Walking into the abandoned bowling alley that has been turned into a chic nightclub, I scan the main area. It’s all done in gold filigree and red satin, from the circular bar in the middle to the dance floor on the left and the stage on the right. The lights are low, but the place has a distinctly sexy vibe that I’m digging.

“How much is it?” I ask the nervous-looking real estate agent. She steps closer, adjusting her clingy beige dress and licking her blood-red lips.

When she speaks, her high-pitched voice annoys the fuck out of me. “It’s six hundred thousand. But there are a ton of rooms in the back that I can show you—”

“Just stop talking,” I say. My cell phone chirps in my pocket, and I reach for it. “I’ll take it. Go get the paperwork, because I’ll pay the offer in cash, right now. I need to conduct some business here, now.”

I motion to the bodyguard lurking a few feet behind me. “Can you get this place furnished? Whatever the place needs to be a functional club, down to the liquor. Oh, and I’ll need an office in the back.”

He nods, and I pay attention to the noises that my phone is making. It’s a text from Damen.

I’m here, just pulling into the city. Should I come over to your new house; maybe greet Katherine?

I growl out loud. No, I definitely don’t want Damen within a thousand feet of Fiore. Not after the way that he treated her the last time he visited.

Dialing his number, I put him on speaker as I walk around my new nightclub.

“Hello, brother.” His slick voice smirks right through the phone. “You certainly called me quickly. Does that have anything to do with Katherine, I wonder?”

“Her name is Fiore,” I say, controlling my temper. “And I’m not at home. I’m at the new office I just bought. You should come here if you want to see me.”

“What if I just want to see your girl?” he teases.

“Then why the fuck are you calling me?” I bluff. Then I decide to take it a step further, although the next words out of my mouth are the truth. “You can go tangle with my security guards. Big, burly motherfuckers. I have half a dozen of them at home, waiting to go toe to toe with anyone who wishes harm on Fiore.”

“You’re awfully defensive of her, for somebody that you don’t care about.”

I sigh loudly. “Are you coming here or not, asshole?”

Damen chuckles, and then the line disconnects. I turn to the bodyguard that is still in the room, standing at attention. “Can you get in touch with your guys and let them know to be on alert? My brother is in town, and I am not a thousand percent certain that he’s on his way to me and not heading to the house.”

He inclines his head, pulling out his phone. “Yes, sir.”

Walking toward the back rooms, I survey the offices that are already in place. They’re old and dusty, probably not updated since the nineties. But with better decor and a serious cleaning, I think they could be decent.

Unwillingly, my thoughts turn to Fiore. Because that’s where my thoughts are always, these days.

Specifically, I think about what Damen said. He called her my girl.

That’s not really what bothers me. What bothers me is that I don’t disagree with my brother. I don’t want to shout him down for insinuating that I feel something for her.

Because I do.

Something dark. Protective. Possessive. Lustful, yes. But more than just that.

She makes my stomach wrench a little, every time I see a tear trail down her beautiful fucking face. She makes me want to wipe that tear away with my thumb, cup her cheek. Promise her that it’s going to be okay as she leans into my touch.

Where in the fuck did that come from? One day I’m normal, still enjoying her moans of pleasure and her shivers of distress.

The next, I’m having all of these… these thoughts and feelings. Unwelcome ones, at that.

A little voice in the back of my mind whispers that it hasn’t been as sudden as all that, but I shut that voice down. That little voice has never been anything but an impediment in my life thus far.

By the time that my brother arrives, I’ve made my circuit of the back rooms. I’m back in the main area, sitting on the stage with one foot tucked underneath my big body. My attention is on my laptop, watching a video message that the last holdout in the negotiations made for me.

Angrily, I snap my laptop shut. I’m not sure why everything is going so wrong with negotiations at the last minute, but I am losing patience. I don’t want to anger the Cartel, but if I have to, I’ll mow down every single operation they have running.

I look up to find Damen approaching, hands in his black trouser pockets. The look on his face is bemused. “You don’t look happy to see me.”

Scowling, I push my laptop aside. “I’m not happy, period. The fucking Cartel is the only group that won’t agree to the negotiations. I’m going to have to resort to violence, I think.”

Damen straightens his white, collared shirt and sits down beside me. “Funny, I would think that what where you would start. You’re usually so ruthless. Now you’re busy talking about negotiating and being happy.”

“Fuck you. That was your word.” I fold my arms across my chest, feeling defensive.

