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VUK

I hadn’t planned on visiting the Kidanes’ restaurant. Ayana needed time alone with her family, and I had a thousand and one things on my plate.

But my morning debrief with my team had passed quickly, and I couldn’t focus on the mundane shit I had to do for Markovic Holdings. It wasn’t anything important—just some paperwork that needed to be signed. I also called the hospital for my daily check in on Jordan. He was still unconscious, but his vitals had improved and his injuries were healing well. That was something, at least.

Sean, who’d driven down that morning to personally update me on the manhunt, convinced me to “take a break.” I suspected he just wanted to try out the Kidanes’ food, but I let him talk me into the detour anyway.

He’d worked his ass off on the Brotherhood stuff the past month. We hadn’t found the escaped Brother yet, but we were making steady progress. He deserved a break too.

While he introduced himself to Saba and claimed an empty table nearby, I took a seat across from Ayana. The lunch rush appeared to be dying down, so I felt a little less bad about intruding on their work time.

“Where’s Shadow?” she asked.

At the hotel, pestering my team.

She smiled. She was dressed in a plain black T-shirt and jeans that coincidentally matched my outfit for the day, and she’d wrapped a blue-and-gold silk headscarf around her braids.

“You hungry? Let me get you something to eat.” She rose halfway out of her seat before her mother pushed her back down with a firm hand on her shoulder.

“Nonsense,” Saba said. “I’ll get it. You keep Vuk company. Sean will eat with me.”

She winked at Ayana before she disappeared into the kitchen. She returned minutes later with plates of injera bread and beef tibs. She moved her own food to Sean’s table, leaving me alone with her daughter.

“So…this is the family restaurant,” Ayana said. She swept her arm around the dining room. “What do you think?”

It’s perfect.I meant it. I didn’t need fancy china or white-glove service to appreciate good food. The restaurant’s unassuming decor and earthy homeyness matched its owners perfectly.

Ayana’s smile widened. “Thanks. We’re really proud of it. It’s a small space, but my parents prefer it that way. They’ve had plenty of opportunities to expand. Someone from the Laurent Restaurant Group even offered to franchise it last year, but they declined. They said more locations wouldn’t matter if the soul isn’t there.”

Smart choice. Franchises can be hit or miss.The Laurents were royalty in the culinary scene, but more money didn’t mean better quality. If the Kidanes sold to them, they would become just another notch in the Laurents’ already-crowded belt.You said your brother will take over after your parents retire?

Ayana nodded. “That was the plan from day one. Liya and I have no interest in running a restaurant, and Aaron is the best cook out of all of us, anyway. We helped out in the back when we were teens, but that was it.”

Are you happy with modeling?She’d stumbled into the career after being scouted, and she’d achieved extraordinary success since then, but that didn’t mean anything. Plenty of successful people were miserable in their jobs.

The sparkle in her eyes dimmed a bit. “To an extent,” she said cautiously, lowering her voice. “Like I said, I love fashion. I grew up idolizing Iman and Beverly Johnson and Pat Cleveland. If all I had to do was show up in front of a camera or the runway, then yes, I’d be very happy. But I wasn’t prepared for the business side of things or the types of people who try to take advantage of you in the industry. It’s jarring.”

You mean people like agents?

I still didn’t have anything concrete on Emmanuelle. It frustrated the hell out of me. At this point, I almost hoped my original instincts were wrong. If they weren’t, that meant I was slipping—or she was that good.

Ayana’s face clouded. “Yes.” She tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. “Hank has been strangely accommodating since he surprised me at my place. I know I took most of the month off for the wedding, but still. Normally, he’d be breathing down my neck about me ‘slacking off on the job.’ You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

I shrugged and washed down my food with water.Maybe he figured out being an asshole will come back to bite him in the ass. You could’ve sued him for his surveillance stunt.

My team had debugged all her devices, which meant he had to know she was onto him. Ayana didn’t want to confront him about it until she was ready to leave the agency for good, but the more I thought about it, the more I wish I’d stabbed him all the way with the knife.

“Yeah.” Ayana grimaced. “I can’t believe he…” She trailed off and glanced back over her shoulder. Her mother was engaged in lively conversation with Sean, but she clearly didn’t want the other woman to know about her troubles with Beaumont. “Anyway, I’m glad that all got sorted out.”

For now. Once I wasn’t busy with the Brotherhood, I was going to pay Hank Carson another visit. His actions couldn’t go unpunished.

However, I kept that plan to myself. No need to involve Ayana in the less savory parts of my business.

“What are your plans for the rest of the day?” she asked.

“The team and I were going to take him out for drinks,” Sean said before I could answer. Saba had left to take care of a customer, and he’d obviously been eavesdropping. “He turned the big three-five today.”