Once Coby and I finished showering, we went downstairs to eat the breakfast the chef had prepared. Hunter was nowhere to be found, which meant she was blowing off steam with Abel in the gym.
“Why did you risk your life going to see him?” I asked.
We hadn’t talked about it last night. I just told Coby and Hunter I’d deal with them in the morning before passing out from the pain and booze.
“Because he’s the only family I have left and I wanted to see for myself that he was still in one piece.”
Not anymore.
When Roshaun eventually woke up, he was going to find himself without the hand he used to slap my wife. I didn’t kill him. Not yet. But I had taken great pleasure in causing him a shitload of pain.
“You’re wrong,mo aingeal. He’s not your only family. You have people who love and adore you so much that they’dneverraise a hand to you.”
“Like you?” she said with no real ire.
“Exactly.”
Coby sighed but didn’t agree with my point. How could she?
“I think…” Coby mused out loud, drawing my attention. My eyes fell to her left hand resting on the table. She was deep in thought as she toyed with her custom engagement ring. “I think if we get married, Hunter will leave. She won’t stay.” When I simply stared at Coby for an explanation, she obliged. “Last night, she kept talking about balance—about jealousy, ownership, and making things fair. I think if we want her to be us, you and I can’t get married. I know the position this puts you in, so what I guess I’m saying is…give it some thought because you may have to choose.”
I frowned at that. “Between you and Hunter?”
Coby shook her head and then squared her shoulders. “Between being Boss or being with us.”
Staring off, I didn’t say anything for a long while as I considered all that Coby had said. I felt her gaze on me, and she looked sort of desperate for an answer that I wasn’t ready to give. It’s not that I wanted to be Boss that badly. It’s that I knew in my gut there had to be a way I could have both, so I nodded. “Thanks for letting me know.”
Coby sighed and pouted, resigned to having to wait for my answer. I almost smiled because her brattiness had alwaysamused me. We finished eating, and then I pulled her into my arms to say goodbye properly before I headed out.
“I almost had her, you know,” Coby said after we finished kissing slowly like we had all the time in the world. “She was about to say yes before you came in with your moodiness and fucked everything up.”
I snorted. “You did not.”
“I did!” she squealed in delight.
I pursed my lips skeptically, and she punched my arm.
“She’s not coming,” Abel grumbled for the third time.
“She’s fucking coming,” I snapped back as we stood by the elevators dressed in all black.
“I don’t know what you said or did, but she actually almost kicked my ass this morning. She’s not coming.”
I didn’t respond as I stared at the stairs, waiting for her to appear. I didn’t want to admit that Abel might be right. I’d texted Hunter the time and place to meet tonight, but I didn’t tell her why.
Another five minutes rolled by—three minutes past our meeting time—and still no Hunter. She was supposed to meet us at midnight, and she was always prompt, so I knew there was a good chance she wouldn’t show.
I grappled with either leaving without her or dragging her out of bed, but since waking Coby would ruin the mission before it started, I refrained.
Just as I was about to say fuck it and leave without her, Hunter appeared at the top of the stairs dressed in dark clothing as I’d instructed. Her long hair was braided back, and her face was blank as she approached us.
“You’re late,” Abel couldn’t help complaining.
“Sorry, I thought you’d learned how to change your own diaper by now,” Hunter retorted.
“Ignore him,” I said as I stabbed the button for the elevator.
Hunter chose not to speak to either of us as we climbed inside and rode it down. Abel found that hilarious, silently laughing at my expense behind Hunter’s back.
