“She wanted Beyonce-level money and fame without doing Beyonce-level work. She wanted to sleep her way to the top, namely with me as her benefactor, but I wasn’t obliging her.”
Janita looked at him. “You never had a relationship with her?”
Hawk’s face looked circumspect. As if the question wasn’t so black-and-white. “I considered it,” he admitted, “when I first met her. She seemed like a sweet girl. But I quickly saw the real Kem, and it wasn’t pretty. At all. So no, I didn’t have a relationship with her.”
Von glanced back at his sister. He knew she was inwardly pleased.
But when they arrived at Hawk’s house, they all became somber. It would be the first time Hawk was back home since that beat down. But Janita and Von were surprised, when they entered the home with him, when he didn’t seem bothered at all. It was as if that was in his past and he wasn’t trying to bring it into his present too.
“Where are your maids and butlers and groundskeepers?” Janita asked.
“When I left for L.A., they were told not to return to work until ordered to do so. When I woke up out of that condition I was in, I ordered my butler and maids to come over and do a cleaning from top to bottom. But I haven’t given the orderfor them to return fulltime yet. And don’t worry, Nita, they are being paid their regular salaries.”
Janita smiled. “That’s good,” she said, because it had crossed her mind.
“Want us to do a sweep of the house just in case?” Von asked him.
“Thank Von, but that won’t be necessary. My household staff would have discovered if anybody was hiding in here when they came to do that top to bottom cleaning. They know how strict I am about thorough cleaning. But come on,” he added, as he began heading for his staircase. “I’ll show you to your rooms.”
Janita and Von looked at each other. Then Janita looked at Hawk. “Our rooms?” Hawk turned and looked at her, but continued to walk. “What rooms? Your father said he would fly us back to Brackenridge whenever we were ready to go back. Which we told him would be the day you got out of the hospital. Which is today.”
“No way,” Hawk said as he stopped walking completely. “Not after that car crash. I’ve already decided that both of you are staying here with me until my guys can figure out if that ambush on you and Von was in any way related to what happened to me.”
Janita was floored. “You think what happened to us in Brackenridge was related to what happened to you here in L.A.?”
“They get me out of Brackenridge,” Hawk said. “Then suddenly they go for you. I’m back in L.A., and suddenly they go for me. Yes, I think it’s related.”
“So, you think Kemberly was jealous of my sister,” Von surmised, “and that’s why she hired somebody to try to kill us?”
“No, DeVontay,” Janita said, dismissing that out of hand. “That girl is not jealous of me!”
“That’s what I think it is, yes, Von,” said Hawk. He wasn’t dismissing it at all. “And that’s why you’re staying with me.”
Brother and sister looked at each other. They still didn’t know how to process it. “But,” said Janita as her brain tried to put it all in context.
“But what, Nita?” Hawk asked. “You thought you and Von were going to give up your lives to stay by my side and never leave me, and I was just going to say thanks, put you on a plane, and call it a day?”
That was exactly what they thought would happen. Although it wasn’t exactly what they had hoped would happen. “We were thinking something like that, yes,” Janita said.
“Well that’s what you get for thinking,” Hawk said and Von laughed. “You’re staying with me.”
“Me too?” asked Von.
“Your sister is staying with me. There’s no question about that one,” he said as if Janita had no say in that decision. “And if your sister is staying, I assumed you would be too. I take you and Janita as a package deal. I get one, I get the other one. Two for one,” he said with a smile.
Von’s heart soared. But Janita still didn’t see the practicality of it. “But what about Cooper Security?” she asked.
“It still exists. I had my accountant buy the building where your office is housed, so you needn’t worry about rent anymore. And I also ordered him to pay off your car loan, but he said your was totaled in that crash and the insurance company is taking care of that. Cooper Security is fine. Because from here on out, I’m Cooper Security’s only client. And you’re live-in security. You two belong to me.”
They both could hardly believe it. Before he knew it, they both bum-rushed him and hugged him so hard that he laughed and staggered backwards. But their gesture of affection for Hawk was how they felt in their hearts. He would never knowhow wonderful they felt to know that they weren’t alone in this world anymore. That they belonged to somebody.
But in equally, they would never know how wonderful it felt to Hawk to belong to them. It was a win-win as far as he was concerned.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Later that night, after all three of them had taken long baths in each of their separate ensuite bathrooms, Janita cooked a dinner for them that they all enjoyed. Then Hawk retired upstairs to his bedroom, Von retired upstairs to his bedroom, and Janita cleaned up the kitchen and handwashed the dishes: she never cared to use dishwashers. Then she made her way upstairs too.
But before she went to her bedroom, she walked in the opposite direction, and around a corridor, to Von’s room. When she opened his door and peeped inside, she saw him sitting in a chair, in front of the TV, playing a video game. And when she saw her baby brother acting like the kid he still was rather than this whole grown-up he always had to be around her, it made her heart sing. They’d been through so much heartache together. Everything they tried seemed to fail. Was this their turning point?
