Chapter One
Duke
“Shit,” I groan the second my eyes pop open, before wiping the sweat off of my forehead with the back of my hand. Looking over at the alarm clock I see there is still four hours until my alarm goes off and I have to get up for work. Rolling onto my back to stare at the ceiling, knowing there will be no more sleep for me tonight.
There are things that I remember as if it only happened yesterday. Hell, there are times when I wake up in the middle of the night and can do nothing but remember, and tonight is no different. I swear when it happens, the feelings get more and more intense. As if I am a little boy again. There. Thankfully, I didn’t live there long, but it was long enough to do lasting damage. I’d have to equate my time there, as to being Hell on Earth. Although, it takes all I have to try and not think about it. It usually starts after I have had the worst fucking day of my life.
The little league team, the Lions, I was on had just won the Minor League championship when my world changed for the worse. My grandparents, Layton and Beuela, were taking me for celebratory pizza when the tragedy struck. It had started to rain, and a teenager lost control of her car on a two-lane highway. She crossed the center line and crashed into the car that was carrying my grandparents and me. I was the only survivor from the wreck. The ramifications of being the only survivor messed with my ten-year-old mind.
When I thought things couldn’t get any worse for me, life decided I was wrong and made sure it did. The system placed me in a foster home that was low-key racist as fuck. With my ancestors being black and Chinese, I didn’t stand a chance. Till this day, I don’t know why they agreed to take me in. But I would have better off on the streets of Chicago, and that’s saying something.
The Forrester’s pretended to be good religious people, but they only cared about the check they received monthly for me. All it took was my arm being wrenched out of the socket and then I was put in a group home. Meeting my brothers at the group home was the first good thing that happened to me in over a year. Then the Roades came into our lives and my life changed again... I felt like I didn’t deserve the good fortune. Shit, I still don’t.
My alarm finally goes off. Sighing, I get out of bed and head for the shower. My mind starts to wander, and I start thinking of Esther Van Adams, my sister-in-law’s best friend. In an instant, my cock is hard. It’s been months since I’ve been with a woman, but none of them can hold a candle to my fiery emerald. I vow to save my seed for her and ignore my hard-on, while I continue to wash up. Obsession doesn’t even begin to describe the way I feel about Esther.
I first saw her in a picture my brother Baron had from the PI he hired to keep an eye on his wife, Frannie, and knew she was going to be mine. This little piece of information, I decided to keep to myself. The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life is not to claim her the moment we met face to face at Baron and Frannie’s wedding. We were only able to speak briefly, before Frannie pulled her in another direction.
Now, I’ve got my own PI on her to keep her safe. That is what I tell myself, but that’s not the only reason. She’s mine and God help any man who comes between us. I put on a suit and tie before driving to work. When I get to my office, Bernadette, my secretary is already there with my coffee and my bagel.
“Good morning, Mr. Roades,” she says, being cheery as ever.
Walking over to retrieve the coffee and bagel, I can already tell this is going to be one of those days. The day to day work and life of a CFO is anything but fun. Despite the annual and quarterly duties, I see to for the government, IRS mostly, I also play a part in helping my brother’s decide policy and strategy, then implement it among the accounting and finance teams. Today is policy deciding day. We schedule those days back to back just to get them over with.
“Good morning, Bernadette,” I say, taking the cup and bag from her hands before entering my open office. After I sit down, she comes in with her almost bigger than her iPad Pro and sits down across from me.