I WAS a bad man, born and raised to be that way. For most of my life I had accepted the fact, even welcomed it, like an abused wife who curled up next to her man at night, finding comfort in the same arms that battered the life out of her day after day. But did being bad mean I didn’t deserve to be happy? I hoped it didn’t, because for the first time in my life I had the audacity to want it.

Jamie made me happy. Fighting made me happy— or not exactly happy, but whole. I didn’t understand it, but I knew I needed it to be complete. I needed both of them.

But what would happen when I brought the only two things I loved into my new world? The world Santori had crafted and dropped into my lap.

I knew his business wasn’t on the up-and-up. How could it be? The man’s mind had been warped, and he tainted everything he touched. Though I had little knowledge of the specifics, the thought that Santori might have run a legitimate operation was laughable. What nasty surprises did he have in store for me? Money laundering? Dog fighting? Tax evasion?

Whatever it was, I couldn’t be naïve enough to think that some of the taint wouldn’t rub off on Jamie, and I didn’t want to do that to him. He was so innocent— the only part of me that was good. And he was a part of me, just like my heart and my lungs, and just like the over-trained muscles and the analytical brain that worked in tandem to make me a killing machine.

Maybe I could keep Jamie separate from my new world. Protect him from the inborn evil that was slowly seeping out of me like a dark sludge.

Was I destined to become my uncle? That was the question that had been plaguing me. Sometimes I imagined that his spirit had clawed its way into my body just before he fell to his death. Maybe he had bequeathed his spirit to me along with his business— sort of a two-for-one deal that I couldn’t refuse. If I signed those papers, would I be selling my soul? It sure as hell seemed like it.

Was it bad that I hadn’t wanted anything from the evil bastard, yet at the same time my greed had taken over and convinced me that I deserved it all? That because of the things he had done to me, I deserved to be wealthy beyond my wildest dreams? That Santori fucking owed me?

“Mr. Santori?… Mr. Santori.” The lawyer’s voice brought me back. It took some time for it to register that he was talking to me and not my uncle, who seemed to me very alive at that moment. I needed to stop thinking about him. He was gone.

“Sorry, Mr. Burton. My mind was wandering.”

“Understandable,” he said. “This is a stressful time for you, I’m sure. Losing the man who was essentially your father can’t be easy. Mr. Santori— the other Mr. Santori— will be missed. He was a great man.”

I searched his gray eyes for any sign of mirth, because surely he was joking, but I found nothing there but a blank stare. A lawyer’s stare, ready to take on whatever emotion a jury might want to see, or to mirror back whatever his client was feeling. At the moment, this client was feeling nothing.

“Thank you for your sympathy.” I glanced at my cell phone, noting that I had been in his office for less than five minutes, yet I was already itching to get out of it. “Can we get on with the will? I have somewhere to be.” It was a lie, but the less time I had to spend in a lawyer’s office the better.

“Certainly.” Still no reaction in those steely eyes. “I need to mention that there is a clause here that you might find a bit unusual. It states that you are not allowed to sell any of the assets for a period of two years.”

“Why?” I asked, shocked. “If I own it, shouldn’t I be able to do whatever I want with it?”

He smiled around rather than with his impartial eyes, and I suspected for the first time that the deadness in his expression might be less emotional control and more Botox. The man was a wax figure in a three-thousand-dollar suit.

“Your uncle was concerned about your stability, Michael. He felt that you were a bit young and flighty, and he was afraid you wouldn’t give the business a chance. He was adamant that it stay in the family, and the only way he knew how to do that was to make sure you wouldn’t just sell it off the first chance you got.”

I smirked. “I guess he knew me well, then.”

There was a glimmer of amusement in the lawyer’s eyes. The first real emotion he had allowed to pass his guard.

“I take it you were planning to sell?”

“It had definitely crossed my mind. I was thinking about selling it all, taking my trainer and my chef, and buying a nice place on the outskirts of the city. And a second home in Georgia.”

Mr. Burton nodded. “You could certainly do that. There is a lot here, Michael. Plenty for you to live on for the rest of your life. But it was your uncle’s desire that you be the one to run the family business. He was positive you would change your mind once you became a part of it all.” He chuckled. “It will get in his blood. I remember him saying that.”

