Chapter 1
”Boss, we have a problem.”
I looked up to see Ronnie”s concerned expression as he waited for me to follow him to the back of the club. All my bartenders were busy filling drinks, grabbing cigars, and making money. They didn”t need me. I nodded once and made my way through the crowd of people in line for something or another.
We were moving toward the bathrooms, where people crowded around three of my men who weren”t letting anybody through. These men weren”t from the club. They were part of our crew, who handled mishaps and side dealings. What were they doing here?
Getting past them, I walked inside the women”s room to see my twin brother kneeling next to a girl I was sure was dead. On the sink was coke on a mirror inside a make-up contraption. We didn”t deal inside here. Hard rule by Ward, our boss. He would lose his mind when he found out about this shit.
”Alive?” I asked, hopeful but knowing the truth already.
”Only if she can come back as a vampire.” Tavi scoffed. ”Bitch looks like she was on more than just coke. All I want to know is who she was here with. How”d she make it through the front door?”
It was a good question because there was no way we”d let this junkie in. She was the exact opposite of what we required. Warn tennis shoes, skirt up to her ass, soiled tank top, matted hair, blistered lips, and even though she was naturally pale, the ashen look of her skin was from the overuse of drugs.
”This shit is ours,” Ronnie said, picking up the tiny packet of coke. The lion on the front showed boldly.
Had something changed, and I didn”t know it? The Kings would never let the money and drugs set up shop in the same place. So what gives?
”Get that shit out of here. Somebody call 911, and the rest of y”all get out of here. See what you can find out on the floor. Ronnie, escort the paramedics around the back.” Everybody started moving at once.
Tavi and I looked at each other, knowing we were thinking the same thing. How did this happen? And… Which one of us was going to call Ward to explain this shit?
Many questions later, closing down the club and knowing an investigation was pending, made for a long night. Ward came down as soon as I told him what was happening. He’d taken a few days off, so it pissed him off to come down, but not something we could avoid. The thing nobody could make sense of was where she had come from. The door attendants had never seen her and had kept watch all night. We”d also watched the cameras and didn”t see her anywhere before they found her. It’s like someone planted her right underneath our noses.
Tired and ready to end this fucking night, I locked the front doors, and Tavi watched while leaning on the phone pole. He held a blunt in his mouth, unlit.
“That’s an expensive habit you have.” I nodded in his direction.
“Because…” He stood and joined me on the main part of the sidewalk.
“How many times have you smoked today?” I shook my head.
“What’s your point?” He loosened his ponytail and let his hair fall around his shoulders.
“Expensive habit.” I reiterated to him. I used to smoke cigarettes but got sick with pneumonia, putting me down for four weeks. Trying to smoke made me so sick I couldn’t breathe and vomited every time. I didn’t pick it up after I got better and haven’t touched it since. Remembering the violent coughing fits until I threw up so forcefully that I couldn’t move afterward seemed to do the trick.
“And your suit collection?” He teased while we walked toward the car.
“Normal.” We both laughed at it because it was beyond that.
“Did you–” Tavi ran toward the alley we were passing, catching me off guard.
Turning, I saw bright red hair first. Elara! A man was attacking her in the alleyway, and Tavi was on his way to break it up. I’d dismissed the sounds of their shuffling as background noise. Turned away from them. I wouldn’t have noticed. Tavi had been facing their direction.
She screamed when Tavi knocked him into the fence and punched him. He had the upper hand until the guy kneed him in the balls and went back to a terrified Elara. Gripping her arm harshly. Elara instantly screamed as if she was in pain and fell to the ground.
Moving into action, I sprinted at him, knocking him down. “What the fuck is your problem?” I yelled while trying to choke common sense into him.
His mouth was white, and his eyes were unfocused. His skin had that same ashen look as the woman from earlier. Suddenly, the bastard began laughing like he’d heard the funniest joke.
“Tavi, check his pockets!” I yelled.
“On it.” As he did, I heard sirens approaching and swore aloud.
“More of the same.” Tavi pulled out the packet of coke with our logo on it.
The guy started seizing, and white shit flew from his mouth. I jumped back just as the police arrived, running down the alley with guns drawn. Tavi held up his hands, and I wondered what he’d done with the drugs.
“Help her first!” Tavi yelled. “He’s already dead, and she’s injured.”
“Aren’t you guys from the cigar shop down the road?” The cop asked suspiciously.
“Yes, but…” I started.
“We can give you whatever statement you need after you get her some help.” Tavi jumped in.
