Page 30 of Scarred Heir
“He sounds like an idiot.”
“He is an idiot, but Sable is doing the best she can.They’re all alone. They can’t even pay their rent.” How did I get mixed up in this? “I settled with Bello.”
“And now Sable owes you.”
“I wanted to help. You know, like Mom’s charity.”
“Don’t do that.” He kept his voice calm, but he wasn’t pleased. “If you were doing this out of the goodness of your heart, this woman wouldn’t be living under our roof. I believe you were trying to be compassionate, but I also know you want something from her. So, let’s call it what it is and not hide behind your mother’s charity.”
He isn’t playing tonight.
“I’m sorry.” I closed my eyes and tried to get myself off his bad side. “I didn’t mean to disrespect Mom’s memory. I wanted Sable to walk away last week. I paid her rent without her knowing because she was in a tight spot, and that really did come from a place I wanted Mom to be proud of.”
“I don’t doubt that.”
“But then when she came to me tonight, after I had already let her brother go for having the audacity to sell drugs in our territory, I had to show her who I really am.”
That was true, but deep down, there was something about Sable that triggered a desire for me to rescue her.
“This isn’t a Marchello and Lissia situation,” I said. “I won’t let her distract me. It’s just that she asked me for ten grand, and I couldn’t just give it to her without any consequences.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” he said. “How else could you have paid off Chance’s debt and still keep the respect of Bello?”
“Exactly. I had to make him think that Sable was under my protection. I figured why not play the part for a bit? I know what my priorities are. They will always be with youand Marchello, but I didn’t think relieving some stress would hurt. If you don’t approve, I’ll put an end to it.”
“You’ve really stepped up with Marchello and I being gone,” he said. “You’re twenty-nine years old. If I can trust you to run my empire, I can trust that you know who you want to sleep with. If this woman owes you a debt, you let her repay it any way you see fit. Just treat her with respect.”
“That’s the way you taught me.”
“I’ve seen and heard enough with these women and this auction business. I want to come home and sell cars.”
“Lucas told me you shut the auction down and saved three more women from being sold to men who would have hurt them. Mom would have been proud of that.”
“I’ve given your mother plenty of reasons not to be proud,” he said with a sigh.
Twelve years ago, my mother was murdered in our driveway. I was in the kitchen eating breakfast when her car exploded. That sound never left me, but her death haunted my father in ways I could never fully comprehend.
“Anyway,” he said. “I’ve managed to stop any more auctions from taking place in our territory for the moment, but in the process, I’ve made an even bigger enemy out of Medina.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s trying to take over the operation, and he’s being defiant about it.”
“Doesn’t he realize what will happen to him if he provokes us?”
“Normally, I wouldn’t consider him a problem, but he’s in Manhattan and he’s looking for Collins. If he raises enough suspicion, that could be an issue for us, because if he figures out that Lissia was the last person to see Collins alive, he will come at us through her.”
“And we can’t trust her to stay calm and rational.” I loved my sister-in-law, but she was a loose cannon and would do anything to protect my brother, even if that meant she confessed to a murder that we took extreme measures to cover up. “If we can’t neutralize Medina, Marchello will never bring Lissia back here.”
“He can’t risk her freedom, but I want my son home. Medina is digging and he’s going to come at us hard.”
“What do you need me to do?” I gazed at the bedroom doors, rethinking my decision to bring another complication into my life.
“I’m going to need you to do whatever it takes to protect this family. Are you ready for that?”
“Absolutely.”
Protecting this family was what I was born to do. Now I had to prove it.
