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Alone, Nate gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “Thank you for this opportunity. I promise I won’t let you down.”
“Damn right you won’t,” I teased and then added. “There’s no better person for the job.”
Nate nodded and then headed out, giving me one last look over his shoulder.
In the living room, Kent was sitting on the sofa, but stood when I entered, always the gentleman. Even though we were cousins, we were also friends. We grew up together and were close. But once I left for college and came back, we didn’t get to see much of each other.
“So…what’s up?” I sat next to him, settling in and he sat next to me.
“I… I just wanted to see if you were okay.” He turned to face me, his eyes filled with concern. “I just wanted to make sure that you were handling everything okay. Getting shot is… uh… difficult to deal with.”
Kent came over just to check on me? Wow. But then again, he was the one who had picked me up at the Gold party house that day so, yeah. “Um… yeah. I’m okay.” He shrugged. “I’m all healed.” My body was, at least. But my heart may take longer.
He nodded, concern filling his eyes. There was definitely something on his mind. Kent was the kind of person who didn’t have a Poker face.
“Okay, spill.” I chuckled. “What’s on your mind?”
“I could never hide anything from you. Could I?” He chuckled, shaking his head. Then his expression turned serious. “I’m sorry about the whole Underboss thing. All this time, I knew you would probably take over one day, since you were the closest thing he had to a son.” Kent waved his hand dismissively. “I just want you to know that I’m not mad. Unlike everyone else, I figured it would be you when you came back. And he was having you handle certain things all along. I could see that he was grooming you to take over a long time ago.”
“So, you didn’t tell anyone else to prepare them?” I asked, sitting forward.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t like to speak about things unless I know. I don’t start rumors. I prefer facts, not hunches. But the men should have planned for it regardless. Anyway, they aren’t all bad.” He shrugged. “They just have to get used to the idea. Just give them time.”
I shrugged. “It might take them a while.”
He nodded, smiling. “I’ll see what I can do about that. Talk you up.” He shrugged. “Shouldn’t be difficult since you stopped Frank and Matt from skimming. That shocked some people, but it was well played. You gained a lot of respect.”
“Thanks.”
“Nice to see you here Kent.” Reggie’s voice made my skin crawl. He reminded of the supervillain in one of those action movies. Just the sound irritated me. He walked into the room and my father trailed in behind him.
“Little Addie.”
“Reggie.”
He sat on the chair across from me. “It’s nice to see you in good spirits. I didn’t want to come here and find you depressed about your… current situation.”
“My current situation?” I sat up. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
Reggie glanced at my father and then back to me. “Well, I mean you’ve done nothing to sway the others to accept your ascension to Boss when your father dies. And then you decided to meet with the Sky family and got yourself and Nate shot. He almost died, Addie. Knowing that you’re the one responsible for that could cause feelings of depression.” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t want you to harm yourself.”
“Oh, no. I’m not there yet.” I leaned forward in my seat, looking him straight in the eye. “I have a long list of people I’ll kill first before I’d even consider killing myself.”
And I was looking at the one at the top of my list.
