“Tillie.”
Dad sighed and leaned forward. “I can’t be hiding any more Swans, son. It’s going to make me look weak. Something has to give. Right now? We have a war brewing because Katsia wants retaliation on you lot, and she wants to expose the Kings and The Circle. Generations of hard work is about to crumble.”
I leaned in my chair and tilted my head. “Then we kill her before she can.”
“She’s sacred, son. We can’t.”
“Sacred to who? She’s the shit on the bottom of my shoe as far as I’m concerned.”
Dad massaged his temples then put out his cigar. “Bishop, not everything is black and white. We can’t touch her because of her lineage. If we end her, we would end her family line, and we can’t be held responsible for that.”
“But she’s fucking testing both the Kings and The Circle.”
“The Circle isn’t our business, son. They will handle her accordingly, as we will.”
“Alright.” I pulled out a smoke and lit up. Dad narrowed his eyes at it and I smirked, edging him to tell me to throw it away, but he didn’t. His features relaxed. I blew out a thick cloud of smoke. “So what are you thinking, then. Because I know you have a plan.”
“I do.” He nodded. “But first, where is Madison and Tillie?”
I chuckled, flicking off the ash. “Guess.”
He shrugged, his attention drifting to the side like he didn’t give a shit. “I don’t know, holed up in a hotel somewhere?”
My grin deepened. “Wrong. Try again.”
“Bishop, riddles are your thing, not mine. Cut the shit.”
“One more guess. Come on, entertain me…”
“How about I’ll buy you some strippers to entertain you and you hurry up with whatever you’re getting to.”
A laugh shot out of me, my head tilting back. “Alright, old man.” Then I pressed my lips around the end of my smoke with a smirk. “With Mom.”
“What!” he snapped, his eyes shooting directly to me. “What do you mean with mom?”
“They’re with her, Tatum too and the kid.”
Dad seemed to mull over what I had just told him, then realization set over his features as they softened. “Well, shit, I would never guess that. It’s no secret how much your mother hates all your girls. She takes every chance she gets to mention it in every magazine interview she does.”
I snickered. “Exactly why they’re with her, and it never scared girls off.”
He snorted. “You’re my kid, that’s why.”
Dad and I hadn’t thrown around banter in a while, and it felt good to pull out the verbal boxing gloves with him. “Khales…” I went on. His face fell. “I’m just saying… she’s young.”
“Don’t get into it with her.”
I shrugged. “As long as you know what you’re doing. Just means I’ll be in the city full time come this war being over.”
“You can be wherever you need to be. For now, back to the plan.” I noticed he didn’t say college. It was because he didn’t want me to go. He had plans to have me under him full-time and learning the depth of the family businesses and how they’re run. My mom, on the other hand, was all for college. She never wanted this life for me. She didn’t realize how much she didn’t want it for me until I was much older. Little do they know, I’d already decided what I wanted to do. This was my life, I’d take over after my old man. I don’t know what the dynamic is between my mom and dad, but I’m almost certain she wouldn’t be cool with Khales banging her husband in her house.
“What’s the plan?”
“Katsia is still in Perdita, which is good. We don’t need this drama spilling out on our turf, which means we can fly there with all of the Kings who are willing, and settle this as it is.”
“Or?” I asked, skipping past the part where he said he’d have all the Kings on the same island.
“We will cross that when we get there.” He stood from his chair. “We can plan to leave for Friday, that way we have a couple of days to organize everyone.” The Kings before our generation were my cousin Spyder, Jase, and Saint’s crew. A few of the others who rolled with them scattered all over the place. All though I know Jase kept in contact with them, they had pretty much moved on to live their life, having fulfilled their duty.
“You can talk with Jase and make sure he can gather his Kings, and I’ll get to the rest.”
I stood up. “Dad…” I called out, just as he was about to leave. “Does Mom know about you and Khales?”
“Son, she’s known for a long time, now.” Then he left. As quickly as he comes, he goes.
I stretched out my neck, annoyed at both my parents now, but sympathizing with my mom. It must’ve hurt her to some extent, surely. Aside from Dad’s words, he loved her once. She was his entire world, I knew this because I’d seen the photos and heard the stories. They were their era’s modern-day Bonnie and Clyde—mafia style. So whatever the hell was going on between him and Khales, there had to be something in it for him. I headed toward the pool-house, ready to fill in Nate and Daemon. Thank fuck this house was so large, it ran the risk of running into Khales less. I headed inside and shut the door. Both Daemon and Nate were on the sofa, speaking in Latin.
“We need to talk.” Then my eyes fell to Daemon before realizing I needed to switch to Latin.
Women. Some read that word and think beauty, assholes read it and think sandwiches, but those who bathe in intellect read that word and feel power. Our bodies, built in all different shapes and forms, all bared one thing in common; power. Without us, humanity would not exist. We bear our flesh and our bodies to create new humans, and then continue to nurture and care for them, that’s why when I’d see the word “women,” I thought of power. Despite my rocky relationship with my mother, and not knowing my birth mother, I was beginning to explore more of this mindset each and every day, and I think Bishop’s mom had a lot to do with that.
“Hi, honey.” Scarlet walked into the room, leaving the door slightly ajar. She wrapped her light mesh throw around her slender waist. “Can I come in?”
“Of course!” I tucked some of my hair behind my ear and shut my nail polish. Sliding off the side, I tucked my hands under my thighs, slightly nervous about what our conversation could lead to.
She took a seat at the end of the bed and turned to face me front on. “I know we haven’t spoken much, but I want to always be completely transparent with you.” She cleared her throat and tied her short hair to a small bun at the nape of her neck. “I met Hector when I was around your age. I was new to town, and he was the born and bred rock star of The Hamptons,” she paused and sent me a small wink. “Like father like son. Anyway, I caught his attention pretty much instantly, which, like Bishop, was always hard to do. He, again like Bishop, only dabbled in slightly older women who were either models, actresses or singers. Just to clarify, the reason why they choose A-listers is because those people understood the dynamic of privacy. The Hayes men are taught at a very young age to keep their business out of drama and to eliminate that, they never messed with high school girls or college girls.” She paused, pulling her lip into her mouth. “I thought he loved me. He made me feel wanted and chased. I mean” —her face lit up like the Fourth of July— “obtaining the unattainable, sets off endorphins similar to running ten miles. So we fell in love. My parents struggled to like him. They knew there was something he was hiding, but I ignored all the warnings. I met his family and bonded greatly with his dad. He was everything Hector wasn’t.”