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When Jace finally hung up, I watched from the corner of my eye as he uneasily gaped down at the screen, at my call logs. Coincidentally, Phantom’s name and number was right there.
After a moment’s consideration, Jace sighed to himself, darkened the display, then deposited my personal cell in the cupholder beside him.
My heart went out to the poor son of a bitch. After the shit with Vicki, getting shot, beaten,and nowbeing tortured to Hell and back by his father, it was a miracle Jace hadn’t lost his shit or worse, offed himself. I knew what he was going through. Not only were he and I in the same boat with our love lives being legitimately fucked, but I, too, was forced by Damien to do and endure things that had me ready to pull the trigger on myself many, many times. For example: I assaulted an unconscious woman with Damien right there watching with a gun to my head. It was a long story, but after all was said and done, I was ordered to kill her. The guilt from stealing her innocence and ending her life still haunted me to this day, and it always would. I imagine it was the same, if not worse for Jace when it came to Vicki.
And Samara…Fuck… She was my cousin.My first fucking cousin to be exact. For a hot minute there I’d forgotten all about that intense ball-busting, jaw-dropper.
Outside of my mother and Uncle Xavier, Samara was the first and only other real blood relative I had, and who, up until recently, I never knew existed. I didn’t agree with what Unc did. Protecting his wife and daughter was one thing. That, I heartily agreed with. But to leave them, only to meet Rhett’s mother a few months later, wed her—and then play Daddy to a five-year-old Rhett after the man had literally just abandoned his own wife and daughter—was the most demented shit I’d ever heard, not to mention the bitterest pill I ever had to swallow. It angered me, deeply, because all I could think about was Rhett and Samara and how brutally pissed they’d be once the truth came out. This shit was going to destroy them. What’s done is done though. As much as I hated it, I didn’t have the power to change the past.
God knows if I could, I would.
I pulled up at the club a minute later and parked around back, my stomach doing somersaults. Instead of jumping out right away, I sighed and fetched a joint out the center console.
I quickly lit it and hit it hard as I tenderly rubbed the base of my neck with my free hand, hoping it’d ease my nerves. All this extraneous bullshit had given me a migraine, too.
“You good?” Jace asked, flashing me a worried look as I offered him the joint. I sighed again as he took it, inhaled a few puffs, and blew out the smoke before passing it back.
“Yeah, man, I’m fine. Just stressed is all. You ready to do this shit?” I huffed in a few more puffs then opened the car door, pinching off the cherry.
“No, I’m not. But what other choice do we have?”
I offered him an empathetic frown and then got out, gathering the crutches from the backseat as Jace opened his door and began to slowly ease himself out. After passing them over, I rushed to open the back door for him. Once Jace was inside, I followed alongside him for a bit until we reached the main lobby.
It was still early, about eight-thirty to be exact. The club didn’t officially open until ten, so I was a bit flummoxed as to why there was a full staff here this early. The waitresses, bouncers, and dancers were running around cleaning, setting up the tables, and helping the bartenders restock booze like they were prepping ahead for some big event.
“What’s going on?” Jace asked, his brows furrowing as he, too, confusingly surveyed the scene.
“I’m not sure.” My eyes dart to the side of the main stage, near Damien’s office. The door opened, then out stepped Damien. I tapped Jace’s shoulder and pointed out his approach. “Looks like we’re about to find out.”
Jace gripped the crutches and straightened his spine, growling low under his breath as the worst monster to ever walk the fucking Earth trudged closer to us.
“Place looks good, doesn’t it?” Damien asked, his soulless orbs carefully scrutinizing the area, looking anywhere and everywhere else but at us. “Come now, boys. We best get started. Guests will be arriving soon.”
Guests?
I spared a glance at Jace, who raised his brows at me as Damien turned his back to us. “The other lords?” he muttered in wonder.
“Yeah,” I nodded, having thought that exact thing. If we were having guests, then it had to be Jerimiah Sinclair, Vladimir Crane, and Jared Alesi. “I mean, who else could it be?”
Jace gave me an honest shrug before he readjusted the crutches, hesitating a moment before he followed in tow behind his father. When we were in, I shut the door behind me. A tremor of fear ricocheted up my spine as I observed Damien remove a gun from his hip and place it down on his luxurious built-in bar.
“Well don’t just stand there,” he snipped, curling his lips in an indignant sneer. “Grab a drink. You both look like you could use one.”
I looked to Jace to see his eyes rooted to the floor, his body shaking, chest slightly heaving. Realization dawned on me, and I internally cursed, knowing there was nothing I could say or do with Damien standing right here with us.
This is where Vicki was raped and killed.
Moving first, I grabbed Jace’s shoulder, nudging my head for him to follow my lead when our eyes locked. He forced back the tears trying to dot over his eyes, then nodded and reached out to grab the barstool closest to the door, opting to keep as much distance between him and Damien as possible.
“So, Boss,” I said, choosing to ease the uncomfortable wave of tension swarming the room, as I leaned over to fetch Jace and I some glasses and fill them full of liquor. “Any important updates we should know about?”
A knock came to the door right when I sat down beside Jace. Jasper, one of the bouncers, stuck his head in.
“Uh, Boss?” he said nervously.
“This better be important.”
“There’s a-uh, Marcus Briggs here to see you, Sir.”
