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For once, she was standing up for me. Percy gave me a wink that told me he knew exactly what I had done to our beloved brother and he was on my side.
Good.
He was someone I needed on my side, especially if Zane was trying to take over every part of the empire our father had built and subsequently split when he retired. Zane was given most of the split since he was the eldest child who could take it on. Percy had been banished to a life on the seas thanks to the multiple warrants for his arrest in multiple cities but he still managed to control the criminal element from his boat in the ocean. I was handed the clubs and brothels, the call girls and the parts of the business no one wanted to touch. And I had turned it into the empire it was today.
We all sat back down and looked at our dinners. I was so excited to get back to the mansion that I barely wanted to eat but with Percy being here, I knew we’d all be stuck here for hours, finding out what’s been happening with him. I had to say, I did miss my brother. He was the only one out of the family who truly understood me for me.
He understood the darkness in me because he was dark himself, although I found he had a tender heart when you got close enough to it so he wasn’t regarded as a bastard like I was. I’d never let any woman close enough to be able to hurt me.
I’d seen what a woman could do to a man when she had his heart. I was not about that, no matter how lonely my underground solace could be.
Now if I had ever been able to find someone as dark as me, someone willing to do what needed to be done…well, then I may just rescind the chain on my heart.
But I doubted I could find such a woman.
“Tell us why you’ve come,” Raina asked, her attention on Percy who sat beside me.
“I missed my family, is that not enough reason?”
Raina was happy with that answer but I could sense we’d be having a private conversation shortly. There was no way he would risk his freedom for a simple family dinner.
This wasn’t going to be good.
My little captive would have to wait.
Percy joined me in my car after dinner. He’d sweet talked Raina into a false sense of security about why he’s back, and Zane had long since gone, desperate to figure out where his mistress had gone without raising alarm with anyone. I loved to see him so unraveled. But that left me, and I knew my brother well enough to know that his visit was not one of familial bond.
“What is it?” I asked before starting the car.
“Not here, take me back to the docks.”
I put the car into gear and headed down the hill to the city center, past the hotel where I had Paisley taken from and toward the harbor.
“You can wipe the smirk off your face,” he said but I could see he was smiling too. It had been far too long since he’d gotten under Zane’s skin and he was loving it. “How much do you know about the sex ring under Blackjack?”
The smirk disappeared the second I heard the fucker’s name. Percy had broken up his sex ring in the middle of the ocean and killed all of his men that he knew about. But Blackjack, the leader of the operation, had been handed to me to take care of. I knew we’d need him again so I’d locked him up in a makeshift prison in the dungeons of my mansion. He was fed once a day and he got adequate UV to keep alive but that was it. He was as low as they came.
“Not a lot.”
“The operation has started up again, I may need your help.”
“You’ve got it. Do you need him back?”
“He’s alive?” Percy asked me, a little surprised.
“You never know when you need more information from the twerp.”
He nodded. “That’s true. Okay. Ask him about who would take over the operation. See if he gives you anything.”
I nodded as I pulled up at the dock.
“And don’t give Zane too much grief about his little fling.”
“I won’t,” I smiled at him again but I knew I would. Percy knew I would. It’s why he laughed heartily as he got out of the car and headed toward his men. I took off before I led the cops here to arrest my brother and headed home. The drive from the docks to my club had me thinking about the lowlife in my dungeon. I knew he would prove to be handy once again and that had been why I hadn’t killed him.
Ren was there to greet me when I got into the club. He looked weary and I knew it had to be because of the firecracker in my mansion.
“What’d she do?”
