With Nate riding shotgun and Daemon in the back of my Maserati, I drove us back to my house. I’d been running away from this place because I knew Khales was there, but I needed to call a meeting with Dad to get to the bottom of whatever the fuck was happening within the Kings.
“A Lambo? Like, really?” Nate hadn’t stopped going on about my present to Madison since we left the house.
“Yes, really,” I deadpanned.
“Why do you have to show us up like that? Now it’s going to make my one look shit not to mention Hunter and Jase, and I heard Saint, Eli, Chase, Brantley, and Cash all got her something too.”
“Nate, it’s not a competition.”
“Oh but it is, though! You know I’m an overachiever.”
I sighed, hitting the indicator to my street. I looked in the rearview mirror. “Bonum est tibi?” Asking if the kid was okay seemed like the least I could do—since he was stuck with us for however long. I still wasn’t sure how to characterize him yet, and if it wasn’t for his relationship with Madison, I’d kill him myself for shooting her—but I couldn’t. When it came down to my rage, there was only one other feeling that trumped it. Her. I didn’t trust him, I couldn’t. I trusted no one outside of my circle.
He nodded, then took his glare back out the window. “Ne putes illa erunt discedite?” Asking me if Madison would stay away was a given. You didn’t have to be a Madspert to know the girl goes down with her own. I open my mouth to answer, but Nate cuts me off with a scoff.
“Ney!”
He was fluent in Latin as we all were, he was just being a smart ass—per usual.
I shrugged, pulling into my driveway. “Nos autem non scire nisi runs.” Because I would know if she did. I’d have my mother grilling me. I jumped out of the car and my feet hadn’t even hit the asphalt when I heard Khales’ voice.
“B?”
“Oh for fuck’s sake!” Nate slammed the passenger door after letting Daemon out. I turned to face her and watched as her eyes widened on Daemon.
“Holy shit, is that?” Her attention followed them as they passed her and headed to the side of the house.
I shut my door. “Daemon? Yes.”
“I’ve heard so much about him. They call him Six.”
“Who are they?” I narrowed my eyes.
She crossed her arms in front of herself, finally looking back at me. “Everyone in The Circle.”
“The Circle is full of shit, and what the fuck do you want?”
“I was coming to say hi and to see if you were ok. You haven’t been home—”
“When do you leave?” My eyebrows rose.
“Um, well—”
“She’s not,” Dad interrupted, walking down the steps with his hands in his pockets.
“What the fuck do you mean she’s not?” I threw my head back.
His arm rested on her shoulders as he pulled her into him. “She’s staying, son.”
“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking shitting me,” I deadpanned, and then grinned. “You’re getting more senile with old age. You don’t buy her shit, do you? And what about Mom?”
“Son, you know deep down that your mother and I haven’t exactly been together for some time, and you’re grown. Swallow the fucking pill so we can move on.”
My eyes flew to Khales before they went back to my dad. “Huh.” I stared off into the distance, and then smirked, looking back to Khales. “And how do I taste? Since she’s licked my balls more than once…”
Dad chuckled, pulling out a cigar and lighting it up. “About the same as I do, apparently.”
I shook my head in disgust.
He blew out a cloud of smoke. “Now back to business, get in the office so we can talk.”
I looked at Khales one last time, and she watched me in worry, but her shoulders were relaxed under Dad’s handle. She wasn’t faking it. I knew this girl inside and out, and she seemed to genuinely love my dad. My eyes slid to him, but there was no use in me trying to analyze him. He hid his emotions better than me. I can decipher and read any human walking this earth, but not him. He trained me to be like that. I think the only person who could read him was my mom.
I shot Khales an evil glare and shoulder barged past her. I didn’t give a fuck that she had moved on with my dad, but I gave a fuck that she was now going to be around a lot more than I ever wanted her to. I saved her all those years ago because she was a friend. As much as I hated her now, I wouldn’t pretend that I hated her back then, because I didn’t. I didn’t love her, but I didn’t hate her. She was just there, and I cared about her, so I saved her. Now I wish I hadn’t. Now that I see what’s going on between her and Dad, though, I’m thinking there’s a lot more that he isn’t telling me either.
I sunk into one of the leather chairs in Dad’s office as he watched me from behind his heavy mahogany desk. “What happened?”
I leaned back. “Well, a fucking lot, but first I need to ask you if you knew about the underground tunnels on Perdita?”
“Yes.” He nodded, leaning forward to flick off his ash in the ashtray. “Of course I knew.”
“And you used them?” I shot back, watching his reaction.
His eyes squinted from the smoke. “Yes.”
“What for?”
“Why all the questions?” His eyebrow quirked.
“Why all the secrets?” I shot back.
He sighed and ran the palm of his hand over his slicked-back salt and pepper hair. “There are no secrets.” He flicked his ash again, and I watched as his suit jacket rode up to display the edge of his sleeve tattoo. He had swagger for his age, I’d give him that, and girls—of all ages, apparently, gravitated toward him. The smart ones ran after sex, the dumb ones like Khales stayed and thought they could tame him. He could never be tamed. Before him, was my pops. He rode a Harley until the day he died and ruled the underworld just as my dad does and as I will when he passes. Some days I miss my pops though. He was the only one who really understood the shit that I felt. He was still hard like Dad but wasn’t cold like him. He had a heart when it came to family, but was ruthless with everyone else—my dad wasn’t like that. He was just flat out ruthless to everyone, fuck family.
