Fuck! I try to hold the shiver that wracks through my body at the sound of those words. He smirks and leans in, kissing my lips. I let him. One… because he’s a good kisser, and two… because I’m a little afraid of him, and three… well fuck, because I like it when he kisses me. Anywhere on my body. He’s a damn fine kisser.
He pulls back, and I keep my eyes closed for a second longer smiling when I look up at him.
“Don’t disappoint me, Isadora. I would hate to have to hurt you, or anyone else around you.” He lets me go and turns to walk off. My hands begin to shake when he’s no longer touching me, my nerves are shot and my head is all over the place.
I watch his gorgeous body step back inside the club, and it isn’t until the door shuts and the rain becomes heavier that I turn to leave. Wondering what tomorrow will bring.
11
Jasper
“You’re to stay away from her. Do you fucking understand?” I tell Ace with a glare that could melt ice, somehow she has grown on me and the thought of another man touching her makes me so angry that I could kill whoever thinks about it. He simply stares at me. “Ace,” I say, demanding he answer me.
“Fine! I found her first, you know. You stole her.” He waves his hands in the air, shaking his head as he walks away.
“Boss, it’s time.” Gabe hands me my pistol and I holster it as we leave the house. “Two men. One’s out the back the other in front.” I give a curt nod as the car takes off. “It’s over one-hundred thousand now, too, boss,” Gabe fills me in as he reads from his iPad.
“Who let the debt get that bad?” I ask him. Small business owners aren’t allowed to be in debt to that extent, especially when he already owes me his life to begin with.
“You,” he says putting the iPad away.
I look to him and he casts his eyes down. “How?”
“We warned you last month that he was borrowing against the business.”
“Of course, he was,” I moan sitting back.
If I had a choice in the world of what my life would be like, this wouldn’t be it. I was born into this world, so it’s all I know. But this is not what I would choose. I do this because I was raised, groomed and coached for this, not because I choose to do it.
Despite not wanting this life, this is the life I was given, so I live it the best I can. Yes, that comes with harder days than the rest, and some things need a show of power to evoke fear to earn respect more than others. My father was feared for so much worse than me, I am not like him.
The car comes to a stop out the front of a small delivery center. Robert helps us ship drugs and launder money. Now he’ll be useless to me, and I’ll have to find a replacement. Fuck.
“Where’s Robert? Back or front?” I ask Gabe.
He simply nods his head to the front.
“Go through the back entrance and secure his son,” I tell him as we get out.
Carter walks in with me while Gabe and Ace slip out back.
It’s quiet, the shops on this street are closed. Opening the front door I spot Richard straight away counting the cash behind the till, he spots us and freezes. His eyes look everywhere, and I see the exact moment he knows what we’re here for. He runs, straight out the back. I begin looking around the shop for things I can use, but there’s nothing of value. I drop a package on the floor and hear it clunk. When I bend down to retrieve it, Richard’s being escorted back inside. Tim, one of my men, has him around the throat and Richard’s son is in Gabe’s hands.
“You want to run from me, Richard?”
“No, sir. No.” He shakes his head and Tim lets him go. Richard drops to his knees in front of me and shakes his head, his hands in a prayer position as he speaks. “Please. Please, give me more time.”
“You had time, Richard. Plenty of it.”
“What did you do, Papa?” his son asks, looking at his father with a scrunched-up forehead.
Richard ignores him and looks at me with pleading eyes. “Just give me time, more time.”
I shake my head. “Time is not something I’m willing to give. You’ve had enough time.”
“Let me pay you back. What does he owe you?” the son asks. He’s young but not young enough that he doesn’t understand why we’re here. I would say he’s in his early twenties.
I tell him, his face pales.
He looks to his father. “How could you do that? This was Grandad’s shop, and it was meant to go to me. How could you do that?”