Set her free? Not exactly.
They’d all fallen in love throughout the process and our family had given her a blessing to join our family. She was a Barron just like Nova or Xavia and it worked for Knight and the women.
Our parents knew what they were doing when they created matches. I could admit that, but I also knew that the chances they made four successful marriages come from an arranged marriage system were low.
I was happy for King and Knight but I wasn’t hopeful for myself, especially while being surrounded by the gangsters and mobsters around us and being bisexual, even if it wasn’t exactly outwardly.
I mean, my family knew that I liked men. Most of society did. We didn’t talk about it though. It was the worst kept family secret that everyone liked to pretend didn’t exist and I let them. I appreciated it even, but when it came time for families to throw their daughters out to be married to a Barron, I was sure Rook would get the better of the offers and out of what remained it would be up to my parents to choose a woman who didn’t care about my sexuality and could grow into a successful marriage with me anyway instead of a woman that cared where I stuck mydick before we got together but would lie and pretend just to get our last name attached to theirs and raise their family’s stock. It was going to be complicated. I knew that already.
I forced a smile on my face and Rook hit me on my back before offering me a beer.
“You going dressed in that?” He gestured up and down my body.
“What?” I blinked at him and his smile vanished.
I knew that he could tell that I’d been lost inside my own head, but he didn’t call me out on it, especially here in front of our entire family.
“We’re going out tonight to celebrate,” he reiterated.
“Alright.” I nodded and he hit me on the back of my shoulder before gripping it.
We stayed that way talking to our family, laughing and joking as we spoke about the night like we hadn’t just killed over half a dozen people and would all be sleeping well tonight.
“Alright. Let’s get ready to go out and blow some of this profit.” Rook announced.
Novalie chuckled.
“Let me do a debriefing with the guys then I’ll be ready,” I offered.
“Alright. Just let us know when.” Knight crossed his feet at the ankles while leaned back on the couch, his arms thrown behind it.
“Alright.”
I pivoted around and Rook discretely took a step in front of me. He leaned down and into me.
“You good?”
“Yeah.” I feigned shock at his question. “I’m cool.”
He looked over at me and I met his gaze. I was a professional liar. You didn’t get to lead a security team if you were easy toread and had obvious tells. My brothers knew that. I didn’t like lying to them, but it wasn’t hard either.
Rook was the best at reading me. Maybe it was because we had the same face. Maybe it was because we were closer to each other than anyone else in the family. Either way it was sometimes a toss up when it came to hiding shit from him.
I waited patiently and my smile turned into a real one when he grinned, happy with the answer I’d given… at least for now.
“Yeah, alright.” Rook stood back to his full height. “You need me to sit in?”
“Nah. I’ve got it.”
I looked at where Quazi was, and he nodded once. I repeated the gesture with Wes then let myself out of the room with both of them following behind me. I did a quick call for the rest of the team then made my way downstairs to talk about everything that went wrong and right with the night, my own form of decompression before the shit show that was going out with my brothers.
3
ASANTE NJOROGE
Ahuge smile stretched across my face as I shook the hand of the man in front of me, my eyes not even on him. I was looking around the empty club instead. I was excited about this business venture. I’d spent ten years in the military and honestly, I was ready to be a part of civilian life. I’d signed up for every thing that was offered to me while I was enlisted and my bank account reflected that. Deployments and promotions meant more money and honestly I’d been too fucking tired to spend much of it. I’d sent some cash back home to my older sister, Nadira, but that was about it.
That meant that I could afford to just hand this man the thousands of dollars he was asking for in order to secure a club.
