Page 41 of Objection

“I can promise you that only because I have no intentions of leaving you—ever. You’re stuck with me for the rest of your life, princess. The sooner you trust that . . . the better.”

“Hearing that you said no makes me believe it. Not because of her, but because it means you went against your family. I know you probably did that for yourself, and our relationship was safe because of the overflow of that choice but—”

“Nah, I’m not gonna let you downplay the role you had in my decision. Yeah, I said no because I didn’t want to do it, but I definitely said no too because of you. Because I don’t want anyonebutyou. I will never intentionally make a choice that willhurt you. I meant it when I said all of you was safe with me.” He caught a tear that slipped down my cheek as he asked, “Do you understand me?”

Nodding, I smiled as more tears fell. “I understand, baby. Thank you for communicating and not letting me get too in my head.”

“Always. C’mere.”

I giggled as he picked me up and held me close. A soft moan escaped me as I settled into his embrace. God—this man . . . he wassafe.

Kaos

October

What I wasn’t expecting this morning was to receive a visit from Rose Valley Hills PD. Because of who I was, I was granted a conversation in my home instead of being taken down to the station for questioning. When Serenity tried to leave, I told her to stay. I had nothing to hide. We sat knee to knee on the sofa as Detective Asher handed me an envelope.

When I opened it and saw pictures of Fedora badly beaten, my heart dropped. Regardless of how I felt about her, I never wanted any kind of harm to come to her. Serenity gasped and covered her mouth as I stared at the pictures.

“Who did this to her?” were the first words out of my mouth.

“She said you,” Asher responded.

“What? That’s a lie!” Serenity almost yelled.

“Look, I know there’s no way you could have done this, but I had to follow up. When my captain finds out about this, he’s going to want me to bring you in. Please tell me you have an alibifor last night. She says she was attacked at the bar the two of you met at years ago.”

“Does she have proof that it was me?” I asked, standing to go get my iPad.

“No. Just her word that she saw you before you hit her.”

I left the room and went to my office to grab the iPad. I unlocked it and pulled up my camera footage, which proved me and Serenity were at home all night. We even had pizza ordered before Tristan and Taylor came through. They ended up staying until midnight, which based on what Asher said, was around the time Fedora had been taken to the hospital.

“I’ma be straight with you,” I said. “Fedora is probably doing this to get back at me and my family for rejecting her. I don’t know who she was attacked by, but as you can see, it wasn’t me.”

“Thanks for this. I want you to go ahead and come down to the station with me. With this evidence, we can have you cleared as a suspect before the official report is done.”

I agreed, but then I thought about it. If I allowed her to go ahead and file a report knowing she was lying, I could use that to my advantage. Not only was she risking her freedom by filing a false police report, but she was giving me leverage. At this point, I didn’t know what else Fedora had up her sleeve, but it was now my priority to make sure I remained one step ahead of her.

Several Hours Later

By the time I was done at the police station, I had several missed calls from Pops. I already knew some shit went down, so I didn’t bother to call him back. Instead, I headed straight to his and Mama’s house. He was standing outside pacing in a circle ofhis guards. I barely let Raquel put the car in park before I was hopping out.

“What happened?” I questioned, charging over to him. “Where my mama at?”

“She’s safe, Son.” He paused. “My brother is d-dead.” His voice cracked and chin trembled as he fought his tears. I knew regardless of the issues they were having, he loved Unc. Hell,Iloved Unc. I just refused to let him control my life.

“What happened?” I asked, gripping his shoulder.

“Mason. Fedora was attacked last night, and she said you did it. Mason confronted your uncle, but Alpha didn’t know what was going on. He believed he wanted to talk about the partnership. Left himself wide open.” He scoffed and shook his head as he looked toward the sky.

“Has he been handled yet?”

“You know it. The moment he sent that bullet into your uncle’s skull, every man in the room emptied their clips into him.”

While that gave me relief, I was still in shock over Unc being gone.

“What now? I know you’re about to take over but . . . are you going to war with his team?”

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