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“I love you, Yandi, but I think it’s best if we end our friendship.” The women locked eyes. “I heard about you trying to get with Londen and telling Tussi my business. On top of that, you’ve been acting really strange lately. You know I don’t do drama. I’ve dealt with enough bad shit in my life. Finally, I’m at a really good place. I don’t want any energies around me that don’t seem sincere and that I can’t trust.”
“So that’s it? Our friendship is over just like that? You’re going to choose that man over me?”
Lei chuckled. “I’m not choosing Londen over you.Youchoose a man overmewhen you risked our friendship to get him. Even when Infinity tried to warn me about you having ill intentions with the bet, I gave you the benefit of the doubt like I always fucking do. How do you repay me? By betraying me, knowing what I’ve gone through.”
“You act like you’re the only one that’s been through some shit,” Yandi said as calmly as she could. “You aren’t so good of a person that you’re immune to struggle and heartache, Lei.”
“You’re right.” Lei stood, expression hardening. “But what Iamimmune to, is keeping people in my life who don’t deserve to be here. Goodbye, Yandi.”
It took all the restraint Yandi had to not follow Lei and push her down the stairs. Instead, she remained seated and ate her meal alone to ensure she had an alibi. A few minutes after Lei left, Yandi received a text from an unknown number that told her it was done, and a sense of peace immediately filled her. As she was leaving the restaurant, Tussi called just as he said he would.
“Yan,” he called after she accepted the call.
“It’s done.”
A few seconds passed before Tussi disconnected the call, and a wide smile spread across Yandi’s face.
forty-one
DaysEarlier
“I need the truth,Daddy. All of it.”
Lei’s request was bold. There was a chance the truth would make her feel even more disconnected from her father, but the risk was worth it. She hadn’t seen Londen for two days, and the distance was torture. Though there was no part of her that wanted him out of her life for good, Lei didn’t know, realistically, how she’d be able to look at him and not see the man that murdered her father. That, however, was her personal issue. Because the truth was, Marcuswasn’ther father; Ace was. Marcus had taken her from her family, causing them to grieve for over twenty years. If Lei was in her mother’s shoes, she would havebeggedhim to punish the man that took their daughter away. The logic of her mind was at war with the love in her heart, and Lei was determined to make sure the right voice won.
“Are you sure, Princess? Because we often think we want the truth, but those are words you’ll never be able to escape.”
Taking his warning into consideration, Lei nodded.
“Yes. Tell me everything.”
“Okay.”
With a sad smile, Ace accepted the cigar she offered, then he poured them both two fingers of cognac. Lei hoped the gesture would ease his nerves. She couldn’t imagine the conflict that filled her father. To be stuck between sparing your daughter of pain and killing the man who was responsible for filling him and his family with so much of it was no easy space to be in. And now, with the truth coming out so many years later, even more was at risk. Had Lei found out immediately, she probably would have walked away from Rose Valley Hills. Now, she was too invested in this town and the people in it to let something from her past destroy the life she’d built.
“You know that the secret society was established here in Rose Valley when the town was founded,” Ace started. “Though a lot of what we do is for the betterment of our town and its residents, that doesn’t come without a fair share of danger and issues. To keep our hands clean, the founders of the secret society came into agreement with three families who were in the streets. The Gabriels, the Santanas, and the Omegas. In exchange for the protection of those in the secret society and the handling of any issues its members might face, we give those three families free rein in the streets just as long as they keep it under wraps. They also get to have input in certain laws and regulations politically and professionally for the risks they take. Now this only applies to the things they do in The Hills, not in Memphis or any other city and state in the south.”
Ace took a puff of his cigar. “When your mother and I divorced, before you were born, it was because she didn’t like how blurred the lines were getting between the secret society and those who were in the underworld. The good mingled a bit too much with the gritty. Drugs were being exported through Memphis and Rose Valley and our image became tainted.”
“Why would that cause a divorce between the two of you?”
Ace looked away briefly, running his hand up and down his thigh. “I… I blurred the lines, Princess. There was a really long period where instead of seeking to do good, I did what our founding fathers considered evil. The money that we have is not just from our legal businesses and generational wealth; it’s from a period where I was in the streets selling drugs and guns too. For quite some time, your mom was patient with me. It wasn’t until we learned my name had been mentioned by an informant to the FBI that I realized I needed to get out. That was easier said than done. The supplier that I was working with didn’t want me to stop. He believed I had enough freedom to make him consistent money. After a few months of him muscling me into staying, I permanently ended the situation.”
Her expression was slack until she poked her cheek with her tongue. At one point, Lei vowed to share information of any crimes so those responsible would be punished. Now, casual conversations with the men in her life were becoming tests of her loyalty to them or to the law. While it was never a choice Lei wanted to have to make, the choice was easy. She’d choose them every time, even if that meant accepting their crimes and keeping their secrets.
Their eyes disconnected for a brief moment as she looked around, like the answer to the question she wanted to ask was written on the walls… because she wasn’t quite ready to hear him say the words yet.
“You… killed him?”
Ace nodded before taking a sip of his drink. “I did. After that, I got out and promised your mother if she gave me another chance, that she’d never have to worry about that lifestyle appealing to me again.”
“And it hasn’t?”
“It has…” Ace smiled softly, and Lei couldn’t help but mirror it. “But I’ve resisted. Fast forward to right before you came back. The son of the supplier I killed to secure my freedom came to the States, to Rose Valley, to avenge his father’s death. When he realized how heavily protected I was, he went after someone close to me… your brother.”
Lei tugged her bottom lip between her teeth to avoid gasping. Instead of hearing her father’s past, she felt like she was listening to a juicy book.
“Cade defended himself, as he’d been taught to, and he killed him.”
