Page 42 of Into the Blue (Shades of Vengeance #1)

I don’t want to call Senior.

But what choice do I have?

Redd put a bullet in his son, against my direct orders, but a life has been taken. Not just any life either.

The head of the Lafayette family.

I hate that son of a bitch more than anyone else. Maybe even more than Redd.

Might be more upset because he was the one to end that fuckers life and not me.

I rub a hand over my face and make a different call first.

The phone rings and rings. She’s not picking up. There hasn’t been a single time since I’ve known her that she hasn’t picked up the phone.

Where is Racquelle?

Have to trust that my team is keeping her safe.

The next call is more important right now. Damage control or mitigation takes precedence. I’ll check on Racquelle as soon as I’m done with this shit.

It’s been a while but thankfully, Senior’s number hasn’t changed. The old man picks up on the third ring.

“You’ve got some nerve callin’ me,” he says without preamble.

“This wasn’t my shit, Terrell. Redd acted against my orders.”

“I know,” is all he says. A heavy sigh rings weary in my ears. “In this life, you can’t get attached to much. Never did I ever want to bury my son. Your kids ain’t supposed to go before you are.”

I expected fury, not resignation. “You sound awfully resigned about it.”

“Well, my daughter came to tell me that it would happen. But there was nothing I could do about it.”

Something sick and cloying crawls up the back of my throat. Carefully, as if I’m edging up to a bomb, I ask, “Your daughter? Didn’t know you had one.”

“I didn’t either. Until recently. She’s gonna be takin’ over the family in Junior’s… absence.”

My mind works a million times a minute.

Redd is about to be down for a sentence he shouldn’t be serving because he decided to take matters into his own hands.

The last of my profits are gone without a trace after months of chasing and coming up empty.

Bad things come in threes.

And now Racquelle is— “Who’s your daughter?”

“Well, you might know her as Diamond. Worked at Off Topz a while back.”

Through gritted teeth, I try to keep my voice as contained as I can. “Where is she?”

There is silence that crackles on the line.

Too much fucking silence.

“Hello, Blue.” Her sensual voice slips through the receiver and into my ears.

My heart drops to my stomach as my rage rises to the surface.

It’s the most disorienting feeling of finding out something you didn’t know was being kept from you.

Weeks of inquiring about who her Pa was to find out like this?

For all this time I thought she wanted to protect him from my world. To keep him safe from the consequences that she had already endured with her connection to me.

But that couldn’t have been farther from the truth .

“You’re a Faye.” It comes out as stupid and lame as my observation of her being new at Off Topz so many months ago.

Months of her living in my house. I kept her safe in my house all while she knew that she was the daughter to the very people who were destroying my operation piece by piece.

“I’m actually the Lafayette now. I’m running this thing.”

Disbelief is a pungent thing in my brain. “You—What? How? Why?”

“Well, I’m happy to explain everything. Would you like to meet for coffee or dinner? I’m free—”

Her voice is casual as she speaks. I still don’t understand. “Nah. Tell me what the fuck is goin’ on right now.”

“Ah,” She chastises me over the phone. “You don’t make the calls here. I’m in control. I don’t owe you an explanation.” In a softer tone she says, “But, I’m willing to give you one if you let me.”

“Racquelle,” The sound of her name guts me and I try to process how much I’ve fucked up.

How she made me look like a fool. Everything I lost while she sat comfortably in my house.

That night in my office she must have taken more than I could have realized.

That is an obvious fact now. God, I’m so stupid and blind. “What did you do?”

“Long story, long—I’m your supply chain management team and inventory control. Seeing as how I am in possession of more than sixty-five percent of your stock, you can defer to me moving forward.”

I blink at the wall. Then my temper rises to a fever pitch. “Why are you doin' this?”

“Because I am a woman in a world dominated by men. The only thing you all know how to respect is force. So. Here is your pressure. Do you feel it?”

Do I feel it?

Fuck. Yes.

Months. Weeks over weeks I went to her for comfort and it was her who had been causing everything that was going wrong in my empire. She was right. I was down on product and losing money every day just to maintain what was left.

I want to know how.

I need to know why.

How could she align with the very men who hurt her?

“These men—Racquelle, they left you broken and bloody on my doorstep as a message to me.”

She tuts, “A small faction of my men. They followed Junior without question. It is a problem we’re resolving on this end. Everyone who matters supports this next chapter for the family.”

“What is this?” The ground has opened up and swallowed me whole. Everything I thought I knew about this woman... Raw emotion suffuses my next question. “Who are you?”

“None of that is important. While I have you on the phone, I’d like to discuss a time to go over our next steps.” She says with no inflection to give me any indication that she is feeling or understands how deeply she’s cutting me.

“Next steps?” I scoff. “You think I’m gonna work with someone who smiled in my face and laid in my bed ALL WHILE THEY WERE GUTTIN’ ME?” My voice rises to a level I’ve never used with her.

I’ve never yelled or screamed at her.

It’s not within my character to do it either.

I’m spiraling as my mind tries to make sense of all the signs I missed. How I couldn’t see that she was somehow responsible for all the bad things that have happened in the past six months.

