Chapter 24
PINK
He treated me better after my drunken night. I mean, the man thought he was subtle while I napped and he walked around cleaning everything I messed up.
Half the time, my penthouse smelled like bleach and peppermint when I walked in. My towels were folded, my makeup put back, my mess erased.
I created more just to piss him off some days. I even left my keycards in the freezer once to see if he’d notice. He knew where they were immediately and put them back on the dresser where they went. Something about seeing him care about me enough to tidy made my heart ache.
We would have been good in another life with other circumstances.
The nurses and therapists still came for me. They adjusted numbers and protocol for my gluten intolerance which led to Bane telling me every now and then, “Watch what you’re eating.” He’d say it with his voice low and even but there was edge to it, like he’d punish me if I didn’t listen.
“You don’t have to babysit me all the time,” I said.
“I don’t babysit,” he’d say and then he’d smile. “I stalk.”
I should have hated that. But instead my stomach twisted in a way I couldn’t control.
Kee told me it was diabolical and that Bane scared her.
Olive agreed with her but they both seemed to accept that I was just as twisted as that man.
And quite frankly, I accepted that Dex Hardy who followed Kee around just as much was probably just as bad.
Or worse. Those Hardy brothers would give Bane, Ezra, and Rafe Black a run for their money.
It’d been months of Kee staying at the resort, and Dex was specifically particular about where she went.
That day, he’d said, “Stay here until I get back, then we can grab dinner.” I swear it was the fifth time that week, like we should just sit there all day doing nothing in the resort.
She was just as bored as me. I huffed at him, though by that point, Bane had eased up a lot, giving me more freedom than Dex was allowing my friend.
Granted, his protection was warranted. Keelani was a star in her own right—her voice carried to the masses, her beauty undeniable.
Plus Dex’s sisters, Izzy and Lilah, were visiting from out of town along with Clara and Evie, and of course they were here to see Kee perform.
We weren’t close like I was with Kee and Olive, but Kee seemed to like them, and I was always open to more friends now that I’d found they could be supportive rather than mean.
And Izzy and Lilah were definitely supportive in that they wanted us to have fun, grab drinks, and bum around the city with them.
Instead Dex launched into a lecture the second they arrived. “Izzy, Lilah. Clara. Evie.” He gave them a glare that could slice anyone down. “You all know the concerns. Don’t leave the building.”
Izzy huffed, flipping her loose curls over her shoulder.
“You’re acting like Dom.” Lilah mirrored her sister in every feature but looked a bit more innocent.
Both were smaller, dark-haired versions of their older brothers.
Twins, a few years younger than me, and somehow both married men people whispered were in another mafia family.
Better than Bane’s, I guess, because they seemed to be glowing with happiness.
“Well, we won’t go anywhere,” Lilah said sweetly, but you could tell the rebellion was brewing. Evie nodded and smiled. “We’ve got this under control.”
As soon as Dex left, Izzy grinned, mischief in her eyes. “We’re going to the rooftop pool for drinks. They can’t stop us.”
I whooped and we all threw on suits to go up to the rooftop.
There, I felt a comfort in being surrounded by women who shared their own lives with me.
Candidly. Openly. And took my own concerns in with the same sympathy I’d given them.
We talked about Kee’s stalker, about how the guys handled it, about anything and everything we had concerns about.
Kee finally stretched after we’d all picked at one another’s lives and asked, “Who’s going in the pool?”
“Me,” Izzy said, standing. “Who’s skinny dipping in the pool?”
“How much have you had to drink?” Lilah lifted a brow.
Izzy put her hands on her hips as if she was downright appalled that everyone hadn’t drank as much as her. “More than you, obviously.”
“Oh no.” Lilah started to laugh. “I’ve had just as much.”
I didn’t have to have an ounce of alcohol to know I was going skinny dipping with my girls. This was my life now, no limits within that resort, and I didn’t care if it pissed Bane off.
“You guys.” Olive chimed in, frowning as we all started untying our bikini tops. “We’re on a rooftop, and Dex is concerned about the stalker—”
Kee shrugged. “So what? A stalker is going to keep us from having fun? One guy?”
She pointed toward the sky. “He could have drones!”
I probably shouldn’t have starting walking backward toward the pool, but when all of them followed, I turned and ran to jump in with my top off for the whole world to see … including the men in the pool who were more than happy with our display.
