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“Who was working last night?”

“Kev and LJ, but nobody’s seen them niggas. And their phones are going straight to voicemail.”

“They found bodies in the house?” Yomi asked.

Marco was quiet for a second. “I don’t know yet.”

“Find out,” I said. “Pull the surveillance from the block. I want the neighbors who got them doorbell cameras. I want to see who was on the street that night.”

“On it,” Marco said.

“And keep this between us. Tell Priest, but that’s it.”

“Bet.”

I hung up with him and stared out the window. The Caribbean Sea was perfect and blue, but I was ready to knock somebody’s head off.

“You think it’s Castellano?” Yomi asked after a beat.

“His bitch ass doesn’t have the balls to burn my shit down. This is somebody else.” I ran a hand over my head.

“Should we head back tonight?”

I thought about Belle at the resort. I just needed this one full day with her. Shit wasn’t gonna get figured out if we flew back tonight.

“Nah. You can if you want but I’m gonna fly back tomorrow.”

“I’ll keep checking in with Marco and let you know if anything changes.”

I nodded.

A few minutes later, we pulled back into the resort.

Yomi headed back to his villa, promising to let me know whether he was heading back to New York tonight or not. My mind was running over the shit that had happened over the past few weeks—Castellano, the shit with Deonte, and now my stash house was gone.

Three different situations wasn’t a coincidence. Someone was targeting my shit.

I’d figure it out later, right now I wanted to see the beautiful woman waiting for me in my room.

1 Play Wanna get to know you by G-Unit, Joe

10 LA’BELLE EVANS

This shit was too perfect. The villa, the weather, the food. All of it. Too easy. ⁠1

I’ve been flown out before. Miami, Palm Springs, Aspen. But those trips always felt like business arrangements. The men were decent company, the sex was fine most of the time, but there was always an endgame—getting to that damn money.

With Cardez, everything was blurry. My body was more relaxed than it had been in ages. I’d known it for weeks now and kept pretending I didn’t. I liked this man, and it was genuinely fucking with me.

I spent the morning alone while he was at his meeting. I had breakfast at the resort’s restaurant, then walked on the beach trying to figure out if what I was feeling counted as an ethical dilemma.

When I got back to the villa, I still hadn’t worked it out, so I poured myself a glass of wine and took it out with me on the deck while I called my mother.

“Daughter,” she said when she picked up.

“I’m in the Bahamas,” I said.

“Okay?”