Page 67 of With This Ring

“Is that what you want?” I lean against the desk and cross my arms.

He stares off into space, quiet for a few breaths. Sighing, he shakes his head, pushing his fingers through his hair. “No. I just don’t have eleven million dollars on hand to fucking pay this bill.”

Shrugging, I say, “I do.” Kai looks at me sharply. “What? I do. Dad put me in charge of our drug sales when I was eighteen. I have about five times that squirreled away. I can give it to you.”

He narrows his eyes at me, studying my face. “You canloanit to me. And I’ll pay back every cent. With interest.”

Smiling, I bend to plant my lips on his. “Whatever you want, pretty baby.”

As they always do, Kai’s cheeks redden when I call him pretty. I run my fingers over the heated flesh, then kiss him once more.

Kai exhales roughly when I release him. “At least we’re not completely broke. We have product that we’re delivering to our contacts in DC. That’ll bring in a few million. Everything else is tied up in these shitty investments he made.”

“Pull it all out. You’ll be at a loss, but you can rebuild and reinvest when you have more money. I can help you there. The only saving grace is Charlie kept good faith with your coke, heroin and weapons customers. You’ll make back any money Charlie pissed away.”

Even though he nods, I can see the apprehension clearly on his face. Fucking Charlie. If the cocksucker wasn’t dead, I’d kill him all over again for the shit he put Kai through.

Turning his chair around, I kneel between his legs and look up at him, hoping he reads the sincerity on my face. “You can do it, Kai. You’re smart enough. You’re driven enough. You’regoodenough. Don’t ever doubt that.”

Kai smiles at me and nods. He leans forward to give me a kiss but stops short with raised voices reach our ears. “The hell?” he asks distractedly, trying to hear what’s going on.

I pause as well, straining to make out the words, but the door is shut, and the shouting seems to be coming from the foyer. Eyebrows scrunched, I go to the door and pull it open, sticking my head into the hallway.

There are St. Clair’s and Whitlocks milling around the house in honor of Charlie. Most of them here couldn’t make it to the service because of the small crowd we had. They either offered Kai their condolences or pledged that they’d follow him just as they did Charlie. Kai takes this all in stride, as we’ve already been in the position as heads of the family. I wanted to cut the tongue out of the mouth of every man that utters some shit about following Kainow. But again, I controlled my temper so I wouldn’t upset Kai.

With the door open, the voices become clearer and I recognize one of them as Declan. I look back at Kai, who has a bewildered look on his face. “It’s my brother. The fuck is going on?”

Coming from his seat at the desk, Kai follows me downstairs. When we hit the bottom step, the scene before me doesn’t make sense. One of Charlie’s guards is in Declan’s face, shouting at him at the top of his lungs. Declan’s face is contorted in anger, but he doesn’t try to defend himself.

“And if you fucking say anything,” the guard yells, spittle flying from his mouth, “I’ll say you’re a fucking liar because you are. Fucking Whitlocks?—”

Whatever else he wanted to say is cut off when Declan pulls out a blade from his sleeve and buries it in the man’s neck. The man falls to the ground and Declan follows him down, burying the knife in his eye.

“Declan, what the fuck?” I run over and pull him off. I grab his blood-soaked hands and hold them at his side. “What the fuck?” I repeat.

“He fucking deserved it,” Declan says in a sharp voice.

Kai steps over to the man and kicks at his feet, his face set in a hard mask. “Because he was talking shit about your family?” He looks up at Declan, his eyes hard. “That’s no reason?—”

Declan pulls out of my arms, whirling around to look at me. “He was going to kill you. That’s why I fucking offed him.”

My head snaps back. “Kill me? What are you going on about?”

“I heard him on the phone, telling someone he’d cut your brakes to make it look like an accident. I listened first, used my head like you told me. Iheardhim.”

“Do you have proof?” Kai asks.

“Proof?” Declan’s face scrunches up as if he’s never heard the word before. “I just fucking told you I heard him. Check his phone. Ask the person he just talked to.”

Kai does just that, calling the number. A woman answers the phone. “Who is this?” Kai barks into the phone.

“Uh, Whitney.” She sounds young, not like someone that just listened to someone threaten to kill me. “Who is this?”

“Who’s number is this?”

“I think his name is Diego. I don’t know. He called to make an appointment for his daughter to get her nails done.”

Declan’s face clouds with rage and he tries to snatch the phone from Kai. “You’re a fucking liar!” he shouts.

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