Kingpin (Court University 2)

“Yeah, broke my family apart.” That was one way of putting the colossal damage that had ensued.

“So he’s not a dick because…”

“It was the last thing he wanted.” The words chilled me to say, that last conversation I’d overhead him and my mom having. He hadn’t wanted to leave her, the last thing he wanted.

“We don’t love each other, Gen. Never have, and you know that,” he’d said, holding her as she cried all over him. “Aren’t you tired of pretending? Don’t you want a chance? A chance to be happy for you and not someone else?”

I then got to hear how my parents’ entire marriage was a sham, chess pieces in their world of affluence and money. I guessed they’d met through shared circles and their parents had pushed them into it. They hadn’t even wanted to get married, but had to appease. Dad had been all in, but just couldn’t do it anymore. Not after he found Clarise.

He’d fallen in love.

Swallowing hard, I fought tears now, LJ’s image blurring. The last thing I was going to do was a cry in front of this guy. He might use it against me.

“So he didn’t want to leave,” he said, thank God not noticing my tears. “But he did, beauty queen. If that doesn’t make a guy a dick…”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Then what is?”

“Things can be complicated. Are complicated, but that doesn’t mean I have to watch him flaunt his new love around.”

My voice quivered after that, and I hated it, even more when LJ dragged his fingers through my hair. His touch was absolute heaven, and I absorbed it in.

“I think you should go to the wedding.”

“I should?”

His eyes met mine through the mirror, my hair in perfect waterfall curls across my shoulders. He made me look even better than I possibly could on my own, a miracle as the curls framed my face. He smiled a little. “Because it’s complicated, and you obviously love your dad.”

Words harsh, though they hadn’t meant to be. Still, they jarred my reality. I did love my father.

I was just mad that any of us had to go through this.

It angered me my parents had put us in this position in the first place, and I resented my dad. Resented him for being strong enough to choose his own path. The way in which he did it only made it worse, deceitful and behind my mom’s back. That, outside of everything else, made it even harder for me to ever forgive him. I wasn’t sure I ever would.

“It’s lovely,” I said, giving LJ a compliment. “What you did is lovely. To my hair?”

“Props from the beauty queen herself,” he said, unplugging the curling iron out of the wall. He smiled a little. “I’ll catalog that.”

I was sure he would, my hand looping around his bicep. The flesh hard, I didn’t know what I’d do with him once I had him.

I’d just wanted to touch him.

His eyes smoldered like raging fire, his hand reaching and propping against the wall. He had this way of completely closing me in, clouding my brain. His thumb touched my chin. “Now what?”

I didn’t know what. I didn’t know how or even if I should. This guy was so dangerous and was obviously mixed up in a lot of shit I had no business getting mixed up with. I mean, I was pretty sure my dad put away people like him, dabbling in some of the things he dealt with. A million thoughts traveled behind my eyes, and though I think he had some too, he came up with his conclusions a lot quicker than me.

He let go, his expression hard. “Try not to burn anything else. I might not always be there to save you,” he said and then was giving me his back. He always did that, walked away.

Which made what I was considering not two seconds ago even worse.

Chapter Fourteen

LJ

Alexi Marvelli sat atop his actual throne, topless women cascading from the ceiling around him like greenery. They spun on shimmering silks, a lavish display in Alexi’s crystal palace. Niko and I were presented to him here tonight, the Crystal Palace the viewfinder to the rest of Alexi’s gentlemen and women’s club The Cherry Bomb. The Cherry Bomb held the traditional flair for a club like this, fire eaters, animal tamers, and tits…

Lots and lots of tits.