“What do they want? Do they want me to come collect my father?”
Shane tried to feel something more for his dad, but it was really hard. He’d spent all of the life that he remembered, poor, struggling, and Shane had blamed his dad for it for years. It hadn’t gotten better, until Shane had been able to start making his own money, however he had to do it. He was mainly legal nowadays, but that hadn’t always been the case. For a long time, Shane made money taking the risks that others didn’t want to.
“I don’t know exactly what they want. It was one of the elders that got in touch with me. It would seem that they think they need you.”
Shane always said that they would crawl to him for help one day, after they had betrayed their family and his mother’s bloodline. Shane didn’t want to think about it. He had gone through hell because of the Montauk’s decision to kick him and his father out. It was hard to run to their aid now, knowing what they had done in their time of need.
“What is my father even doing with them?”
Devin shrugged, not saying much. Shane was worried about his dad, but he’d grown up worried about him and what he was going to do next. He wasn’t prepared to leave, but he knew that he had to. He had a thriving business, many businesses that needed him at the helm. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t just drop everything and leave, could he?
Shane thought about Vivica and knew that she was going to have to help out, as well as Devin. He didn’t like throwing the two of them together, but they did work well together and between the two of them, Vivica reading people and Devin’s knowledge of how Shane worked, was the only thing that he could do, with such short notice. Shane was about to say something when Devin told him the rest. One of his cousins was now leader and was looking forward to him coming around. He didn’t know what that meant, and Devin didn’t either.
“Am I there to help or fight?”
“Hell if I know. Do you want me to stay or go?”
Shane sighed and said that he needed him to stay and take care of things.
“Let Vivica help you.”
“The new hire?”
Shane agreed.
“The human?”
“Yeah, the human. She’s lived on the streets for years and has more intuition than most, even us. She made a call the other day that saved me time, let her do that for you. If you want to know which way someone is going in a deal or the temperature of the room, take a break and talk to her.”
Devin was surprised and Shane asked him what was wrong.
“Nothing, Shane. I’ve just never seen you trust someone else so quickly, definitely not a human. Is there something going on between you two that I should know about?”
Shane was quick to say that there wasn’t, but he also at the same time, wanted to know why he was asking all of those questions. It was easy to see that Devin liked Vivica. Shane didn’t want to leave them alone, but he had no choice. He certainly couldn’t take Vivica with him. He laughed inwardly at the idea of it. He liked to imagine the Montauk clan’s faces when he walked in with a human on his arm.
“Good, so that is settled. I have got you a flight, if you want to take the civilized way.”
“Screw the civilized way, I just want to get there and get this over with.”
“It would take all night. Your choice.”
“When is the flight?”
“In an hour.”
Shane sighed loudly. “Well, I guess I better go grab a few things then.”
“I’m going to leave. I will have Ernest take Vivica in the morning. You won’t have to worry about anything, Shane. I will keep your empire running while you are gone.”
Shane scoffed. “It’s more like a house of cards but treat it well.” Shane had to stop himself from telling Devin to treat Vivica well too. Maybe he didn’t want her to be treated that well. He didn’t like the camaraderie that the two of them shared and he knew that with his absence, that bond was only going to grow stronger.
Devin left and Shane went to go talk to Vivica. He didn’t want her to find out that he was gone in the morning from Devin. He wanted to personally tell her and before he could really think about it, he was pushing in Vivica’s door. He expected her to be up because he expected everyone to be up like him, but she was fast asleep, just as peaceful as she had been before.
This time though, things were different. Vivica wasn’t wearing her clothes, any clothes from what it looked like. His senses were in overdrive, and he could smell the warm body that was in the bed. She was fresh from a shower, and it looked like she had just collapsed into bed and covered up with the sheet. The rest of her was covered, but the thin sheet did nothing to hide the view of her body or the curves that her clothes tried hard to hide. There was no hiding them now and Shane was surprised that she wasn’t as wispy as he had imagined. She was curved, ripe for the taking, and he was next to her bed, closer than ever. He said her name to wake her up and stop his view. It wasn’t something that he wanted to do, but he had to pull himself together. Why did Shane have such a profound reaction to Vivica?
He said her name gently and watched her move. The sheet was pulled down lower and he started to see real cleavage. It wasn’t something that he hadn’t seen a million times before, but before, it wasn’t Vivica’s tit. Why that mattered, he had no idea. It was all Shane could do to stay tethered in the moment.
“Vivica, I need to talk to you for a minute.”
