Page 60 of A King’s Obsession

“You better come back and finish these boxes,” she warned, pointing toward the floor.

She pointed toward the floor, and I stepped over a bag with her warning me not to trip on the way out. E was laughing in my ear by the time I reached the apartment door. I took him off speaker and walked outside, shaking my head.

“You enjoying this too much,” he said, his amusement still lingering in his voice.

“Been listening to you bitch about hiring her for too long. Let me have my moment.” I leaned against my truck, looking out across the parking lot before continuing. “But she ain’t lying. Jru wants her own money. Why don’t you open another club with her and let her run it? Y’all still make money together, she got her own income, and you ain’t her boss.”

He didn’t answer right away. I watched a car pull into the lot while he thought about it.

“Come up with something, E,” I continued when the silence stretched. “Don’t take the girl’s job just because you wanna be more than the nigga paying her salary.”

“I’ll work it out,” he finally answered.

“And work this out too. Once Ashlynn’s shit is out, I’m done paying on this apartment. I ain’t housing your woman.”

“Now she my woman?” he asked, sounding amused again.

“If I call her your employee, you wanna fire her. Pick something, motherfucker.”

He laughed, and I smiled before checking the message that had come through earlier. Business had waited long enough.

“Got more on that eighty thousand,” I told him, my expression settling as I looked over the message. “Darnell’s name came back to me.”

His laugh stopped. I straightened off the truck.

“I’m hearing he got somebody in with us,” I continued, lowering my voice. “Still checking it. We’ll go over everything when you get home.”

“Anything changes before then, call me,” he instructed, all traces of our earlier joking gone.

“You know I will.”

After we hung up, I stood there looking at the apartment. I’d enjoyed fucking with him, but that name was still sitting wrong with me. I put my phone away before Ashlynn opened the door and caught me standing around.

“Malachi!” she called, her voice carrying across the parking lot.

Too late.

I looked up. She had another bag in her hand.

“Bring your married ass back in here!” she demanded, holding the bag up like I needed a reminder of what I was supposed to be doing.

I pushed off the truck, laughing under my breath. “See? This why I should’ve took you to my house with nothing.”

She held the door open, watching me approach with a satisfied little smile. “You would’ve just had to buy it all again.”

I took the bag from her and kissed her before she could say anything else.

She had my ass there.

Chapter 13

By our third day in Miami, I was tired of looking at buildings that photographed better than they functioned.

The last one had been beautiful until we got inside. Too much money for too little usable space, with a layout that would have us spending another fortune before we could serve the first drink. Yara’s list had gotten shorter, and Ezra’s patience had gone with it.

So while he handled calls that morning, I did some digging of my own.

By the time he came downstairs, I had a listing open on my tablet and three reasons we needed to see it before we left.