Despite my yelling, Racquelle’s voice is reasonable, like she’s giving me an option as innocent as left or right. “What choice do you have?”

My hand rests on my knife as I fight to keep my voice at a reasonable level. “Between workin’ with an enemy or bettin’ on me? The choice is simple.”

“Don’t do this,” she seems to stumble over the “M” consonant in my name before correcting to, “Blue. I don’t have to be an enemy if you can be reasonable.”

“Reasonable?” The laugh that rises from my chest tastes just like venom as it poisons the air around me.

Making this call in the privacy of my office was a smart idea.

I don’t know how my men would react to seeing me like this.

Appearance is everything. This woman has made me look like a fool in more ways than I can even begin to process right now.

“Oh, is it reasonable to do business with someone who tricked you and lied to you?”

Her slow exhale sits heavy on my shoulders.

“For one second, I need you to think. Think rationally. Consider that I am the other player in this game. Not the woman who you brought to your home and kept there. Before you, the plan was always the same. Then you took me. I did the best with what I had and when you stop to think about it, I’ve done better than most.

“I can help you succeed and do even better numbers than you were doing before. It doesn’t have to be hard, but it will be different. That is a promise.”

She might as well stop wasting her breath.

This is a betrayal that cuts deeper than any I’ve had to deal with in the past. No one has ever hurt me like she just has.

I cared for this woman. I went against all my better judgments to do right by her.

To keep her safe and protected while I settled things.

“What you’re saying means nothin’ to me.

Just like none of your words meant anythin’ in the past six months. ”

“You’re thinking emotionally—”

“Damn right I am! I claimed you. I protected you. I stood by you even when I knew you were lying to me.” I drop into my office seat, the weight of all that has come to light, hitting me like a freight train.

I put my face in my hands, defeated. Fuck.

She played me. “How could I have known you kept all this from me? What more could you want from me?”

“Blue—” The sound of my name on her lips is a siren’s call. Noise meant to lure me to my demise. This woman used me and brought about the destruction of everything I built. I lost good men and women. She stole from me.

“Fuck. That.” I seethe.

She attempts to gentle me with her tone. That sultry pull present at my eardrums. “I never wanted it to be this way.”

“Bullshit. If I see you again, it’s on sight. I’ve got a knife with your name on it. Come find out what it means to cross me. ”

I end the call with half a mind to go end every Faye life in the building right now. The thought scratches my mind and leaves just as quickly.

This is not the kind of boss I am.

This is not how I do business.

But those Fayes don’t know that.

I get Geno on the phone immediately. “Round up the Fayes and bring them to the main room.”

“What are we going to do about Kitty’s boyfriend?”

“What?” I ask, unsure of what the hell he’s talking about.

“Mack? He came here looking for her? We’re holding him with the other Fayes in the storage room.”

This fucking dude is a goddamn thorn in my side. Why is he so annoying? “Bring him, too.”

“Heard,” he says before I end the call.

I grab a gun from my weapons cabinet at the back of my office and make my way to the main interrogation room I spent the better part of last night in.

When I walk in, they’re all on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs.

It’s lucky for them that the blood from last night has already been hosed down or else they’d be kneeling in it.

The use of cold water on Junior’s main guys has only made the concrete even colder under their knees though. Good.

It’s cold and damn near dark with all the lights turned down. We never use heating down here because it’s not supposed to be comfortable.

“What is this? Why are you doing this?” Someone says in the room. Not someone, fucking Mack .

I ignore the question and instead ask one of my own. “Have anymore men comin’ to lay down their lives for your stupid decisions?”

Mack opens his mouth again. “Actually—” I’m at my wit's end so I fire off a shot into the space. It hits the ceiling above and pieces of the concrete rain down on us.

“No one is talkin’ to you.” I bite out. “All you Fayes are going to die if someone doesn’t tell me what you’re doin’ here. ”

Finally one of the Lafayette men speaks up, “We only brought the men who came with us. Got the go ahead when your second popped his son.” He looks around, seeming to count the men in the room and is obviously confused by Mack’s presence. Join the fucking club. “The fuck is that?”

Someone from my team shines a flashlight directly on Mack and now I’ve got to address this nuisance before it gets any bigger. I stomp over to him, pulling him up by the arm. “Mack? What are you doin’ here?”

“Mack?” Kitty recognizes him immediately, coming over to his side. I roll my eyes at the two of them.

“Hi, butterfly,” he says to her and I can’t stop my lip from curling. Butterfly . Who is this marshmallow?

She barks to one of my men, “Loose him. Now.” He looks at me and I just nod. With Mack released from the zip tie she asks, “What are you doing here?” I’m sick of this sappy shit.

Clearing my throat loudly, I question. “You mind takin’ your lover’s spat somewhere else? I’m tryin’ to get biz done in here?”

She flips me the bird and ushers him out into a corridor just outside of the room. The door closes behind them and I turn back to the Lafayettes remaining.

They may go back to Racquelle alive, but they aren’t going in the state they came.

“String ‘em up and work ‘em over. Find out everythin’ they know about the new head of Lafayette,” I command, storming out of the main room to figure out what I’m going to do about the snake I helped rise to the top of their family.