I slide into my car and head straight home. When I arrive, Rochelle is asleep on the couch with Marcus behind her, his hand over her belly as he cocoons her from behind. I don’t turn on any lights and head off to find a blanket to throw over them. When I reach them, Rochelle opens her eyes.
“You’re home.” I smile at her. “She was an angel.”
Marcus grips her harder, and she smiles at me.
“Blaze rang earlier, heard him say your name again.” She yawns. I look behind her to see Marcus, who’s now looking at me. “Night, sis.” Rochelle turns and tucks her head into Marcus’s shoulder and falls quickly back to sleep.
“What’s his number?” I ask Marcus.
Marcus hands me his cell with Blaze’s number on the screen. I quickly take it down and walk up to my room, shutting the door behind me. Dialing his number, he answers straight away.
“Stop telling your brother my business.”
“What?” I get yelled at, and in the background all I can hear is music and people screaming.
“Keep your mouth shut about what I do. Actually, just keep me off your lips altogether,” I say into the phone.
“Katarina, he mentioned you kept it all a secret. Why would that be?” he teases into the phone. “You know what would keep my lips sealed? If you came here and sat on them.”
“You’re a real Fuck-knuckle. You know that, right?”
“Fuck-Knuckle? Did you just make that up? How about a word for horny, because now I am in my room as you talk, and my hand is on my cock. Tell me, Katarina… tell me what else you would call me.”
“You have very large issues.”
“Issues I’m sure your mouth could fix by sucking my cock.”
“Goodbye, Blaze.” I go to hang up as he speaks, “Whisper my name, Katarina,” he says in a voice so husky it drives me crazy.
“Fuckhead,” I say, then hang up as quickly as I can.
Getting up and checking on Annabelle, I leave her where she is curled up in a ball in a blissful sleep.
Chapter Eight
Blaze
“We’re not going,” I say to Snow, who wants to go back to that fucking strip joint. I need to stay away. She’s consuming my every fucking thought with her sweet little vicious mouth.
“Okay, well… you need to go and handle Lance before we have another situation that will involve the authorities,” Snow, my vice president, says. This issue was brought up at church, and it was decided we will wait to see what comes of it. Seems Lance doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut, and soon that trouble he’s brewing will be coming our way.
“He’s connected to them. His brother is a detective. So, you can’t get rid of him as easy, if he was to cause us trouble,” Snow points out.
I run a hand through my hair. “Send Marley, and you go with him, plus a prospect. See if you can get him to keep his damn mouth shut before we end up shutting it for him.”
Snow nods.
“Blaze.” I look up at him. “Do you plan to tell her you bought the club?”
I sit back down. My bedroom isn’t much, but it’s mine, and not many people are allowed in here. However, Snow’s as close to me as my real brother.
“No, not yet,” I say, standing, pulling my shirt off, and putting on a new one.
“You won’t be able to keep it from her for long. She does run that place tight. All the girls listen to her.”
I know. Steve told me she runs a tight ship, and the old owners gave her full authority to do as she pleased, as long as she turned a good profit. And the books prove the minute she was back the profit was there. So why change a leopard’s spots if you don’t have to? And I don’t want to. If she can continue to make money in that place, she doesn’t need to know I own it now. “Be careful with that one. Her sister made your brother fall in love.” Snow chuckles as he walks out.
Getting changed and onto my bike, I go straight to where I know Marcus will be. The boys know him as Reap, and they’re all aware he is my brother, even if he chooses to hardly speak to any of them. He isn’t a member, even when I asked him to be years and years ago. He doesn’t like our lifestyle and prefers his own, but he hangs around a fair bit.
The drive to the crematorium is distracting and comforting. The sky is dark but the stars are glittering, and I wonder if this is all that there is to life. Is this what the best version of me will ever be?
Kick standing my bike, I place my helmet on the seat and walk around the back of the crematorium. Opening the door, his music is playing, but he looks up as I enter, and when he does he doesn’t stay looking for long. Marcus drops his head and goes back to what he was doing. The last time I saw him do what he’s doing today was to the man who raped Tanika and threatened Rochelle. Marcus is smooth even in death.
Leaning against the wall, never going in, I wait. He removes his gloves and mask, then walks out the door and stands in front of me.
“You bought the place?” is the first thing he asks, referring to the strip club.
I told him the other night when I mentioned Kat worked there. At the time, I had just signed the contract. I put my offer in the first night I saw Kat there.
“I did. Is that why you wanted to meet me?” I ask while looking behind him at the dead body, which is still on the counter.
“No, your father contacted me.” I stiffen at his words.
My father? What a joke that is.
Who is he even?
“He asked me to pass you his number.” Marcus reaches into his pocket, hands me a note with a number on it, then turns and walks back inside.
“You’re fine with this?” I ask while he slides new gloves on and fixes his mask in place.
“He’s your father, Blaze. Not mine.”
He’s right, we have different fathers, but Marcus’s basically raised me. He may be my brother, but no one on this earth has taken as much shit for someone than Marcus has for me. And believe me, I was a fucking little shit myself.
“I don’t want to see him.”
He shrugs and turns up the music, effectively ending our conversation. He knows I won’t go into that room. I kick the door and walk out, getting back on my bike to burn off steam.
Fuck this!
Fuck him!
My father is as useless as two shits. Literally. Shits could possibly be more useful. At least you can use shit for fertilizer. My father, he does nothing but suck all the good energy out of a room and blames the person next to him for doing so.
Chapter Nine
Kat
“Okay, Mom has Annabelle tonight. Tomorrow I don’t work. So, what’s the plan? Can I come into your work, and you feed me alcohol all night, as I dance the night away until which time you will finish, then proceed to take me home?” Rochelle asks, leaning forward, watching me with eager eyes in my bathroom mirror as I apply my makeup.
“No,” I say to her.
She stands up and crosses her arms over her chest. “Why the big secret? Take me with you. You are the manager, right? Where are the sister perks of having a manager somewhere where I can get free alcohol and get drunk?” She pouts at me.