Page 54 of Vega

Wise looked at me across the table. “Say that shit again.”

I leaned back in the leather booth and looked between him and Prodigy.

The three of us were inside Crown After Dark, the strip club we owned together in Lansing. Summer rain streaked the tinted windows near the front of the club, but the bass vibrating through the floor nearly drowned out the storm.

Despite the name, the doors of the club opened at noon, and the day shift had already started. It wasn’t crowded, but a few regulars occupied tables near the stages, nursing drinks and lusting after the dancers that swayed by.

The lunch crowd was quieter than the one we got at night. There were no birthday parties, athletes throwing money into the air, or groups of women twerking more than the dancers. The men scattered throughout the room watched in silence, sliding bills across the stages while the bartenders prepared drinks behind the long, illuminated bar.

A man I had never seen in the club before sat near one of the smaller stages, drunk enough to sway in his chair while holding a glass he didn’t need. He had been loud since we arrived, throwing crumpled bills and slurring comments at every dancer who passed him.

A thick dancer with deep brown skin and a long, braided ponytail worked one of the smaller platforms in a jeweled red two-piece. Another woman with caramel skin, blonde curls, and tattoos covering one thigh moved slowly around the pole on the main stage.

Elana was up there with her. She wore a black rhinestone set that barely covered anything, and her long dark hair fell down her back as she lowered herself into a split. The few men sitting around the stage tossed bills toward her, but Elana’s attention wasn’t on them. Her eyes were fixed on me. She rose slowly, arching her back before wrapping one leg around the pole. The move was aimed in my direction, and the look she gave me made it clear she missed this dick.

I didn’t react. Elana and I had exchanged a few random, aloof text messages since I left her house that morning. She would send something flirtatious, and I would answer hours later with two or three words. Before Sonnet, I would’ve recognized Elana’s invitation for a round two and taken her up on it. Now, my attention stayed somewhere else.

Elana rolled her hips around the pole while watching me, and I barely felt anything. She was beautiful, naked, and making it obvious that I could have her again whenever I wanted, but my dick didn’t respond to her the way it should have. Lately, it only got hard while I watched Sonnet through the cameras. It happened when she paced the room in those tight little shorts and oversized t-shirt, when she bent over to inspect something, and even when she looked directly into a lens, when she found a camera, like she wanted to reach through it and hurt me. Elana had already given me her body. Sonnet hadn’t given me so much as a willing touch, yet she occupied every sexual thought I had.

Wearing only a thong and lace bra, Elana couldn’t pull my attention away from a woman who wasn’t even in the room.

I had called Wise and Prodigy to the club as soon as I left Roman. The club was one of the few places where the three of us could meet without attracting attention. Everybody expected to see us there, and our security controlled every entrance, camera, and private room in the building.

Finally, I repeated myself. “Roman killed Donovan. He believes Sonnet saw it. Cameras caught her in the area. Cameras I assumed he had wiped clean after the murder.”

Prodigy’s usual half smile disappeared. “His own son?”

I nodded slowly.

Wise folded his arms across his chest. “Why’d he do some sick shit like that?”

“Donovan was making moves to take over.”

Prodigy let out a low whistle. “That’ll get a regular nigga killed, but it’s still surprising Roman would handle his own blood like that.”

“He did more than kill him,” I added. “He blamed the Bellamys, then used Donovan’s death to start a war.”

Wise stared at the table for several seconds as he put everything together.

“That’s why he wants Sonnet,” Wise replied. “He needs her dead. She’s the only one who knows his secret.”

The muscles in his jaw flexed. Roman hadn’t only lied to me. By using me, he had involved all three of us. Nobody separated one Street King from the others. Our enemies had learned that lesson years ago.

“So, what did you tell him?” Wise asked.

“I acted like I didn’t know anything and told him that I was still working on finding Sonnet. I made him think she most likely ran off when she noticed his goofy ass minions watching her.”

Prodigy frowned. “And what are you actually going to do?”

“Keep Sonnet.”

Wise studied me as though he expected the rest of the answer to make more sense. “Keeping her… alive?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m keeping her.”

Prodigy leaned forward. “You need to explain what the fuck that means.”

“It means she isn’t going to Roman.”