1
Jayna
“Why are you so interested in freelancing all of a sudden? Aren’t your clubs keeping you busy?”
“Because I don’t want my skills to get rusty,” I said to my cousin Danika through my earbud as I leaned on the balcony of my penthouse in a high-rise overlooking Miami Beach.
Danika was what one would call an art appraiser-hacker extraordinaire. By day, she ran my former art gallery and appraised high-dollar artwork. By night—well, even during the day—corporations, government entities, and such hired her to harvest information for them. In addition to that, she was the Dark Web hacker the Little Rabbit known for using her skills for purposes that bordered on vigilante. In other words, she was an all-around badass.
I was her protégée. No, not really. Though she’d taught me the ins and outs of the tech world to help with her caseload, hacking wasn’t something I wanted to do as my career. I thrived in the world of clubs—dance and fight.
It wasn’t refined. It wasn’t classy. It wasn’t sophisticated. It wasn’t elitist. It wasn’t a career a society princess liked I’d grown up to become would ever have chosen to pursue.
And of course, that’s why I loved it.
I was a rebel, or so Danika liked to tell me. A person who marched to the beat of her own drum.
Well, why the fuck not?
I’d lost my way for a while, lived in a place where I thought I’d drown. Then I’d surfaced and decided I wasn’t just going to survive, I would find a new purpose.
I’d moved to Miami a little over six months ago, built a life here, made friends, enjoyed time with my extended family, and started fresh.
But I missed the hustle and bustle of New York City. The slower pace of Florida took some time to get used to. And then there were still the memories that had followed me here. Though they didn’t pain me as much as they used to.
“Do you ever sleep, Jay? I mean, don’t you have like a hundred businesses to oversee?”
“Are you jealous that I can survive on a few hours and you need more?”
“I really hate you sometimes.”
“No, you don’t. So do you have anything for me or not?”
“It can’t be about the money. You’re fucking rich as hell. You’re the only person I know who can start up a new venture and make a profit within months of opening.”
I smiled at that remark. In my most recent endeavor, I’d taken the idea of underground fight clubs and turned them into gritty-yet-upscale, exclusive, membership-only establishments known in New York City and Miami as the Ladai Room.
Ladai, in my family’s native language of Gujarati, meant combat. I felt it was the perfect way to describe the place in one word.
It was almost unbelievable the success I’d garnered with the two clubs in less than six months. Currently, there was a year-long waitlist for membership at both locations. If the momentum lasted, I’d probably expand the clubs to various cities nationwide as I’d done with my nightclubs.
“You’re right. It’s not about the money.” I closed my eyes. “You really want to know why?”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want you to be honest.”
“I miss you and New York. I like Miami, but I’m an NYC girl at heart.”
“So, hacking makes you feel closer to me. That’s so sweet,” Danika gushed, making me shake my head and want to strangle her.
“Shut it, Dayal.”
“I’m a King now. Remember?”
“Yes, we are the King sisters. Isn’t that what the tabloids call us now?”
Danika was married to my brother-in-law, Nik, the eldest of the notorious King brothers of New York City. The public believed they were real estate developers who’d inherited the Midas touch from their adoptive father, Arin. But in fact, they ran an empire very few people even knew existed. They played brokers between polite society and the unsavory elements of the world. They dealt in favors, ones they collected on when it was to their advantage.
I’d married Kiran. The boy from the wrong side of the tracks. The boy with a dirty past. The boy who’d rescued me from a hell wrapped in privilege and society.
He was the enforcer of King Holdings, the collector, the protector, the weapon. Then one day, he was gone, leaving all of us, especially me, alone to pick up the pieces.
“Don’t remind me. At least you’re a thousand miles away from all the nonsense. Nik says if I ignore them, then they’ll leave me alone. My job is about being sneaky. How the hell am I supposed to be sneaky with cameras in my face all the time?”
Danika liked to live under the radar and hated anyone noticing her. It was probably why she and Kiran had gotten along so well. They’d hide out in the shadows and throw the rest of us to the media. The problem was that both of them were insanely gorgeous people who’d always garnered attention.
“It comes with the territory. The Kings are big news.”
“Easy for you to say now that you’re in the Sunshine State.”
“Do you think I don’t have a million eyes on me here? I’m freaking surrounded by family. Mine and Kir’s. It’s like I can’t turn around without someone wanting to know my business. Tell me again, why did I pick Miami?”
“Umm. Fresh start, year-round sunshine, the beach, hot guys, your mom. Did I mention, hot guys?”
“Don’t let Nik hear you say that.” I laughed. “Hey, when are you coming here so the family can harass your ass for a change?”
“Well—” She hummed. “I thought I could fly down for the grand opening of your new club. Lilly said it was a sight to see when she was there to program all the lighting.”
God, I couldn’t wait until that bad boy officially opened. It was the crown jewel of all of my nightclubs. If there was one thing I knew inside and out, it was the nightlife business.
I also knew to hire the best when it came to designing them, and I’d brought on a friend of mine and Danika’s new hire, Lilly, to develop all of the visual effects for the new club. Lilly was a tech genius, but unlike Danika, her specialty wasn’t as much cyber as mechanical.
“Does that mean you’re going to come early enough to get in a few sparring sessions before we hit the town?”
“Really? You’re going to make me work out before we go clubbing?”
“You pay an exorbitant membership fee to the Ladai Room clubs, might as well check out the brand-new Miami location.”
“I suppose,” she grumbled. “I’m coming down for a vacation, not to have my butt handed to me.”
“Think of it this way: I’ll make sure the cocktails you consume equal the same number of calories you burn off.”
“Whatever. Just for that, I should give you one of my dickwad clients to work on.”
I felt a tingle of excitement. “Then you have something for me?”
“Yeah. Sending it over via the secure server.”
I rubbed my hands together. “I’ll get started right away.”
“I swear, you’re like a machine.”
“You’re one to talk. We’re related, remember?”
“I’m going to crash. Jay, you need to sleep. It’s fucking two in the morning.”