He shrugs a shoulder. “Say what you want, I’m not the problem here. I’m not the one that can’t close the New Orleans deal.”

Putting my hand over my eyes, I sigh. “I can close it.”

“Really? I don’t know. Nothing that you’ve said today leads me to believe that you’re going to seal it.”

I glance at him, tired and cranky. “Oh, really? Do you have some kind of magic suggestion that would be better than this?”

He smiles. “I do, as a matter of fact.”

“Enlighten me, oh, clever one.” I roll my eyes.

“Offer them something to sweeten the deal. Something you’ve already bought and paid for, that won’t cost you anything more.”

I glare at him. “I assume you have something in mind?”

“I do. If Katherine isn’t your girl, then I suggest you give her to the Cartel. Offering them a girl that they can do whatever they want with will encourage them to ink the deal, I believe.”

My mouth flattens into a thin line. “I don’t think so.”

“No?” he says, feigning surprise. “Why is that?”

“You know why,” I grit out.

Damen’s smile widens into a wicked grin. “You have feelings for her, just like the last girl.”

I wasn’t expecting Anna to be brought up, not here and now. I glance away, pulling at my cufflink. “She’s… it’s complex.”

His expression turns speculative. “Hmm. I hope she doesn’t end up dead with her head in a box. That must’ve been unpleasant for both of you.”

It’s an effort for me, not reaching out to strangle him. He just chuckles at my expression and shakes his head. “You know what I think?”

“I’m dying for you to tell me,” I say, my voice laden with sarcasm.

He continues on as if he had not heard me. “I think you’ve found your High Priestess. Katherine is proving to be quite surprising, for someone that you bought at an auction. Do you not agree?”

“Fuck off with that nonsense,” I say, shooing him away.

Damen grabs my shoulder, his expression dead fucking serious. “I mean it. That was what I read in your cards, so long ago. The High Priestess, Death, The Moon… A girl who judges, a new beginning, a surprise turn of events. It’s all right there if you know where to look. This was bound to happen to you. To all three of us, really.”

Shaking off his grasp, I grimace. “So you keep saying.”

“If she’s your High Priestess—”

“Will you stop using the phrase High Priestess?!” I snap.

“Fine. If she’s meant to be by your side—”

I explode, standing up and throwing my hands in the air. “You don’t know that! She’s just a girl!”

“I think we both know that’s not true,” he says, lowering his voice. “And if she’s intended to be more than just a sex slave, I think you should start making moves to give her more power. After all, half your empire could someday be hers.”

“No. No, it’s not…” I stop, shaking my head.

“Does she make your life easier? Do you look forward to seeing her when you get home? Does the thought of seeing her with someone else sicken you?” He continues, not even hesitating. “She’s the one, brother. The sooner you come to terms with it, the better it will be for both of you. If not, I don’t see why you wouldn’t offer her up as part of the New Orleans negotiations.”

The very thought of offering her to the Cartel sets my teeth on edge. Damen looks at me and smiles. “That look, right there? That tells me more than you could ever know.”

Shaking my head slowly, I give him a grim smile. “If I promise to think about what you’ve said, can we go? There’s a little oyster place around the corner, and I’m starving.”

He shrugs. “Sure. But don’t think that the subject is over and done with.”

“Why would you ever give up on talking about something that I clearly don’t want to talk about? Nothing should ever be so easy.”

I walk him out of the club, my bodyguards falling into step beside us. We head out to eat oysters, the topic of conversation shifts to the ins and outs of New Orleans culture.

But I’m only partially there for that.

The other part of me wonders…

What if Damen is right?

What if Fiore is supposed to play a role in my future? Obviously, my original plan was to kill her, but what if that is just suddenly off the table?

In my head, I imagine beautiful, blonde Fiore. Her perfect smile, her gentle waves of hair tucked back behind her ears, the way she has of looking at me like I’m the only light in an ocean of darkness…

As we sit and order oysters on the half shell, I start to wonder.

What if Fiore doesn’t feel the way I feel? What if she betrays me, or tries to run again?

Aye, there is the rub. Damen has gotten in my head, made his point of view plain enough. But I’m not just going to sit here and accept Fiore’s supposed reign as a High Priestess, or whatever stupid shit that Damen has whispered in my ear.

There will have to be a test. Or, maybe more than one.

She’ll have to be able to rat me out, be given the chance to run from me. Or the appearance of it, anyhow.

And then if she doesn’t do those things…

That’s when the real work may or may not begin.