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Rochelle immediately started grinning.

"You see what I'm saying, girl? That man can't go five minutes without coming to see about you. My kid’s dad rolls his eyes every time I pull up on him at his house. I don’t know if it’s because he hates seeing the kids or me, but your man comes to the hair salon to see his bitch. I know that's right.”

I laughed, handing her two hundred dollar bills, including a forty dollar tip.

“See you next week at the same time. You got me down?”

“You know I always have a seat in my chair for you, Mrs. Essex.”

“Clock it.”

We hugged, and I continued out of the door. The second I stepped outside, the smile I'd been wearing for Rochelle disappeared. Caine wasn't the person sitting outside waiting on me, and when I saw that text, I didn’t get those same butterflies I get when I’m about to be around Caine. I just got moths instead. Big, nasty ones that were nuisances to my entire life.

Parked outside was a black Rolls-Royce with the engine running and someone inside who I wish I never dealt with in the first place.

I walked to the passenger door and was irritated before I even opened it.

"Hey, baby."

Dragon spoke, smiling and showing those gold teeth above his full, dark, curly beard that hung damn near to his chest. Dragon was handsome in his own way, with charcoal-black skin, a strong jawline, and features that probably would've made women turn their heads if he took better care of himself. The problem was the smell of smoke that always lingered on his body. That smell lived in his beard, his clothes, his cars, and probably damn near everything else he owned.

I rolled my eyes and climbed into the passenger seat, slamming the door.

I looked over at him, already irritated that he had pulled me away from the shop, but there wasn't much I could say about it when I knew exactly why he had the power to do this to me.

Years ago, before Caine and I got married, and I was in high school, I was stupid enough to go out drinking and driving in the new car my father had gotten me. That night after the party, I dropped my friends off and was driving down the street over from my house when I hit a homeless man, sending him flying in the air and into a ditch.

I still remember the thud of him hitting the hood, me gripping the steering wheel with both hands, and the screeching halt I came to. I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to do next, and knowing that I was drunk, I drove off, leaving the man bleeding out in that ditch like he was roadkill. Back then, my daddy was into the drug game hard, and I knew he was always a few blocks over at the trap house Dragon owned. I was drunk, scared, and hoping that he knew what to do, but when I pulled up looking for my father, he had left, and Dragon called me in the house when he saw how upset I was.

“What’s wrong, baby girl?” I remember him asking, and I told him what I had done less than ten minutes before.

Dragon comforted me, wiped my face, and told me, “Your father out in some pussy, but Uncle Dragon got you, baby.”

I remember I was just happy to have anyone willing to protect me that night.

Dragon took me home, took care of the body I hit, and helped set it up to get my car stolen that night, in case the cops ever figured out who’s car it was. Dragon must’ve never mentioned it to my father because my father never said anything to me.

Dragon on the other hand, reminded me every time I saw him that I owed him for covering up that I’d killed a man.

“What do you need, Dragon?”

"You know what I'm here for, an update. How did he take the pitch for the baby with your home girl?”

I folded my arms across my chest.

"He is okay with it. We actually already started the process, unfortunately."

He let out a low chuckle.

"Oh, someone is a little jealous over their man, I see. Ain’t nothing wrong with that, Butterfly."

Butterfly was a name that he started calling me not too long after he helped me with that homeless man. He said I was beautiful and free like one, only I’m not sure how free I was now with him holding shit over my head.

"But Dragon, I’m going to be real with you. I don't know how long this is going to last with Caine. If this surrogacy shit doesn’t work out, I’m sure he will bite the bullet and divorce me. That money I would get in the divorce has nothing on the money he will inherit once his grandfather leaves him all those businesses. I just can’t see him risking that, waiting on me to produce, or find an heir."

His face didn’t change from that smirk, but I could see in his eyes that I had irritated him.

“Why the negativity, Butterfly? We said we were going to make this shit work, and that’s what we're going to do. Once he owns the Essex’s Empire, that makes it half yours, and you know what comes after that.”