“That underground pathway is used for a lot of things. Weapons, bodies, and anything else there may be.”
“Drugs?” I asked flat out because I needed a straight answer from him. I’d never known the Kings to be in drugs, and Pops would turn in his grave, but the way my dad was, one could never be too sure.
“No. You know that.” So money, trafficking woman, and other “things,” I thought to myself. I wasn’t going to press the issue anymore, so I continued with the conversation at hand. “Katsia got away.”
“I see that, but why was she running?” he asked, tilting his head. “She’s sacred, son, you can’t go around killing everyone who threatens Madison.”
“It had more to do with Nate.”
Dad sucked in more smoke. “What of Nathaniel?”
“He has a kid.”
He faltered, only slightly. “And?”
“And it’s a girl.”
His eyes closed, his nostrils flaring. “Jesus. Who’s the mother?”
“Tillie.”
Dad sighed and leaned forward. “I can’t be hiding any more Swans, son. It’s going to make me look weak. Something has to give. Right now? We have a war brewing because Katsia wants retaliation on you lot, and she wants to expose the Kings and The Circle. Generations of hard work is about to crumble.”
I leaned in my chair and tilted my head. “Then we kill her before she can.”
“She’s sacred, son. We can’t.”
“Sacred to who? She’s the shit on the bottom of my shoe as far as I’m concerned.”
Dad massaged his temples then put out his cigar. “Bishop, not everything is black and white. We can’t touch her because of her lineage. If we end her, we would end her family line, and we can’t be held responsible for that.”
“But she’s fucking testing both the Kings and The Circle.”
“The Circle isn’t our business, son. They will handle her accordingly, as we will.”
“Alright.” I pulled out a smoke and lit up. Dad narrowed his eyes at it and I smirked, edging him to tell me to throw it away, but he didn’t. His features relaxed. I blew out a thick cloud of smoke. “So what are you thinking, then. Because I know you have a plan.”
“I do.” He nodded. “But first, where is Madison and Tillie?”
I chuckled, flicking off the ash. “Guess.”
He shrugged, his attention drifting to the side like he didn’t give a shit. “I don’t know, holed up in a hotel somewhere?”
My grin deepened. “Wrong. Try again.”
“Bishop, riddles are your thing, not mine. Cut the shit.”
“One more guess. Come on, entertain me…”
“How about I’ll buy you some strippers to entertain you and you hurry up with whatever you’re getting to.”
A laugh shot out of me, my head tilting back. “Alright, old man.” Then I pressed my lips around the end of my smoke with a smirk. “With Mom.”
“What!” he snapped, his eyes shooting directly to me. “What do you mean with mom?”
“They’re with her, Tatum too and the kid.”
Dad seemed to mull over what I had just told him, then realization set over his features as they softened. “Well, shit, I would never guess that. It’s no secret how much your mother hates all your girls. She takes every chance she gets to mention it in every magazine interview she does.”
I snickered. “Exactly why they’re with her, and it never scared girls off.”
He snorted. “You’re my kid, that’s why.”
Dad and I hadn’t thrown around banter in a while, and it felt good to pull out the verbal boxing gloves with him. “Khales…” I went on. His face fell. “I’m just saying… she’s young.”
“Don’t get into it with her.”
I shrugged. “As long as you know what you’re doing. Just means I’ll be in the city full time come this war being over.”
“You can be wherever you need to be. For now, back to the plan.” I noticed he didn’t say college. It was because he didn’t want me to go. He had plans to have me under him full-time and learning the depth of the family businesses and how they’re run. My mom, on the other hand, was all for college. She never wanted this life for me. She didn’t realize how much she didn’t want it for me until I was much older. Little do they know, I’d already decided what I wanted to do. This was my life, I’d take over after my old man. I don’t know what the dynamic is between my mom and dad, but I’m almost certain she wouldn’t be cool with Khales banging her husband in her house.
“What’s the plan?”
“Katsia is still in Perdita, which is good. We don’t need this drama spilling out on our turf, which means we can fly there with all of the Kings who are willing, and settle this as it is.”
“Or?” I asked, skipping past the part where he said he’d have all the Kings on the same island.
“We will cross that when we get there.” He stood from his chair. “We can plan to leave for Friday, that way we have a couple of days to organize everyone.” The Kings before our generation were my cousin Spyder, Jase, and Saint’s crew. A few of the others who rolled with them scattered all over the place. All though I know Jase kept in contact with them, they had pretty much moved on to live their life, having fulfilled their duty.
“You can talk with Jase and make sure he can gather his Kings, and I’ll get to the rest.”
I stood up. “Dad…” I called out, just as he was about to leave. “Does Mom know about you and Khales?”
“Son, she’s known for a long time, now.” Then he left. As quickly as he comes, he goes.
I stretched out my neck, annoyed at both my parents now, but sympathizing with my mom. It must’ve hurt her to some extent, surely. Aside from Dad’s words, he loved her once. She was his entire world, I knew this because I’d seen the photos and heard the stories. They were their era’s modern-day Bonnie and Clyde—mafia style. So whatever the hell was going on between him and Khales, there had to be something in it for him. I headed toward the pool-house, ready to fill in Nate and Daemon. Thank fuck this house was so large, it ran the risk of running into Khales less. I headed inside and shut the door. Both Daemon and Nate were on the sofa, speaking in Latin.
“We need to talk.” Then my eyes fell to Daemon before realizing I needed to switch to Latin.