For most of Knox’s life, including when he was in Elizabeth’s belly, I’ve worked from home. The new and improved Roman fields calls from potential high-end clients and if I think they’re a good fit, I pass the jobs on to my partners, the King brothers. Now that their brother Stone is also working full time with us, there’s no need for me to be present at every fix, but after the last few nights at home, I realize that Joseph may be on to something. I may frustrate Elizabeth, because I’m simply frustrated with myself.
“Yo, look who’s here in the motherfucking house!” Cutter exclaims in his usual over-the-top fashion as I walk into the office of Club Lotus for the first time in months. “What did we do to earn the distinct honor of your presence?”
“I was in the neighborhood and thought you might need me.”
“Need you?” Cutter laughs. “For what exactly?”
I realize he’s only breaking my balls, but the rhetorical question stings. I know I haven’t been as hands on this past year, but this is still my business. A business that my friends have deeply benefited from.
Camden stares silently at me, no doubt trying to read my body language. He’s the master of that. He always reads the room and assesses a situation before diving into it with words or action unlike his little brother. Stone doesn’t make any snide remarks either, but walks over to shake my hand.
“Good to see you, man.”
“Same.”
“Seriously, what’s going on?” Cutter asks. “You good? Everything okay with Elizabeth and Knox?”
“Would I be here if everything wasn’t okay with my family?” I respond, probably a little too defensively.
“Oh, true dat.” Cutter smiles. “I guess you wouldn’t.”
“Heard you’ve been to Milo’s club this week.”
Camden’s comment sounds judgmental as hell.
“For a drink.”
“And what magical liquor do they pour at Milo’s that you couldn’t get here?”
“Nothing but a twelve-year-old single malt whiskey with my name on it.”
Diving into each other’s private business is not something that we do, so they simply respect my answer and we move onto another topic of conversation.
“It’s good you’re here. We got that information you wanted on Elizabeth’s friend,” Stone says. “I followed her like you asked, and she’s definitely got a problem over there.”
Elizabeth explained that the woman she sent a thousand dollars to is an old college friend who needed the money to move because her landlord was harassing her, but later was planning on returning it because the prick wouldn’t accept her thirty-day notice. In fact, he only grew more aggressive after she tried submitting it. So when she asked me if her friend might have any legal recourse against the landlord, I assured her that involving the police wouldn’t be necessary and that I could handle it with a brief conversation. It’s just one less thing I need Duchess to worry about.
“What’s his deal?” I ask.
“He’s clean as a whistle. Credit score good. Owns three of the apartments in that community. No record. Not even a parking ticket,” Camden says.
“No one is that clean.”
“I will say this,” Stone adds. “He rents most of his apartments to women that fit a very similar description. Young, pretty, short, blonde, and they’re all students.”
“So he’s creating his own built-in dating service.”
“The dickhead’s a predator,” Cutter says. “Plain and simple.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“He’s going to have to be dealt with.”
“What do you mean dealt with?”
“Elizabeth mentioned her friend is from Oregon, so she’s a long way from home with no family here to speak for her. So I’m going to pay the little prick a visit.”
“Who are you, Batman?” Cutter asks flippantly. “Now you’re out here defending helpless damsels in distress?”
“Keep it up, fathead.”
“I’m just saying, Rome. We pay assholes a visit when we’re getting paid for it. What you’re thinking about doing is something we did when we were seventeen. Kid shit to impress a girl.”
“Yeah, man, I spent a week’s worth of time and resources tracking that dude for you. I thought there’d be some payoff.”
I look at Cutter and Stone like they’ve lost their minds. Are they fucking serious right now?
“This is different and you know it,” I try saying calmly.
“Because it’s for Elizabeth?” Camden asks incredulously.
“Fucking right!”
I stare down every King brother in the room. Each one of them bigger than the next. No one was more happy than me when Camden and Cutter found their brother Stone, but right now their collective brotherhood asses are getting on my nerves. I ball one of my fists tightly, ready to swing, if one of them says one more thing about this favor or Elizabeth.
“Look, he’s ready to swing on one of us!”
“Dayummm, we were just busting your balls,” Cutter says as all three of them bust out into deep belly laughs.
“Y’all weren’t lying,” Stone says. “I thought he was going to slit our throats.”
“Can I get you a drink?” Camden asks facetiously. “Because you look like you need it.”
“Is this a frat house?” I say snidely. “Did I just get hazed by three jackoffs?”
They continue laughing like I’ve just said the funniest shit ever.
“Is this what you three do all night in my club?”
“You mean laugh?” Cutter asks sarcastically.
“Whatever,” I mutter under my breath, recognizing that they got me good. Things have been so tense lately, I can’t even tell when my oldest friends are messing with me.
Finally, I crack a smile.
I guess it was kind of funny.
“Hey, so we’ve been working on the job Kat gave us,” Camden says, getting serious for the moment.
“How’s that going?”
I grab a scoop of M&M’s out of the dish on Cam’s desk and take a seat. It’s starting to feel a little like old times when we would hash out the details of a fix over drinks and junk food.
“I don’t know, Rome. It’s way messier than she described, and it’s going to take some muscle to clean up. Maybe more than just the three of us.”
“Well, now there’s the four of us,” I say. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Whitfield is still stuck in Chicago and they have told him not to return home to Miami because he’s their number one person of interest in the case. They’ve got eyes on him twenty-four seven.”
“That means they’re building a case.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely a shit show. Accident or not, he killed that girl and left his prints all over the goddamn apartment. They’re probably just dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s at this point. They’re going to make an arrest soon.”
“What about our political connect in Chicago? Maybe he could help lose some of that evidence.”