Page 91 of A Dark Duet

My fists clench. “What do you mean convenient?”

“A transaction, brother, an agreement,” Nate chimes in.

“Then I guess I need to pay Mr. Carter a visit.”

“Are you crazy?” Giselle says with wide eyes.

“Babe, you know there is no stopping Jaden,” Nate tells her.

“Do you need me to go with you, brother?”

“Nope, I got this.”

“Well, don’t do anything stupid. Even if we are higher in rank, he still moves in our circle.” Nates says.

We both ran an updated search already on Ethan Carter. He runs a dirty shit show behind the scenes. He runs in the same circles we do. He knows who we know, and vice versa, we are just involved in different areas.

Jaden

Walking into the building of Carter Enterprises, I am met with a young receptionist in the lobby. Giving her a smile, I tell her I’m here to see Ethan Carter and I give her my name. She walks around her desk so she can make a point of smoothing her tight pencil skirt. Looking at her face, she smiles coyly at me. I avert my gaze with an eye roll, letting her know I’m not interested.

A phone rings and she walks slowly, sashaying to answer the phone.

“Yes, Mr. Carter. I will send him in,” she says through the phone.

She gives me a smile. “You may see him now. Right this way.” She leads me toward the double doors that open to an elevator. She swipes her card and I enter the car to the thirty-fifth floor.

The elevator stops and the doors open to a modern office with a large wood desk and two chairs. Ethan Carter is standing, giving me his back, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window.

“I know why you came here. It is to find out what arrangement or agreement I have with her.”

Her meaning Brie. I walk closer and stand between the two chairs, looking at my surroundings. We are alone in the office. There is a black leather sofa to the left with a bar on the right but no one else is here. No security. No bodyguards. Interesting.

Glancing at the man in the four-thousand-dollar suit, I notice when he turns around, he isn’t thrilled to see me, but I expected it. He knew I would pay him a visit sooner or later once he saw me at the club.

“I questioned her, but she wouldn’t say. She kept true to the NDA you made her sign.”

He chuckles. “Please have a seat.”

“I didn’t come here for a chat. I’m not one of your business associates.”

“Indeed, you aren’t, Mr. Cypress. I know you have done your homework about me to make sure she is safe. I don’t blame you. I would have done the same and I have done homework of my own regarding you and Briana.”

Taking a seat, I clench my fist to keep from reaching over and laying his ass out. His dark hair and his dark eyes tell me he has a hidden temper, but he doesn’t understand I’m strategic, tech savvy, not just skilled in martial arts. I’m also a billionaire, just like him. I’m just more private about my business dealings and more open about my fighting career.

He takes his seat behind his desk and after removing his suit jacket, he rolls his dress shirt to reveal his tattoos. Probably trying to intimidate me or remind me where he comes from. That he isn’t some silver-spoon trust fund recipient. Ethan Carter used to be a trained assassin for the Mafia. He made his money and invested it after entering an agreement with Edgar Castellano to clean his money and create businesses all over the world so the government wouldn’t be the wiser. Ethan is skilled at hiding his tracks and he hides them very well. He was too busy with his Mafia business dealings and didn’t protect his wife like he should. Rumor has it they put a hit out on her. Not even his father could have saved her.

Slouching in my chair, not intimidated one bit, I ask him, “What do you want with Briana? Whatever it is, I’ll pay you to get her out of it. She isn’t some stripper whore you're used to.” I tell him icily.

He gives me a smirk. “Do you think I would consider bringing a stripper whore to my home and let her lie in my bed? Briana is not a whore or a stripper but a very special woman.”

My lip curls in a snarl at the mention of her in his home and in his bed. Fucking asshole.

“There is a difference between you and me, Mr. Carter, and that huge difference is that I don’t pay for pussy.”

He bellows in laughter. He holds his chin in his hand and eyes me with a determined stare. “Let’s get one thing straight. There is one woman I have loved and that is my dead wife. There was no one that mattered more to me in this world and I sure as hell didn’t pay for her pussy. My arrangement with Briana is met with great care. She has a darkness that appeals to me. She feeds my own loss and pain. I respect her and I like her.”

I scoff. “Yeah, by using her struggles against her to feed your sick, twisted fantasy.” Now I’m pissed. I sit up and snarl, “You sick fuck. Let her go. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like a piece of meat,” I say, my voice laced with steel. This asshole is trying my patience, but this is not the man you pound with your fist to get the message across. This man has an endgame.

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