Chapter Ten. #2
“No, King’s the best damn man I’ve ever met.”
“More than Shane?” Jonas asked.
“Yes.” There was no hesitation. King was the greatest.
“Wow. I didn’t expect that answer,” Jonas admitted.
“Why not? I’ve known King since we were babies. We went through everything together. Shane? I knew Shane for five years, and then he threw me away. Shane has nothing on King.
Shane understood back then that my bond with King was unbreakable. He either accepted it or not. Just because King has a dick, it doesn’t mean he wants to poke me with it.”
“That’s a great way of putting it.”
“King adores women, but they have to be batshit crazy, as he loves drama. He also likes a woman to dote on him. And he’s attracted to a round butt.
King’s an ass man. The bigger and juicier, the more attractive she is.
King doesn’t care if she’s black, white, Mexican, or blue with yellow spots.
A juicy butt and drama does it for him,” I replied.
“It’s good you’ve got that relationship.”
“Yeah. I know what uptight white people imagine when they see King. A well-built, muscled, handsome black guy who wears jeans and wife-beaters and a thick gold chain. They think gangbanger. That necklace came from King’s grandfather; it was a sign of him crawling out of poverty.
It was handed down to King’s father and then to King.
It means something. His tattoos all have meaning, too.
They spot his cornrows and think druggie or wannabe rapper. It makes me laugh.”
“He’s on sabbatical, isn’t he?”
“Yes. King took a year off, but he’s dabbling. He can’t sit still for long.”
“I was impressed with his resume.”
“Yeah. He’s a modern-day genius. He’s the guy the government calls when they mess up.
” I grinned. King was highly sought after as a computer programmer who fixed broken programmes and was widely regarded as a troubleshooter.
If someone got hacked, they called him; if someone’s programme started acting up, King fixed it.
“You’re very proud of him,” Jonas stated.
“Yup. When he graduated and set up on his own, King charged the local businesses a discounted rate because it was home. When King was vocal in defending me, a lot of them dropped him. Then their shit broke.
“They tried getting others in, who couldn’t fix the problem; many referred the companies back to King.
Finally, they had to call him in. When they did, King charged them the full rate.
They were outraged, and King pointed out he’d been doing discounted work for them until they’d crapped on him.
King owed nobody anything and made that very clear.
Loyalty once betrayed isn’t easily given.
And because they’d gone to hack jobs, the jobs often ended up costing much more! ”
“What about you? Will you look for a similar job to your previous one?”
“No. King’s asked me to partner with him and run the office. He’s a nightmare for the admin side of things, whereas I’m a whizz.”
“As long as you don’t fight.”
“Oh, we will, we always have, but move past it. We learned to compromise at an early age.”
Jonas parked up outside my house as Shane pulled in behind him. “Thanks for the flights.”
“Thank you for protecting me,” I replied, nodding at his arm.
Jonas nodded. “I won’t be around much longer. Hopefully, Jane gets caught.”
“She will, especially as she’s now attacked the cops.”
“Take care, Hallie,” Jonas said as I got out.
“You too, Jonas, you’re not bad for a cop,” I stated.
Jonas drove off, but his laughter drifted on the wind.
The front door opened, and King emerged. He glowered at Shane and wrapped his arms around me.
“Seems you had a busy time of it.”
“Jane is loco, totally fucked up. She attacked again and burned the hotel down. Who does that?” I asked as we walked back up the path.
“Well, Detective Gold showed up to drop a message off,” King replied.
“Should I be worried?” Shane inquired.
“Why are you here?” King demanded.
“Because Hallie’s in danger. And she’s my woman,” Shane stated.
I opened my mouth, and King slapped a hand over it. “Argue inside,” he ordered. I glowered, but let King lead me away.
Don’t ask me how, but somehow Shane got King to agree to him staying here. Or as King said, “I can throw the asshole at Jane while getting you to safety.” That seemed a valid reason to me.
Later, as we sat eating, Shane brought King up to date on what had happened.
“Well, Gold came here with a message. Jane had gone to see your parents and spent an entire afternoon and evening making nice. She told them she forgave them and that she understood.”
“And they never realised something was wrong? Wow,” I said, amused.
“Yeah, talk about not knowing their daughter. Even your two asshole brothers fell for it. The family all got together to celebrate. Initially, they refused to believe they’d been fooled.
That they’d celebrated with Jane, but by all accounts, they were horrified and devastated when they learned they had,” King continued.
“How can you fail to recognise an imposter?” Shane exclaimed.
Bemused, I turned and cocked an eyebrow.
“Hey, I own my fuck-ups. I only knew you for five years. They had you since birth!” Shane retorted.
“They had images of Jane on their cameras. Shit, babe, Jane really is the spitting image of you,” King said, shaking his head.
“Yeah, I don’t see how that is remotely possible,” I murmured.
“I’m still checking out this lead. One more day, babe,” King stated.
“You’re not going to give me a clue?”
“No. If I’m wrong, I don’t want you letting your guard down. One more day, babe, and we might have answers,” King stated. I nodded. I could allow him that. Compared to five years, what was twenty-four hours?
“So we’re in a holding pattern; that doesn’t sit well with me,” Shane drawled.
“It doesn’t matter what you want,” King retorted.
“I never claimed it did; stop being so damn defensive. Jane is out there planning and plotting,” Shane sniped.
“And can you read Jane’s mind? Can you see into the future? None of us has any idea what’s coming. We can’t pre-empt Jane. She has the upper hand. The APB will cause issues, too. Every time I leave the house, I’ll be harassed,” I sighed.
“Yeah, that’s bad on the captain’s part. They didn’t think that through,” King agreed.
“No. Still, it doesn’t surprise me.” I replied.
“This sucks,” Shane stated.
“Yeah, well, I’m back in prison again. Once more, my freedom’s been taken by Jane. Every time I step foot outside this door, I’ll be arrested until it’s proved who I am. You’ve got your freedom, so stop bitching and grow up!” I snapped.
“Hey, tone it down. I didn’t mean it sucked for me, but for you. You said what I was thinking!” Shane replied, leaning forward to hold my eyes.
“How about if we inform the police where you’re going?” King suggested.
“And if Jane follows us? Or happens to be there? Not worth the risk,” I said.
“I don’t understand why you have to be locked down. Fuck them, go out. If they pull you in, sue for harassment,” King complained, and I laughed.
“There’re enough lawsuits at the moment,” I teased.
Shane squirmed in his chair.
“What?” I asked.
“The ones against Hellfire. Would you drop them? They were protecting me, and they’re my brothers. They’re good guys.”
King snorted as I held Shane’s gaze impassively. I was expecting this.