Page 4 of His Haunted Desire

“No!” she m. “That is absolutely out of the question.”

“You can’t lose the shop and your apartment.”

“And you can’t lose your chance at following your dream,” Grandma says. “That’s the last I want to hear of it.”

CHAPTER 2

RAIDEN

“One two,” Julian says, holding up the boxing pads.

I slam a quick jab and cross into the pads. My cousin–smaller than me but strong in his own right–grunts as the gloves connect.

“One, two, three,” he says, and I slam another combo into the pads.

We move around the ring, sweat dripping down both of us, making my shirt stick to me. My heart is pounding hard. It’s better than thinking about the crap I’ve been thinking about for the past two weeks, though. Better than thinking about killing someone.

As the workout nears its end, I up the tempo. There’s a fire in me I can normally keep under control, but now I punch like each strike is a bullet fired from my service rifle.This is my rifle. There are many like it…

“Goddamn,” Julian says once we’re done. We sit at the edge of the gym, one of many my cousin owns, drinking water and toweling ourselves off. “You’ve got a fire in you today.”

“Ooh rah,” I grunt.

Julian rubs a towel over his curly black hair. He’s in his mid-thirties, a few years older than me, but from certain angles, he seems boyish. Wiry frame, soft cheekbones, bright eyes.

“The more pissed you get, the more the Marine comes out.”

I raise my water bottle as though it’s a glass of champagne. “Here’s to losing everything I’ve worked for.”

Julian frowns. “I’m sorry, Raiden.”

“Stop taking the blame. You lost money in that deal too. It’s not your fault your contact turned out to be a snake.”

When I sold all my real estate, real estate I used my own savings from the Marines to buy, my goal was to invest in a rehab knee brace. It’s an emerging market and already doing very well. I was going to make a smash. Until the prick turned into a ghost and took everything with him.

“There’s still a chance to invest, isn’t there?” Julian says.

“I’m broke,” I tell him.

“You’re never broke.”

I grind my teeth. “Our family is richer than God, I’ll give you that. I’ve never wanted to be one of those men.”

Plus, I’ve still got one hundred thousand in savings, separate from my real estate business, but that’s not enough to make the investment I had planned.

Julian frowns. “Thosemen?”

“I don’t judge you for taking the family’s money to get your businesses started, Julian, but doesn’t it leave a bitter taste in your mouth?”

“The way I see it, we’ve been lucky in some ways and unlucky in others. Might as well take what good we can get. No point having a family curse if we don’t get a few blessings too.”

“There’s some sense in that,” I admit.

Having both of us lost our parents young, and our grandfather, it almost seems like a curse follows us. Evangeline, the matriarch of the Blackwell empire, and the nannies raised us. “You should talk to Grandma,” Julian says. “I’m sure she’d be willing to lend you the cash. Maybe even give it to you.”

“It’d have to be a loan,” I tell him.

“If I had your pride, I’d be living on the street.”