The cop who spoke nodded to his partner, who backed down the alley. Soon after, medics came down and checked Elara. She turned to the cop. “They saved my life. I own this bookstore, and I have cameras. It’ll show everything.”
The back door opened to the bookstore, and a little blonde stuck her head out. She was the coffee barista.
“Crissy, can you get them the footage, please?” Elara said while panting hard.
They’d put her on a stretcher and were about to take her away.
“Yes, ma’am.” She led one officer inside, and the rest of them got busy marking the crime scene.
“What hospital is she going to?” Tavi asked. The police answered his questions while they frisked us.
When we came up clean, I looked at my clever ass brother, who smiled his ass off at me. We gave the police information before we went to the hospital to check on Elara. He hurt her pretty badly. Seeing that she had taken nothing with her, I wanted to make sure she was okay.
“You realize that both of them died with our shit on them?” Tavi asked as I maneuvered the streets.
“I did. And that fucker seized.” I added to his case and point.
Tavi pulled out his phone, and when I heard Ward’s voice, I tensed.
“What now, Tavi?” He asked gruffly.
“We’ve got a problem.” He explained what had happened at the club to Ward, and the irritation at the call disappeared.
“When I had it looked into earlier, I was told that it’s not the same shit. I think someone swapped it into our packaging to make us look bad. Did you get the packet?”
“I did.” Tavi pulled the packet out of his pocket.
“Whatever they have switched it with is deadly. Can you two stay out of trouble for the rest of the night?” Ward asked skeptically.
“Technically, it’s morning,” Tavi responded, half smiling. Ward hung up, and Tavi chuckled.
“One day, he’s going to kick your ass.” I shook my head at him as I pulled into the parking lot for the emergency room.
“Probably.”
We went inside and were told to sit in the waiting room to wait for news on Elara.
“You ever have a feeling about something that you can’t describe?” Tavi asked. He’d smoked some of his blunt in the car while I drove. He was mellow, and that meant his brain was working.
“Sometimes. What made you ask?” I moved my eyes to his face from the doorway where the staff entered and exited.
“Sam sure is fine.” He leaned back into his seat, pondering. “You ever thought about her?”
I had. She was sassy like I preferred, and her curves made me want to reach out and grab them. When she stopped by Smoothe, the cigar shop, we always talked. Most times, she would linger, and I didn’t mind when she did. It gave me a chance to check her out more, admire her natural sex appeal, and enjoy her company.
“I noticed.” I tried to play it cool. That was hard to do when Tavi could read me like he’d written my book. Elara was a force to reckon with and I’d stopped myself a few times from asking for just a taste of what she had to offer. Though her cherry red hair wasn’t natural, it matched her fiery spirit. Every time I thought about her it made my dick harden in anticipation that this time would be the one that I made her mine. Fuck!
“Brother, I’m no fool.” He smiled over at me. “I’ve seen you flirt with her. Hell, I’ve flirted, too. You think she’s into menages?”
“I don’t know. What’s this got to do with your question?” I pulled out my cell phone and looked at the screen. It seemed like we’d been in here forever and I needed a distraction. All this talk about Elara made me antsy to make sure she was okay.
“You like her… I like her… I wonder if Torin would like her. I say we like her together if she”s down for it.” I didn’t miss his cocky ass grin or the way he lit up just from talking about her.
Torin was our best friend. The three of us enjoyed sharing women, but it was difficult to find somebody into what we were. In a perfect world, the three of us would have the same woman and she’d be able to handle all three of us. Sam had the potential to.
“She’s hurt, and all you can think about is getting your dick wet.” I couldn”t believe that we were twins sometimes. Moments like this proved it true. We were both feening for her. That wasn’t enough to make a collective move toward her, though.
“I thought we should help her get better. We’re both jonesing to get back there to make sure she’s okay. I think we should listen to our instincts and see where this goes. You tried to kill a man over her. I think this is worth exploring.”
It was about more than just her, though. He’d hurt Tavi, too.
“It’s not like that.” I insisted but couldn’t help but wonder if he was buying what I was selling.
“I ran into that alley because it was Sam. Why’d you do it?”
Same reason. I kept my mouth closed because I didn’t want to say a single thing to prove his theory right. If we went down this road with her, what would ensure that she wouldn’t go running the other way or worse? Hurting us was an option, too. Then there was Torin to consider. He’d been different since he’d broken up with his last girlfriend. He’d said that she was perfect. The problem had been that he’d wanted to share her with us, but she’d been a very vanilla experience for him. He didn’t want that again. He needed somebody kinky, into being with the three of us, and able to own not only her submission but her sexuality in general.
If that wasn’t Sam, I didn’t know what was.