Chapter 12 #2
The slide shifted, and everyone’s attention was once again on the screen.
All except for KC who shot a look my way.
Shrugging like his ass was innocent had me frowning.
He was such a jackass. An unapologetic one.
If ‘do what the fuck I want and don’t give a damn about the consequences’ was a person, it would be my brother.
He was smart as shit though; knew everything there was to know about computers, tech shit, and guns.
KC could take a gun apart and put it back together again when he was ten years old.
By the time he was fifteen he had built his own gun.
Of course, he shot himself in the hand with that homemade contraption, but the concept was genius level.
My phone vibrated again.
I wasn’t trying to be the one breaking my own rule, so I attempted to ignore it.
Staring straight ahead, I tried to get my head back into what Isabella was saying. The rollout for the new line was well planned. I was more interested in the community integration.
“We can sponsor festivals, that’s not a bad idea,” I said. “But I want to go bigger. We create our own festival.”
KC and Nash gave me their full attention while Isabella’s assistant scribbled my words on a tablet.
“We already have a circle of clubs we were doing community events with back in Destine. It’s time to take that up a notch.
Invite industry professionals, conduct safety seminars.
Get someone from each club to test ride one of the collection.
Sponsor some smaller clubs to travel and attend week-long festivities. ”
Nodding, KC said, “Blackbond Bike Week. That’s hot!”
“Riding classes and vendors,” Nash added, tapping his pen on his notepad. “We host it in Destine since that’s where this all began for us. Put the local businesses on the forefront.”
With one hand on her hip, Isabella pointed toward her assistant’s tablet. “Get Natalia involved, she’s a social media guru. Live coverage, key posts targeted to our specific demographic.”
“Scholarships,” I stated. “I want to give something besides the show.”
“That’s wassup,” Steven from KC’s team said. “We can start up some driver’s ed classes in the local schools.”
“Yeah.” KC was sitting forward, his elbows on the table, completely locked in now. “Like we talked about in our last quarterly meeting. Getting kids to get their licenses early to cut down on so many of them driving without it.”
Sitting back in my chair, I rested my elbow on the arm, then ran a finger over the smooth hair of my goatee.
“This is good. I like it a lot. The priority is the collection, but this festival will be the vehicle that keeps the Blackbond name on the ground in this industry. We get Anubis on the race circuit. Sponsor a talented rider to go win us some titles.”
“We’re making money hand over fist,” KC said.
“Yeah, we are,” Nash added.
“Y’all need an office on the marketing floor?” Isabella asked with a chuckle.
“Not at all. You get paid to pull all this together. I’ll leave you to it.” My phone continued to vibrate through this entire exchange, and the shit was bothering me now.
Sonya knew not to disturb me while I was in a meeting.
If it were an emergency upstairs on our floor, she would simply come down here to tell me.
I knew KC was going to be in this meeting and he always kept the burner he used for club business on him, so I’d left mine in the desk drawer in my office.
Thoughts of Dakota flashed in my mind. Was she okay?
I replied to her texts earlier and happily shot another text to my guy at the moving company telling him to be at her place first thing Monday morning.
I planned to be there also, in case she thought she was going to send them away again.
So I wasn’t expecting to hear from her again, this soon.
Tor and Stan were with her at a job in Sterling Hills. They would call if something was wrong.
They would call my personal phone. Hurriedly, I reached into my pocket to retrieve the phone and frowned at the many notifications I’d received. Before I could open any of them, the phone vibrated with an incoming call from my sometimes driver and guard, Titan.
“Shit,” I mumbled and stood.
The phone was at my ear the moment I stepped out of the conference room. “Speak.”
“All four tires were slit on your Benz, hood and doors scratched, windows cracked. They wouldn’t break since they’re bulletproof, but impact set off the alarm.
The garage attendant called up to the front desk, and I came down to check it out.
Got a couple of our guys from the department coming to dust for fingerprints, and Jett’s on his way down to pull the security footage. ”
Since moving to Alexandria, buying the building that was now Blackbond’s headquarters and settling into a legitimate lifestyle, I’d been driving myself.
Titan and Jett were my personal security long before the move, and came to the city with me.
So whenever I went back to Destine or traveled on club business, Titan drove me and Jett followed in the second black Suburban.
We have a fleet of them, along with Escalades, all fitted with bulletproof windows and doors and other safety features.
When I’m at the office or otherwise around the city, I drive one of my personal vehicles, but Titan and Jett remain close.
Which was why Jett had been stationed on this floor by the elevators, and Titan was downstairs in the lobby.
KC stepped in front of me, his brow furrowed.
“I’ll be down in ten minutes,” I told Titan and disconnected the call.
“What’s up?” KC asked as soon as I slipped it back into my pocket.
“I’m gonna kill that bitch.” My teeth were clenched so tight my jaw ached.
“Sounds like a good plan,” he said falling into step beside me as I stalked toward the elevator. “Now all I need is a name and we can ride out and get whoever’s pissed you off.”
At the elevator, I smacked my hand over the ‘up’ button and gritted out the name I wished I’d never known, “August Deveraux.”
“Ooohh, that bitch.” The doors opened and KC stepped inside of the cab behind me.
We rode up to the tenth floor where my office was in silence.
When KC was pissed everyone within earshot—and depending on how angry he was, some who were a couple rooms away—could hear him cursing or kicking shit over until he just went and handled whatever the situation was.
I wasn’t big on words, only actions. The minute I had August’s fingerprints on my car and her face on the garage security footage, I was gonna break her fuckin’ neck.
The elevator doors opened and I stepped out, bumping right into Sonya.
“Oh!”
“Sorry,” I said over her surprised gasp.
Shaking her head, she took a step back. “I was just coming down to get you.”
“For what? Is something wrong?” Like I needed something else to be wrong at this moment.
She smoothed a hand down the front of the crimson skirt suit she wore. “No, nothing like that I don’t think. I just wanted to tell you that you had a visitor.”
“I didn’t have anything else on my calendar this morning besides the marketing meeting.” I walked toward my office because I didn’t have time for bullshit right now. “So whoever it is can just make an appointment … or not.”
“The only appointment you’re gonna need is at the fuckin’ morgue,” the deep voice declared.
Stepping into my office, I stared into the barrel of Cade Donovan’s gun.