Devi~
The entire night was turning out to be a disaster I didn’t think possible.
Knocking on Keith’s apartment door, Cassius stood behind me like a bulletproof sentinel, and I couldn’t deny my attraction was distracting me from the problem at hand. When his hand had reached up to cradle my face in his office earlier, I had wanted to just fall into his arms and let him make the entire world go away. But I had managed to come to my senses before I had done anything reckless.
I still had no idea why he wanted to get involved in this mess, but I could demand answers later. Right now, I needed to talk to Keith and get the truth. All of it, this time. I also needed to get Kim her car back. After texting her that I still needed it, she had texted me back to keep it for as long as I needed it. As long as I was safe, that was all she cared about, and I silently thanked God for heragain.
The second the door swung open, Cassius was pushing his way past me and my brother, and entering his apartment without an invitation. But it wasn’t as if Keith could keep him out. Even if Keith hadn’t been beaten all to hell, he was no match for Cassius Sire. But then, who was?
“Hey, what…what the hell?” Keith exclaimed, his head swiveling back and forth between me and Cassius.
I followed suit, and once I was inside the apartment, I told Keith. “Shut the door, Keith. We need to talk.”
He gestured towards Cassius. “Who the fuck is this?” he demanded but shut the door as I had asked.
Ignoring his question, I told him about going to Alvin’s. “I went to Alvin Fischer’s to pay off your debt, Keith.”
His eyes weren’t swollen shut anymore, so I could see them widen in shock. “What?” he screeched. “Are you fucking insane? Why would you go pay him without me? And where in the hell did you get thirty-thousand fucking dollars, Devi?”
“I gave it to her,” Cassius said, finally speaking.
Keith’s eyes shot his way. “And, again, who the fuck are you?”
Cassius straighten, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Cassius Sire.”
The words were like a physical blow because Keith stumble back a bit before looking back over at me. “Have you lost your mind, Devi?” he bit out. “You borrowed money fromCassius Sire?”
Anger was quickly making an appearance at Keith’s nerve. “Since I couldn’t get financed anywhere else, yes, Keith, I borrowed money from Cassius Sire,” I fired back. “What the hell else did you expect me to do? Did you have a better plan?”
“I told you I would handle it!” he yelled, and my heart broke a little bit more with his genuine denial.
“And how were you going to do that, exactly?” Cassius asked. “The three nights at ten-grand each?”
Keith blanched. “How-”
“Alvin wouldn’t take the money, Keith,” I finally told him. “When I went to pay him, he refused to accept the payment. He said he told you what he wanted, and I had three weeks to warm up to the idea.” I willed the angry tears back. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He looked genuinely hurt, but I couldn’t let that distract me. We were in deep shit, and we needed to figure out a way out of it.
“Are you serious?” he choked out, shocked. “Devi, I may be a fuck-up, but I’d let Alvin kill me before evenvoicingwhat he had suggested. You’re my fuckingsister, Devi.” Keith shook his head. “You can’t…you can’t really believe I’d…”
My heart felt like it was bleeding right down the middle with the genuine pain in his voice. While, no, I didn’t think Keith would ever do something like that to me, I’ve been inadvertently dragged into his mess, and all because the guy he owed money to had taken a fascination to me.
“I don’t,” I told him, granting him mercy. “But we need to figure something out if he’s refusing the money, Keith.”
Keith straightened as he looked at me. “I’ll handle it.”
Cassius let out a cold laugh at that. “Like fuck you will,” he said darkly. “It’s obvious you can’t handle shit Westland, or else you and your sister wouldn’t be in this fucking mess to begin with.”
Credit to my brother, he didn’t cower at Cassius’ truth. “Apart from being our financier, I don’t see how any of this is your business,” he told Cassius.
When Cassius pulled his hands out of his pocket and started making his way towards my brother, I jumped in front of him, my hands on his chest. “Don’t,” I blurted. “Calm down.”
Oblivious to the fact that Cassius was desperate to get his hand on him, Keith said, “Give me the money, and I’ll go pay him. He’ll take it from me.”
I whirled around to face my brother. “I’m not giving you the money, Keith,” I told him. “And even if I did trust you with it, why would he take it from you and not me?”
“I never agreed to his deal, Devi,” he replied. “I’d never do that. Alvin was just trying to manipulate you into agreeing with his sick idea.”
“You think so?” I felt Cassius’ warm hands rest on my shoulders, and Keith’s eye widened again when Cassius stepped closer, his heat coating my entire back, as it looked like we were a couple. I knew that’s what the familiarity looked like, and I couldn’t deny how nice the idea seemed.
