Page 93 of Royal Desire

I take a drink of my lukewarm coffee and Sadie passes the fruit to my mother.

I clear my throat. “Mom, there was a fire. Ms. Sinclair lost her home. She, Blake, and Ruby are going to live here until they can rebuild. If that’s a year, fine. If it’s two, even better. This is the first time you’ve been downstairs in a month. And while we’re eating together in this house, Sadie will join us.”

Sadie takes a sip of coffee. “Payne, it’s really okay.”

“It’s not.” I turn back to my mother. “And lastly, and most importantly, Ruby and I are back together. If you ever disrespect her again in any way, I will force you to leave. And to be clear, I will always choose Ruby. I’ll choose her over everything in life. Do you understand?”

I don’t know if my mom is going to pass out or start crying. She closes her eyes, rolls her lips in, and tries to claim the tiniest bit of composure. Her hands tremble when she smooths the already perfect tablecloth in front of her. She finally looks up at me. “Well then. I think I need a Bloody Mary.”

Sadie’s gaze jumps to me.

I shake my head and turn to my mother. “If you’re going to kill yourself with alcohol, you can do it in private. You will not drink at this table.”

Mom slumps in her chair.

I turn to Ruby. “See? Nothing has changed.”

Ruby smiles. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Her eyes shine with our new motto.

Fuck it.

She leans toward me, and there’s no way I’ll ever leave her hanging. I meet her halfway and our lips meet. After a long, lingering kiss, she whispers, “One big happy family, right?”

I put my hand to her chin to hold her to me. “Only with you here, baby.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

MIA

Payne

We drove over thirty minutes to the next city with a decent mall. It’s not like I suggested we shop at Harrods or Saks or Bloomingdale’s.

But when I pulled into the parking lot, Alice whacked me on the back of the head from where she was sitting in the back seat. “I might’ve dropped my grudge against you for getting engaged to someone other than my Ruby, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to shop at the fancy stores. Take me to Wally World.”

I glanced at Ruby in the passenger seat before turning back to Alice. “If you don’t like Dillard’s, there’s a JCPenney. This is my treat. I’ll get you what you want.”

“Too fancy for my blood. And don’t even think about suggesting Target. I know what I like, and I like the housecoats from Walmart.”

Ruby and Blake were smart enough not to argue. Since I didn’t want to get hit in the head again, I put it in drive and took Alice where she wanted to go.

We’ve been here for almost two hours. I can’t remember the last time I was in a Walmart. It’s nothing like I remember. I don’t hate it. Alice might be onto something.

Blake wandered off into the store, but I don’t let Ruby out of my sight as she shops next to her grandmother. I’ve been sending clients to voicemail left and right. It goes against everything I am, but I need to prove to myself I can take a day off. As far as I know, there hasn’t been an apocalypse on Wall Street, so everyone can wait until tomorrow. And it’s not like they didn’t have my undivided attention all weekend.

That is, other than getting back together with Ruby, finding out one of my clients works for the Mafia—not the kind who has my back—and that very client attempting to kill an old lady I very much care about.

Other than that, they were my sole focus for three days.

But this is a call I cannot send to voicemail—Eli Pettit.

“What do you mean Enzo Caruso is missing? How do you know? I told you to bring your investigator home.”

Eli goes on to explain. “Because it’s you, and he didn’t mind staying another day or two, I told him to stay and see it out. That’s not on your dime. I was curious. We rarely get into an organization like the Carusos. Call it a hunch or clairvoyance or just my old life as an FBI agent, but I need to see this through. Enzo hasn’t been seen since yesterday morning. That is not normal for him. My guy followed him into the cathedral for mass. Enzo took communion and never returned to his pew. He ducked out the side door near the confessionals. The church was packed. By the time my guy could get there, Enzo was nowhere to be found.”

Fuck.

I scan the store around us before turning back to Ruby who’s holding up a pair of jeans to herself before tossing them onto the mountain of clothes in the cart.