Chapter one
seven months ago
Despitebeingaprotégée,Ashari Payne lived in her brother’s shadow for as long as she remembered.This case was an opportunity to reshape the cycle.It’d make or break her new career, along with her relationship with the person whom she looked up to the most—
Her father.
Taking a seat at the bar, Ashari’s eyes roamed the bartender’s body before settling on her face.
“What can I get you?”the bartender, smiling while approaching Ashari, yelled over the music.
“Water,” Ashari said.“But I want it in a pretty glass.”
The bartender grinned.“Water in a pretty glass coming right up.”She moved away before returning with the water in a colorful hurricane glass.
“Thanks,” Ashari said and moved the glass to her lips to take a sip.
“You a shake,” the bartender mused.
Ashari gave her a shy smile.“It’s an important night.”
“Oh, yeah?”she asked.“Yu first drink of the night a go deh pon the house.For good luck.”
“Thanks.”Ashari smiled and pushed her glasses up her nose as she looked at her phone.It was a simple message from Charlie, stating that she watered the potted plant outside Ashari’s door.She exited the chat when she felt the presence of someone beside her.Ashari shot the man a sideways glance before nibbling on her lower lip to hide a smirk.
The man rested an elbow on the counter and looked at her.His face had a boyish innocence and his blonde-bleached hair was in a neat low cut.Though good looking, he was not her type.No one in this establishment was.
But Cameron being there made her know that she’d quickly have to make a certain individual her type.Ashari knew she’d have to stoop low tonight, but she didn’t mind.This was a job — nothing more.She laid the trap and they were already walking into it, eating from her palms like starving animals.
“C-can I help you?”Ashari asked the man, who’d been silently observing her for some seconds.
“Jed want yu.”
Ashari expected those words.She’d studied this man for the past four years, and he spoke how the documents said he did on these occasions.Curt.Simple.Straight to the point.The opposite of his nature.
She wanted to tell Cameron to go to hell.The least he could do was approach her in an inviting manner.But Ashari knew she had to play her role well.Her target was not a man easily fooled.
Jediah Richardson never approached women.He flaunted his flashy title of entrepreneur in the booming car industry, and women desperate for some physical intimacy came to him through Cameron Reeves.
“O-okay,” Ashari said, not amplifying her voice.
Cameron’s eyes briefly narrowed on her before he nodded his head in a direction for her to follow him.Ashari hopped off the stool.Like a pig to a slaughterhouse, she trailed the slim built man while he made a path through the clubbers.
Looking away from Cameron, her eyes shot up to the private section that overlooked the club.Bright, neon red lights lined its walls.Jediah was sitting on a chair, his eyes trailing her while he extended his arm across the armrest.A lit cigar was tucked between his fingers.A man molded himself against the wall behind Jediah.Ashari would’ve overlooked him if she weren’t trained to notice everything.
She wanted to glare, but she reminded herself that moving to Jamaica placed her in the center of Jediah’s playground.She’d adhered to his rules in this country, especially whenever she was in St.Ann.
One rule said, once called to the boss, a woman had to do one of two things: kneel or bend over backward.Sometimes, both.
Arriving at the private section, Cameron stopped walking so Ashari could approach the security guard who blocked the entrance.He patted her down before allowing her in.When she took a hesitant step forward, his large frame moved to block the entrance again.He stood unmoving like a statue, as was expected of him.
Licking her lips, she looked back at the man on the cushioned chair.
Jediah eyed her like a piece of meat.It should’ve felt unwelcomed, but it sent a shiver down her spine.She knew it was just a job, but she wasn’t oblivious to the charms of this man.With his dark skin, sharp jawline, straight nose, muscular build, and soulless eyes, Jediah Richardson was the wild fantasy good girls were warned to stay away from yet couldn’t resist.
As she sat beside him, Ashari brushed off the envy directed at her from the women left behind on the first floor of the club.They wished they could be her, and for a moment, Ashari allowed herself to revel in the feeling of being envied.
“Yu look scared,” Jediah said, his deep voice making Ashari’s heart race.“Mi don’ bite.”