I got dressed in a Palms Angels jogging suit, grabbed my keys, and headed to my parents’ house. The forty-minute drive to my parents’ gave me time to think. About Cassie. About Lieutenant Grant. About the fact that I hadn’t thought about entertaining a woman since Devyn. Until now.
My parents’ mansion sat on five acres in Walton Hills, ironically, the same neighborhood where my house had just burned down. I drove through the gate and parked behind Omni’s Maserati and my dad’s truck.
The smell of food hit me before I got through the door. Mac and cheese. Fried ribs. Greens. Peach cobbler. And hopefully potato salad. Cooking was my mother’s love language. I retired from her school cafeteria job and told her she could open her own restaurant, build a business, and do whatever she wanted. Now we own five restaurants, a lounge, with our flagship location,Ignite, being local, and the rest spread across the South and West Coast. My baby sister, Omni the culinary genius, was head chef. But she also owned her own restaurant. We’d turned this into a family business, which wasn’t shocking; my family meant everything to me.
“Vinny!” My mama came around the corner, pulling me into a hug before I could even close the door. I towered over her frame, but I always knew who the boss was. “Baby, I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I’m good, Ma. I promise.”
I kissed her forehead, and she leaned back, hands on my face, studying me with that stare that always cut straight through to the truth. Stacia Bryns was fifty-eight but looked thirty, all that rich dark skin I got from her and eyes that never missed a damn thing.
“You sure? Are you sleeping okay? Eating?”
“Stacia, let the boy breathe,” my pops called from the kitchen. “He just walked through the door.”
“I’m just checking on my child, Stetson. I don’t say a word when you sweat, Omni.”
Both of them were ridiculous about us, which had never been a secret. I followed her into the kitchen, where Omni was already sitting at the islandwith a glass of wine, looking entirely too comfortable in joggers and one of my old Pinnacles hoodies.
“There he is,” she said, not even looking up from her phone. “Mr. Trending Topic himself.”
“Don’t start, Omni.”
“I’m not starting anything. Just stating facts.” She finally looked up, and her face softened. “You good though? For real?”
“Yeah, I’m good.”
My pops walked over and dapped me up, pulling me into a hug. Stetson Bryns was sixty-two, built like he still played ball himself, with a salt-and-pepper beard and the same intensity I brought to the court. He’d been my father even though we didn’t share blood. To me, that wouldn’t make us any closer. He’d been in my life since I was five years old. That’s when Omni came along. Stetson adopted me, changed my last name, and made life easier for my momma; he would always have my respect because of that.
“Glad you’re safe, son. The house can be replaced. You can’t. I’d be no good if someone took you from us.”
“I know, Pops.”
Mama set a plate in front of me, piled high with everything she’d cooked. I dug into the mac and cheese, and for a minute, nobody said anything. Just the sound of forks on plates and the comfort of being around people who loved me without needing anything from me.
“We need to talk about Cassie,” Pops said finally, leaning back in his chair.
I took a slow breath because for a minute, I had forgotten about her. “We don’t because I’m handling it.”
“How you handling it?” he asked, tone firm but not harsh. “Because from where I’m sitting, you’ve been ‘handling it’ for months, and now your house is gone. And I can bet you the little squirrel turd is in the wind.”
“Stetson—” Ma started.
“No, Stacia. He needs to hear this.” Pops looked at me. “Son, I love you. We love you. You know that. But you got too much on the line to be playing games with somebody who clearly ain’t stable. You should’ve pressed charges the first time she showed up uninvited.”
“I know.”
“Do you?” Omni asked. “Because you’ve been making excuses for her crazy ass for months now. I’m pissed right along with them.”
“I’m not making excuses. I fired her. I didn’t know she would do all this.”
Cassie had never been my girl, kissed or hugged. I knew I was a celebrity, but how you lose your mind over some dick you never had and would never have was beyond me.
“Firing her triggered her,” Pops said. “She needs to be in jail. Or at least have a restraining order in place. Something legal that makes it clear you’re serious. That way, if push comes to shove, you can protect yourself. Stand your ground.”
I shook my head because nothing about potentially hurting Cassie or a woman, period, sat right with me, but it was her or me. I would always choose myself. Stetson had lived a completely different life before now, and a threat was a threat, woman or not. I knew he was talking in code.
“She took it too far, so I plan to do the same. I promise to press charges. Don’t worry. Giveon is already on it.”
