Page 27 of Ten

A vise of worry squeezed my heart. “You don’t think...?”

“It would take a bigger man than Kiki to get the drop on Ten.” Kostya typed out his text. “But, since we don’t know how Kiki escaped or if he has help, I’m not taking any chances.”

My stomach was a swirling pit of anxious nerves as we waited for the reply. When it came less than a minute later, I clutched the edge of the table, expecting bad news.

Kostya chortled. “Well, it’s worse than I thought.”

“What?” I gripped the table tightly, my fingers turning pale at the tips. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s with your uncle.”

“Oh, shit.”

Chapter Six

WhenTenpausedatthe same four-way stop where Nisha had panicked earlier in the night, he noticed a cop car parked outside her house. There was a smaller crowd of idiots with phones corralled on the public sidewalk outside her fence. Not wanting to be seen, he chose to continue straight for a few blocks to the neighborhood park.

He found a spot under a street lamp. The light flickered, and swarms of bugs fluttered around it. He figured this was the safest place for his Tahoe and killed the engine.

Not far away, a group of kids loitered around one of the covered picnic tables. The scent of strong, high-end weed hit him as he stepped out of his Tahoe. There were worse things a bunch of teenagers could be doing this time of night. He sure as hell had at their age.

“Hey!” Ten called out, his deep voice carrying over their banter and music. “You want to make some money?”

One boy stepped forward, silently acknowledging himself as the leader of the group. Baggy shorts, an oversized Givenchy tee layered over a white tank, Nike Dunks, and a bright red Supreme cap tilted to one side. Half his hair was braided. The rest was shaved close to the scalp. Judging by the amount of money the kid was wearing, he was either a dealer or the son of one. “Yeah. What do you want?”

“Can you watch my Tahoe while I handle some business in the area?”

The kid looked him over. “You part of Nikolai K’s crew?”

Ten nodded. “Yes.”

The kid glanced back at his friends. The tallest of them shrugged, and the leader turned back to Ten. “You’re not here to kill anyone, right? Like you’re not handlingbusiness?”

Ten shook his head. “I’m picking up some stuff from my girlfriend’s house. There’s a cop car out front, and I’d rather not deal with them tonight.”

“I understand, man. My whole damn street gone crazy tonight with that psycho serial killer on the loose.” The kid nodded. “A’ight. We’ll watch your Tahoe, man.”

“What’s your name?” Ten asked as he reached for his wallet.

“Carter.”

Ten committed the name to memory and handed over two crisp hundred-dollar bills. “The rest when I get back, yeah?”

“Sure.” The kid gripped the money, but Ten held tight.

“If you pull any shit, Nickel Jackson will be the first call I make. Understand?”

“Yeah. I know.”

Ten let go of the money, and the kid wandered back to his friends. He was fifty-fifty on whether the kids would still be there when he returned. If he had told them he was there to get something from Nisha Jackson’s place, the kids would have been more likely to be helpful. He wasn’t ready to spread that news around town just yet.

It shouldn’t have mattered. He and Nisha were adults. They should have been able to do whatever they wanted, but the real world wasn’t that simple. He practically lived with Nikolai and his family, and Nisha was the favorite niece of Nicky Jackson.

There was a reason most of the families in town didn’t allow their people to co-mingle. If his relationship with Nisha took a bad turn and things got ugly, Nikolai and Nicky would be dragged into it. Sides would be taken. Demands would be made. It would be a shit show.

Not that he was going to let that stop him. He cared about Nisha—a lot. All that talk back in his living room about half and maybe more than half had confirmed what he had long believed. There was a reason he had walked into that salon with Vivian. There was a reason Nisha had crossed his path. He wasn’t a religious man, but he did believe in fate and the universe having bigger plans for him.

So, no, he wasn’t going to walk away from the chance to have a relationship with Nisha. It was going to be messy and complicated, but he hadn’t ever liked doing things the easy way. Nisha was special, unique, and she was worth the effort.

---