“Do you love her?” Charles asked.
“With my whole heart,” I replied without blinking.
Cade poured me another drink and pushed the glass toward me. “You better protect her with your life. If anything happens to her because of your shit, I’m coming for you and your slick-mouth brother since I know he likes to play Robin to your Dark Knight.”
I almost smiled at the reference. KC was a huge fan of the Batman movie franchise, the Christopher Nolan one though because he said that version of Bruce Wayne was gangsta. I didn’t disagree but I also wasn’t a superhero fanatic.
“Nothing will happen to her on my watch. If it does, you can believe I’m burning all this shit down behind her.” I swallowed the dark liquid in one gulp.
“I don’t like the way you handled this,” Charles said. “I knew your father and your grandfather. They were both honorable. Cutthroat.” He nodded. “But still honorable. You dating and marrying my daughter behind my back was shady as fuck and I don’t like it.”
For the second time today, I was gonna offer this man respect. He was right in that he knew my family. This truce between both worlds wasn’t new. And I would honor those relationships for as long as they made sense to me.
“Noted,” I replied.
“I want her completely insulated from this shit,” Charles said. “The same way I’ve kept my wife out of my business, you better do the same.”
They both knew Dakota was on the Platinum Ryders payroll as well as a few other clients who dealt with underworld shit. I suspect they allowed it because they knew they had the upper hand here in the state to protect her should shit go left at any point. She nor her company would ever be implicated in any crimes as long as they had the connections. Now, with her carrying my last name, she was covered on both ends. Nothing would touch her legally, nor would anyone on my side of the tracks dare to even breathe too deeply around her.
“I got her,” I told him.
Charles set his empty glass on the desk and ran a hand over his low-cut, heavily gray beard. “What’s the status on who took those pictures?”
Now that, to their way of thinking, they’d sufficiently put me in my place, we could get down to business.
“The owner of that gossip page had an expensive oxy addiction that fueled a huge gambling debt he owed to Spades. Post likes, streaming and consistent viral posts from the celebrity secrets he exposed had him keeping up with his loan payments to the Ryders.”
“So, wait. Dude is one of your customers and he posted pics of you on his trash ass page?” Cade asked, scowl affixed on his face.
“Sounds like you aren’t providing good service,” Charles replied with a smirk.
I gave a dry chuckle. “He said one of his assistants got the photo from one of her connects on the ground and posted it without his permission. I don’t tolerate liars, so he swallowed one of my bullets for dinner. The photographer lost his fingers and had his throat slit before they both went to see the lilies.”
“What the fuck does that mean? You a gardener now?” Charles asked.
It was Cade’s turn to chuckle. “It means there is no evidence.”
“And all the pictures have been taken down from social media. I told you, I got her. Dakota is safe with me.” That was my last declaration concerning my marriage to these men. The news was out now. They could either accept it and move on or continue being pissed about it. I didn’t give a fuck which they choose. All I knew was that when I said I was Dakota’s new protector, I meant that, should the need arise, I would protect her from her family as well.
CHAPTER 16
DAKOTA
“I guess I have to start showing up at you and your new husband’s office when I want to speak to you in person.”
My brother didn’t bother to turn around as I stepped into my office on Wednesday morning. Nina, my receptionist, wasn’t at her desk when I came from the back of the building. I smelled coffee so I assumed she was in the kitchen. I kept a small in-office staff, with only two other employees besides the members of my alpha team, Emily and Nina. They all knew Cade and wouldn’t hesitate to let him into my office when I wasn’t there. Well, Emily would’ve definitely had questions about why he was here so early in the morning, but she wouldn’t have let it bother her enough to call and give me a heads up that he was waiting for me.
It had been a few days since the family dinner, and I was feeling better about them all knowing. All wasn’t totally well though, since my father hadn’t said more than two words to me after his meeting with Fury on Sunday. And I hadn’t heard from him at all in these past few days. But I was trying not to worry about that. I issued an apology, introduced my husband to thefamily and stayed long enough for Fury to enjoy a huge slice of Mama’s bread pudding with rum sauce.
“It’s too early for dramatics,” I said passing the chair where he sat with his long legs stretched in front of him.
Setting my keys and phone on my desk, I eased the strap to the new Hermes Kelly 25 bag off my shoulder. It was one of several gifts from Fabian that had been waiting for me Sunday when we returned from dinner. When I asked what the occasion was he’d said, “Because I love you.” But I knew he was just happy that I’d finally stopped hiding our relationship and that instead of waiting until all my stuff was moved out of my house, I was officially living with him now. Whatever the reasons, I’d practically melted at his feet that night, then I’d taken my husband into my mouth and sucked him until he was promising to buy me the fuckin’ moon.
That pleasant memory, unfortunately, needed to be pushed aside as I took my seat and finally let my gaze fall on the man who had been my best friend for as long as I could remember.
Cade was effortlessly good looking. One of the few Donovans who had those gray/green eyes which perfectly accented his honey-hued complexion. Add his black wavy hair and goatee, six-foot-two-inch stature and charming personality when he was in the mood, and women were lining up to get a taste of him. That is until Shawna stepped onto the scene with her Glock. Shawna was an agent too and worked with Cade and his profiler team as an analyst. She was perfect for my brother, and I was beyond thrilled that he’d found his person and started a family.
“Nah, I’m not the one being dramatic,” he replied, pulling himself up in the chair so he looked more like he was here for business, rather than lounging in my office like he was about to take a nap. “That’s your ass trying to ghost me.”