I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. This was Santori manipulating me even still. The old man was not going to release his grip on me. Not that easily. He’d had one hand around my throat since the day we met, and even now his cold, dead fingers were squeezing from the grave, cutting off the blood, and leaving me no choice but to tap. Santori had officially won this round.

“Where do I sign?” I asked, picking up the papers and scanning them without seeing. Without caring.

Mr. Burton leaned forward and rested his arms on his desk. “We need to go over the paperwork first.”

“It is what it is. I don’t need to go over it.”

“Don’t you at least want to know what you’re worth now, Michael?”

I shrugged. “Hit me.”

He grinned, apparently more moved by money than the death of a client. Then he scrawled a number on a legal pad and slid it across the desk.

I spun it around and leaned down to read it, nearly choking on my tongue when I caught sight of the figure on the page. There were so many commas.

“This says 463 million.” I brought my wide-eyed gaze back up to Mr. Burton’s face, part of me expecting him to realize he’d made a mistake now that he’d heard the number read aloud.

“Give or take a few hundred thousand and some cents,” he said without hesitation.

“But how? I mean, I knew he was rich, but… four hundred—” I couldn’t finish. My mind was too blown.

“With assets and investments, it adds up. Congratulations, Mr. Santori. You’re a very wealthy man.”

“I had no idea he had this much money. A few million wouldn’t have shocked me, but this number is just crazy. What all does he own? I thought it was just the Alcazar, and maybe…” I gave a sheepish grin. “Maybe a few less-than-legal activities on the side.”

Mr. Burton’s face turned to wax again. “We’ll talk more once you get settled into your new role. In the meantime, I have listed your holdings and your sources of income. I suggest you take this paperwork home and give it a good going-over. Your accountant can help you make sense of everything and provide you with a more detailed breakdown.”

“I don’t have an accountant.”

“Of course you do. His contact information is there in the papers.” He smiled at my bewildered expression. “It’s a lot to take in, I know. Just breathe. You’re not going to have to jump in and start micro-managing everything. Your uncle has already got everything in place for you. There are managers who have been running things for years, so there’s really nothing for you to worry about. Just go home, kick back, and watch your money roll in. But sign this damn will first, because I need to get it filed. Though it’s a large estate, the probate process shouldn’t take too long. Everything is pretty straightforward. You’re lucky there were no other relatives to contest it.”

I signed, and then I wandered out of Mr. Burton’s office in a daze. Fucking 463 million dollars. It was unbelievable. By the time I exited the law office and hit the sidewalk, I was smiling. Grinning like an idiot at everyone I passed. Even the sour-faced grandpa who looked like he’d sooner whack me with his cane than say hello got a big fat shit-eating grin.

When I reached my Corvette, I winked at some guy who was making his way past, juggling his briefcase and a steaming cup of Starbuck’s. Not because I was attracted to him, but because I was rich. Out-of-this-world, fucking oh-my-god rich. I couldn’t wait to tell Jamie.

Apparently word traveled fast, because when I got back to the Alcazar, everyone was smiling and greeting me as Mr. Santori. Even coming from the few people who already called me that, it sounded different. For the first time, it sounded right. But by the time I reached my penthouse apartment and entered the familiar sanctuary I’d called home for so many years, reality had set in.

What was I doing? What was I thinking? I wasn’t really Mr. Santori, was I? I was bad, but not my uncle’s kind of bad. I was Michael Kage, the Machine who could knock a guy out with a powerful right hook or slip an arm around his throat and choke him until he had no choice but to tap or go to fucking sleep. Either way, I was the bringer of defeat— the taker of dignity.

That was my identity. I needed to remember that.

I sat down on the sofa and turned on the TV, hoping to find something to take my mind off of everything. I figured a little mind-numbing entertainment was just the thing to calm my spinning thoughts. It didn’t work, though, and I ended up slinging the remote halfway across the room. Then I pulled out my cell phone and made the call I had been looking forward to and dreading at the same time.

Jamie answered on the second ring, his voice barely more than a whisper. “I’m in class. What’s up?”

“I did it, Jamie.”

