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“We could,” he hedges.
“But…” I hear it in his tone.
I’ve spent years with both these men at my side. We’ve battled war together, lived together, shared women together our entire adult lives. So, more often than not, we all know what the other is thinking before a word is even spoken. And right now, I get the sense Lorde feels exactly as Duke does. That she’s pretty. Which for us is code forI want her. It always has been. It’s how we’ve chosen to share women.
Lorde scratches his jaw before saying, “Sheispretty.”Fuck.Now it lands squarely on my shoulders to agree or not.
I won’t lie, the woman-girl…Christ, girl-woman? She’s fucking stunning, and there’s an ache in my dick that’s been absent for far too long, but she’s young. Too young.
Spinning back to look at her image on the news—half hidden from the cameras, fear in her eyes, and curled into herself as she runs—I know I’ve already made my decision. “Yeah…she’s pretty.”
Lorde grunts at my reluctant admission.
“Perfect little girl.” Duke’s intentional word choice bounces around the room as he enters.
Motherfucker.He just had to go and say that.
“Guess we’re taking the job then.” Because Duke and Lorde are right; she’s gorgeous, and she’d make the most beautiful little girl for us. All we have to do is find her and help her see that we’re the right men to give her everything she needs in life because being our little girl is a forever gig. There won’t be any going back.
Picking up the phone, I give Titan a call. “Yes?” he snaps out.
“This is Noble King.” Duke hits the speaker button, so I put the receiver back in its cradle.
“Mr. King, you’ll take the job? You’ll find my daughter?” The anger in his tone must be fabricated because he doesn’t sound all that concerned about the girl.
“We will,” I reply. “I’ll need you to send over all the information I’ve just requested, plus a clear image of her.”
“We?”
“My partners. Duke Knight and Lorde Prince.” He knows I work with them. He’d asked if they were available as well when we spoke this afternoon.
“Yes, yes, right. Of course. I’m responding to your email now. When will you be here? The press is hounding me, my wife won’t stop screaming, and I’m certain my stocks are about to plummet.” He growls that last part.
“Stocks,” Duke chokes out. I feel the same way. That shouldn’t even be a blip on the man’s radar at this time.
“We’re leaving now. We’ll be at the university in about an hour. From there, we’ll expand our search for her.” He hangs up before saying anything else.
“Father of the year, right there.” Duke’s sarcasm is on the nose.
“Maybe it’s how he shows his concern.” Lorde doesn’t sound like he believes that any more than we do.
As I receive the information, I skim through it before printing out copies of her picture and telling Lorde, “Do a deep dive into her family. If there are skeletons, we need to know.” He nods, grabbing his laptop and packing it up before leaving to collect the rest of his shit.
“I’ll take a look at the media footage and hack into some CCTV cameras once I find out the direction she’s headed,” Duke offers as he does the same as Lorde.
And I’ll go through Sol Titan’s background. Discover everything she’s been hiding because there’s no way a girl like her hasn’t concealed something from her parents.
TWO
Duke
For years, I lived in a directionless world. Following orders and saving the day, keeping damsels from distress, and rescuing CEOs from their bad decisions. When Noble King approached Lorde and me with the idea of starting our own security company, being our own bosses, I’d been reluctant.
I’d never been an in-charge kind of guy. I didn’t want to be the one to make the tough calls and deal with the fallout when shit went south. But Noble and Lorde convinced me I could handle that shit, and they were right. Not that I’ll ever tell them that.
We grew up together in an all-boys orphanage in West Virginia, raised by nuns and priests. As soon as we graduated high school, we enlisted together, joining the Army Rangers and working our way to the top—best of the best—until we finally got tired of dodging bullets, taking orders, and never having a home base.
When we settled in New York, it didn’t take long before we’d built Crown Security and I.T. It was the most challenging mission of our lives, but at over thirty years old, we were at the top of the field in our ranks, and now we’re in the same position once again.
