a growl. Despite the power he held in his new position, his mother and her expectations were an enemy he’d yet to defeat.
“I’ll make the auction and I will be at church on Sunday. Is there anything else?”
“Thank you. I’m not going to push the matter of you marrying, but there are a few tiger families we’re affiliated with who don’t attend your father’s church,” she rushed out. “Just think about it, Ezra.”
“Fine, mother.” Kaine looked up in relief as his head of security entered his office. “I gotta go.”
He dropped the phone into the cradle and wiped a hand down his face.
“Your mother?” Griff asked.
“Reminding me about the auction tonight. Where is it?”
Not that it mattered when they all tended to run right into each other. His new position came with new obligations, and representing HB Inc. at various fundraisers was one of them. His mother put them on his schedule to “wash some of the blood from the family’s money.”
“The Grand Beach Hotel,” Griff answered, handing him a file.
“The police reports?”
His grandfather was killed only ten months ago, and grief had hit him hard despite his reservations about the way Henry had brought him up.
It had taken a few months to shake himself of the weight of mourning.
Now that he could think clearly, it was time to get to the business of his grandfather’s murder.
“Forensics shit is in there too. Police are dragging their feet,” Griff answered. “Are you going to the auction alone?”
Kaine sighed, opening the thick folder. “Not you too, G.”
His friend chuckled. “Vivian called me first. Gave me a list.”
“Fuck outta here,” he murmured.
Griff didn’t bother getting offended, being used to the way Kaine operated.
The two had known each other since grade school.
Not necessarily friends, but close enough acquaintances that Kaine trusted him at his back.
Most of the members of the Aces had attended private schools together, mingling with the “right” families.
Griff had been given the job when Kaine had taken over the interim position.
In their ten months working together, they were finally in a place that was comfortable for them both.
“Two hours and we’re out.”
Kaine nodded his acknowledgment, his eyes skimming the reports for anything out of place.
Griff left the office, having delivered both the file and the time check.
Kaine put his other obligations to the back of his mind.
He had people that he could trust to look into Henry’s murder, but his tiger wouldn’t let it go.
He felt obligated to take care of it personally.
His grandparents had been his safe haven away from his parents and their expectations.
He’d expected to have the old man guiding him as he took over the Aces once Henry finally gave up the reins.
He hadn’t foreseen going at it alone. And he definitely hadn’t expected to lose them both in the span of three years.
Now that he had found Lucky, the thought of his grandfather not being able to hold his firstborn had a lump gathering in his throat.
So no, he wouldn’t leave this up to someone else.
He would find out who had taken Henry from him, and he would make sure that person or persons died a slow and painful death.