“Don’t I know it, but again, how does this pertain to me?”

“She was in town to get her body done by you. I’m just trying to see if she showed up for any of her appointments.”

I nodded. He was playing perfectly into my plan.

“No problem. What’s her name?” I knew her name. I’d changed it to include mine, but I sat there and scribbled it down as if her beautiful name hadn’t been on my lips a few moments ago.

“Monroe Iris.”

I dropped the pen and gave a worried expression.

“Oh, damn. I didn’t do her surgery.”

“What?” Kashus sat up in his seat.

“She didn’t pass the mental health screening.”

“Mental health screening?” he questioned.

“Yeah, we give it to all our patients. It’s a way to make sure they not getting the surgery for the wrong reasons. It’s our way of weeding out people that are being forced to get the procedure done.” I eyed him. His eyes avoided contact. I said that just to see his reaction.

“So, she hasn’t been here?”

“On Monday for her first appointment. I took her a refund check that night to her hotel. Did you check there?” Any nigga with common sense would have pulled the security footage by now. Knowing I was on it, I offered the information before he’d asked.

“Fuck!” he cursed just as a text came through my phone. I glanced at it seeing Monroe’s name flash on the screen. She’d sent me another picture. I opened the text thread fast as fuck. I wasn’t ready for the image that popped up on my screen. Monroe sat in the chair holding a strawberry to her beautiful lips. She had just the right amount of titties showing. The message she sent said, ‘thank you for dinner’. My dick jumped at the sight of her, and a grin appeared on my face as I texted her back.

Me: You got your delivery.

I pushed send and returned my attention to her sorry ass ex-fiancé. “Would she have reason to flee? Happy women don’t leave they whole life behind. You been fucking up or something, nigga?”

“Man, I treat her ass like a queen. She got it good. She doesn’t work or do shit. Just sit on her ass, gain weight, and spend my money.”

My fists balled underneath the table. It was taking everything in me not to punch his ass in the face. My phone dinged again. Monroe had texted back.

Wife: Yes, I love seafood and the fruit platter is everything! Thank you!

Me: Anything for your healing.

I wasn’t a smiling ass nigga, but Monroe had me cheesing hard. I stared down at the phone waiting for her to respond like a desperate ass nigga.

“I think she might have run off with my cousin. He’s her security and ain’t nobody heard from either of them. I thought the nigga was gay,” Kashus blurted, making me look up from my phone.

Wrong, I thought to myself.

“Damn!” I shook my head before dropping it back down to the phone just as another picture from Monroe came through. She was supposed to be on a self-care date, but I appreciated her including me. In a short time, Monroe become someone I craved.

“I don’t have a lot of pull in my family organization anymore, but I’ll put a word out.” I was gaslighting him. He was none the wiser to Monroe’s whereabouts.

“I appreciate it, nigga. I already hollered at Demetrius. He doing what he can. I’m just dreading telling her pops. Shit, I need to find out something before I report back to that nigga.”

I sat up, intrigued. I had done a ton of digging on Monroe’s father, but I’d only gotten back the basics. He was a rich and powerful mafia boss. What I couldn’t figure out was what he gained from having Monroe married off the Kashus Grant. Jacob Iris was a big kingpin with a highly respected family legacy. On paper, it seemed that the only one benefiting from the arrangement was Kashus. That couldn’t be all there was.

“Her father in the business?”

“Yeah… Jacob Iris. He founded the black mafia organization back in Bristol.”

“And you're engaged to his daughter?”