“You signed the papers?” His whisper sounded a little more excited.

“Yep. I’m the proud new owner of the Santori estate. Everything that bastard had is mine now.”

“That’s unbelievable,” he said, his voice much louder than before. “How will you celebrate your newly acquired status, Mr. Boss Man?”

“Mmmm, Mr. Boss Man. I like the sound of that coming out of your mouth. What the boss would really like is to celebrate with you on your knees, looking up at me with those big brown eyes and sucking me into next week.”

“Yeah? Well, you know I’m an over-achiever when it comes to my job. Nothing makes me happier than pleasing the boss. So what are the specifics of my assignment, Mr. Santori? Running my tongue all around the head of your cock? Letting you fuck my throat until I choke on it?”

“You’re such a filthy boy, Jamie. Just don’t get in trouble for talking dirty in class. I’d hate to have to spank that ass.”

Jamie laughed, and the sound was so warm and familiar it made me homesick for him. I clenched against the ache in my chest and closed my eyes, listening to the voice I loved more than any other voice in the entire world.

“I stepped out into the hall, Kage. I figured whatever you had to say must have been important or you wouldn’t have called me when you knew I’d be in class.”

I sighed. “You know me too well, I think.”

“Actually, sometimes I don’t think I know you at all. You’re an enigma.”

Enigma was right. Even to myself I was just a confusing mess. One minute I was proud as hell of inheriting millions, the next I was feeling sorry for myself or rebelling against it all. I honestly didn’t know how I should feel.

I had the sudden urge to talk to Dr. Tanner, and that set my chest to aching again. She was gone forever, and it was partly my fault. Yet another person who was dead because of me.

I heard an echo of Santori’s words from the night he died. Do you know how many people have had to die because of you? Just because you fucking exist? Little had he known that he would be joining the list within minutes.

“Are you okay?” Jamie asked after I’d been silent for too long. “Do I need to come out there?”

“No, I’m fine,” I assured him, though I felt less than certain myself. It would feel good to wrap my arms around him and just hold him for a while, feel his sweet body surrender to mine. He was always so pliant, and so willing to let me do whatever I wanted, it was almost unfair. “I just wanted to talk to you, that’s all. I needed to let you know what was going on, since it affects you, too.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Jamie sounded uncertain, careful. He never liked to be too presumptuous when it came to our relationship, and I wasn’t much better. Both of us had a bad habit of dancing around the truth, even if it was right in front of us.

So many of our past problems and disagreements had arisen from our inability to communicate, and I knew that if we were going to make this relationship thing work, Jamie and I would have to learn to be more open with each other. I was used to keeping my deepest fears and desires locked away from everyone, even those few people I called friends, so it was not going to be easy to open up. Still, I took a silent oath right there on the phone that I would do a better job of sharing my feelings with him.

But in the future. Not right now. At the moment, I was still trying to process everything.

“I need to go, Jamie. And you need to get back to class before Dr. Washburn fails you for skipping.”

“I know,” he said with a disappointed sigh. “I don’t need to piss off the guy who holds my academic future in his hands. And I’m sure you have things to take care of now that you’re the boss man.”

I chuckled. “I’m going to expect you to call me that next time I’ve got you underneath me. And if you keep teasing me with it, that will be sooner than you think.”

“Good to know. I’ll be sure to step up my efforts. I, uh…” He cleared his throat and dropped his voice to a near whisper. “I miss you.”

“Miss you, too, college boy. See you soon.”

I clicked off and tried to push the image of his face from my mind. It hurt too much knowing that we still had months to go before we could be together permanently, and the more I thought about him, the more I was tempted to be selfish. To go down to Georgia and ask him to quit school. He would probably do it if I asked, and that is exactly why I couldn’t.

That lawyer had been right about one thing. I wasn’t stable. I could offer Jamie the world on a silver platter, a palatial lifestyle, and all the money he could ever want. But I couldn’t offer him a guarantee that I would be the rock he needed.

The forever and ever till death do us part kind of certainty was not part of the Kage package. It hurt to acknowledge it, but it was the truth. Jamie needed to have his degree to fall back on.

Just in case I couldn’t be trusted.