“Aww, fuck.” He twisted his hips, and his lips found my earlobe. “You gon’ be good for me, Kitty? Are you going to listen?”
“Yes,” I moaned. “I’ll be good for you. I promise, Tune.”
“Don’t . . . don’t promise me shit . . . Just do what I say! Fuck.” Neptune pumped into me a few more times, then his body jerked. “Fuck!”
The second outpour of profanity sounded like it came from regret, not satisfaction. I wanted to ask if something was wrong, but the warmth in the room turning cold was all the answer I needed.
“Where are you going?” I asked, sounding as desperate as I felt.
“To throw the condom away. Well, what’s left of it. The shit broke,” Neptune answered with his back to me. “My driver is outside. He’ll take you to a pharmacy before he takes you home.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“Does it look like I’m laughing?”
My nostrils flared as I pulled on the bottom of my dress. “I don’t know. I can’t see your face since your back is facing me, like a coward.”
Neptune faced me before taking slow steps backward. “Your back was to me when I fucked you. What does that make you?”
“You’re a fucking?—”
“Businessman, and you already agreed to the deal. If you renege, I’m going to tell my folks how you crossed the line, and that’s going to start some shit. I’ll make sure of it.”
Chapter 6
Neptune
“Wait, so let me get this straight. You went missing three weeks ago because Jeremiah’s daughter and her homegirls snatched you up, and now you’re fucking the broad?”
I pointed the butcher knife in my grasp in my cousin’s direction. “See. That’s why I keep my business to myself. I only told you because she’ll be around. I felt like I needed to tellsomebody.”
“She’ll be around? You must like this bitch.”
“Aye! Cut the disrespectful shit.”
Pluto looked at me with a goofy, gold-toothed smile. “Yeah, you definitely like her.”
I remained quiet and paid attention to the body we were working on. The night before, an out-of-towner got beside himself at the casino and lost his money and his life. I wasn’t the one to put him down, but my uncle asked Pluto andmeto make the dead man disappear. Since my family invested in Morty’s Mortuary over forty years ago, the owner gave us access to the property whenever we needed a place to work.
“She’s on her way up here,” I blurted out.
The amusement on Pluto’s face switched to annoyance. “Why the hell would you have her come here?”
“Because I wanted to.”
“Yeah, okay. You actin’ all nonchalant. Have you told your dad you’re dating his enemy’s daughter?”
“Jeremiah isn’t his enemy. They used to be tight before messyniggasinfiltrated their program.”
“How you know history won’t repeat itself?”
I licked the gold covering my teeth. “I don’t play about my family or the business I plan to inherit. If I felt like Kannon would be a threat to either, I would’ve killed her the night I got home. I sent for her.”
My cousin gave me a sideways look. “You and Chrissy just broke up, and you’ve already found her replacement?”
“Nobody hangs around forever. My mama left her son because he was born with Down Syndrome. She showed me a long time ago thatmuthafuckas come and go.”
I discharged a grunted breath. Anytime Valerie was the topic of conversation, my mood grew sour. She disappeared seventeen years ago, but I could visualize the day as if it happened yesterday. Four years ago, my father mentioned she was dead, yet I never cared enough to fact check the information. She had been dead to me since she disappeared.
