If only she knew…
Draping his arm over my shoulder, Ocean kissed the top of my head as we waited for Hunter to finish putting her makeup on. “Ready?” he whispered so Hunter wouldn’t overhear.
I nodded eagerly as I bounced up and down on my toes. “Hunter, go outside!” I squealed when my excitement became too much to bear.
She turned from the mirror at the vanity table in our bedroom and gave us both a weird look. Ocean was better at keeping a straight face than I was. I was grinning like a maniac because it was Hunter’s birthday today, and Ocean had pulled off the mother of all surprises.
After trying unsuccessfully to get us to spill the beans, we followed Hunter and Coco through the house and out the massive front doors. Just as she stepped out from under the portico, her birthday surprise appeared.
An off-white 1993 Ford Thunderbird.
Abel was behind the wheel as he parked the old car in front of Hunter, who had gone utterly still.
It seemed impossible for my smile to get wider as I watched the shock play out on Hunter’s face.
Abel climbed out of the car after killing the engine, which didn’t knock or sputter like it had before the car went into the pond. She even had a fresh paint job and a new interior.
It had taken a while to repair the extensive water damage and find all the genuine parts needed to restore the old Thunderbird to her former glory. She was in even better shape than when Hunter found her, but still a cranky old bitch.
Honestly, it would have been cheaper and easier to just buy Hunter a new car, but she’d never love another car the way she loved Deb.
Before the three of us came together, this car had been the only place that ever truly felt like home to Hunter. And she’d sacrificed Deb to save me.
Abel nodded in deference to Hunter and me before tossing something to Ocean.
It was a long platinum chain with two silver keys hanging from it.
Ocean stepped forward and draped it over Hunter’s neck. I watched him kiss her cheek, and then I did the same. Hunter’s hand trembled when she reached for the chain.
Once she felt the car keys resting against her heart, she dropped to her knees and sobbed. “Debbiiieeeeeee!”
A moment later, Kellan burst through the front door behind us. “Is it here? Did I miss it?”
No one answered him as Hunter sobbed.
This time, they were happy tears.
Deborah was back, bitches.
OCEAN
My father’s failed attempt to frame me for Roshaun’s death had forced me into the offense just as he wanted. Instead of cutting down everyone in my path to get to him and dying in the process, I started by cutting off his cash flow. It had taken months and copious amounts of bloodshed, but I’d finally weakened my father enough that he’d lowered himself to request a meeting.
For days, I’d been keeping him on ice.
Now that my plan B and leverage—Michael fucking Black—was stripped, gagged, and bound to a chair in my basement, I extended my father an invitation of my own. If he wanted to meet, it would be on my terms.
It had taken a lot of time and manpower to hunt the shady pimp down since he was under my father’s protection. I thought it was dirt Black had on him, but my father would have simply killed him and been done with it. Instead, he’d been protecting him.
It meant Michael had something my father wanted.
And what my father wanted above all was Chicago. Michael’s old stomping grounds.
It was currently in control of the Knights.
They weren’t mafia. They were a force far worse. A family twice as old as ours, who only dealt in secrets and blackmail and couldn’t be bought. The Knights did the jobs that no one else had the stomach for and had toppled organizations like theFolaas easily as snapping a twig. It pissed my father off to no end that he couldn’t run them out.
Securing Black had become even more vital after learning how he planned to help my father take over Chicago. It would be an act of war and one we couldn’t win.
