Page 43 of Cruel Devotion

“I w-was looking for better. . .umm. . .you know. . .to see you. Like I wanted to wear light blue.” I tapped my shirt. “Out of respect—”

“You wasn’t naked?”

“Why would I be naked, Banks? And stop talking to me like I’m a kid. If I were naked that wouldn’t be your business.”

“Then, why is your foot tapping like that?” Banks pointed to it. “You do that shit when you are lying.”

“Cuz, would you relax and give me the clothes and men?”

Banks walked around me and took a menacing step toward Chen. “I know Lei hasn’t been improperly touching my cousin. Right?”

“From what I understand, that is correct.” Chen nodded. “We are all friends here. There has been nothing but respect. Yet. . .”

Banks raised his brows. “Yet?”

Chen’s response was swift. “Your presence here, in such. . .overwhelming numbers, could be considered a provocation.”

A collective shuffle amongst the men in green told me that they were eager for things to escalate.

Banks smiled but his eyes were cold. “Consider it a show of strength. A clear reminder of what Moni has standing behind her. She isn’t just anybody.”

“It has been noted.”

Banks’s voice went ice-cold too. “There’s rules to this shit. You remember that?”

“I do.”

“If Lei’s intention is to go beyond friendship with Moni then he is to come tomeand get proper permission.”

“What?” I lowered my hands. “Why would he have to do that?”

“Syndicate code.”

“Okay. This gangster stuff is getting out of hand. I am a grown woman who makes my own decisions.”

Banks remained in front of Chen. “You hear me, buddy?”

Chen gave him a fake smile. “I hear you.”

“I know Chanel’s death rocked Lei’s world. Shit. It rocked mine and I wasn’t even that close to her.” Banks bobbed his head. “Taking the body and shit is fucking bonkers but I wasn’t judging. In fact, I’m the main person who kept Marcelo from going after you all, after that whole funeral home stunt. Lei was grieving. I told Marcelo to let it go.”

“I thank you for that.”

“But you chose green clothes instead of yellow or red when you all did that funeral home-body snatching stunt.” Banks tilted his head to the side. “Why?”

“There was no logic behind it.”

“I doubt that, Chen. You’re smart.” Banks’s face twisted into an ugly sneer. “I bet you were the one who told him to put on green. Probably thought that out of all the factions in the Syndicate,wewere the ones you could handle one-on-one if war came.”

Chen remained silent.

“I’m here to tell you that your thoughts were wrong.” Banks snarled. “The amount of men and weapons on our side are God-level. You’ve been warned.”

Chen raised his hand to adjust his tie and then lowered it. “The Syndicate’s foundation is shaky. A smart man would say that it would be smarter for us to unite then divide.”

“Yet, my cousin is with you.”

“Her relation to you was not known until it was too late.”

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