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“Sure was,” Calli answered. “It’s one of the first things my husband did with me, one of the first things Cas did with Daneitha. Every person of every gender. In this family, we know how to shoot—even made sure my sweet Shiloh knows how to handle herself.”
“Is that how you ended up shooting my granddaddy?” I asked, trying to put the spotlight back onher.
Bad move.
She looked me right in the face and nodded. “Sure is. Everybody talked about how it was a nice clean shot, through and through his ass. That man had a nice one too—good balance of fat and muscle tone—runs in the family now. Good strong hips too. That’s from me, Nala, so you can direct your thanks—”
“O-kay,” I interrupted, chuckling over the road she was going down. “That’s enough of that.”
As glad as I was that what was supposed to be hospice care seemed to have taken a drastic turn, Calli’s mouth still stressed me out.
“No, I’d like to hear the rest,” Nalani said, at the same time Calli fussed, “Lil boy, Iknowyou not trying to quiet me down.”
I scrubbed a hand over my face, reaching for my wine glass as the current two most important women in my life went back and forth between scolding me and discussing if good stroke game could be passed down.
Not in those exact terms, obviously, but… still.
Since the dinner conversation was clearly going on without me, I took the liberty to check my phone when it buzzed in my pocket. Bold, considering the censuring look I’d given Nalani when her phone kept vibrating with calls.
Still, becauseeveryoneknew not to bother me during these specific hours, this was an indication there was some sort of emergency or some vital information that needed to be conveyed.
Definitely the latter.
Confirmation that the Blacks had caught up with Bree and William and had done what they did best.
Neutralized the threat.
I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed about Bree. She was a beautiful woman and could easily have hitched her wagon to another rich man, if that was what she wanted to do.
Clearly, was what she’ddecidedto do.
Just… the absolute wrong one.
It niggled at me to see if there was an opportunity to speak to her, to ask why, but… there was no point, really.
Why did it matter?
The fact was that she’d chosen someone with a clear ulterior motive, who was likely mining her for information against not just my company, but my wife.
Two things I didn’t fuck around about.
I felt exactly nothing knowing that they’d caught up with William.
Well… not nothing. I was sympathetic to how Nalani might feel, once I shared the news with her. With everything that had occurred, I didn’t think she’d be exactly heartbroken, but the man was still her father.
It wouldn’t benothingfor her.
And I hatedthat.
Especially watching her laugh and converse with my people, clearly having a good time. This was the type of thing she deserved, not family secrets and lies and having to fight for what was hers.
“I’m sorry,” she spoke up, when her phone started buzzing again, under the table. “Excuse me for a moment. I have no idea who this is, but they’re very insistent on speaking to me. I’ll be right back.”
Shit.
Usually the Blacks did things quietly… how the hell was this news already getting to her?
I didn’t bother stopping her from leaving the room to answer the call. It was probably better to not delay the inevitable. Instead, I dipped right back into conversation with Calli, Nurse Davis, and Ms. Wallace, looping in Chef when he came through to replace our finished dinner plates with dessert.
