“Shit, yeah. She’s got a point, man,” Trey says with a nod. “We don’t know what the hell this guy will do.”
“He looked for you at the condo and not the house first, so this guy clearly has some intel of his own on you.”
“Just like the guy who tried to kill me in the elevator,” Magnolia says, and the reminder burns a hole in my gut.
Not letting that shit happen ever again.
I reach an arm around her shoulders and pull her near. “Yeah. Going to the same place as the attempted hit makes sense.”
“Attempted hit? You really think someone paid the guy in the elevator to kill me?” Magnolia asks, fear causing her voice to rise.
“It’s a strong possibility. Too many things have happened since. It all adds up to none of this being random, including Ricardo.” I press a kiss into her hair, hating that she has to deal with any of this. “We’ll clear the girls out of the house. If it’s empty, there won’t be anyone he can hurt there. Is there somewhere they can go? Friends? Families?”
Magnolia presses her lips together, but not once does she falter or lose her grip on the situation or her emotions. Strong as hell.
After a minute, she says, “They’ll all find somewhere to go. It’s just the money part. Some of them will have to leave town completely, and if they can’t work where they’re safe and protected, they can’t pay their bills. I don’t like doing that to any of them—my girls or Desiree’s.” She groans, looking skyward as if searching for an answer from above. “I don’t like putting them in a position where they might have to make choices that could put their safety at risk. It’s too dangerous.”
The decision is easy to make. “I’ll cover them. Whatever they would’ve made in an average week, I’ll cover it. Travel too. Whatever it takes.”
Magnolia’s eyes practically bug out of her head. “What? That’s . . . are you . . . You can’t . . . how?” It’s the first time I’ve ever heard her sputter and trip over her words.
I turn her to face me and stare deep into her caramel eyes. I want it to hit home that I’m serious about being here for her. I have lost time to make up for, and money isn’t an issue. Her safety and happiness are priceless.
“If they’re important to you, then they’re important to me. It’s just money, and we’ve got it to spare. And if they don’t have a place to go, I’ve got a buddy with a couple of houses over in Gulf Shores he never uses. Not too bad of a drive. They can take a vacation. Get in some beach time.”
Magnolia’s lower lip wobbles and drops. “You’d do that . . . for women you’ve never met?”
“I’m doing it for you, Mags. And if you care about them, then I do too.”
With no thought to Trey or Jules, she reaches up to wrap a hand around my neck and yanks my face down to hers. She kisses me hard. When she finally releases me, her gaze is soft and warm on my face.
“Thank you, Moby. It means a hell of a lot to me.”
I lift my hand and run the back of my knuckles across her jaw. “Whatever you need, mama. I got you.”
She squeezes her eyes shut, and when she opens them again, they’re shining. “I’ll call Desiree and get that moving.”
“I’ll have Jules make the arrangements and run cash over today.”
Magnolia sighs, and to see her relax is lifegiving. “Thank you. Desiree’s girls are already on high alert because of the Feds.”
“The Feds?” Trey, Jules, and I all blurt out the same thing at the same time.
Magnolia’s head swivels between the three of us before her attention comes back to me. “You didn’t know about the FBI?”
“No, but you have our attention now.”
Magnolia’s brows pinch together as she explains. “The day you came into Mount’s office, just when I was leaving, I saw you as the fireplace spun.”
“He planned that,” I say quietly with a shake of my head. “Fucking devious bastard.”
“Takes one to know one,” Jules mumbles, and I shoot him a don’t-fucking-start-bro stare.
He doesn’t even pretend I worry him and shrugs, grinning like a dickhead.
Magnolia continues. “He called me in to tell me the Feds were watching the house, because he knows I’m still connected to it until Desiree pays it totally off. Mount warned me to be careful. So I had Desiree put her girls on hotel mode. No sex work in the house while the Feds were babysitting.”
“Did he say why they were zeroed in on the house?” I ask her.
She nods. “They were watching for a client. Alberto Brandon. Older guy. Mid-fifties. I guess he was into some shady business or something. I don’t know. Anyway, to hear it from Mount, the Feds have been looking for him and can’t find him. So they must’ve gotten desperate and decided to watch my old house too, because he had a regular thing with one of Desiree’s girls, Naya.”
I point at Trey. “Add this guy to your list. Dig around and see what you can find, but he’s a second priority.”
Trey’s already writing the guy’s name down on one of the only blank areas left on his notepad. “Got it.”
I put my hands on Mags’s shoulders and work her tense muscles in my palms. “All right, mama. Call your girls. Get things moving. Then we’ll get money and arrangements settled. One thing at a time.”
Over her shoulder, she gazes up at me. Nothing and no one can ever get to her. Come hell or high water, she’ll know I’m her partner from here on out. That’s the vow I’m making with every single one of our moves right fucking now.
I already lost fifteen years with her because of my own choices. But that was the past, and all we have now is forever.
Still, a heavy feeling in my gut reminds me that I still have a bomb to drop on her. But, goddamn it, she’s got enough on her plate right now. I swear, as soon as everything is settled, I’ll come clean.
I just hope it’s not too late.
Forty-Nine
Magnolia
My clothes are in the closet next to Moses’s, my shoes lined up beside his much bigger ones. I even have an entire side of the bathroom counter. This living-together situation feels so . . . domestic. It’s also something completely new to me.
Other than the two weeks Moses and I spent together after Katrina, I’ve never lived with a man. Not even when I was dating Rafe. He had his space, I had mine, and that’s how we both liked it. But with Moses . . . it just feels right.
Except last time, he didn’t exactly have any clothes with him. We had to scrounge up shorts and shirts from the men’s clothes stashed in the other girls’ rooms. Since Moses was a big bastard even then, most of them didn’t fit right, but he made do. It wasn’t like either of us were trying to impress the other when we had no power and were just doing what we had to do to make it through until life went back to normal.
Except, as soon as signs of life restarting showed up in the neighborhoods around us, I knew Moses was going to move on. We’d met under fucked-up circumstances, and I was never under any illusion it was going to last forever. I just didn’t expect it to end quite so suddenly.