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GENEVIEVE
Smiling for the cameras, I cut the ribbon, the flashes almost blinding me for a moment, and then I’m shaking hands and letting in the first guests of the hard opening of my new business. It’s a restaurant, and all the staff are women from hard backgrounds—women who have suffered, women who need help.
I plan to franchise across the country to provide more job opportunities, but Joseph also inspired me to set up sponsorship programs to help street kids as well as some shelters.
Like being a silent partner in the Hudson.
Collapsing back into the town car, I turn my head to look out of the window as I kick off my heels after a night of wining and dining the rich, stealing all of their money and giving it away to a new charity I’ve founded for street kids, run by street kids.
Like me.
The past few months have been crazy. Business is doing better than I could have ever imagined. In fact, I’m now in line to be the richest woman this year, but it all means nothing next to the ache in my heart.
I miss them.
I feel them close at all times, and once, it was enough, but not anymore. Their laughter is almost fading in my mind, and their smiles are disappearing like they are ghosts. All that’s left is the mocking masks I last saw them in. We’ve been apart longer than we were together, and I worry they will grow bored and leave.
I have to trust in my family the way they are trusting me to set up our lives together, though, and I am. Chaz was sentenced last week and is now in prison for fraud, embezzlement, theft, and so many other charges, it made my head spin. I stood in the stands, watching with a smirk as he was led away. I’ve framed pictures of it on my wall, with me grinning and him red-faced as he’s led away in cuffs.
Not only that, but next to me was his mistress, Clementine, or Clem, as I’ve started calling her. It seems scorned women shouldn’t be fucked with. She handed over everything she had on Chaz and testified against him. After, she invited me for dinner. It should have been awkward. After all, we tied her up and she watched me fuck someone, but despite it all, we are friends. She’s fun, down to earth, and the refreshing person I needed in my life. She holds no judgement, and she doesn’t ask because she knows I won’t answer. Instead, she just supports me, and she’s quickly become one of my best friends.
She has a wild side as well, maybe even worse than mine. She’s so desperate to feel alive, to feel everything in this world. I know the guys would like her, and despite how we met, I hope one day, she finds someone or someones who make her truly feel alive, who sees past the titles and the riches she holds to the brave, loyal woman underneath.
The car jerks to a stop, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Sorry, miss, there is a temporary deviation,” the driver calls, but I just nod. “Strange, it wasn’t here an hour ago,” he mutters, but I tune it out.
We are directed down a tiny side street, and he seems nervous. Awareness prickles at my neck, my instincts coming online, so I sit up and stare through the front window, watching. I see the exact moment they step from the shadows into the middle of the road, blocking our path.
My heart leaps.
I scramble for the door handle and rush from the car. I feel more alive than I have in months. Every nerve and cell come alive, knowing they are close. The driver’s door opens quickly.
“Miss, please let me call the police!” the driver yells after me, hesitating at the door, but I stride around the car and stop between the headlights as I stare at them.
"Don’t. They are friends,” I tell him without looking.
Four grinning masks stare back at me, the dark around them absorbing everything but the neon light. I tilt my head as I grin at them. "I missed you.”
“We missed you too, baby,” Archer replies, stepping forward. The street is empty at this time, bar us.
“It’s time to come home,” Gage rumbles.
“We can’t live another day without you,” Eric says.
“So you better have room for us,” Booker adds.
I step away from the light and into the dark, towards them, my loves.
My family. I can’t help but laugh.
“It depends. Do you plan on tying me up again?” I taunt.
“Yes.” Archer laughs. “Because you’ll fucking love it, baby. Now be a good girl and get in the car. We have places to be. We need our fifth member back.”
The excitement has me licking my lips. “A hit?” I call.
“What else?” Gage holds out his hand. “Come on, my love. We can’t do this without you. I cannot do this without you. Being away from your side has been fucking hell. Every goddamn second drags by, driving me crazy.”
