Grip Trilogy Box Set

“How was she after . . . well, you know?” Amir lifts his thick bushy brows. “Dinner.”

“She’s Bristol,” I say wryly. “She’s fine. Ask me how my mom is. That’s a better question.”

“You guys talked since Sunday?”

“Have we talked?” I pffft. “She’s called me like eight times. She felt bad about the way things went down, but she still wants to talk sense into me. She thinks I’m in some kind of phase with Bristol. It’s not like I haven’t dated white girls before. I’ve dated Black girls, Asian, Latina. Everything in our species.”

“Yeah, but you ain’t ever brought a girl to Sunday dinner. Ms. Mittie knows you’re serious about Bristol. She knows you think Bristol is the one, and she ain’t okay with you marrying a white woman. She told us that when we still thought girls had cooties.”

“Ma has been consistent, but Bristol is the one. She always has been. She just had to trust me to be her one.”

“It’s like that?” Surprise stretches Amir’s face from top to bottom. “So, y’all are already talking marriage?”

“Hell, no.” I laugh at the thought. “Do you have any idea how long it’ll take to convince Bristol to actually marry me?”

“It was obvious on Sunday she’s into you. I mean, I wanted to salute after the speech she gave.”

I saluted her, all right. My dick was at attention under the table the whole time she was talking and was not “at ease” until I had her bunched up against that steering wheel with every inch I got fucking the hell out of her.

“I’ve made studying Bristol Gray my life’s work.” I lean back in the comfort of the SUV’s leather seat. “Marriage will scare her to death. She’s seen too many bad ones. The worst up close. It’ll take some time, but I think I’ve proven I’m a patient man.”

“And what about Qwest?” Amir’s frown comes quick and heavy. “You heard from her?”

“Nah.” It pains me to think of how Qwest got caught in the drama between Bristol and me. “I ended things almost a week ago, and we agreed we wouldn’t talk for a while.”

“So does she know about Bristol? Does she know you’re already with someone else?”

“I never gave her a name, but I told her there was someone I wanted to be with who didn’t want to be with me.” I shake my head. “Then Bristol and I got together the next day. We’re keeping things quiet until it’s public that Qwest and I called it quits.”

“Yeah, if it comes out about you and Bristol while folks still think you’re with Qwest . . .” The look he gives me has “oh shit” written all over it.

Qwest in the role of woman scorned, even if I didn’t technically cheat, would not be a good look. For any of us.

“Yeah, we need to get ahead of it,” I say. “I’ll bring it back up with Bris.”

“Does Rhyson even know yet?”

“No.” My cocky grin comes fast. “Serves him right, too. Bristol told him how she felt about me weeks ago and he never let on. Asshole.”

“You think he’ll be happy for you?”

“Yeah, but Rhys can’t figure out if he should protect me from Bristol, or Bristol from me. He knows for sure he wants to protect the business in case anything goes wrong between us. He doesn’t have to worry about that. Bristol and I are solid now. Ain’t no going back.”

“Is she back to managing you?”

“Yeah, no reason not to now.” I shrug and turn my mouth down at the corners. “She’s so damn good at it.”

“And that dude she was, um, dating?” Amir asks the sentence like he’s tiptoeing over a minefield and Parker is a trip wire.

“They weren’t dating.”

I trap the truth behind my teeth. I can’t even tell Amir that Parker slept with Bristol while she was basically unconscious. I can’t get it out of my mind, the way he grabbed her on the tarmac. All the messages he’s left, even though she’s told him it’s not happening. The extra senses my mama says we have tell me this dude’s nature is fundamentally crooked. He won’t hesitate to play dirty to get what he wants, and he wants Bristol. I may have grown up in the hood, but I’ve been straight as an arrow all my life. For this man, I won’t hesitate to get a little bent if it means protecting her.

“Hey, you still got them contacts with Corpse’s boys?” I ask.

Amir looks at me like I’m smoking crack and just offered him the pipe. Our moms steered us clear of the Crips, but Amir’s cousin Corpse crossed over to the dark blue side. With a “b” name like Bran- don, he changed his name when he joined, and became Corpse when it was clear he had a talent for assassination.

“I ask you about Charles Parker—one of the richest dudes in the world, by the way—and then you ask me about Corpse? Uh-uh. Nah, bruh.”