Page 30 of Heartless Beloved

Ignoring my comment, she gets off the sofa. “Come on, let’s eat. Your mom’s waiting.”

Dinner goes the same as it always does. Since Emma’s younger sister, Billie, got into professional MMA and left our shit town, it’s just the four of us most of the time. Once or twice a week, my younger brother Lik will have dinner with us.

We’re not allowed to talk about business at the table. My mom complains about the violence on the North Shore getting worse. I try to convince her not to go on her nightly walks on her own anymore and she ignores me. The same way I pretend I don’t hear when she tells us we’re all part of the problem by perpetuating gang violence.

The Kings are vicious and ruthless. It’s not even about not letting my guard down. It’s about having to keep attacking. The moment we go into defense mode, they will eat us alive.

My phone rings as I help my mom clear off the table while Emma does the dishes.

“Mama,” I say as I stare down at the screen to find that it’s Zara calling. She shakes her head when she sees me approaching, her hand holding a cloth coming to rest on her large waist.

“You can’t already leave,” she complains. “You haven’t even had tea with us, Ziad.”

“I gotta go.” I kiss her on the cheek and turn my back to her, walking out of the kitchen as I pick up the phone.

I wave Emma and her dad goodbye, and I’m out.

“Talk to me, baby girl,” I say as I pick up. “Are you making me money?”

“Hard to make any money when there’s barely anything to sell. And don’t call me baby girl.”

I run a hand through my hair as I unlock my car. Just as I’m about to open the door, my eyes catch a green matte truck driving past my house.

“Text me everything you got,” I tell Zara as I follow the truck with my eyes. “All your stock. Emma and I might have a solution to the problem.”

I hang up before she can say anything and immediately call another number.

“What’s up?” Logan says on the other line.

“I’m pretty fucking sure I just saw the brothers drive past my mom’s house.”

I hear something fall to the ground. Probably Logan dropping the tool he was holding while working on a car. “What the fuck? That’s deep NSC territory.”

“Yeah.” I get in the car. “Elliot and Ethan are looking for trouble. And they might well fucking find it.”

The two are stepbrothers, but everyone just calls them the brothers. They’re high up in the Kings’ hierarchy and very close to Kayla. They shouldn’t be in NSC territory. It’s a risky move. Bold.Threatening.

“You got the info they want,” Logan spells out the problem as if I didn’t know.

“And they’re not getting it. I gave them my conditions. I want a fight in the Death Cage with one of them.”

“That’s never going to happen, and you know it.They’re too scared to lose the North Shore.Or to die. This isn’t even important, Xi. Just lower your conditions and give them the info. Get some territories back and be happy with that.”

Pulling away from my mom’s house, I get on the road to drive back to mine. “No,” I say categorically. “I want my fucking town back.”

For the second time tonight, I hang up on one of my friends. Problems keep piling up on my plate, but the hunger to dominate the North Shore never falters.

* * *

Fuck.

Time flew by while I was checking stocks with Zara, and I’m now running late for the meeting with the Lucianos. I look at the last text from Emma asking where I am. I need to be there in twenty minutes.

It takes me half an hour to make it to the restaurant and I hurry inside the family-owned Italian place on the nice side of Silver Falls. There aren’t many people here. Two men are eating by the window; their old suits stretched to the limit as they shove pasta into their mouths. There’s a woman behind the bar, using a cloth to dry some glasses. It smells like garlic here, and it’s making me hungry.

Emma is sitting on her own at a small table at the back. She cocks an eyebrow at me as I approach her, totally unimpressed at my ten-minute lateness.

“You are so predictable, Xi. It’s actually ridiculous.”

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