I chucked their beach ball at them and yelled, “Enjoying the show, boys?”
They laughed and bounced it back.
The fun didn’t last though.
I heard someone’s phone go off, and then they were all ringing. Over and over.
Izzy and Lilah were the first out, swearing but with small smiles on their faces.
And then I heard one of them murmuring “Oh shit,” and that’s when I glanced toward the door.
One by one, they emerged—Declan, Dom, Dex, Dimitri, Cade, Dante, and then Bane.
He moved last, but he didn’t trail behind.
He commanded the space without effort, his long strides eating up the concrete, every inch of him radiating the kind of control that made the air itself seem to tense.
His suit was dark and the look he sent me was blacker than a storm cloud.
The others looked much the same, precise and intimidating in their own right, but Bane—he was different.
His movements were almost calculated but vicious too.
I hadn’t seen him emanate this sort of lethal anger for months.
He’d been calm. Cool. Collected with me.
I was his friend now, nothing more. But his jaw was sharp, his dark eyes scanning the rooftop as though he was cataloging all the men up there.
Shit.
The sun caught the men at just the right angles, glinting off the edges of their watches, the polished leather of their shoes, but all I could focus on was him.
Bane Black, radiating a new type of danger, and somehow—impossibly—making the world seem smaller around him.
The rest of them looked pissed, yes, but Bane looked like the hurricane that was ready to finally strike.
“Oh, we’re fucking done.” I hopped out of the pool and went for my towel. I might have actually pushed the man to his limit with flaunting myself around after we hadn’t done anything together in a year.
“Throw me a towel,” Evie, who was married to Declan Hardy, Dex’s brother, yelled before she hopped out.
As she got to the edge though, her husband was there. “You get out and show what’s mine to anyone here, and I will personally have to rip all their eyes out.” He proceeded to grab her top, and then he knelt down to drape it softly around her neck.
Bane was by my side, glaring down at me, “Have anything to say for yourself?”
I pursed my lips. I had a lot to say but none of it would be good in front of my friends, so I shook my head, holding it in for later.
Clara might have been the boldest of all when she said, “Dom, want to swim?”
He glared at her. “Cupcake, you don’t want me in that pool right now.”
She smirked and swam up to the side. “You sure?”
He hauled her up by her arm so close to him that no one caught sight of anything because he wrapped his suit jacket around her as he murmured, “You’re going to kill me, little fighter.”
Dimitri was holding out a towel for Olive, and they were whisper fighting.
And Kee didn’t get out. Instead she swam round and round. “Ready to go, Kee?” Dex asked.
“Hmm. Not yet. I’m having fun with everyone in here.”
I wide-eyed her when I saw Dex’s look and grumbled, “Um … you’re on your own, girl.”
When we got back to the penthouse, each couple bickered a bit while we grabbed our clothes, but I knew I was on borrowed time.
As we walked down the hall, Bane hovering right on my ass, I murmured, “Again, like I said in the room, you shouldn’t be getting all territorial like them. We’re friends until this arrangement is up, right? I’m your resort’s makeup artist. Nothing else.”
“You want attention from men so bad, let’s go to the Vault.” He whirled on me.
“What?” I stuttered out in the hallway of the resort.
“Now,” he grunted and then he pivoted, walking back toward the elevators.
“Well, hold on. I’m in my swimsuit and—”
“You want men to look, let’s have them.” He walked with purpose to the elevators and pressed a button.
We both waited for the doors to open and then he pressed a black button that didn’t have a floor number.
It beeped and I saw how the security camera flashed a laser over his face.
It was checking his status, checking if he had access.
It seemed the Vault was even more exclusive than I’d imagined.
We careened down, down, down, past the first floor.
And when the elevator opened, I saw a beautiful dark staircase, curving down another level to where a golden sign read: The Black Diamond Vault.
The doors below the sign were crafted from a thick, polished metal that looked like gold.
The surface of them gleamed with intricate engravings I’d never seen before.
At the centers of the double doors were wheel lock mechanisms with spokes and a dark diamond in the middle.
I didn’t hesitate. I walked down the steps with Bane. I wouldn’t back down now. The two huge bodyguards who manned the doors nodded at Bane as he said, “Pink’s with me. She can have full access when I’ve approved.”